1865. 8vo, pp. 153; with seven large folding lithograph plates (plate 1 duplicated presumably in error); some foxing throughout, a little more prominent in places, with some marginal dust and finger-soiling, with neat tear at upper corner of p. 141, some occasional further minor marginal nicks due to rough opening, faint ink stain affecting fore-edge of Plate V, with a small ink stain affecting fore-edge of a few leaves; uncut in the original yellow printed wrappers, head and tail of spine worn, spine with some cracking at head, but holding firm, covers soiled, extremities a little nicked and warn; a presentation copy from the author inscribed on the upper wrapper ‘A Monsieur Desains, Hommage respectieuse L. D’Henry’. First edition in book form, and a presentation copy, of this uncommon optical treatise on the construction of projection devices, by the Lille chemist and physics tutor at the Faculty of Sciences, Louis d’Henry. A detailed and technical treatise, it is accompanied by six large folding lithograph plates (the present copy in fact including an duplicate of Plate I). The work had first been published in the ‘Memoirs of the Imperial Society of Sciences, Agriculture and Arts of Lille. D’Henry published a number of scientific articles in the Memoirs, with further contributions on spectroscopy, mathematical symbology and notation, and on stenography.
The present copy has been inscribed by the author to Monsieur Desains. Paul Desains (1817-1885) was a physicist who taught for 32 years at the Faculty of Sciences in Paris.