May 01, 2014 - Sale 2348
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Sale 2348 - Lot 250

Price Realized: $ 3,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
LEEUWENHOEK, ANTHONY VAN. [Works, in Dutch.] Group of 15 volumes bound in 4. 90 (of 92) plates, including 2 frontispieces; lacking 2 portraits. 4to, 190-192x146-151 mm, contemporary vellum boards; occasional toning in first 2 volumes. Signatures of the Rotterdam physician Jan van der Hoeven (1801-68) and his son and grandson of the same name (1834-1900 and 1863-1941), both surgeons; armorial bookplates of the grandson. Leiden & Delft, 1684-1718
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first editions of Leeuwenhoek's letters to the Royal Society describing his groundbreaking microscopic observations. "His most important contributions were made in the fields of microbiology, sexual reproduction, hematology, and plant anatomy. He was the first to recognize the true nature of microorganisms" (Norman). During his lifetime Leeuwenhoek published 165 letters, individually or in collections, in arabic- and roman-numbered series; this set contains 140, lacking only the arabic-numbered letters 38 and 84-107. Dobell 1-10, 12, 13, 14, 18, 19. This copy of Dobell 5 lacks the first 12 leaves containing the title and letter 38, and the copies of Dobell 10 and 12 each lack the portrait.