BUFFON'S NATURAL HISTORY ABRIDGED [WITH PROOF PLATES] A New Edition by the Rev. W. Hutton M.A. Embellish'd with 100 Engravings.

First edition thus. Octavo. Smartly bound in modern half burgundy morocco over marbled paper-covered boards. The spines with five raised bands, compartments ruled in gilt and decorated in blind, and with titles in gilt. Illustrated with 100 fine steel-engraved plates with tissue guards, including an engraved title page to each volume and a frontispiece to volume one, with many labelled 'proof' within the plate. A near fine set, the bindings square and tight; the contents with a largely unobtrusive tide line to the foot of volume two (a little more prominent on a handful of the plates) and a little toning and light spotting to the engraved title pages and some of the plates are otherwise in very good order, clean throughout and free from any previous owners' inscriptions or stamps. The great majority of the plates remain uncommonly clean and fresh. An excellent example.

A beautifully illustrated early nineteenth-century popular edition of the celebrated French naturalist's monumental work. This set unusually containing a group of sharp, crisp and richly detailed proof engravings. Uncommon thus.