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Author: Holbrook, John Edwards
Title: Ichthyology of South Carolina
Place Published: Charleston, SC
Publisher:John Russell
Date Published: 1855
Description:

[4], 182, [1] pp. With 27 hand-colored lithograph plates printed by Duval of Philadelphia and Tappan & Bradford of Boston. (4to) 29.5x24 cm (11¾x9½"), period half-calf and feather-marbled paper-covered boards, spine ruled in blind around gilt-filleted raised bands, maroon morocco lettering piece, all edges speckled. First Edition.

A lovely and scarce American color plate book, colored with incredible precision. ;John Edwards Holbrook (1796-1871) was an American physician, zoologist, herpetologist, ;and naturalist. It is said that he burned most of the edition of his prior book, the 1836-40 North American Herpetology due to criticism of the quality of the color plates. Ironically, according to Basford Dean in A Bibliography of Fishes, "Nearly the whole of this edition was destroyed by fire." The cause the latter fire was not by Holbrook's own hand. ;A magnificent copy of one of the most beautiful and the rarest, of American color plate books. ;

Light rubbing at heel and at extremities, a few scuffs and abrasions to marbled paper; dampstaining in margins of a few leaves and plates not affecting images or text; near fine.