the most beautiful crustacea

The complete set of 'one of the most beautiful publications devoted to Crustacea' (Biodiversity Heritage Library), with the original wrappers for each part bound in.

Though trained in medicine, William Elford Leach (1791-1836) never worked as a physician, but instead joined the British Museum as a naturalist. 'Although Leach's interests ranged over many groups of animals, he soon developed a passion for entomology and malacology. He was an enthusiastic collector of British insects who greatly enriched the entomological collections at the British Museum, and whose knowledge of the Crustacea was regarded as superior to that of any other naturalist of his time' (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography).

The artist James Sowerby (1787-1871) was both a naturalist and the leading natural history artist of the period and, 'although responsible for the description of many taxa, his main contribution to natural history had been "the portraits of natural objects he has left behind him... delineated faithfully from... acquaintance with their form and structure" (W. Sowerby, cited in Simpkins, 393), "which no pencil or burin, but those of a scientific artist could possibly accomplish"' (Buckland, cited in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography).

First editions; folio (30.5 x 24 cm); 54 hand-coloured plates of which 4 are folding, original blue wrappers of each part bound in at the rear, a little light toning and spotting to the contents; late 19th century brown, morocco-patterned roan, spine gilt in compartments with circular tools, marbled sides and endpapers, binding rubbed with wear at the extremities, very good condition.