Musée d’Histoire Naturelle: Le cosmographie, le geologie, la zoologie, la botanique

Very good copy of the 1st edition of this introduction to natural history

Complete with all 50 handcoloured wood-engraved plates printed by F. Chardon

Museum of Natural History; cosmography, geology, zoology, botany

In a beautifully restored French mid-19th century polychrome and gilt pictorial binding by Lenegre

The plates cover a wide range of subject matter. The frontis shows the universe with stars, nebulae and comets, the geology plates show erupting volcanoes and a Swedish iron-ore mine. The natural history plates include nine charts of different orders of animal and insect life as well as illustrations of animals in their natural habitat. There are endangered tigers, Indian rhinoceros, kangaroos and wallabies. The birds include the village weaver, lyre bird, twelve-wired bird-of-paradise, Indian peafowl, pigeons, etc. The reptiles include the Aldabra giant tortoise, spectacled caiman, and Martinique pit viper. Others include fish, molluscs, crustaceans, beetles, insects, bees and beehives, butterflies. The fine botanical plates feature melons, rhododendron, peony, Italian stone pines and a banyan tree.

Some of the plates are copied from images by Adolph Fries, Edouard Travies, and other famous natural history artists.

Text in French

Achille Comte (1802-1866) was a French doctor, zoologist, physiologist and professor of natural history. Trained as a doctor at the Faculty of Medicine in Paris and a founding member of the Anatomical Society of Paris, he later switched to natural history and education. His books include Keepsake d'Histoire Naturelle 1838, Regne Animal 1840, Traite complet d'Histoire Naturelle 1849, Musee d'Histoire Naturelle 1854, etc. His popular books on anatomy were reissued under various titles from 1842 to 1885 and reprinted many times.

Black cloth repaired with buckram preserving the original ornate gilt pictorial decorations to spine and boards, AEG. Beautiful image of a lyre bird in bright gilt polychrome within a foliage border on the front board, gilt lion on rear board. Interior very good with clean text pages and delicate handcolour on the woodcuts, a few faint spots here and there. All plates under tissue guards.

A very good copy of this lovely introduction to natural history