Description
Buffon (George Louis Le Clerc Comte de). Complete Works.. with excerpts from Dauberton and Cuvier's classification. Paris, Chez Furne et Ce, Libraires Éditeurs. Rue Saint-André des Arts, 55. 1839-41. Lacepède's Natural History comprising the cetaceans, oviparous quadrupeds, snakes and fish. New Edition, Preceded by the eulogy of Lacepède. By Cuvier.. Paris, Furne et Ce, Libraires Éditeurs. Rue Saint-André des Arts, 55. 1839.
First edition by the printer Furne
Eight volumes of cm 26, pp 5,500 approx. overall. With portrait of Buffon in frontispiece to the first volume and 156 plates thus subdivided: vol. I: 5 maps by Tardieu; vols. III and IV: 42 plates concerning mammals; vols. V and VI: 74 plates of birds executed by the famous naturalist painter Eduard Travies; vols. VII and VIII: 36 plates mainly of fish and snakes. All engraved in copper on plates outside the text of greater grammage (each protected by tissue paper), finely colored and gummed at the time. Elegant uniform coeval binding in half leather, smooth spines with titles and decorations in gold and blind-stamping. Some foxing to the papers with a few uniformly browned sections which do not affect the plates except in some cases where the latter are browned. This is the first and best edition produced by the printer Furne, of particular value the accuracy in the coloring of the iconographic part. This was followed in a few years by four other editions increased by 5 plates but less valuable in the quality of the printing. Not common especially when complete with the last two volumes with the work of Lacepede that is often proposed as an autonomous work. Cf. Nissen ZBI, 700.
Dimensions
8 volumes in 4° (264x171mm)
Provenance
Private collection
Conditions
Some foxing to the papers with a few uniformly browned sections which do not affect the plates except in some cases where the latter are browned. Tired spine to vol. I Histoire Naturelle de Lacepede. Slight crushing to the cover vol. 4 Oeuvres completes.
