Essai sur l'histoire naturelle des corallines, et d'autres productions marines du même genre, qu'on trouve communement sur les cotes de la Grande-Bretagne et d'Irlande; auquel on joint une description d'un grand polype de mer, pris auprès de pole arctique, par des pêcheurs de baleine, pendant l'eté de 1753. Traduit de l'anglois Ellis, Jean, F. R. S. [John] Natural History

VIII, [4 - (manuscript index)],[IX]-XVI, 125, [3], [1-(blank)] pages plus 39 colored plates (of which 5 are folding) plus frontispiece (total 40 plates, some bound out of sequence). Quarto. Aeg. Title page printed in black and red. Early leather with marbled endpapers. Front board detached, spine leather worn and crispy. Finely inked manuscript notations underneath most printed marginal plate numbers providing alternative (latin?) nomenclature (?) for the illustrated items which ties into the manuscript index in the front. With the bookplates of James Stephens Esq. and Charles F. Cox New York on the front pastedown. Calf. Most copies seen listed for sale are not hand colored and those that are command a premium price, making this example noteworthy. Worth rebinding/repairing, we are pricing it accordingly. "John Ellis FRS (c. 1710 15 October 1776) aka Jean Ellis was a British linen merchant and naturalist. Ellis was the first to have a published written description of the Venus flytrap and its botanical name. The standard author abbreviation J.Ellis is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.Ellis specialised in the study of corals. He was elected a member of the Royal Society in 1754 and in the following year published An essay towards the Natural History of the Corallines. He was awarded the Copley Medal in 1767. In 1770 he presented papers to the Royal Society on the loblolly bay and the American star anise. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1774.His A Natural History of Many Uncommon and Curious Zoophytes, written with Daniel Solander, was published posthumously in 1776. Ellis was appointed Royal Agent for British West Florida in 1764, and for British Dominica in 1770. He exported many seeds and native plants from North America to England. He corresponded with many botanists, including Carl Linnaeus." (Wikipedia) We have not been able to identify previous owner "James Stephens Esq" but previous owner Charles F.[inney] Cox was a railroad man and very much an amateur scientist in the best sense of the word: "Mr. Charles F. Cox, for many years a member of the American Microscopical Society, died in New York City recently. He was a Fellow of the American Association, of the Royal Microscopical Society, of the New York Academy, and a member of numerous other scientific societies. As treasurer of the New York Academy and of the New York Botanical Garden, and as a member of the Council or Board of Directors of other organizations, Mr. Cox contributed largely from a rich and successful business experience to the advancement of scientific work in this country. He was primarily a railroad man serving in important positions some of the greatest and most successful corporations of the United States; nevertheless he found time to devote to scientific studies. His book on Protoplasm and Life was his largest contribution to scientific literature, but numerous smaller papers and contributions presented at meetings of the scientific societies evince at once his interest in and capacity for scientific study. His work was done primarily in the microscopical structure of plant and animals and the fundamental relations of these to the theory of evolution. Mr. Cox' career is a splendid example of that contribution to scientific advancement common in the old world, and especially in England, but unfortunately rare on this continent. Science can ill afford to lose such services and we may hope that the example of such a life will be a stimulus to pointing out one way in which investigation may be effectively furthered by those who are not primarily devoted to it" (Obituary, Transactions of the American Microscopical Society, 1912) Provenance: In a private collection since purchased in Sept 1960.