Voyage de M. le baron Maurice de Rothschild en Éthiopie et en Afrique orientale anglaise (1904-1905). Resultats scientifiques. Animaux articulés [.].

Folio (ca. 280 x 365 mm). 3 vols. XVII, (3), 482 pp. (2), 483-1041, (2) pp. With 2 folding maps and illlustrations in the text. Vol. III (atlas): half-title and 100 engraved plates, 84 of which in original hand colour, with descriptions. Original printed wrappers; vol. III in contemporary half cloth. Stored in decorative full cloth slipcases. First edition. Signed presentation copy, inscribed by the author to the entomologist and carcinologist Eugène Louis Bouvier (1856-1944), who wrote the introduction to this elaborate entomological work: "A Monsieur le Professeur Bouvier, à qui je dois toute ma reconnaissance pour avoir mené à bonne fin cet important ouvrage faisant le plus grand honneur à sa haut compétence et à son grand dévouement à la sciene [.]". - Between the years of 1904 and 1905 Maurice de Rothschild (1881-1957) led and financed a collecting expedition in East Africa, travelling from Djibouti, across Eritrea to Ethiopia and Kenya. The collected specimens were presented to the Paris Natural History Museum. A large number of entomologists, including Charles Rothschild (1877-1923), worked on the specimens, their descriptions - some in Latin - being published in the first two volumes. A total of 68 specimens were named 'rothschildi', although not all of them are today known by this name. The third volume, containing exquisite colour illustrations of the insects, occupied a similarly large number of artists. - Uncut. Bindings somewhat worn; interior crisp and clean. A very well preserved copy of this elaborate work. Rare: a single copy in auction records. - BM (NH) VIII, 1096. Not in Nissen or Pankhurst.