[CHICKERING, Frances Elizabeth] “Cloud Crystals” [D. Appleton & Co., 1864]

[CHICKERING, Frances Elizabeth]. Cloud Crystals: A Snow-Flake Album. Collected and Edited by A Lady. New York: D. Appleton & Company, 1864.

First edition. 10” x 7.5”,  158pp with 28 illustrated plates including title, featuring striking snow crystal forms printed in white against dark grounds, with accompanying descriptive and poetic text, such as selections from Emerson, Tennyson, Burns, Longfellow, and Shakespeare. Publisher’s original embossed brown morocco, gilt-lettered upper board and spine, all edges gilt, marbled endpapers. Leather rubbed along extremities and joints with some surface loss at corners and spine ends, but binding remains sound and unrestored, hinges secure, internally notably clean with plates bright and attractive. A handsome Very Good copy.

A visually distinctive Victorian gift book devoted to the geometry and symbolism of snow crystals, blending natural science, devotional reflection, and decorative design. Scarce in the trade, particularly in original morocco and sound condition, the work helped popularize the aesthetic and scientific fascination with snowflakes in mid-nineteenth-century America and remains one of the most recognizable illustrated winter books of the period.