Entretiens sur la minéralogie d'apres la méthode du célèbre Haüy.

Paris, Boulland, 1825. 8vo (16.8 x 10.1 cm). viii, 528 pp.; one engraved portrait (of Haüy), 12 folded engraved plates, of which one finely hand-coloured, several tables. Contemporary half calf over marbled boards. Spine with gilt and blind-stamped vignettes and bands, and black morocco label with gilt title. Edges yellow. = This well-illustrated work introduces the mineralogical system of Haüy to a broader public. The author, Ambroise Tardieu (1788-1841) was a French mineralogist, cartographer and engraver. His son, Auguste Ambroise Tardieu (1818-1879), was also an artist and a pioneering forensic medical scholar. This work has been written in the form of a dialogue between 'Mme de Beaumont', 'Gustave' and 'Caroline', and treats all kinds of minerals in 16 chapters. This Mme de Beaumont may well be based on an actual person, but not the wife of the famous geologist Jean-Baptiste Armand Louis Léonce Élie de Beaumont (1798-1874), as he was single until, in 1859, he married the poet Thérèse Marie Augusta Quélen (1806-1866). The title page states that there are 23 plates, but that is an error. The 12th plate says: "Pl. XII et dernière". The plates mainly show crystal forms, two plates include tools, and one shows minerals. This plate is in fine, contemporary colouring, which seems to be highly unusual. Old, private owner's inscriptions on the front paste-down, and on the front free endpaper, boards somewhat rubbed, otherwise a very good copy. Not in Ward and Carozzi.