Tiflis [Tiblisi], Kaukasisches Museum, 1899. 4to (30.6 x 22.4 cm). 521 pp.; 24 photographic plates with printed tissue-guards; five tissue-guarded portraits; two coloured, folded maps. Original printed boards.

A very rare work with fine photos of the museum's interior and displays. Written by the German-Russian explorer and zoologist Gustav [Ferdinand Richard] Radde (1831-1903), director of the museum, which is now known as the Kavkazskiĭ Muzeĭ. Radde explored large parts of Southern Siberia and the Caucasus region, collecting many new and rare animals and plants. With printed dedications to five members of the family of the last Czar, including their portraits in photogravure, and their autographs in facsimile. Other volumes published by the Museum deal with non-zoological subjects. Signed, and inscribed by the author to the German entomologist and naturalia dealer Otto Staudinger (1830-1900) on a printed presentation leaf, bound in in front. With on the front pastedown a pictorial bookplate of Waldemar Schwalbe, a well-known bibliophile collector. Some wear to board and spine edges, one corner of back panel gone, front hinge tender; a few tissue-guards a bit creased, but generally in very good condition. Neither in Cat. BM(NH) nor in Nissen.