British Entomology; being illustrations and descriptions of the Genera of Insects found in Great Britain and Ireland: containing coloured figures from nature of the most rare and beautiful species, and in many instances of the plants on which they are found. by John Curtis - 1840

London : Printed for the author, 1840 A very good complete set of the 1st edition, in 8 volumes with 770 hand coloured plates by John Curtis. This was Curtis' main publication and his preface to Vol I reflects the difficulties and the choices he made over the 16 years that it was in production. It was issued in parts, so it was not possible to focus on individual genera in sequence and include updates in classification and the new species which were being identified. At the end of the process Curtis made sets available organised by genera, and also issued new title pages and index pages to enable owners to reorganise their purchase if they wished. This set has the new title pages and is divided up into genera with, for example, Volumes I and II covering Coleoptera; Volumes V and VI Lepidoptera. As a consequence, plate numbers are not in sequence. Text pages are unnumbered. Curtis' attention to detail and artistry in the illustrations and their colouring is outstanding. He noted in the preface that the colouring alone cost him over £3,000 (£309,000 today). This copy is in contemporary half leather bindings with gilt lined raised bands, gilt compartments and title/volume labels to spine. Boards are of cobbled cloth. The bindings are clean with bright gilt. There is scuffing and wear to the spine ends, spine joints, edges and corners - this varies in degree across the volumes - Vol V has some splitting at the top half of the front spine joint; and Vol VII has the top surface of the leather missing at the top of the front board. All the volumes are currently sound. Internally all have the armorial bookplate of Edward H Mainwaring Sladen to the front pastedown. Vol I has a piece of paper pasted to the bottom of the title with John Curtis' signature - this may have been cut from a letter. The contents are very clean and in very good to near fine condition. There are some sections where the paper is more toned and there is some offsetting from plates to text where the plate is particularly strongly coloured. Contents: Vol I - title Coleoptera pt I 1823-40 with note 'yr obed & obligd serv J Curtis' to bottom; preface pp 1-8; subscribers' list pp 9-11; contents note and adverts 1p; dedication; 131 plates with text; index 4pp. Pale yellow area to text and back of plates at plate 188 and 287. Vol II: title - Coleoptera pt 2; dedications; 126 plates and text; index 4pp. Small darker area to top gutter at plate 694. Vol III: title - Dermaptera, Dictyoptera, Orthoptera, Strepsiptera, Hymenoptera pt 1; dedication; 87 plates with text; index and errata 2pp. Vol IV: title Hymenoptera pt 2, Neuroptera, Trichoptera; dedications; 70 plates with text; index and errata 2pp. Vol V: title Lepidoptera pt 1; dedications; 93 plates with text; index and errata 2pp. Vol VI: title Lepidoptera pt 2; 100 plates with text; index and errata 2pp. Vol VII: title Homoptera, Hemiptera, Aphoniptera; dedications; 55 plates with text; index 2pp; alphabetical list of insects 6pp; systematic index to complete work pp 7-19; alphabetical list of plants 19-24; systematic list of plants 24-30; index to english names of plants 30-36. Plate 657 has a little spotting. Vol VIII: title Diptera, Omaloptera; dedications; 108 plates with text; index 3pp; errata 1p. Slight light spotting to early text; small light splash in top gutter pl 489 on both sides - not affecting image. Please enquire if you would like to see additional images to further assess condition.