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Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
CHESELDEN, WILLIAM. Osteographia; or, The Anatomy of the Bones. 2 series of 56 engraved plates each, the first series with letterpress text on verso. [27] (of [28]) preliminary leaves, including engraved title with royal arms on verso, engraved dedication, 10 full-page illustrations and 20 vignettes of animal skeletons; lacks the frontispiece. Vignettes on title and verso of last plate in first series printed in sepia. One volume bound in 2, with duplicate engraved title printed entirely in black inserted before the second series of plates. Folio, 482x326 mm, modern 1/4 black morocco gilt with red morocco lettering pieces; contents washed with occasional light residual toning and soiling, horizontal slit across several preliminary leaves repaired not impairing legibility, dampstaining and minor restoration in blank upper outer corners of the second series of plates, scattered minor stains and marginal repairs on a few plates. London, 1733
First edition, limited to 400 copies. "The most famous and among the most artistically interesting osteological atlases ever produced . . . The great accuracy of the large plates of adult, fetal, and pathological bones lies both in Cheselden's innovative use of the camera obscura, which he was the first to employ for the purpose of book illustration, and in his intervention in the drawing and engraving processes"--Norman 466. Choulant-Frank, page 261; Garrison-Morton 395; Russell (1963) 172.
