Author: Bourguignat, J. R.
Title: Materiaux pour servir a l'histoire des mollusques acéphales du système Européen.
Description: Poissy, S. Lejay (for the author), [1880]-1881. 8vo (24.0 x 15.6 cm). 387 pp.; two photographic plates. Black buckram with gilt title on the spine. Speckled edges. Original printed wrappers bound in. = A seldom-seen work on the freshwater mussels of Europe and Africa (including, e.g., a monograph on the genus Aetheria in Africa), by the French malacologist Jules-René Bourguignat (1829-1892). Dance calls Bourguignat the "Bête noir" in French conchology and stated that his "...practice of species-mongering represents an unsavoury aspect of systematic conchology in the 19th century". This may be regarded as a telling example, in particular in view of the presence of Bourguignat's schematized illustrations of valves of which the numerous dimensions indicated form the basis of his descriptions: a purely mathematical approach. The number 66, on the spine refer to the numbered list of papers in Oeuvres scientifiques de M. J.-R. Bourguignat, published by Servain. As most of Bourguignat's papers only published in 100 copies. Provenance: The Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland (their oval stamp on the front wrapper and title); then purchased by Wheldon & Wesley (their stamp over the Conchological Society stamps, and dated May 1954, and finally bought by the American malacologist Richard Irwin Johnson (1925-2020) with his stamp on the front free endpaper and half-title. The plates stuck in the gutter, affecting several figures, otherwise very good, clean. Dance, S. P. A history of shell collecting, pp. 163-164. Not in Nissen.

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