ALBIN, Eleazar (fl.1708-1742). A Natural History of English Insects. London: William Innys, 1749.
4to (11-1/2 x 8-3/4 inches): 100 FINE engraved plates with original hand-colour, plate 84 HEIGHTENED IN GOLD, by Albin, H. Terasson, Hullet, and van Gucht after Albin, woodcut headpiece, initial, and type-ornament headpieces (some occasional light spotting and browning, occasional colour-smudging and offsetting of plates onto text). Bound in contemporary fine red morocco, each cover elaborately decorated in gilt with borders of floral roll tools, the spine in six compartments with five raised bands, green morocco lettering-piece in one, the others decorated with fine gilt tools (one or two insignificant scuffs or stains).
PROVENANCE: with near-contemporary scholarly notes in the margins of the text; the early 19th-century engraved bookplate of writer and explorer John Thomas Stanley (1766-1850) of Alderley, first Baron Stanley of Alderley, on the front paste-down, and his addition of a sketch of a green beetle and a butterfly.
ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL AND ACCOMPLISHED WORKS ON ENGLISH INSECTS AND THEIR HABITATS. Fifth and expanded edition with descriptions by W. Derham, without the list of subscribers and index, and first published in 1720. The origin of this spectacular work, in which each plate is dedicated to one of the original subscribers, is explained by Albin in his preface: "Teaching to Draw and Paint in Water-Colours, being my Profession, first led me to the observing of Flowers and Insects, with whose various Forms and beautiful Colours I was very much delighted; especially the latter, several of which I painted after the Life, for my own Pleasure ... I was introduced to Her Grace Mary the late Dutchess Dowager of Beaufort, who ... persuaded me to undertake the following Work." Greatly inspired by Maria Sybilla Merian's Metamorhosis Insectorum Surinamensium (1705), Albin engraved the first plates for his work in 1713. However, the death of his patroness in 1715 and the lack of early subscriptions due to the pervading unpopularity of insects in both the scientific community and society, resulted in financial difficulties that delayed publication until 1720. Ultimately the work was a tremendous success, attracting 170 subscribers and an invitation from the Royal Society to travel to America to observe the natural history of Caroline, Florida and the Bahama Islands. Albin declined the invitation which Mark Catesby eventually accepted with great historical and scientific repercussions for the study of the flora and fauna of America.
REFERENCES: BM(NH) I, p. 25 (lacking Derham's notes); Brunet I, 142; ESTC T85943 (not calling for Derham's notes etc.); Lisney 123; Lowndes p. 25; Nissen ZBI 58.
Comparable: Bloomsbury Auctions, 27 Feb. 2014, lot 132, £3,224 ($5,380)