The Entomologist's Useful Companion, by George Samouelle, pu...

Hammer

£140

The Entomologist's Useful Companion, by George Samouelle, pub.
Thomas Boys. 1819 First edition. 496 pp. 12 plates coloured and a
duplicate set of plates uncoloured to the rear of the book with some
mild offsetting from the coloured to the uncoloured plates. Half
leather, green cloth. Titles in gilt to the spine. Raised bands. Mild
rubbing to the exterior joints, but overall a pleasing, solid copy of this
rare work. Old ownership name to title page. Samouelle [1790-1846]
was a curator at the British Museum but seems to have had something
of a drink (or personality?) problem as he was let go in 1840.
With

Essay on the Indigenous Fossorial Hymenoptera; comprising A
description of all the British species of Burrowing Sand Wasps, W.E.
Shuckard, pub. The Author, 31 Robert Street, Chelsea sold also by
Richter and Co. 30 Soho Square. 1837. 259pp. 4 plates of insect
wings, one with outline colour. Original brown cloth with decorations
in blind. Some abrasions to the spine with loss top and bottom. Pencil
annotations and an extra two pages tipped in after the preface noted
here in pencil as being from an additional copy in West's possession. A
very scarce title.
With
British Dragonflies, W. Lucas, pub. L. Upcott Gill. 1900 First edition.
Brown cloth with black decorations and gilt highlights to the front
panel and spine. Large octavo. 356 pp including the list of subscribers.
Illustrated with coloured plates and b/w drawings. 27 coloured plates
complete. Occasional pencil annotation. A fresh copy of this classic
work.
With
Insecta, From the Cyclopaedia of Anatomy of Physiology, by George
Newport. Pub. Marchant, Printer Ingram-Court 1839. Offprint from
Robert Bentley Todd's Cyclopaedia of Anatomy of Physiology, 1839.
128pp illustrated with woodcuts. Contents page in manuscript. Green,
faded discoloured cloth with 'Newport's Insecta in gilt to the spine.
Spine cloth with abrasions, and separating from the book, though still
attached. Newport [1803-1854] was a prominent entomologist.
Presumably, this publication of the section he contributed to Todd's
Cyclopaedia, he had bound up for himself or to give away to
colleagues and friends.
With
British Vegetable Galls, An Introduction to their Study, Edward T.
Connold, pub. Hutchinson & co. 1901. Quarto. 312pp. 130
photographic plates. Green cloth boards are quite heavily mottled.
Internally good.

Includes a letter from the author, Connold asking his correspondent for
blossoms and referring to a photographic print from which 'you will
see how I propose to illustrate the work on wild fruits I am now busy
upon'. Also tipped in is an advertisement for a German work, Die
Pflanzengallen by Dr. H. Ross.
(5)

More Information

The following lots of books represent the library of George West.
West's biographical details are hard to pin down, his date of birth
unknown, (probably around the 1880's) and his death sometime after
1945. He is known to have worked as an assistant and then lecturer in
Botany at the University of Dundee from 1906. At that time the
university was a constituent college of St Andrews University. West
seems to have remained there until around 1926. In his publication
'Practical Principles of Plain Photo Micrography' (1916) he describes
himself as a lecturer in Botany. Most of the books in the sale bear the
handstamp, 'George West' to the front pastedowns. Many volumes bear
extracts from booksellers' catalogues with prices of the titles,
suggesting that West liked to keep up with the current values of his
library.
The books represent a working library and many are also
annotated in pencil in his hand, cross-referencing other works and
adding his comments. To the front of the first volume of Walker's
Diptera (see lot no.) he has inserted his handwritten poem, 'To the
Future Owners of this book'.

Geordie has now turned up his toes
And gone aloft to seek repose
From various varmints nips and stings,
Especially those base mankind brings...

.....

...He trusts the child who gets this book
Will on the various notes just look
And feel that every pencil stroke
Helps on the game dear Walker wrote...

Although a botanist by profession, his main interest, judging by
his library appears to have been entomology and amongst the books
are some rare titles in that field many dating from the nineteenth

century, a golden age for the natural sciences. Many of the giants in
the field of Entomology are represented in the books and there are

good sets of Curtis, Donovan and Stephens with many exquisite, hand-
coloured illustrations. Geology was another of his interests, as well as

microscopy.
What little is known of George West is largely gleaned from a
publication from Hereford Museum published in 2007. West had
donated a large collection of mineralogical specimens to the Museum
in 1945. His connection with Hereford, however, appears to be
tenuous and the man remains something of an enigma.