Hewitson’s Illustrations of new species of exotic butterflies – 5 Volumes with 300 Lithographs

These five volume with 300 attractive butterfly lithographs is from William C. Hewitson’s Illustrations of new species of exotic butterflies, selected chiefly from the collections of W. Wilson Saunders and William C. Hewitson. The work was published in London by J. van Voorst between 1851 and 1876. Each lithograph features original hand-finished coloring. This is an exceptionally rare work on exotic butterflies with only 35 copies subscribed.

William C. Hewitson (1806-1878) gathered an en enormous collection of butterflies. His collection is considered to have been the largest in the world. This publication was by far his finest offering of illustrations. Each drawing was completed by Hewitson and then lithographed by Hullmandel.