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Lot 35
ADAMS, GEORGE. c. 1709-1773. Micrographia Illustrata, or the Knowledge of the Microscope Explain'd: Together with an Account of a New Invented Universal, Single or Double, Microscope... London: Printed for and Sold by the Author, and by Samuel Birt, in Ave Mary Lane, 1747.
21 September 2015, 13:00 EDT
New YorkSold for US$4,375 inc. premium
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ADAMS, GEORGE. c. 1709-1773.
Micrographia Illustrata, or the Knowledge of the Microscope Explain'd: Together with an Account of a New Invented Universal, Single or Double, Microscope... London: Printed for and Sold by the Author, and by Samuel Birt, in Ave Mary Lane, 1747.
4to (220 x 163 mm). 16, 263 pp. With 65 folding engraved plates. Modern half calf over marbled boards with gilt title label on spine. Frontispiece with repaired closed tear (soiled); blank margin torn from pl 13; some light spotting or toning to pages and plates, but generally a pleasant copy.
SECOND EDITION, a re-issue of the first, with 65 plates and the 20 pp catalogue of Adams' instruments at the end. Probably intended as a manual to accompany the sale of Adams' own microscopes from his shop at "Tycho Brahe's Head in Fleet Street," the work contains six plates illustrating Adams' instruments followed by 59 plates depicting all manner of objects to be viewed beneath the lens, from spermatozoa to lice and snow. The Micrographia Illustrata (1746) broadly challenged Henry Baker's profitable monopoly on the subject of popular microscopy, but was far more richly-illustrated than Baker's The Microscope Made Easy (1743). Baker in turn attacked Adams on the grounds of plagiarism. The "Catalog of the Mathematical, Philosophical, and Optical Instruments" at the rear contains some 335 items for use in experiments concerning electricity, astronomy, geography, and physics. ESTC T53415; Poggendorff I, p 10.
4to (220 x 163 mm). 16, 263 pp. With 65 folding engraved plates. Modern half calf over marbled boards with gilt title label on spine. Frontispiece with repaired closed tear (soiled); blank margin torn from pl 13; some light spotting or toning to pages and plates, but generally a pleasant copy.
SECOND EDITION, a re-issue of the first, with 65 plates and the 20 pp catalogue of Adams' instruments at the end. Probably intended as a manual to accompany the sale of Adams' own microscopes from his shop at "Tycho Brahe's Head in Fleet Street," the work contains six plates illustrating Adams' instruments followed by 59 plates depicting all manner of objects to be viewed beneath the lens, from spermatozoa to lice and snow. The Micrographia Illustrata (1746) broadly challenged Henry Baker's profitable monopoly on the subject of popular microscopy, but was far more richly-illustrated than Baker's The Microscope Made Easy (1743). Baker in turn attacked Adams on the grounds of plagiarism. The "Catalog of the Mathematical, Philosophical, and Optical Instruments" at the rear contains some 335 items for use in experiments concerning electricity, astronomy, geography, and physics. ESTC T53415; Poggendorff I, p 10.