Goldsmith’s History of Animated Nature. With Numerous Original Notes, etc. In Four Volumes. London: Fisher, Son & Co., 1839. Small octavos. Publisher’s brown cloth, decorated in blind with gilt crest to upper & lower covers. Titles lettered in gilt to spines. A nice bright set.

A treatise on the animal kingdom, looking at birds, fish, insects and many more aspects of the natural world. Each volume is illustrated with hand coloured plates.

Originally published in 1774 & adapted from the works of Buffon, Linnaeus, Ray, and others, Goldsmith’s sought to draw together all that was known about the planet and its plants and animals in the late eighteenth century.