Rare Book & Collectors' Sale 1st & 2nd October 2025

79 Fonsie Mealy’s Est. 1934 690. With Attractive Hand Coloured Plates [Natural History] Donovan (Edward) The Natural History of British Birds; or a Selection of the Most Rare, Beautiful and Interesting Birds which Inhabit this Country, 10 vols. (in 5), L. (F. & C. Rivington) 1794-1819, 244 hand coloured plts. (complete), recent hf. calf marbled boards mor. labels and bird motifs. Good clean set. (5) Lit [Nissen IVB 257] €3000 - €4000 688. Scarce Newton Masterpiece Newton (Sir Isaac) Opticks: or, A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections and Colours of Light, First 8vo Edition. L. (W. and J. Innys) 1718, [Second], double rule t.p., 1 text illus. and 12 folding engraved plates (complete), woodcut decoration, contemporary full panelled calf. (restored). Scarce. (1) Note: [The mathematical tracts were omitted “as not belonging to the subject”, and the number of queries at the end of Book Three increased from 16 to 31, including the celebrated query no. 28 on the Nature of Light (“Are not all Hypotheses erroneous which have been invented for explaining the Phenomena of Light, by new Modification of the Rays?”) [Babson 134; Wallis 176] €3000 - €4000