This auction is for an original, antique print engraving which has been rescued from a damaged and disbound 1837 edition of Oliver Goldsmith's 'A History of the Earth and Animated Nature'.
Date Published: 1837 by A. Fullerton & Co., Glasgow
Print size 6 3/4 inches x 4 inches
The print has a characteristic patina and spotting with age-tanning, as expected in antique paper, but is in good condition considering it is nearly 180 years old. This plate is authentic and NOT A REPRODUCTION.
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These copper-plate engravings were cut from the first American edition of Oliver Goldsmith's An History of the Earth and Animated Nature. The first edition (in eight volumes) appeared in London in 1774. The work sought to draw together virtually all that was known about the planet earth, its plants and animals, and even its human inhabitants described from a biological perspective.
Goldsmith had intended to translate Pliny's Natural History, but after reading Buffon, he decided that "the best imitation of the ancients was to write from our own feelings and to imitate nature." Goldsmith's Animated Nature went through over twenty editions into the Victorian era and served as a popular source of information about the natural world.
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