NATURAL HISTORY. [With 480 Original Designs by WILLIAM HARVEY.]

UK,12mo HB,b/w+colour illustrated,1st edn thus.[Not dated but from book's colour illustrated cloth board's design,circa 'art nouveau' period late 19thC-1919.] VG++.No owner name per se,but City of Sheffield Education Committee Prize award bookplate with handwritten ink signatures of both Secretary and Headmaster of Sharrow Lane School to a named pupil for Attention and Progress For Year ended July 31st, 1912. pasted to front pastedown.Publisher's original,bright,crisp,clean, sharp-cornered,black+gilt 2 line border edged,colour pictorial illustration to brown cloth boards on upper board and to spine/ backstrip with bright,crisp,blocked gilt title+author,rear board plain and undecorated - no illustration nor border edging.Design device of a gilt rising sun with a meandering road/river(?) towards the horizon and sun,behind 4 black Cypress trees,surrounded by a ribboned wreath just above a pair of scabbarded swords and all surrounded by grey foliage to centre of front board.In corners of borders,between the outer black lines and the inner gilt lines,a brown+black chequer board design - some minimal pale flecks over the front board and even less to rear board.To spine/backstrip,a grey sky with pair black flying seagulls above a brown cliff-edged seascape view with bright,crisp,blocked gilt title of ILLUSTRATED NATURAL HISTORY at head of spine and publsher name in gilt to a grey panel with a black chequer-board design at either side of publisher's name.Negligible shelf-wear, bumping,creasing to edges and corners - no nicks,tears or splits present,but both head+foot of spine/backstrip inevitably but very minimally bumped with reciprocal creasing.Both free endpapers with off-setting from opposing pastedowns and both hinges solid and sound without any splits or cracking present.Top edge waxed or was gilt edged(?) with very minimal sporadic spotting,fore-edges aged/toned also with very minimal,sporadic spotting; contents bright,tight,clean, solid and sound - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners - unread,other than my own collation.UK,12mo HB,b/w+colour illustrated, 1st edn thus,iv-xxpp+2-444pp,includes an 1852 preface and a further but ubdated preface for the 2nd edn.a systematic Index - of Divisions, Class,Order,Family,sub-groups and Genus; profuse b/w illus within text body and throughout the book,4 colour plates includes frntis - a pair of Lions,Fish,a Reindeer and a Tree lizard respectively,with no artist credited,and an Index,plus [unpaginated] colour frntis,title page.

Information on apes,baboons,monkeys,bats,cats and dogs,insects, and various other animals. * Sharrow Lane School,was a School Board school,built under the 1872 Education Act,in 1887.School was finally closed,demolished, 2007.*
Visually the exterior appearance is exceptional for a book of it's age (100 years+)and nature,i.e. a child's book,and even internally,the book is also in an exceptional condition/state of preservation and presentation.It is only the minor exterior faults described,that prevent a slightly higher grading.
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