Lot 767: FERGUSON, JAMES (1710-1776).

Tables and tracts, relative to several arts and sciences. The second edition, with additions. London: W. Strahan, J. and F. Rivington, W. Johnston, T. Longman, and T. Cadell, 1771

Condition Note: 8vo (215 x 125mm.), xv, [1 (blank)], 334, [2]pp., illustration : 3 folding engraved plates, binding : contemporary sprinkled calf, spine gilt in compartments, red morocco lettering-piece

eighteenth-century bookplate with Macclesfield arms and the wording "Militar. Collection of the Hon. Lt. Gen.l G.L. Parker"

Ferguson was a skilled maker of clocks and planispheres who became a successful lecturer in astronomy, giving lecture tours all over Britain. He was elected to the Royal Society in 1763 and was "populariser in residence" to the court of George III. His scientific writings lacked innovation but he presented information in a comprehensible fashion.