THE NATURALIST'S CABINET or INTERESTING SKETCHES OF

ANIMAL HISTORY

by the REVEREND THOMAS SMITH

Published by James Cundee, Printed by the Albion Press, London 1806

Certainly one of the most entertaining Natural History books that I have ever come across!! The title goes on......"Illustrative of the Natures, Dispositions, Manners, and Habits, of all the most remarkable Quadrupeds, Birds, Fishes, Amphibia, Reptiles, &c. in the Known World, Regularly Arranged, and Enriched with numerous beautiful descriptive engravings"!! Guess that says it all!! Here you can read about the famous Boxing Kangaroo, the Gigantic Crane that would always come to dinner, the Orangutan that would pour himself a drink, fish from horseback with a long-poled trident, Learn about the Lapwing that sat by the fire with the cat and dog, and on and on. Six volumes bound into three books with nearly 350-360 pages per each of the six volumes and comprehensive indices for each as well. Really quite an amazing publication. And every tale or yarn reportedly true with some having been witnessed by the author. The leather volumes have been re-backed preserving the original marbleized boards and leather spines. As you can see from the photos, there have been some losses in the process, but it has been very well done. The original spine and boards were quite scuffed and worn with rubbed and frayed edges and corners with tears and losses of the marbleized paper. The text pages were speckled red and the top edge was probably gilt at one time. Everything is fine internally with some occasional browning and spotting. The hand-coloring on the 60 finely engraved plates and 6 vignette title pages is bright and fresh and expertly done. The colors are generally brilliant!! The plates are generally clean with some occasional spotting or browning in the margin. Each one is titled, but I didn't want to bend the spine too much just to take the digital image. As is mentioned on the website of a major London bookshop....."First and only edition. This is an extraordinary collection of anecdotes, drawn from the works of travellers and natural historians, including the tale of the boxing kangaroo. Introduction: "Each class is designed to form a volume, and the whole embellished with beautiful engravings, from original designs, on an entirely new plan, and illustrative of the most curious anecdotes related in the course of the work." It is these anecdotes that make up, to no small degree, the originality of the work." The book is also cited in "Nissen ZBI 3883". Each of the volumes has a frontis, decorative vignette title and text title. Most of the plates involve people interacting with other members of the animal kingdom in one form or another and each one is taken from a story in the book. There are two pages of publisher's adverts at the back of volumes 2, 3, 5, & 6. These volumes are apparently very rare in this format. All in all, quite a remarkable set of volumes in generally fine condition with beautiful original hand-colored plates. Sized 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches.  A plethora of digital images follows....

Price:  $750.00