Shell Spectacular: A Collection of Mollusk Shells Engraved and Handcolored, 1845

1845 · Birds, Plants & Natural History

Shell Spectacular: A Collection of Mollusk Shells Engraved and Handcolored, 1845

Name: Shell Spectacular: A Collection of Mollusk Shells Engraved and Handcolored, 1845
Brand: American Maps and Prints
SKU: BG-13261-140
Price: 235 USD
Availability: InStock

$235

€210 · dollar price at today's exchange rate

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Shipping to the United States: $51 standard, $73 express, insured and tracked.

Date: 1845
Kind: Birds, Plants & Natural History
Size: 26.5 × 17 cm (10.4 × 6.7 in)
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: Westward Expansion & Civil War
Reference: BG-13261-140

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.

Guaranteed original. This is an original of the period stated, not a later reproduction or print-on-demand copy. If it is ever shown to be otherwise, we refund you in full.

Shipping to the United States. Sent from our gallery in Langweer, the Netherlands, flat between boards or rolled in a tube, and fully insured. Delivery and import charges.

About this piece

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.

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