"Manual of Instruction to the Amateur in Collecting, Preserving, and Setting Up Natural History Specimens of All Kinds". This Second Edition adds not only considerable additional content, including a chapter on taxidermy presentation in museum settings, but several further woodcuts and, most notably, four plates of animal illustrations. Browne seemingly leaves no stone unturned, beginning with a chapter on the history, rise, and progress of taxidermy, starting with the ancient Egyptians, continuing onward to a chapter on decoying and trapping animals before launching into the fine details of tools, preservatives, skinning and preserving, modelling by way of clay, plaster, and wax, dressing and softening furs, cleaning skins, colouring and restoring, presentation--complete with "fitting-up" of botanical specimens for a natural effect, and museum arrangement.
All fascinatingly illustrated throughout in frontispiece and three plates of animals in various states, near sixty figures, most frequently of the taxidermist's instruments, and fold-out plate, "Projected Plan of Arrangement of Vertebrates in the Zoological Room, Leicester Town Museum," of which Montagu Brown was curator.
8vo (Crown). Green cloth hardcover, with heraldic motif of woodland creatures stamped. Beautifully gilt typography and design. Slight wear to edges of cover and spine, tip of one corner missing. Handwriting of previous owner on pasteboard and flyleaf - "Thomas Cairns, 2A Corn St., Glasgow". Pages clean and bright, binding tight. Overall a very good and beautifully designed copy of this scarce book.
