Paris, Delarue, ca. 1825. Six parts in three. Small square quarto (12.5 x 10.3 cm). Six title pages, 864 pp. [5-148; 5-148; 5-148; 5-148; 5-147; 5-147]; 84 engraved plates [12; 17; 12; 11; 16; 16]. Uniform contemporary speckled full calf. Spines with gilt ornamental bands and red and green morocco labels. Marbled endpapers.

An attractively bound set of an utterly rare - near unrecorded - illustrated work by the French writer, printer and publisher Simon-François Blocquel (1780-1863), who used "Buqcellos" as nom de plume and who was active in Lille. The present edition, however, was published in Paris, as were some other books written by Buqcellos. This must be one of his rarest works. We found no other copies on the internet, nor any auction record. Huguet lists many titles, e.g., a Buffon edition, and a botanical work, also directed at young people, but the present title is not mentioned. Provenance: the name T. E. D. Borée in gilt on each spine foot; pictorial bookplate of the Swiss zoologist Christian Sigrist mounted on front or rear pastedown. Some, rather light, rubbing to the boards; scattered, mostly mild foxing, stronger on a few leaves, otherwise very good indeed. Huguet, F. (1997). Les livres pour l'enfance et la jeunesse de Gutenberg a Guizot, p. 375 (not included). Neither in Nissen, nor in any other major bibliography.