Six Volumes "Animate Creation" Illustrated Natural History by Rev.

North America, United States. A six-volume set of "Animate Creation," the popular edition of "Our Living World: A Natural History" by the Rev. J.G. Wood, published in New York by Selmar Hess. The large volumes are bound in plum-brown pebbled cloth. Each front board carries a black-stamped geometric border with rosette corners, framing an ornate gilt title wound with flowering tendrils. The spines repeat the gilt lettering above black rosette bands, and the top edges are gilt. The set moves through the animal kingdom in sequence. Two volumes cover "Mammalia," two cover "Birds," and the final volumes are devoted to "Fishes, Reptiles, &c." Throughout, the text is paired with plentiful illustrations of creatures familiar and exotic. It was intended for the family library, a parlor encyclopedia of the living world that teaches through pictures as much as through prose. The Rev. John George Wood (1827-1889) was an English clergyman who became one of the most widely read popular naturalists of the Victorian era. His books, lectures, and magazine pieces brought zoology to a general audience in clear, anecdotal prose that avoided technical language. "Our Living World" adapted his natural history writing for American readers. "Animate Creation" was the popular edition of that work, revised and expanded under the American zoologist Joseph B. Holder of the American Museum of Natural History, and sold by subscription through the New York publisher Selmar Hess. Item # 205578

Estimate:$200

View all items fromArtemis Fine ArtsorBooks, Maps & Manuscripts