British Entomology is a classic work of entomology by John Curtis, FLS. It is subtitled Being Illustrations and Descriptions of the Genera of Insects found in Great Britain and Ireland: Containing Coloured Figures from Nature of the Most Rare and Beautiful Species, and in Many Instances of the Plants Upon Which they are Found.
Content
The work comprises 770 hand-coloured, copper-plate engravings, each 8 by inches (20×14 cm), together with two or more pages of text. The work was issued in monthly parts over 16 years, each part comprising three or more (usually four) plates. Plates were initially printed on James Whatman's Turkey Mill paper and then, from July 1832, on Rye Mill paper. Colouring of the standard sets was almost exclusively by Joseph Standish and family. The four proofs sets were personally coloured by Curtis
It was a masterpiece of the engraver's and colourist's art, described by Pierre André Latreille (1762–1833) (but wrongly attributed to the eminent French naturalist Georges Cuvier) as the "paragon of perfection". Close examination of a proof set of plates (see below) reveals an obsessive attention to detail. The shading of the foliage is typically achieved by multiple, finely engraved lines spaced at intervals of five or more to the millimetre. The fronds (olfactory receptors) of many moth antennae are individually coloured – as in plate 674 (left). Several beetles and flies in the proof sets have body and limb highlights picked out in minute dots and lines of powdered gold. Thoracic and abdominal hairs are mostly painted individually. Where transparent wings are shown extended the colouring involved the precise application of multiple colour washes overlaid by a satin finish, gum arabic glaze to reproduce the visual effect of iridescence.
Almost every plate includes an equally well rendered botanical element, often the dominant part of the illustration. In a footnote to the first plate, Curtis explains this as follows:
Publication, in parts, commenced January 1, 1824. The first 6 plates (comprising Part 1) and the final 4 plates were engraved by Curtis himself. Up until June 1827 other plates were mainly engraved by Robert Acton (1792-1880). Thereafter evidence suggests that Charles Edward Wagstaff (1808-1850) took on the work. In all cases Curtis retained a very tight, hands-on supervisory role to which his principal colourist, Joseph Standish (1752-1837) was subjected. It is not known who coloured the plates after the death of Joseph Standish.
The final issue of the first edition (December 1839) included comprehensive indexes to all volumes plus a newly written eight-page preface summarizing the production, costs and efforts involved. Also published at that time was a complete list of subscribers for each volume and detailed instructions for binding the work into eight volumes to generate the correct sequence of orders. Many copies were, however, bound in the original manner as sixteen volumes with the plates in numerical order. Curtis's original 778 drawings (some drawings were combined to produce a single plate, e.g. plate 703) were purchased by Lord Rothschild whose heirs, after having unsuccessfully tried to sell them in 1910, donated them to the Natural History Museum, London.
The work was unsystematically produced but each plate is dated, so this generally introduces no problems of name priority. However, confusion can arise with reprinted plates 1 to 34 (see below) where the text was rewritten, often with changes to nomenclature, yet the dates shown on the plates remained unchanged.
Aside from its noted illustrations, British Entomology is a work of taxonomy introducing many new species. This is especially true of the folios on Diptera and Hymenoptera. In his preface to the work, published in December 1839, Curtis writes: "... the articles and descriptions are my own writing; for any errors therefore I alone am accountable". However, it is clear from the dedications to the individual volumes that he had help from the likes of Alexander Henry Haliday, James Charles Dale, William Kirby and others.
Volumes If systematically bound as intended and instructed by Curtis, the resulting eight-volume set will be as follows: Volume 1 – Coleoptera (Part 1) dedicated to William Kirby and Alexander Macleay Volume 2 – Coleoptera (Part2) dedicated to William Jackson Hooker and John Stevens Henslow Volume 3 – Dermaptera, Dictyoptera, Orthoptera, Strepsiptera, Hymenoptera (Part 1) dedicated to John Lindley and Charles Lyell Volume 4 – Hymenoptera (Part 2) dedicated to Pierre André Latreille and William Sharp Macleay Volume 5 – Lepidoptera (Part 1) dedicated to James Charles Dale and Charles Daubeny Volume 6 – Lepidoptera (Part 2) dedicated to Charles A. Harris and William Spence Volume 7 – Homoptera, Hemiptera, Aphaniptera dedicated to Alexander Henry Haliday, Henry Walker and Francis Walker Volume 8 – Diptera, Omaloptera, dedicated to Henry Brown, Henry Nesbitt and the Earl of Malmesbury
Due to its relative slimness, Curtis recommended that the indexes be placed at the end of Volume VII. However, most systematic bindings have the general indexes more conventionally placed at the end of Volume VIII.
Publication history
First edition Announcement in the Somerset House Gazette, Volume I, January 1824:
The initial subscribers' list comprised 167 names, of whom 87 were committing to take the entire work even though the total size and final publication date were then unknown. Publication commenced as announced with a proposed print run of 200 copies of each part to be issued monthly over 16 years as annual volumes each of 12 parts – 192 parts in all. Each monthly part to comprise three or more, usually four, plates with accompanying text. Part 1 included 5 plates but thereafter no part exceeded four plates. By January 1839 the list of subscribers had fallen to 142. Of the original subscribers, only 31 eventually purchased all 192 first-edition parts on the day of issue and of these, three were joint-subscribers for a single set and two others each purchased two sets. Curtis's set is known to have included the later reprints of parts 1 to 8. The final subscribers' list of January 1840 shows that two complete sets were sold in December 1839 to previously unrecorded subscribers, "G. Folliott Esq., Chester (proofs)" and "Mrs Butler, Vicar's Cross". Mrs. Butler is now known to be Mary Butler (nee Dod) a relative of Folliott by marriage (aged 80 in 1840 resident of Tilston). Folliott used her name to disguise the fact that he had bought a second complete unbound set that was still within its original paper wrappers when sold via Lawrences Crewkerne auction in March 2024.
A complete, sixteen-volume, chronologically bound set was sold from Curtis's estate on 8 June 1863 (John C. Stevens, auctioneer, King Street, Covent Garden, London – Lot 54) but it is not known whether or not this exclusively comprised first-edition parts – it could be the harlequin set now with the British Entomological Society. The same sale also included an incomplete set of five volumes (Lot 55), a quantity of faulty prints (Lot 93) and a large quantity of good, loose coloured plates (Lot 95).
At most, including proofs, just 32 complete first-edition sets, free of reprints, are definitely known to have been issued.
Proof impressions
In spite of the finely detailed illustrations being more suited to steel-plate engraving, copper was used throughout. Curtis gives no clue as to why he made this choice. Copper plates are capable of extremely fine work but noticeably degrade after as few as 50 impressions and so the earlier impressions, especially the four proof sets, are of significantly higher quality and more finely detailed than those that followed.
Four complete sets of first edition, first impression proofs, personally coloured by Curtis, were produced. These were sold at a considerable premium; one to Michael Bland of Paddington, London, one to George Folliott of Vicar's Cross, Cheshire and one to James Wadmore of Chapel Street, London. The early history of the fourth proof set is uncertain.
A proof set can most easily be identified by reference to plate 717 (sycamore scale-insect - Coccus aceris), the first plate in Volume VII of a systematically bound set. The two setae of this insect are each delineated by two clearly separated, very fine lines; the left most of which is so fine as to be barely visible. Curtis significantly emboldened these lines for the standard impressions.
Reprint of Parts 1 to 8 (plates 1–34) and Parts 9 to 30
Demand from later, new subscribers required Curtis retrospectively to print at least an additional 72 sets of parts 1 to 30. This reprinting commenced in January 1829 and continued until December 1839 and was concurrent with the printing of the remaining parts 31 to 192 of the first edition which were increased in number to accommodate the additional demand.
Reprints of the plates and text of parts 1 to 8 (plates 1 to 34) can all be identified by an underscore to the plate number and in the case of plate 30, also by the addition of the systematic reference number 283. The text was comprehensively rewritten and reset with changes to nomenclature that later caused taxonomists some confusion since the dates on the accompanying plates were left unchanged. Parts 9 to 30 were reset and reprinted without material alteration except for an underscore to some of the plate numbers. The reprinted plates and many of the plates from parts 31 to 192 show evidence of the finer details having been reworked and are noticeably coarsened as a result.
Total production In December 1839 Curtis stated in the heading of the final List of Subscribers that; "It is impossible to complete the sets belonging to the Parties ... having only taken a few of the early volumes" indicating that he had ceased production of plates and parts and sold out of essential back copies. This list shows a final total output of 216 completed sets including proofs and reprints. Curtis's personal copy brings the total to 217. The list also shows that 54 partial sets were issued. To these figures should be added an unknown quantity of individual parts and plates sold separately. Therefore, total production was in excess of 210,000 plates, most of which were coloured. A monumental undertaking requiring an average output of over 40 fully finished plates and associated text every working day for 16 years.
Original costs and prices As a footnote to the preface issued with the final part in December 1839, John Curtis wrote: "To enable those who are ignorant of the nature of such undertakings, to form some conception of their risk and magnitude, it may be here stated, that the colouring alone of the Plates has already cost upwards of £3000", equivalent to £350,000 today (2026, Bank of England Sterling Index). Those subscribing for all 192 coloured parts were committing to a total purchase price of £43.4s.0d. Each of the 16 chronologically arranged but unbound volumes was available in 1840 at a price of £2.14s.0d.. The price for Volume 1 was later uncreased to £2.17s 0d.
Lovell Reeve Edition In 1862, Lovell Reeve published a partial reprint of the text and plates, the full details of which are now unknown except that all the plates were hand-coloured, lithographic copies easily identifiable today by their inferior quality with the dissection line drawings enlarged and randomly relocated. Plates and text from this reprint can sometime be found making up what would otherwise be an incomplete original set (see below). This edition was promoted in North America where Curtis had made no attempt to sell the original work.
Contemporary reviews
From: The Entomological Magazine, Volume I, 1832. Page 29.