The Insects of Great Britain, systematically arranged, accurately engraved, and painted from naure, with the Natual History of each species,.

A very good copy of this scarce title, with 46 superb hand coloured plates. William Lewin (1747-1795) intended this work to be the first volume of 'The Insects of Great Britain' series. However he died in 1795 with only this volume completed. This is the rare first issue which has the series title page and ends 'End of Volume I'. The second issue amends the title to the 'Papilios of Great Britain' making it stand-alone. This copy is a later half vellum binding with blind stamped decoration to the buckram boards. Page edges have light marbling and the endpapers are marbled. The binding is in very good condition. There is corner wear particularly to the bottom corners, which are bumped with leather loss. Contents: title pages in French and English; half title page 'The insects of Great Britain'; text in French and English with 46 hand coloured plates; index 3pp. There are 2 mispaginations: plate 6 with text is placed after plates 7 and 8; and plate 28 with text is placed after plate and text 23. The contents are very clean with bright strong colouring to plates. There is a smear to the paint around one butterfly on plate 9 and the odd light spot or mark elsewhere. Please enquire if you would like to see further images to assess condition.…