Lot 216: WIRSING, Adam Ludwig (1733-1797). Marmora et adfines aliquos lapides... Abildungen der Marmor-Arten und einiger verwandten Steine. Nuremberg: 1775.

4o (295 x 209mm). Text in Latin and German. 73 hand-coloured, numbered engraved plates by Wirsing (of 98), all depicting cross-sections of marble. Collation: A-I 2 K 1 L-N 2 O 1 P-S 2 T 1 V-Y 2 Z 1, 84 pages. (A few text leaves browned.) Green morocco gilt by C. Smith, covers with curvilinear border of tendrils and pendant flowers, spine compartments lettered and dated, triple fillet turn-ins, gilt edges. First edition, followed a year later by Christiaan Sepp's polyglot edition (Amsterdam, 1776). An engraver, limner and art dealer, Wirsing took considerable care over the production of this scarce work, grouping the marble cross-sections into 12 geographical regions and achieving the similitude of marble by remarkable hand-colouring effects (also applied to his equally ambitious work on birds' eggs). This copy lacks the last section of 21 plates on Italy, and 4 supplementary plates, which were issued without text. Brunet V, 1465, citing two incomplete copies; cf. Landwehr, Studies in Dutch Books with Coloured Plates, 1.