(Herbarium) Beautiful Seaweeds, Illustrated by Natural Specimens. Also, Instructions for the Formation of a Herbarium of Marine Algae, and a Complete List of the British Species
Paisley: Published by J. & J. Cook, Printers, [1881].
Unpaginated. With 42 leaves of mounted, pressed specimens of seaweed, including the frontispiece; each specimen leaf accompanied by about two leaves of letterpress verse and descriptive prose. Title page printed in red & black, with mounted seaweed specimen. 15" x 10½" folio. Full tan morocco tooled in gilt, spine ruled & lettered in gilt, raised bands, gilt inner dentelles, moiré silk endleaves, all edges gilt. Very Good+ with some scuffing to leather; a little flaking to the frontispiece specimen. Specimens generally in very nice shape.
A marvelous, massive edition of Cook's famed, and now quite rare, book of original pressed seaweed samples. This edition is larger both in physical size and the number of specimen plates than the original 1877 edition and the several that followed. As the printed statement by the author/publisher notes, "At Christmas, 1877, fifty copies of a small-sized volume, with thirty-five illustrations in each... were published. Of copies for the size of paper chosen for this volume, it will not be possible to issue more than a very limited edition. For the few now prepared, the illustrations, forty in number, have been selected for their luxuriance of development and excellence of condition. James Cook, Paisley, Christmas, 1881." In this copy, two of the leaves are followed by close duplicates, hence the added count. .
Price: $6,000.00