£50
16mo, pp. 140, [6, ads] + colour frontispiece and 4 leaves of coloured plates. Original colour-printed boards. A touch of toning, one plate loose. Lacking spine panel, binding rubbed and worn to extremities. Printed bookplate of Anne Renier and F.G. Renier to half-title, different ownership inscription to title-page.
An ephemeral yellow-back style early printing of this book on seaweeds by travel and science writer Louisa Lane Clarke (1812-1883). Shortly before its original publication Clarke moved to Guernsey with her daughter following her husband's death. The five plates illustrate ten types of seaweed, and after an introduction and list of British seaweeds, Clarke divides her chapters into 'the half-tide pool', 'low-water mark', 'the lowest-tide pool', and 'after a storm', concluding with 'what to do with our seaweeds', where she offers some basic instruction on collecting and examining specimens.
Copies in institutions have either five or ten plates, but as no scans reveal a plate list, and the title-page makes no declarations about the number of plates, there were likely cheaper variants like this one issued with fewer illustrations. This printing can be dated roughly to 1870 based on the titles advertised on the rear pastedown from Frederick Warne's 'Choice Fiction for Young Ladies'.
This copy belonged to book-collectors Anne and Fernand Renier, whose collection of around 80,000 childrens books was donated to the V&A.
