David Low

David Low (1786-1859)
The Breeds of the Domestic Animals of the British Islands... Illustrated with plates, from drawings by Mr. W.Nicholson, R.S.A., reduced from a series of portraits from life, executed for the Agricultural Museum of the University of Edinburgh, by Mr. W.Shiels, R.S.A. London: [Wilson and Ogilvy] for Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longmans, [1840]-1842. 14 parts in 2 volumes bound in one, 2° (433 x 328mm). Half-titles. 56 hand-coloured lithographic plates heightened with gum arabic by Fairland after William Nicholson, after paintings by William Shiels. (Some light browning and occasional light marking, a few marginal tears, one slightly affecting text and crudely repaired, slight loss of colour on a few plates caused by adhesion of tissue guards.) Contemporary brown half morocco gilt, the spine gilt in compartments, lettered in two and with the imprint at the foot, the other compartments ornately decorated with floral and foliate tools, top edge gilt (extremities somewhat rubbed, board
FIRST EDITION, BOUND UP FROM THE PARTS. Association copy. Low's The Breeds of the Domestic Animals ... is divided into five different sections, which relate to the horse, the ox, the sheep, the goat, and the hog. Within each section, different breeds and their histories are discussed, and examples illustrated. Sir George Crewe succeeded his father Sir Henry Crewe Bt as the 8th baronet in 1819, and was MP for South Derbyshire from 1835-1843. Sir George is mentioned in the article on the Dorset Breed in the section on sheep, which describes a flock taken from the Isle of Portland to the Derby Hills by him. Below this paragraph, he has added a manuscript note describing the history of the flock during the time of his father and grandfather, and disputing Low's conclusion that the movement of the flock to the Derby Hills served 'No purpose [...] of economical utility'. BM(NH) III, p.1184; Mellon Books on The Horse and Horsemanship 168; Nissen ZBI 2564 (erroneously calling for 57 plates); W