The Macrolepidoptera of the World … Division II: ... Vol.9 … The Indo-Australian Rhopalocera with 177 plates. Text [… Plates].

Professor Adalbert SEITZ (1860-1938, editor)

The Macrolepidoptera of the World … Division II: Exotic Fauna … Vol.9 … The Indo-Australian Rhopalocera with 177 plates. Text [… Plates].

Stuttgart: Alfred Kernan, 1927. Vol. 9 only, bound in two volumes, large quarto (12 5/8 x 9 ½ inches). Text: [I-]VIII;] 1-1197; [i-iii]. Plates: [I-]VI; [i-ii] + 177 coloured lithographed plates (numbered 1 – 146, 146B, 147-150, 150B, 151-175), by Werner & Winter of Frankfurt and others, some heightened with metallic inks where appropriate.

Original brown half leather over green cloth-covered boards, spines gilt

Condition: text vol. with creasing to first two leaves, plate vol. with small tear to one title leaf, slight marginal age-toning to plates but still very beautiful (see images), otherwise attractive; bindings with extremities rubbed, some damage to spine labels (see images)

A significant portion of probably the greatest 20th-century work on Lepidoptera. This section, arguably, describes and pictures the most beautiful butterflies in the world. The text is one volume, the plates in a second.

"Adalbert Seitz full name Friedrich Joseph Adalbert Seitz (24 February 1860 in Mainz – 5 March 1938 in Darmstadt) was a German entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera.

Early in his career he studied butterflies in Brazil, and was later a Director of the Frankfurt Zoo.

He was the editor of Die Gross-Schmetterlinge der Erde (The Macrolepidoptera of the World). This is a sixteen volume work with four supplements published in German, French, and English. For details see Griffin, F. J. (1936). The first four volumes describe the Palaearctic fauna and volumes 5–16 describe the exotic Fauna (Volumes 1–4, Palaearctic Fauna, with 4 supplements;Volumes 5–8, American Fauna; Volumes 9–12, Indo-Australian Fauna; Volumes 13–16, African Fauna). The coloured plates were made by 10–14 colour lithography. Seitz planned to finish the whole work in 1912, but this proved to be quite unrealistic and publication stopped in 1954. Several volumes remain unfinished." (Wikipedia)