1889. · Cambridge
by Scudder, Samuel Hubbard
Cambridge: Published by the Author, 1889.. Three volumes. [1],xxiv,766pp. plus color frontispiece portrait; [1],x,[1],[767]- 1774pp. plus folding map and tinted frontispiece portrait; [1],vi,[1],[1775]- 1958pp. plus eighty-nine plates (ten in color), each with corresponding text leaf, two color folding maps, one color map with corresponding text leaf, and engraved frontispiece portrait. Quarto. Later cloth, spines gilt. Cloth lightly worn. Preliminary leaf in first volume chipped in margin, not affecting text. Woodcut butterfly bookplate of Ernest L. Bell on front pastedown of each volume. A very good set. Scudder produced this privately printed work in an elaborate fashion. It is one of the most important books about butterflies produced in the U.S. in the 19th century. The work illustrates the rapidly changing world of illustration technology, with finely executed chromolithographs by Thomas Sinclair and Julius Bien of Philadelphia, as well as more precise images in black and white using gelatin process photographs, photogravures, and electrotypes. BENNETT, p.96. McGRATH, pp.46, 148. REESE, STAMPED WITH A NATIONAL CHARACTER 106.
(Inventory #: WRCAM34008C)