Paris, Baillière, 1853-1857. Five parts in five. 8vo (four text parts; 20.7 x 12.7 cm) and 4to (atlas; 30.7 x 23.5 cm). 2742 pp. [I: xiv, 584; II: 727; III: 654; IV: xvi, 768; Atlas; 77]; 110 fine lithographed plates. contemporary uniform pebbled half morocco over marbled boards. Spines with gilt-bordered bands, and gilt title. Marbled endpapers. Speckled edges.

This is the revised and expanded second edition. A rare set with a complete atlas and all four text volumes. "Pictet treated palaeontology as an essential part of the studies of zoology, comparative anatomy and botany. He confined himself in his treatise to fossil animals and adhered a strict systematic order throughout his work, constantly keeping in view the characteristics of the corresponding living forms. At the same time the geological occurrence of the fossils is nowhere omitted" (Zittel). The quality of the engravings, by Lackenbauer, is superb. Many plates depict extinct molluscs (40 plates), fish, reptiles, and mammals. Bookplate of the Seattle Public Library on all front pastedowns. The library name in gilt on front left margins. Library stamp of the same on each title page, last text leaves, and occasionally elsewhere, including one in the first plate, and the lower margin of the last two plates. Perforated stamp on last text leaf of the atlas only. Some foxing, principally to the titles, much less so in the text and to several plates, however mostly only in the margins. Most plates clean. In all a good set. Nissen ZBI, 3176a; Ward and Carozzi, 1778; Zittel, Geschichte der Geologie und Palaeontologie, p. 778.