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SHAW, George (1751-1813) & Frederick Polydore NODD

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London: Nodder & Co., [1789-] 1790-1813. 287 parts bound together in 24 volumes. 8vo (243 x 152 mm). 1064 hand-colored engraved plates (7 folding). Volumes I-XVI: modern brown half leather over contemporary marbled boards; volumes XVII-XXVI: contemporary tree-calf, neatly rebacked. Condition: some light foxing and offsetting; occasional fading and scuffing to bindings, one plate in volume 17 with hole from ink burn. Provenance: Mary Preston 1799; Fanny Louisa Cathcart 1823; Elizabeth Sarah Stuart (ownership signatures); Lynn Abbott Trust. a rare complete set of the first edition of this important and beautifully-illustrated scientific journal. Shaw was the first scientist to examine the duck-billed platypus when a specimen was brought to him from Captain John Hunter's Australian expeditions. He recorded these observations along with those of hundreds of other mammals, reptiles, fish, birds, insects, crustaceans, botanical specimens and microscopic and exotic marine life in the present work. A number of the other species described were new to science and native to the South Pacific and Australia. Shaw was the Keeper of the Department of Natural History at the British Museum, co-founder of the Linnean Society, and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1789. Anker 467; Fine Bird Books (1990) p.142; Lisney p.311; Nissen IVB 869; Wood p.565.(24)

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