A History of the Earth and Animated Nature. GOLDSMITH (Oliver).

Eight volumes bound into four.

Ninety-eight engraved plates including frontispiece, a few with early hand colouring.

8vo. [220 x 137 x 203 mm]. Contemporary Irish binding in full tree calf, smooth spines divided into six panels by a mixture of gilt fillets and gilt rolls, lettered in gilt in the second panel on a red goatskin label, numbered in gilt in the fifth on a green goatskin label, plain endleaves. (Corners bumped, slight wear to hinges, partial loss to headcap of volume three).
Dublin: J. Christie, 1812-1814.

The odd trivial foxing but otherwise clean, all engraved plates accompanied by tissue guards, overall a very handsome set indeed. Small ownership inscription located on the front paste down of the first volume belonging to one W. Maryon.

Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774), an Anglo-Irish poet, novelist and playwright was regarded among the most versatile of the Georgian era writers and is particularly remembered for his only novel, The Vicar of Wakefield (1766). His work: A History of the Earth and Animated Nature was first published in 1774 in eight volumes, it brought together a history of the Earth as well as brief descriptions of the species of animals.

Stock no. ebc8932