BOUCHER DE PERTHES (Jacques). Celtic and Antediluvian Antiqu - Lot 7

BOUCHER DE PERTHES (Jacques). Celtic and Antediluvian Antiquities. A Treatise on Primitive Industry and the Arts at Their Origins. Paris, Treuttel and Wurtz, Derache, Dumoulin, Victor Didron, 1847, 1857, and 1864. 3 volumes, in-8, 15.5 x 23.5 cm, 2 folios, XII + 628 pp., 80 plates & 2 folios, XVI + 512 pp., 24 plates (numbered 26) & 2 folios, XXIV + 682 pp., 1 folio [between pp. 178 and 179], 10 plates (numbered 12; the first 2 plates are included in the pagination), contemporary binding in green half-calf, spine decorated with gilt faux-ribs, title labels. First edition of this major work on the history of archaeology in France, by one of the founders of prehistory as a historical discipline. Illustrated with 116 plates of artifacts (not 118; two plates bear two numbers), lithographed by Vitoux in Abbeville. A fine copy. A copy inscribed by the author to the geologist and archaeologist Jules Desnoyers (1800–1887) of Nogent-le-Rotrou, a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres and librarian at the National Museum of Natural History. He coined the term “Quaternary.” With his handwritten signature on the half-title page of the first volume. From the natural history library of Gilbert Dufaux (ex-libris, embossed stamp on the title pages and p. 39). Small tear at the top edge of the first volume. Printing and the Mind of Man, no. 325.— In French in the text, no. 266. Expert: Cédric and Ithier de FOUGEROLLE