CATESBY MARK (1683-1749). Naturaliste et artiste... Lot n° 27

The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands: Containing the Figures of Birds, Beasts, Fishes, Serpents, Insects, and Plants; Particularly those not hitherto described, or incorrectly figured by former authors. Edition corrected by George Edwards, London for Charles Marsh, Thomas Wilcox and Benjamin Stichall. London : Printed for C. Marsh, in Round Court in the Strand ; T. Wilcox, over-against the New Church, in the Strand ; and B. Stichall in Clare-Court, MDCCLIV [1754] 2 volumes, large folio, title-pages in red and black, in English and French; text in parallal columns in English and French, text double-column. Double-page hand-colored engraved folding map in volume one and 220 hand-colored etched plates, by and after Catesby and most signed with his monogram, except for plates 61 and 96 in vol. II by Georg Dionysius Ehret; first 20 page numbers of vol. 2 corrected by hand. Fine contemporary French red morocco, covers panelled in gilt, flat spines gilt-panelled with green morocco lettering-pieces, marbled endpapers, gilt edges, scattered light browning and discoloration, some spotting and faint offsetting, very short tear in lower margin plate 36, text leaf 1 with long tear at lower margin not affecting text, binding slightly worn at extremities. Dimensions: 527 x 365 mm. Second edition of the first comprehensive survey of the flora and fauna of south-eastern North America (then part of the British colonies) published posthumously and the first edition of Edwards’s revision of the text. The Lamoignon-Phillipps Copy, in a binding attributable to Pierre Anguerrand. In 1712, the English-born artist and naturalist Mark Catesby embarked on a series of expeditions to the southern colonies of British North America. Catesby was enthralled by the wildlife of the New World, and he spent years traveling by foot through parts of present-day Virginia, Georgia, the Carolinas and the Bahamas. Over the course of his journeys, he