Rare early issue with errata slip and all plates on laid paper

STUBBS, George.

The Anatomy of the Horse. Including A particular Description of the Bones, Cartilages, Muscles, Fascias, Ligaments, Nerves, Arteries, Veins, and Glands.

London: J. Purser, for the Author, 1766.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine. Item #002669

Large oblong folio (472 x 593 mm). [4], 47 [1] pp. Signatures: (pi), a, A-Z Aa. Including title sheet and 'To the Reader' sheet; errata slip pasted to verso of title sheet. 24 fine etched plates (numbered I, I-III, I-XV, I-V, including 6 dublicates in outlines) by Stubbs on thick laid-paper. Later half-calf over contemporary plain blue paper boards (some staining to boards and wear to extremities), spine with 6 raised bands and gilt-lettered label. Some general very light browning and very minor occasional spotting, crease to 3 text leaves (P, R, Z), small hole each to upper and lower blank margin of text leaves, frayed fore- and lower margin of text leaf B (p.3/4) neatly restored, occasional light offsetting from plate to text or facing outline plate, some plates with a little fine spotting. An outstanding, wide-margined, unmarked and unstained copy. ----

EXCEPTIONALLY RARE FIRST EDITION. A LANDMARK WORK IN THE STUDY OF EQUINE ANATOMY, and one of a number of books which can be said to have "revolutionised men's understanding of the natural world" (Lennox-Boyd). Ray describes the etchings as having a 'fine exactness and austere beauty' that 'give them a timeless beauty'. Stubbs executed the drawings over the course of 18 months, keeping each carcass in his studio for as long as six or seven weeks. He taught himself to etch in order to finish the work, as he had been unable to find an engraver. "The work appeared in 1766, and remained the standard authority on the subject for nearly a century. . . In 1771, . . . Camper . . . whose work on the relationship of art to anatomy had won international recognition, wrote to Stubbs comparing his work with that of the great Albinus, whose Tabulae Sceleti et Musculorum Corporis Humani had appeared in 1749. It is entirely appropriate to rank The Anatomy of the Horse with Thomas Pennant's British Zoology (1770) and Gilbert White's Natural History of Selbourne (1789), among the most important of the several works of this time which, by emphasising the importance of precise systematic observation, revolutionised men's understanding of the natural world" (Lennox-Boyd). EARLY ISSUE: this copy with all plates on laid paper, and containing the errata slip, which is generally only found in early-issue copies. None of the plate-paper is dated in our copy, some plates show a watermark "b"(?) or "LP"(?) . Lennox-Boyd notes that "in copies ... issued in 1766, and in most of those sold in Stubbs's lifetime, both the letterpress and the plates were printed on laid paper", and in later copies the plates were printed on wove paper.
"The plates consisting of 3 plates of the skeleton numbered I-III plus an outline key plate for plate I; and 15 plates of the 'muscles, fascias, ligaments, nerves, arteries, veins, glands and cartilages,' numered I-XV, with outline key plates for plates I-V. In the remainder of the plates, the outline key appears on the same plate as the full image [. . .] The Anatomy was apparently a slow seller: Stubbs was still advertising it as available twenty-two years after its publication (see Tate Gallery, no. 171). It is probable, according to the compilers of the Tate Gallery catalogue, that Stubbs ordered a large number of text sheets from J. Purser for which plates would be printed on demand. Copies of the Anatomy continued to be published after Stubbs' lifetime: the Norman copy has plates printed on sheets watermarked "W. Elgar 1798" and copies also exist with plates on paper watermarked 1813 and 1815." (Norman).
Dingley Comben 600 (later issue); Eales (Cole) 1840; Huth p.42; Norman 2032 (later issue); Lennox-Boyd: Stubbs, pp.165-188; Mellon: Books on Horse and Horsemanship 57; Nissen ZBI 4027; Ray p.6; Garrison-M. 308.1; Brunet V, p.571.

Price: 30,000 €  *  convert currency