A Natural History of the Crinoidea, Lily-Shaped Animals; with Observations on the Genera, Asteria, Euryale, Comatula & Marsupites, Illustrated in Fifty Coloured Plates

Bristol: Published for the Author by C. Frost, 1821. First edition, 4to (291 x 234 mm), viii, [2], 150, [2]pp., with leaf of subscribers and terminal advert leaf, 50 hand-coloued lithograph plates (lightly toned as usual), occasional light spotting to text, cont. half calf, marbled boards, neatly rebacked with original spine labels laid-down. Miller [formerly Müller], Johann Samuel [John Samuel] (1779–1830), originally born Danzig, arrived in England in 1801 and settled in Bristol. He Anglicized his surname to John Samuel Miller, "In 1823 Miller was appointed first curator of the Bristol Institution, a post he held until his death. He was interested in a range of natural history topics including geology, botany, and conchology, and published a number of scientific papers, including descriptions of newly discovered species of British molluscs and, most importantly, the pioneering study A Natural History of the Crinoidea (1821). He received considerable encouragement and support from many of his contemporaries, including the geologists William Buckland, William Daniel Conybeare, and Sir Henry Thomas De la Beche."—(ODNB.) Knight, Zoological Illustration, p.129; Freeman, 2590.