The Animal Kingdom: Mammals de Edward Griffith, Major Charles Hamilton Smith, Edward Pidgeon - 1827: Arranged in Conformity with its Organization by the Baron Cuvier

Scarce set of all four volumes of The Class Mammalia, being Volumes 1-4 of the whole series

Complete with all 179 handcoloured and 21 uncoloured engravings of mammals and cetaceans mostly by Charles Hamilton Smith, many sketched from live or preserved specimens in European museums and zoological collections.

Ilustrations include over 20 endangered species including the chinchilla, river otter, Malayan tapir, agile gibbon, chimpanzee, lion-tailed macaque, toque macaque, African wild dog, orangutan, tiger, snow leopard, Tibetan red deer, Chinese pangolin, critically endangered screwhorn antelope, Pygmy three-toed sloth and cotton-top tamarin, and extinct Tasmanian tiger and aurochs, etc.

From the rare English-language edition of Baron Cuvier's seminal Le Regne Animal by Edward Griffith published in 15 volumes

Edward Griffith (1790–1858) was a British naturalist and solicitor. He wrote General and Particular Descriptions of the Vertebrated Animals (1821) and translated Georges Cuvier's Règne Animal (1827–35). He was one of the original members of the Zoological Society, and a fellow of the Linnean, Antiquaries, and Royal Societies.

Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Hamilton Smith (1776-1859) was an English artist, naturalist, antiquary, illustrator, soldier, and spy. He wrote and illustrated many books on various subjects including Selections of Ancient Costume of Great Britain and Ireland 1814, Costume of the Army of the British Empire 1815, Costume of the Original Inhabitants of the British Isles 1821, volumes on Mammals and Birds for Griffith's Animal Kingdom, and various volumes on Humans, Mammals, Whales, Amphibious Carnivora, Dogs, Horses, Fish, Monkeys, etc. for Sir William Jardine's Naturalist's Library (1830s-50s).

Half green leather, spine with raised bands and gilt title, rubbed, green cloth boards, marble endpapers. Interior mostly clean but with slight age-toning to the page edges, plates clean and fresh with delicate hand-colour, some slight offsetting to a few.

A very good set of a rare zoological work.