First Edition, Four Volumes (including supplement) in Two, xvi, 44, [2]; [2], xx - xxxii, [45] - 92, [2]; [2], [xxvii] - xxxii mispaginated [93] - 138, [4]; [2], xxiii - xlii, 139 - 182, [12]pp, additional engraved title, very well-illustrated with 182 engraved plates (mostly un-coloured), a few with brown aquatint or printed in bistre, hardcover, 4to, finely bound in 19th century calf, wide gilt tooled border to front and back boards, spine tooled in gilt, title labels inset on red and green morocco with gilt lettering, raised bands, inner gilt dentelles, marbled end papers, all edges marbled, some light offsetting, spotting and marginal water stains mainly to text, some light rubbing otherwise a very nice set, Provenance: with the armorial bookplate of John Rhodes and the later bookplate of the Fairfax Rhodes Library (Ref. 41907) [John Rhodes (1814 - 1898), as well as being a player of chess, he had a keen interest in natural history; his son Fairfax Junior, later Colonel, (1848 - 1928), attended Trinity College, Cambridge and obtained a Classics MA, on his death he bequeathed his large collection of books to the Cambridge Union Society, which now has a Fairfax Rhodes reading room - courtesy of The Yorkshire Chess History website), Printed For The Author and Sold in Halifax By Him ..., 1788. * James Bolton came from near Halifax in Yorkshire. He was a self-taught naturalist of humble origins, and he drew and etched all his own illustrations. "Bolton describes his specimens with great acuteness, in clear, and this, be remembered, when they were little understood." Henrey. Freeman, 371; Henrey, 465; Nissen BB1 195. (#ALD/362)