LUCAS, H. Histoire des lépidoptères d'Europe. Paris, L. de B - Lot 124

LUCAS, H. Histoire des lépidoptères d'Europe. Paris, L. de Bure, 1845. In-8, [4], VIII, 216 pp, 2 plates in black, title (for plates), 80 plates in color, contemporary brown half-chagrin with corners, 5-rib spine, gilt author and title, ornate caissons, gilt edges (slight rubbing to edges, first 8 leaves browned). Second edition of the Histoire naturelle des lépidopteres by P.-H. Lucas, illustrated with 80 plates representing some 400 specimens of European butterflies painted from life, steel-engraved by Pauquet after A.-N. Noel, and finely hand-colored at the time. This edition, identical to the first published in Paris by Pauquet in 1834-35, is enlarged by a treatise on butterfly hunting, by M. Simon naturaliste, of VIII p. at the beginning of the volume, illustrated with two black plates of instruments.