Author: BENJAMIN WILKES
Title: One Hundred and Twenty Copper-Plates of English Mo
Date: 1773
Price: GBP £ 11,000
Book Code:

London,Printed for Benjamin White,at Horace's-Head,Fleet-Street, 1773, Second Edition, folio, (308 x 258mm) contemporary elaborate full green morocco gilt,with diamond lozenge on upper and lower covers, two line gilt panels with blind arabesque designs.  120 fine original hand-coloured engraved plates, some  by G.D.Ehret and J.van Huysum.
             
                                                                         £11,000.00

A beautifully coloured copy of one of the most important works on British Butterflies and Moths.
Wilkes life is a bit of a mystery. "The only reference to Wilkes's early life...is that he was born towards the close of the seventeenth century. A little more may be gleaned from the preface to one of his works where it is revealed that he was a painter in oils and became interested in the science of entomology. Following an invitation by a friend to a meeting of the Aurelian Society Wilkes became a member and proceeded to form his own collection of English lepidoptera,making sketches of the various stages in the life histories of as many species as possible.Encouraged by Mr.Joseph Dandridge, who was also a patron of Albin,Wilkes decided to begin publication of the notes on the native lepidoptera which he had compiled over a period of ten years,illustrating these with his own drawings." (Lisney)
Lisney 185;Nissen ZBI 4410.