The Natural History of Humming Birds. Volumes I & II. The Naturalist's Library. Ornithology.

EDINBURGH: W H LIZARS, 1834 1st edition, second printing, of humming birds in the original publisher's cloth bindings, with 64 hand coloured plates. The bindings are sound and clean. Both have been rebacked preserving the original spine. Vol I has slight bubbling to the cloth; a bump to the rear bottom corner; a small lighter spot on the front board and fading to edges and spine. Vol II has some wear and bumping to corners; the front board has mottling and some fading to edges. The original green endpapers are present in both volumes with repair. Vol I: frontispiece black and white portrait of 'Linnaeus in his Lapland Dress'; hand coloured vignette title page; 2 further title pages dated 1834 (a year after the first printing); publisher's advert; contents listing; Memoir of Linnaeus; and text with black and white illustrations and 34 hand coloured plates bound at the rear; 23pp publisher's catalogue. Vol.II: half title; black and white frontispiece portrait of Pennant; hand coloured vignette title page; 2 further title pages dated 1833 together with an additional title page for Vol I; contents listing; advert; Memoir of Pennant; text with 30 hand coloured plates; synopsis; index; and a range of publisher's adverts - 166 pages in all. Vol I has foxing, particularly to the early pages and to the page edges. The plates have light brown toning, but Plate I is very browned. There is the odd spot to plates but this is mostly to the verso. 5 plates lack tissue guards. Vol II is brighter, and although with occasional spotting eg initial text, gutter to pp 30-35; the plates are generally bright and clean. Plates 1 and 2 have a couple of spots with more spots to verso and tissue guards; plates 27 and 28 have a couple of small spots. Please enquire if you would like to see additional images. As usual with editions bound in the publisher's cloth, page edges are untrimmed.