Author: Dillwyn, L. W.
Title: A descriptive catalogue of Recent shells; arranged according to the Linnaean method; with particular attention to the synonymy. In two volumes. [Complete].
Description: London, John and Arthur Arch, 1817. Two volumes in two. 8vo (22.3 x 14.2 cm). Two title pages, half-title. 1135 pp. (xii, 1-580; 580-1092, [xxix], [ii]). Original paper-covered boards with printed label on the spines. = Written by the British naturalist, malacologist, botanist, porcelain manufacturer and politician, Lewis Weston Dillwyn (1778-1855). Several species are validly named in this work. The last two leaves contain a publisher's catalogue, listing, e.g., Brookes' Conchology. The spine label includes the price (one pound, 18 shillings, which is expensive by all standards). Provenance: with a modest armorial bookplate of Charles Bathurst, Lydney Park 'Tien ta foy' mounted on both front pastedowns. Charles Bathurst (1754-1831) was another late 18th- to early 19th-century British politician. Stamp of the American malacologist Richard Irwin Johnson (1925-2020) in the top margins of the title pages. Tipped in, probably by Johnson: a description of this work - but not this copy - by Patrick King (name added in pencil), describing this work as "one of the best systematical shell catalogues". This was certainly true both in 1817 and long after. Uncut. Lacks first half-title; spine ends a bit chipped; superficial dampstain to the lower spine of Vol. I; endpapers a bit spotted; otherwise a very good copy. Caprotti II, p. 22 [186]; Dance, S. P. (1986), A history of shell-collecting, p. 150.

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