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Shell Spectacular: A Collection of Mollusk Shells Engraved and Handcolored, 1845
$235 (£180, €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
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.
