New York, NY, The American Museum of Natural History, "1912" [1913]. Three parts in three. 4to. 1,351 pp. [cxxvi, 317, xxxviii; xviii, 382, xxvi; xiv, 262, clxviii]; one full colour frontispiece by Fuertes, 27 full colour plates by Smit, Wolf, and Keulemans, 125 photographs mostly of crania. Contemporary full pebbled calf. Spines with five raised bands, gilt title and gilt floral vignettes. Boards with gilt-lined borders. Marbled endpapers. Top edges gilt.

The great classic monograph on primates by Daniel Giraud Elliot (1835-1915) with fine full colour illustrations of living animals and excellent photos of skulls and mandibles. “Elliot was one of the founders of the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the American Ornithologists' Union. He was also curator of zoology at the Field Museum in Chicago. Elliot used his wealth to publish a series of sumptuous color-plate books on birds and animals” (Wikipedia). This is his last work, published as the first of the Museum's monograph series. An exceptionally fine bound set with an interesting provenance recorded on the first blanks. Printed errata sheet between pp. 256-257 of volume III. Boards a bit rubbed, somewhat more so on the spine feet. Small marginal repair to one frontispiece, stamp erased in title page top margin, one stamp in text page margin of each volume. Light dampstain to the top margin of volume I. While this work is known to be often rather badly affected, there is hardly any foxing in the text; plates also quite clean. A very good set. Nissen ZBI, 1280; Wood, p. 332.