Close-ups
Framed and on the wall
Frame and rooms are illustrations of how the print could look; the description says what is included.
Shell Spectacular: A Collection of Mollusk Shells Engraved and Handcolored, 1845
£180 ($235, €210)
Period original, not a reproduction.
Shipped from the Netherlands, flat, insured and tracked, worldwide. Returns accepted within 14 days.
- Date
- 1845
- Size
- 10.4 × 6.7 in (26.5 × 17 cm)
- Condition
- Good. Good. Very light offsetting and a few light brownish spots outside the image. Aged paper with typically warm, yellowish-brown hue. Please study the image carefully.
- Period
- Early 19th century
- Section
- Fish and shells
- Reference
- f_37855342
- Colour
- Hand coloured
What the condition grades mean
- Excellent
- Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
- Very good
- Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
- Good
- Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
- Fair
- Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.
Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.
A plate of seven shells from Pierre Auguste Joseph Drapiez's Dictionnaire Classique des Sciences Naturelles, published in 1845. The sheet is an engraving with original hand color, with a numbered key at the foot giving the French names: Telescope vulgaire, Toupie pagode, Cadran perspective, Sabot, Scalaire precieuse, Ampullaire de la Guyane and Natice.
A large central oval shows a shell with the soft body of the animal drawn out beneath it, and six shells are arranged around it: a ridged shell with spiny tiers at upper left, a tall spiral shell drawn in outline at the top, a banded brown shell at upper right, a flat coiled shell seen from above at lower left, another tall spiral in outline at the bottom, and a green and yellow banded shell at lower right. Some of the shells are only outlined and others carry a delicate wash of color.
The plate was made as a natural history reference and shows a range of land, freshwater and marine shells in a single sheet.
