Entomology in Sport, and Entomology in Earnest.

London: Paul Jerrard & Son,, [1859]. A sisterly collaboration by "two lovers of the science" First edition of this beautifully produced example of Victorian science popularization, designed to inspire young readers' interest in natural history. The first part - "in Sport" - comprises a light-hearted poem studded with charming hand-coloured engraved vignettes and historiated initials; the second - "in Earnest" - provides a more serious pedagogic dialogue on the subject. Entomology is the third book by the Irish microscopist Mary Ward (1827-1869), following her successful Sketches with the Microscope (1857) and Telescope Teachings (1859). It is her first collaborative work, written with her sister Lady Jane Mahon (1827-1895) and dedicated to their mother. The sisters benefited from a broad education and their parents' particular encouragement of scientific pursuits. Gifted a microscope by her father when she was 18, Ward "took a keen interest in natural history and astronomy from childhood. Her enthusiasm led to serious study and she produced microscope slides and skilled and accurate illustrations, both for her own work and for others. Ward put on exhibitions for her family and friends and hand-printed her own booklets" (Matthews). The skilled miniature illustrations in Entomology include "Insect Dancers" circling a plant maypole, to-scale microscopic details such as "part of the wing of the gamma moth (magnified)" (p. 10), and scenes like "The Entomologist's Table", the workspace cluttered with the paints and tools necessary for illustrating a book (p. 18). Its distinctive gilt-blocked binding is featured on page 43 of Ruari McLean's Victorian Publishers' Book-Bindings (1983), that example from the Fianach Lawry Collection. Little is known of Jane Mahon's work beyond her participation in this project, but Ward continued to publish to great acclaim. "She takes her place among the popularizers of science who, during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, did much to encourage a knowledge of, and interest in, the natural world among the general public, and thus to stimulate the advances in science and technology that marked the industrial revolution" (ODNB). At the request of Sir William Rowan Hamilton, she was one of three women given special dispensation to receive the Royal Astronomical Society's Monthly Notices, the others on the mailing list being Mary Somerville and Queen Victoria. Ward's promising career was cut short at age 42 after being thrown from a steam-powered automobile invented by the sons of her cousin William Parsons, third Earl of Rosse. Parsons keenly encouraged Ward's interest in microscopy; she was 17 when he built the telescope known as the "Leviathan of Parsonstown" at Birr Castle, which remained the world's largest telescope (in terms of aperture size) until the early 20th century. Provenance: the distinguished antiquarian bookseller and collector Robin de Beaumont (1926-2023), a leading expert in Victorian decorative cloth bindings, with his bookplate. Small quarto. Engraved title page, additional hand-coloured lithographic title page and frontispiece, dedication set within laurel leaf and ribbon border, 33 small engravings and historiated initials within text, all finely hand-coloured. Original blue bead-grain pictorial cloth, spine lettered in gilt, elaborate insect and ribbon design stamped in gilt to front cover and in blind to rear cover, gilt edges. Extremities and rear cover lightly rubbed, spine faded, expertly recased to repair spine ends and renew endpapers, gilt bright, contents evenly toned and generally clean bar a handful of marks: a very good copy. Clare Matthews, "Microscopy in Print: Books from the Collection of Gerard L'Estrange Turner", Whipple Library online exhibition, University of Cambridge, 2015, accessible online.