Buckley, Arabella (Mrs. Fisher); Muckley, Angelo Fairfax (Illust.)

Eyes and No Eyes [Relfe Brothers Binding]

London: Cassell and Company, Limited, circa 1905.

Leather_bound. This gentle, walk-through introduction to natural history is the work of Arabella Burton Buckley (1840-1929), who at the age of twenty-four started her eleven-year tenure as secretary to influential geologist Charles Lyell and who after his death became a science educator in her own right, lecturing, editing such prominent scientific treatises as Mary Somerville's Connexion of the Physical Sciences (1877) and Heinrich Leutemann's Animals from Life (1887), and writing imaginative introductory science books like The Fairy-Land of Science, Life and Her Children, Winners in Life's Race, and Through Magic Glasses.

The title Eyes and No Eyes for this collection of six short textbooks, here finely bound as one in full gilt-embellished leather by the Relfe Brothers, centers the idea that those who actively look for the wonders of nature will find them in abundance, the phrase taken from a story of the same title in John Aikin and Anna Laetitia Barbauld's Evenings at Home, which also combined science with imaginative narratives for children. Each book ranges from 48-80 pages and takes the reader on a walk-through lesson with three friends through the British countryside: observant Peter who sees most things in the hedges, gamekeeper's daughter Peggy who knows each bird by name, and big farm boy Paul who aspires to become a teacher. These entertaining and educational lessons are accompanied by 48 full-page full-color illustrations, all present and accounted for, and even more numerous vignettes by Angelo Fairfax Muckley (1861-1920).

In "Wild Life in Woods and Fields," explore information about squirrels, skylarks, mice, bees, moles, and other denizens of forest and pasture. Encounter frogs, dragonflies, kingfishers, otters, water-flowers, and other water-dwelling animals and insects in "By Pond and River." In "Plant Life in Field and Garden," unearth information about seeds, beneficial insects, vegetables, wild and garden flowers, and more. Allow your knowledge of birds to take flight in "Birds of the Air," where you'll learn about birdsong, nests and eggs and hatchlings, migration, birds of prey, web-footed birds, bird enemies, and more. Grow your knowledge of "Trees and Shrubs" to new heights, learning about tree growth, Oak, Beech, Sweet Chestnut, Ash, Elm, Conifers, leaf shape, and more. And in "Insect Life" transform your understanding of caterpillars, moths, and butterflies, beetles, wasps, bees, flies, crickets, grasshoppers, ants, and more.

6 5/8" X 5". iv, 5-48pp, 48pp, 80pp, 80pp, 80pp, 80pp. Finely bound by Relfe Brothers, Limited with their stamp in red to top edge of verso of front free endpaper. Bound in deep brown Morocco, boards ruled in blind, with spine lettered in gilt and decorated in five gilt-stamped floral compartments, with raised bands decorated in gilt and inner gilt dentelles. All edges gilt. Marbled endpapers. Prize inscription to flyleaf: Lunningdale School. D. Allhusen. Prize for Drawing, (2nd Division). July 1906. FL Crabtree D. N Smith." A faint spot of foxing or two to flyleaves only. Two open tears to gutter of Birds of the Air section title page. Binding is firm, tight, and sound. Pages are clean and unmarked. Illustrated in 48 full-page color illustrations and vignettes by Angelo Fairfax Muckley. Very good +. Item #10380

Price: $375.00