Paris, Société Entomologique de France, and J. B. Baillière, 1859. Folio (43.5 x 30.2 cm). Half-title, letterpress title, 132 pp.; allegorical engraved frontispiece in double-suite (plain and in meticulous original hand-colouring), 13 engraved plates of which 11 in double-suite: plain (one partly printed in colour) and superbly hand-coloured, for a total of 24 plates. Contemporary full burgundy morocco. Spine with five raised, gilt-lined bands, compartments with rich gilt floral vignettes and borders, and gilt title. Front board with two triple-lined gilt borders and gilt coat of arms; rear board with large, gilt coleopteral vignette. Marbled endpapers. All edges gilt.

Rare and impressive publication (this copy in a double suite never seen before) in a very nice contemporary binding, with very broad margins, and fine illustrations mainly of Coleoptera, all drawn and beautifully painted by Nicolet and Lebrun. The very beautifully engraved frontispiece shows a wonderful selection of wild animals. The work should perhaps be regarded as the first and only volume of a periodical edited by the entomologist James Thomson (1828-1897), as it contains the following different subjects: the monographs of Thomson, Essai synoptique sur la sous-tribu des Scarabaeitae vrais and Insectes de la region du Nil Blanc et deux curculionides (Thomson wrote his original entomological publications in French); Nicolet's, Mémoire sur les amibes a corps nu; Buquet on Un enre nouveau des coleoptères; Chevrolat's, Plusieurs espèces de Rhopalophora, and Essai monographique sur le genre Rhopalophora, one essay titled Description d'une espèce nouvelle d'oiseau (Cyrtonix sallei from Mexico) by Jules Verreaux, with one beautiful hand-coloured engraving by Oudart, and several other papers, mainly on Coleoptera as well. Provenance: front board coat of arms with crosslets and lions passant, and bars and birds (unidentified); and Bibliothèque S. J. Les Fontaines in Chantilly (their small stamp on the letterpress title). Slight age-wear to the boards; front upper outer corner a bit bumped; some light foxing, here and there, otherwise a fine copy. Horn-Schenkling, 22056; Nissen ZBI, 4119.