On the Results of Spectrum Analysis Applied to the Heavenly Bodies. A Discourse Delivered at Nottingham, before the British Association, August 24, 1866. London: W. Ladd, [1866].
8vo (180 x 120 mm). 56, 2 ad pp; tipped-in advertisement for the photographs on glass for lantern slide use. 18 albumen prints mounted in text reproducing diagrams of spectrums, sketches of nebulæ, and "Apparatus for the Measurement and Comparison of Stellar Spectra"; additional albumen print of the latter loosely inserted. Original purple cloth, blindstamped and gilt lettered. Occasional very light spotting, lightly rubbed, spine faded.
Provenance: J. Parnell (ownership inscription on front free endpaper); Harvey Plotnick (his sale, Christie's, October 4, 2002, lot 138).

RARE PHOTOGRAPHICALLY-ILLUSTRATED SCIENTIFIC WORK. Only one other copy appears in the auction records since 1975. "Huggins perfected a spectroscope which, attached to his telescope, brought the prominent spectral lines of the brighter stars into view. Huggins's star spectroscope enabled astronomers to ask new questions and undertake new mensuration, and ultimately altered the boundaries of acceptable astronomical research" (ODNB). Ladd, the publisher, appears to have also been a manufacturer and retailer of spectroscopes and apparatus.