Afbeelding en beschryving van in- en uitlandsche Visschen, gevolgd naar het hoogduitsch van Dr. M. E Bloch. Ie. Uitgave

5 unnumb. letterpress leaves (= 1 leaf 'voorbericht' and 4 leaves description of which 3 with large woodcut tail-vignettes) and 4 handcoloured engraved specimen plates. Loosely contained in publisher's printed blue cardboards. Folio (475 x 295 mm). Spine covering defective, covers soiled and with brown waterstaining in margins.

Not in Nissen, Fischbücher and Dean. Cf. Landwehr, Dutch Books with Coloured Plates no. 28 mentioning a copy with a variant imprint: Zalt-Bommel, J. Noman 1804 with the following remark: Not seen, but quoted by J. de Jong: Alphabetische Naamlyst van boeken 1790-1831. The Hague, Amsterdam 1832. Publisher's prospectus for a Dutch edition of this important ichthyological work the printing of which apart of the 4 leaves of text and accompanying plates came to a standstill for unkown reasons. If the copy cited by Landwehr isn't a ghost our copy seems to predate it, but assuming it to be extant an explanation for the two different imprints might be the elusive fact of a joint undertaking by these two eminent Dutch publishers which for undisclosed causes went no further as to the publication of this prospectus. Rear cover of the book with printer's/publisher's advertisment for 5 major Dutch naturally history books with plates published by J. C. Sepp & Zoon, among others the first Dutch edition of J. Zorn's 'Icones Plantarum Medicinalium' (= Afbeeldingen der Artseny-Gewassen) published by Sepp & Zoon 1796-1800 with an added remark '6 deelen compleet' which might offer a clue to the publishing date of the prospectus; other works mentioned are the 'Flora Batava' published 1800 to 1868, the 'Nederlandsche Vogelen' published 1770 to 1829 and the 'Natuurlyke ... Afbeeldingen van Zabelspringhanen, Kakkerlakken, Krekels ...' published between 1787 and 1815. The plates show the following species: Perca Maculata (Gevakte Baars); Trigla Volitans (Vliegende Zee-Uil); Labrus Brasiliensis (Brasiliaanische Lip-Visch) and Sparus Chlorourus (Groen-Staart), each with only a Latin caption in the top margin within plate mark of the plates. Scattered light foxing to plates, inside a fine and fresh copy, with sheets uncut. A very scarce prospectus, of which we were not able to trace a copy in the standard bibliographies; and with no copy found on OCLC and KVK.