Lot 199
Latham, John
A General Synopsis of Birds
Auction: Other Properties | Wed 25 February from 10am | Lots 63 to 255
Description
London: for Benj. White, 1781-7. 7 volumes (volumes 1-3, each comprising 2 parts, individually bound, and the first supplement, in 1 volume), 4to (24.5 x 19.5cm), contemporary russia, smooth spines gilt in compartments with peacock motifs and twin black morocco labels, marbled endpapers, 119 hand-coloured engraved plates, some minor spotting in volume 1, staining to the preliminary leaves in volume 3 and title leaf of the supplement, spines slightly worn, corner tips of some volumes bumped, 20th-century pictorial bookplate of M. H. Cockell and bookseller's ticket (G. A. Poynder of Reading) in all volumes, volume 1 with the bookplate and ownership inscription (dated 1915) of J. H. Gurney (British ornithologist John Henry Gurney Jr. (1848-1922)), [ESTC T146461; Mullens and Swann pp. 339-341; Nissen IVB 532; Zimmer II pp. 371-372];
Together with a copy of the index in a non-uniform binding (John Latham, Index Ornithologicus, sive Systema Ornithologiae. London: Leigh and Sotheby, 1790. 2 volumes, 4to (24.3 x 19cm), 920 pp., modern quarter calf, marbled boards, repair to torn title leaf in volume 1, ink stamp on title pages and elsewhere in the volumes of the American Museum of Natural History, New York, 20th-century pictorial bookplate of M. H. Cockell [ESTC T147698] (9)
Footnote
Regarded as the most comprehensive ornithological publication of its era, with notices of some 3000 species. More than 200 Australian birds are described, many for the first time, with 19 illustrated. New Zealand species are also represented with 11 plates. A second supplement was published in 1802.