1791 A Description of Three Hundred Animals - Antique Book - Unicorns, Dragons etc.

This is such a wonderful find! "A Description of Three Hundred Animals viz. Beasts, Birds, Fishes, Serpents and Insects With a Particular Account of The Manner of Their Catching of Whales in Greenland. Extracted from the Best Authors and Adapted to the Use of All Capacities. Illustrated with Copper-Plates, Whereon is Curiously Engraven Every Beast, Bird, Fish, Serpent and Insect Described in the Whole Book". Published in 1791 for JF and C Rivington, London. A richly illustrated antique book - wonderfully odd in that early‑natural‑history way. Mixing real zoology with creatures inherited from classical sources, travellers’ tales, and medieval bestiaries. Myth and zoology sit side by side without apology. So includes creature such as:

Unicorns
Dragons
Manticore - with the body of a lion and a human face. Can eat humans whole.
Cockatrice - a serpent which can kill by touch, sight and hiss.
Lamia - With the head of a woman and legs like a goats. Hisses like a serpent.
Basilisk - King of the serpents with breath that can kill.
Camelopardal - Half camel, half panther.

Inside the pages are clean and tightly bound. With a few nicks and a couple of tears next to the margin, but overall very good. Packed full of wonderful copper engravings of the creatures. Also has a superb fold-out plate in the Greenland whaling section (see photos). Has an elegantly-inked name and a little pencil writing to the front paste down, but no other markings of previous ownership.

Bound in full calf-leather. Wear to the leather. Rubbing and peeling to the surface leather around the outside edges. Some peeling away and loss to the surface also on the boards. With cracking to the outside of the spine joints (but not on the inside and the binding remains strong). Has a sticker at the top of the spine.

More photos can be sent upon request.

Your antique copy of A Description of Three Hundred Animals will be wrapped with care in tissue and ribbon* and sent well packaged. I am always happy to add a gift card with a message to the parcel.

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H 18 cm x W 11 cm, 213 pages, 0.24 kg. I dispatch worldwide daily from the UK. (There are just a very few countries which I am unable to ship to).

* If you would prefer for your books not to be decoratively wrapped but sent simply in the full protective packaging please add a note to the order.

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