ZOOLOGY - Ichthyology - Cuvier, George and Achille Valenciennes. Histoire naturelle des poissons. 22 parts in 11 volumes. With 657 (mostly coloured) steel engravings on 622 plates. Paris and Strasbourg, F. G. Levrault (later: Pitois-Levrault; Pitois; P. Bertrand), Brussels, Librairie parisienne, 1828-1849. 4°. Half leather with gilt-stamped spine title and volume number (edges and corners slightly rubbed and bumped). Nissen ZBI 1017 & Fischbücher 46 - Cat. BM(NH), p. 411 - Dean, Fishes I, p. 287 - Rare edition of the important fish iconography of the 19th century. The octavo edition is more common. - "Nearly all that was known about fishes during the first half of the nineteenth century was summarised by Georges Léopold Chrétien Frédéric Dagobert Cuvier (1769-1832), and his pupil and successor, Achille Valenciennes (1794-1865), in the monumental 'Histoire Naturelle des Poissons'. ... (It) contains descriptions of 4,514 nominal species, the greater portion, approximately two-thirds, written by Valenciennes after the death of Cuvier in 1832" (T. W. Pietsch in Archives of Natural History, vol. 12). - Foxing and browning, heavier in places. - Provenance: From the estate of the English cricketer George Savile Foljambe (1856-1920) with his engraved bookplate.