[NATURAL HISTORY]. MILLER, John (1715-ca 1792). An Illustration of the Sexual System of Linnaeus. London, Published & Sold at the Author's House, 1779.

2 volumes, 8vo (225 x 133 mm). Engraved allegorical frontispiece in vol.1, 190 hand-colored engraved plates (some hand-colored in part). (Some light browning to plates, some spotting to text.) Contemporary black straight-grain morocco, single gilt fillet frame at outer edge of covers, spines separated into 6 compartments by single gilt fillets, gilt-lettering in 2, all edges gilt (joints and fore-corners touched up, recased). Provenance: H. Asselin Libraire (Paris booksellers' ticket); early manuscript note in French tipped to front pastedown describing the plates).

FIRST OCTAVO EDITION. John Miller, born as Johann Sebastian Müller in Nuremberg, came to England in 1744 where he lived and worked until his death in 1790. An Illustration of the Sexual System of Linnaeus was published in twenty folio parts from 1770 to 1777, with plates issued as completed from 1770 onward. Miller sent some of his plates to Linnaeus, who was greatly impressed, and replied to Miller that his "plates were more beautiful and accurate than any seen since the beginning of the world." Dunthorne 207; Henrey 1155; Nissen BBI 1374; Soulsby 669.

Property from the Estate of Peter Fortsas