Barba, Alvaro Alonso | Collected edition of important treatises on mini metallurgy

Barba, Alvaro Alonso

 [Arte de los metales]. A Collection of Scarce and Valuable Treatises upon Metals, Mines and Minerals. In Four Parts. London: C. Jephson for Oliver Payne, 1738

8vo (168 x 97 mm). One engraved plate, one woodcut in text. Contemporary English speckled calf; joints restored, light wear.

Collected edition of these important treatises on mini metallurgy, incorporating the third edition in English of Barba's The Art of Metals, Gabriel Plattes' A Discovery of Subterranean Treasure, and the sixth edition of Thomas Houghton's Rara Avis in Terris, or the Complet Miner. The rarity of the original editions and the lack of works on the subject prompted their reprinting in a collected edition.

REFERENCES

Ferguson I, p.170 (second edition of 1740); Hoover 225; Sabin 63360

PROVENANCE

Lowther Library, Hugh Cecil, Earl of Lonsdale (bookplate; Sotheby's London, 12 July 1937, lot 208, part lot)