Life Science
JACQUEMONT, Victor. Letters From India;London : 1834
First published in French the previous year, the year after Jacquemont's death. These letters to his family and friends were sent during a government sponsored scientific expedition to India. The books proved immensely successful, providing what Buckland describes as "a most vivid account … of the social condition of India in those days" (p....Learn More
MUYBRIDGE, Eadweard. Autograph letter signed to a subscriber, together with two pamphlets explaining zoopraxography and encouraging financial support.Vienna : 1891
The photography pioneer writes to one of his subscribers, the physician William Ainslie Hollis, regarding the publication of his magisterial Animal Locomotion (1887). The pamphlets - Hollis's copies - were published to promote both the technology and the upcoming work; Hollis is listed among the subscribers in the latter.
The costly...Learn More
JAFFREY, Phoebe. Darjeeling Ferns.Darjeeling, West Bengal : 1882
A superb and uncommon hortus siccus of ferns from West Bengal, compiled and mounted by Phoebe Jaffrey, wife of Andrew Thomas Jaffrey, the founding curator in 1878 of the Lloyd Botanic Gardens in Darjeeling. This copy has been copiously expanded by a later British amateur botanist, with a huge number of samples added both within and...Learn More
WITHERING, William. A Botanical Arrangement of all the Vegetables Naturally Growing in Great Britain.Birmingham : 1776
First edition of the standard botany text of the period and the first English flora to be based on Linnean taxonomy. Withering was a physician and botanist best known for his discovery of the medicinal properties of the foxglove plant.
As a result of its great popularity, A Botanical Arrangement went through several editions and revisions,...Learn More
TURNER, James Aspinall. Remarks on the Linnaean Orders of Insects, Forming a Short and Familiar Introduction to the Study of Entomology.London : 1828
First edition of this introductory guide to entomology, a discipline that was "daily becoming more fashionable" (p. iii). Intended to acquaint the amateur hobbyist with the Linnean classifcation system, the work is beautifully augmented by illustrations of various insects on plants.
"During the first half of the nineteenth century, the new...Learn More
DARWIN, Charles. The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication.London : 1868
First edition, first issue, of the first of Darwin's works to use the famous evolutionary phrase, preceding by a year its first appearance in Origin of Species (fifth edition, 1869). "Survival of the fittest" was coined by the philosopher and sociologist Herbert Spencer on reading Origin and remains the most succinct summary of Darwin's theory of...Learn More
GALTON, Francis. Finger Prints.London : 1892
First edition of Galton's work designed to assist with classifying and indexing large numbers of fingerprints.
"The use of fingerprints for the identification of criminals had been advocated in 'Nature' in 1880 by both Henry Faulds and Sir William Herschel, but was put on a scientific basis only in Galton's book on Finger Prints, published...Learn More
ELLIS, William. The Timber-Tree Improved: or, the Best Practical Methods of Improving Different Lands with Proper Timber.London : 1742
A later edition of this popular agricultural tract, the third in four years. Ellis was a well-respected authority, and farmers from all around the country invited him to visit and advise on their holdings. He here discusses trees including oak, beech, elm, ash, and cherry.
"A shrewd man of business", Ellis (d. 1758) was commissioned by...Learn More
POPPER, Karl, & John C. Eccles. The Self and Its Brain. With 66 Figures.London : 1977
First edition, presentation copy, inscribed on the front free endpaper to Popper's friend, the philosophical broadcaster Bryan Magee, "To Bryan, with love, from Karl. November 3rd, 1977".
By the 1970s, Popper and Magee (1930-2019) were friends and intellectual allies. Popper appeared twice on Magee's 1970 radio series Conversations with...Learn More
HAY, Roy, & Patrick M. Synge. The Dictionary of Garden Plants.London : 1970
Signed limited edition, number 43 of 265 copies signed by the authors and finely bound by Zaehnsdorf. The first edition was published the previous year.Learn More
FORTUNE, Robert. A Journey to the Tea-Countries of China, Including Sung-Lo and the Bohea Hills;London : 1852
First edition of this account of the famous plant-hunter's expedition to China, during which he collected specimens that were rapidly brought into cultivation in Darjeeling. The title page is inscribed by the American tea merchant Richard Devens to John Hanna, the Tianjin representative of the trading company Dent & Co.
Robert Fortune...Learn More
SCHRÖDINGER, Erwin. What Is Life? The Physical Aspect of the Living Cell, & Mind and Matter.Cambridge : 1967
A collected edition of two highly influential works by the great physicist, from the library of the philosophical broadcaster Bryan Magee (1930-2019), with his initials and the date of his first reading (All Souls, Oxford, October 1973), on the front free endpaper.
Magee and Schrödinger shared an interest in Schopenhauer: in his...Learn More
HUGHES, John Arthur. Garden Architecture and Landscape Gardening.London : 1866
First edition of this handbook to landscape architecture, covering various types of garden design, including the Italian, Dutch, French, Picturesque, and Natural styles.
"Since at least the 16th century, the creation and enjoyment of gardens had been leisure occupation of aristocrat, squire and rural cleric. The novelty of the 19th century,...Learn More
DARWIN, Charles; ROYER, Clémence (trans.). De l'origine des espèces ou des lois du progrès chez les êtres organisés.Paris : 1862
First edition in French, translated and edited by the self-taught theorist, feminist, and author Clémence Royer (1830-1902), together with a loosely inserted autograph letter signed by her. Her lengthy preface and extensive footnotes pre-staged the rise of social Darwinism and anticipated several of the issues Darwin himself would later consider...Learn More
MIZUNO, Chukyo. Somoku kin'yo-shu ("Collection of Plants and Trees with Ornamental Leaves").Edo : 1829
First edition of this study of plants with variegated leaves, considered by Jack Hillier in his Art of the Japanese Book as one of the best of its kind. Collecting these unusual cultivars was a widespread hobby in the 18th and 19th centuries. In addition, the final volume features an illustration of a perfectly balanced bonsai tree.
As...Learn More
MEREDITH, Joseph. Treatise on the Grape Vine.London : 1876
First edition. Meredith (b. 1829) traded as a "horticultural architect" in Liverpool, specializing in both ornamental and agricultural viticulture. He was a recognized authority on the subject and was praised in The Gardener for his "extra fine samples, large in size, fine in formation of bunch, and well finished - much better than any exhibited...Learn More
JERMYN, Laetitia. The Butterfly Collector's Vade Mecum; With a Synoptical Table of British Butterflies.London : 1836
Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper recto, "W. B. Clarke, Ipswich. From his dear friend The Authoress, Halifax, 1836." This third edition is much enlarged from the second of 1827.
Jermyn (1788-1848) grew up in Ipswich and was mentored by Britain's pre-eminent entomologist, William Kirby, who lived nearby...Learn More
DARWIN, Charles. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection,London : 1869
Fifth edition of "the most important biological book ever written" (Freeman), one of 2,000 copies. It was in this edition that Darwin first used the phrase "survival of the fittest", a term coined by Herbert Spencer.Learn More
BRODRICK, William. Falconers' Favourites.London : 1865
First edition of this superb work, intended as a sequel to Salvin and Brodrick's Falconry in the British Isles (1855), but employing a larger format, "better adapted by the size of the drawings, that of life, to illustrate more fairly the beautiful creatures with which the falconer has to deal" (Introduction). According to Resler Swift's...Learn More
BÖTTGER, Paul. Hunde im Dienste der Kriminalpolizei, unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Mordfalles Seefeldt.Leipzig : 1937
First edition, inscribed on the contents page to "Herrn Kriminalrat Dr. Wächter, Berlin 31. 8. 1937. Paul Böttger". Franz Wächter worked as government and criminal investigator in the Reichskriminalpolizeiamt (RKPA) under Paul Werner and Arthur Nebe. We have traced nine copies on WorldCat, only two of which are outside of Germany....Learn More
