SOWERBY (James) - SOWERBY (James De Carle) - SOWERBY (Charle - Lot 22

SOWERBY (James) - SOWERBY (James De Carle) - SOWERBY (Charles Edward). The Mineral conchology of Great Britain. London: Benjamin Meredith, the author, White and Co, Sherwood and Co, 1812. [Vol. 1]; London: Arding and Merrett, the author, Sherwood and Co, 1818 [Vol. 2]; London: W. Arding, the author, Longman and Co. 1821 [Vol. 3]; London: W. Arding, J. D. C. and C. E. Sowerby, Longman and Co. 1823 [Vol. 4]; London: Richard Taylor, J. D. C. and C. E. Sowerby, G. B. Sowerby, Longman and Co. and Sherwood and Co. 1825-1829 [Vol. 5 and 6]. - 6 volumes in-8, 236 x 146: portrait, vii pp., (1 f.), pp. 9-72, pp. 73*-76*, pp. 73-84, pp. 73-234, (5 ff.), 103 plates; (1 f.), 235 pp., (1 f.), pp. 240-251, 102 plates; (1 f.), 166 pp.., pp. 166*-167*, pp. 167-194, 103 plates; (1 f.), 160 pp. 101 plates; (1 f.), 64 pp. 63*-64*, pp- 65-168, (2 ff.), 96 plates; (1 f.), 250 pp. 106 plates. Green basane, double gilt fillet framing the boards, ornate spine with faux nerfs, cold roulette inside, marbled edges (Walker's). Cleevely, The Sowerbys, Mineral conchology, and their fossil collection" in Journal of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History, volume 6 (1974), pages 418-481. - Nissen ZBI 3917. Very rare first edition of this pioneering catalog of invertebrates and fossils, mainly shells, discovered in Great Britain. The first scientific work devoted to the fossils of the British Isles, it is also distinguished by its realistic illustrations, the first of its kind. At the beginning of the 19th century, major engineering works, mining operations and quarries revealed a multitude of previously unpublished fossil shells. Thanks to his contacts with leading paleontologists such as Gideon Mantell and William Smith, Sowerby was able to assemble an exceptional collection of specimens. Although often fragmentary and devoid of their original geological context, these fossils played a crucial role in the advancement of scientific knowledge. The work appeared in installments from 1812 to 1846, in a total of 7 volumes, the last of which was unfinished and untitled. The present copy includes the first six complete volumes, illustrated with a frontispiece portrait of James Sowerby in the first volume and 611 colored intaglio plates, some of them folding. These plates are numbered from 1 to 609, with two plates numbered 33 and one plate designated A. The 39 missing plates correspond to those published in the seventh volume, published in 1846. A complete copy, at the end of the sixth volume, of the systematic, stratigraphic and alphabetical index to the first six volumes of the Mineral Conchology of Great Britain, published in 1834. This fascicle also contains a "brief account of the author's life", written by James de Carle Sowerby. Although published in 1834, it follows a continuous pagination with the volume into which it is incorporated. A good copy in uniform bindings made in London in the 1830s-1840s, signed "Walker's. 196. Strand". From the library of Maurice Cossmann (1850-1924), paleontologist and editor of the Revue critique de Paléozoologie, with his bookplate. Spines faded, numerous spotting marks, some hinges weak, label stuck to last few spines. Folding plate 246 is torn, as is the leaf on pages 121-122 of the third volume, without missing. Tear repaired with adhesive tape to the leaf on pages 85-86 of the fifth volume. Provenance: "Houseman" signature on the first endpaper of volumes 2 to 6. - Maurice Cossmann, with bookplate.