Beetles.- Lacordaire (Jean Théodore) Histoire Naturelle des Insectes. Genera des Coléoptères, 12 vol. in 14, first edition, 134 hand-coloured engraved plates, some with gouache and heightened with gum arabic and touches of silver and gold, plate 45 laid down with repair to lower corner affecting caption and imprint, some foxing and browning, occasional pencil and ink annotations to text, Charles Mackechnie-Jarvis bookplate to Atlas vol., 12 vol. uniformly bound in contemporary half calf (light rubbing to extremities), vol.9 part 2 in contemporary wrappers (a little worn), Atlas vol. in modern half calf, [Horn-Schenkling 12618; Nissen ZBI 2355], 8vo, Paris, 1854-76.

⁂ Rare issue with the plates hand-coloured. We can trace only 4 examples with all 134 plates at auction in the past 42 years.

Lacordaire travelled in South America from 1825-1832 using every opportunity to collect insects. In 1835 he became Professor of Zoology at the University of Liège. The last 3 volumes of the present work were posthumously published by F. Chapuis. The fine plates engraved by Corbié are after drawings by Migneaux, Nicolet and Hüet.