The Natural History of the Year

London: S. W. Partridge & Co, 1870. Revised Edition. Hardcover. Very good. Revised Edition. Hardcover. The Royal Librarian to Queen Victoria, Bernard Bolingbroke Woodward (1816-1869), invites you on a lushly illustrated stroll through the seasons in this warmly written and whimsically detailed guide to the Natural History of the Year, summoning friends among the flora and fauna for each month. Illustrated in a frontispiece of the royal family and Windsor Castle, where Woodward served as Royal Librarian, a decorative title page, a decorative dedicatory page, 12 plates celebrating each month of the year, and charmingly engraved vignettes and headpieces throughout, this ornately Victorian, gilt-stamped, wildflower ramble through natural history echoes its author across the centuries: "So forth into the fields, and catch the year as it awakens!"

7 1/2" X 5 5/8". 108pp. Presents nicely in protective archival jacket. Bound in burgundy cloth over bevelled boards, with color pictorial label onlay to upper board, lushly bordered in black and gilt with butterflies, berries, and wildflowers and lettered in gilt to upper board and spine, with rear board stamped in blind. Mild wear to binding, with small nick to bottom edge of pictorial label, bumping to edges and extremities, sunning to spine, and a hint of fraying to corners. All edges gilt. Front hinge tender; binding remains quite firm and sound. LIght dust soiling to blush-colored endpapers, and small tears to front free endpaper. Occasional smudge or thumbprint to pages throughout, else unmarked.