Iconotypes: A Compendium of Butterflies and Moths. Jones’s Icones Complete

*BOOKOFF RECOMMENDS*

Iconotypes is an extraordinary visual compendium of butterflies and moths, drawn from the monumental 18th-century work Jones’s Icones. Every page reveals exquisitely detailed illustrations that sit at the intersection of art, science, and devotion to form. Long before photography, these images were tools of knowledge — today, they are objects of wonder.

This book is both a historical document and a contemporary design object.

Why we chose this book

• Pure visual pleasure: Hundreds of meticulously rendered insects, arranged with a rhythm that feels almost modern.

• Where art meets taxonomy: A rare example of scientific illustration that transcends its original purpose and becomes timeless visual culture.

• A collector’s object: Heavy, beautifully produced, and deeply satisfying to hold, browse, and display.

This is not a book you read from start to finish — it’s one you return to.

What you’ll find inside

• Complete reproductions from Jones’s Icones

• Butterflies and moths depicted with obsessive precision

• A striking balance between scientific accuracy and aesthetic composition

• Contextual essays that frame the work historically and visually

• Page after page of pattern, symmetry, and color

The result feels surprisingly contemporary — almost like a natural-history version of a design atlas.

Perfect for

• Art, design, and illustration lovers

• Collectors of natural history books

• Fashion, textile, and pattern designers

• Anyone drawn to order, beauty, and classification

• Coffee-table books that invite slow looking
  

A book where science becomes art — and repetition becomes poetry.
Add Iconotypes to your shelf and experience nature through one of its most elegant visual archives.