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Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 2,000
BOND, GEORGE PHILLIPS. Account of the Great Comet of 1858. 41 plates numbered 1-51 comprising 31 aquatints on pale blue paper, 9 line engravings, 4 of them folding, and one folding lithograph. xx, 372 pages. 4to, 303x253 mm, original purple cloth, spine lightly faded and discolored, ends rubbed, cover corners worn, short crack at bottom of front joint, front hinge partly cracked; endpapers heavily foxed, minor marginal foxing on some aquatint plates, short clean tear in third folding engraved plate, contents otherwise clean. Cambridge: Welch, Bigelow, and Company, 1862
first edition. Annals of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College, Volume 3. Known for his important early work in astronomical photography, George Phillips Bond (1825-65) was the second director of the Harvard Observatory, succeeding his father William Cranch Bond upon the latter's death in 1859. "Bond's . . . comprehensive and handsomely illustrated monograph on Donati's Comet of 1858 . . . won widespread acclaim and in 1865 brought him the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, the first ever awarded to an American"--DSB II, 284.inscribed by bond: "Amos A. Lawrence, from the Observatory of Harvard College. With the Respects of the Author." With an additional signed inscription from Lawrence dated 1863 presenting this copy to Alvan Clark. Lawrence (1814-86) was a prominent abolitionist who was treasurer of Harvard College when he received the book from Bond; Clark (1804-87) was a noted astronomer and telescope maker.
