WALCOTT, John.
The Figures, Description, and History of exotic Animals, comprised under the Classes Amphibia and Pisces of Linnaeus.
London, W. Justins for the Author, and sold by White & son, Robson & Clarke, and J. Mathews, 1788.
Square 8vo, ff. [66], printed recto only, with 60 copper-engravings in text, several hand-coloured; a few spots; disbound as loose leaves, housed in a modern green cloth clamshell box with gilt paper lettering-piece to spine; early ownership inscription to title, crossed through.
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The Figures, Description, and History of exotic Animals, comprised under the Classes Amphibia and Pisces of Linnaeus.
First and only edition, very rare, published in parts. The engraved figures and their descriptions comprise a variety of turtles, snakes, frogs, and fish, including several notable species from America. Though Walcott writes in his preface of the prospect of ‘a Second Part, which will contain the remainder of such foreign animals as are known to us’, none was ever published.
ESTC records only four copies in the UK (Trinity Hall, Natural History Museum, and two copies at the BL) and two in North America (Cleveland, Huntington).
ESTC T97963 (‘65 leaves’); Nissen 4325 (‘60 Bl.’, ‘1788-89’); Quaritch, Catalogue 905: Natural History (1970), 622.
