The Collected Library

11 volumes in 5, 8vo. 95 hand-colored engraved plates by Wagstaff and others after Curtis and Westwood. Late 19th century half olive morocco, marbled boards, spines in 6 compartments with 5 raised bands, gilt-lettering in 2, others with gilt centerpieces, marbled edges, stamped signed by David Chivers (boards lightly rubbed). Provenance: Linley Blathwayt (1839-1919), an English colonel, WSPU sympathizer, and Fellow of the Linnean Society (bookplate); some pencil marginalia.

FIRST EDITION. Contains Darwin's first publication, a description of the Common Noctuid, or Flame Shoulder Moth (Ochropleura plecta) in volume II of the Haustellata section. "While an undergraduate at Cambridge, Darwin had sent records of insects that he had captured to... Stephens and some of these were published in the Illustrations of British Entomology. He refers to the pleasure that he got from seeing his name in print against his records of beetles in his autobiography" (Norman). 
BMNH 2016; Freeman, p.19-20; Nissen ZBI 3994; cf. Norman 582.