Description

Bruxelles, F. Hayez (Musée royal d'Histoire Naturelle de Belgique), 1885. Oblong imperial folio (39.2 x 57.0 cm), half-title, title page, 30 engraved plates. Uniform original printed boards. = This atlas, complete for the genus Plesiocetus, forms part of a larger work on fossil whales from the Northsea Basin written by the Belgian palaeontologist, marine biologist, mammalogist and Cetacea specialist Pierre-Joseph Van Beneden (1809-1894), and consisting of five text volumes and atlasses in total. The text is not present. Some plates are double-sized and truly magnificent. Published in the museum's Annales, this part being Tome IX (planches). Scattered, mostly very light foxing, mainly to the explanatory leaves, somewhat stronger on the title pages, the plate much cleaner. Rare in any state. Nissen ZBI, 308.