A History of British Birds

LONDON: George Bell & Sons, 1870 A nice set of the second edition of Morris's History of British Birds. In 6 volumes with original decorative cloth bindings and 365 hand coloured plates as called for. The bindings are all clean with bright gilt pictures of birds to each front board and gilt titles and decoration to spine. There is some wear: volume I has some cloth splitting at the hinges and splitting at the rear endpaper with rubbing to corners; volumes II, III and IV have very slight pulling to top and bottom of spine and a little rubbing at corners; volume V has very small splits at the top and bottom of the spine; and volume VI has a 1 inch tear at the top of the spine (with no loss) and scuffing at the corners. Internally all have the original endpapers; the first section including the frontispiece is becoming loose on volumes I, II, and III; volume IV is sound but the stitching is looser than on the others. There is a little spotting to some plates and text pages but in general the contents are very clean (looking unread) and the plates are bright and well coloured. A few plates in volume III lack tissue guards and the plate of the Whitethroat is present but detached. Volume 5 has 4 plates present but detached: the Little Stint, Schinz's Sandpiper, Pochard and Polish Swan - and pages 131-134 the same. A few pages have been roughly opened and a few have darkening to edges. Overall the set is complete, with bright bindings and well coloured plates.