Leyden [Leiden], Honkoop and Du Mortier, 1793-1800. Three volumes in three. 8vo (18.9 x 11.6 cm). Three title pages, in double suite, with hand-coloured and plain engraved vignette, 1180 pp. [I (1793) vi, 363; II (1796) iv, 363; III (1800) iv, 440] pp.; 54 [20; 16; 18 (including two large, double-folded] engraved plates, of which half finely hand-coloured. Uniform contemporary polished half calf over marbled boards. Spines with one red and one green morocco labels with gilt title and volume number.

Extremely rare hand-coloured copy of this very well-illustrated work on mammals (the title translates as "Concise Natural History of Mammals"), written by the Dutch politician, writer, playwright, translator, and zoologist Jan David Pasteur (1753-1804). The title page shows two cherubim teasing a lion. The author entered Leiden University at the age of 13. He translated several natural history and travel books into Dutch, including James Cook's A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, Levaillant's Voyage dans l'Intérieur de l'Afrique, par le Cap de Bonne-Espérance, and Faujas de Saint Fond's Histoire naturelle de la montagne de Saint-Pierre de Maestricht. In the present original work, Pasteur used the Linnaean system and is quite accurate in his descriptions and illustrations. The plates show over 140 mammals, including the orangutan, the quagga, and the Bolognese dog. A large plate of a stranded sperm whale is spectacular. Provenance: written in an old hand in the top margin of the front free endpaper recto is the private owner's name: "J. D. Viruly Pzn", i.e. Jan Dionisius Viruly - or Virulij (1816-1895), a Remonstrant, freemason and landowner who lived in Delft. There is only one auction record in the last 35 years. We could only trace three copies in Dutch libraries (cf. Landwehr), not all of them hand-coloured, and none in double-suite. Landwehr, 156. Neither in the Cat. BM(NH), nor in Nissen ZBI, nor in Casey Wood