£120
A selection of books on Beetles.
The British Coleoptera Delineated, ed. W.E. Shuckard, drawn in
outline by W. Spry. Pub. Henry G. Bohn, York St Covent Garden.
1861. Half leather, brown cloth, spine in six compartments with gilt
titles. 83 text pages and 94 hand-coloured plates, complete. A pencil
note written by West to the pastedown states 'This work as issued was
bound together by Hancock's rubber solution, this substance
disintegrating the pages fell apart. The plates are now on guards and
sewn.' It would appear, therefore that West had this copy rebound
(rather nicely as it happens). The book presents well and the rebind is
very solid.
With
A Manual of British Coleoptera, James Francis Stephens, pub.
Longman, Orme Brown, Green, and Longmans. 1839. Half leather,
green marbled, paper-covered boards. Octavo. 443pp. Touches of edge
wear/rubbing, but a very solid, pleasing copy of this scarce title. Mild
foxing to front and rear endpapers. Occasional pencil annotation
throughout. The author, Stephens address is noted in pencil on p. vii.
With
The Naturalist's Library, The Natural History of Beetles, James
Duncan. Pub. (Edinburgh) W.H. Lizars; S. Highley, 32 Fleet Street,
London; and W. Curry, Jun. and co. Dublin. `1835. 269 pp. 30 hand-
coloured plates. Frontispiece portrait of John Ray. Half leather,
marbled, paper-covered boards. Some rubbing, furring to corners, and
top of spine leather peeling away from the back strip. Original titles on
the spine faded, and an old, paper label has been added.
With
British Beetles, E. C. Rye, pub. Lovell Reeve & co. 1866. 280 pp. 16
coloured plates, 15 bound to the rear. The first plate is bound as the
frontispiece. Brown cloth with large, gilt (rather scary) beetle to front
board. Bookplate to pastedown. A good, solid copy.
With
The Young Beetle-Collectors Handbook, Dr. E. Hofmann. Pub. Swan
Sonnenschein 1908. 178pp. 20 coloured plates. Red cloth, slight fade
to spine. Gilt bettle illustration to cover. An attractive, solid copy.
With
A Handbook of the Coleoptera or Beetles of Great Britain and Ireland,
Herbert E. Cox pub. E.W. Janson 1874. Two matching volumes. 527
pp and 366 pp. Original publisher's brown cloth. Vignette decoration
in blind to front covers. Gilt titles to slightly faded spines. Slight
separation of signatures between pp 32 / 33 of volume with subsequent
very slight weakening of binding, but the book is still very solidly
bound.
(7)
The following lots of books represent the library of George West.
West's biographical details are hard to pin down, his date of birth
unknown, (probably around the 1880's) and his death sometime after
1945. He is known to have worked as an assistant and then lecturer in
Botany at the University of Dundee from 1906. At that time the
university was a constituent college of St Andrews University. West
seems to have remained there until around 1926. In his publication
'Practical Principles of Plain Photo Micrography' (1916) he describes
himself as a lecturer in Botany. Most of the books in the sale bear the
handstamp, 'George West' to the front pastedowns. Many volumes bear
extracts from booksellers' catalogues with prices of the titles,
suggesting that West liked to keep up with the current values of his
library.
The books represent a working library and many are also
annotated in pencil in his hand, cross-referencing other works and
adding his comments. To the front of the first volume of Walker's
Diptera (see lot no.) he has inserted his handwritten poem, 'To the
Future Owners of this book'.
Geordie has now turned up his toes
And gone aloft to seek repose
From various varmints nips and stings,
Especially those base mankind brings...
.....
...He trusts the child who gets this book
Will on the various notes just look
And feel that every pencil stroke
Helps on the game dear Walker wrote...
Although a botanist by profession, his main interest, judging by
his library appears to have been entomology and amongst the books
are some rare titles in that field many dating from the nineteenth
century, a golden age for the natural sciences. Many of the giants in
the field of Entomology are represented in the books and there are
good sets of Curtis, Donovan and Stephens with many exquisite, hand-
coloured illustrations. Geology was another of his interests, as well as
microscopy.
What little is known of George West is largely gleaned from a
publication from Hereford Museum published in 2007. West had
donated a large collection of mineralogical specimens to the Museum
in 1945. His connection with Hereford, however, appears to be
tenuous and the man remains something of an enigma.
Fees apply to the hammer price:
Room and Absentee Bids:
24% inc VAT*
Online and Autobids:
24% inc VAT*
