Beschreibung:

Conchology Thomas Martyn ( fl . 1760-1816) The Universal Conchologist [...] Le Conchologiste universel . London: for the author, 1784-[1792]. 4 volumes, 4° (410 x 400mm). Text in English and French on facing pages. Engraved calligraphic titles, part-title and dedication by Ellis after Tomkins. Hand-coloured engraved frontispiece within greek-key pattern border printed in gold and black, 160 hand-coloured engraved plates mounted on thick blue paper leaves with manuscript numbering and borders, 2 engraved plates of medals dated 17888 and 1792, 4 engraved calligraphic 'Explanatory Table's. (Occasional spotting affecting plates.) Contemporary English tree calf gilt, the spines gilt in compartments, gilt morocco lettering-pieces in two and at the foot, the other compartments with central gilt fleurons within palmette corner-pieces, the covers with greek-key pattern borders (extremities a little rubbed, chipped and scuffed, all skilfully recornered and rebacked). Provenance : John Towneley (1731-1813, bookplates) -- Towneley sale, Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, commencing 18 June 1883, lot 1701 -- Bernard Quaritch, Catalogue of Books on Natural History no. 346, November 1916, item 4316 -- Boston Society of Natural History (neat blindstamps on titles). SECOND EDITION, WITH 80 IMPROVED AND RE-DRAWN PLATES, AND THE NEW TEXT. THE TOWNELEY COPY OF 'A WORK WHICH, FOR BEAUTY, HAS SELDOM BEEN SURPASSED IN THE HISTORY OF CONCHOLOGICAL ICONOGRAPHY' (Dance Shell Collecting p.103). Martyn's work sought to give connoisseurs, collectors and scientists a systematic treatise on shells, carefully and clearly illustrated. As he states in the preface: 'complicated systems, bad arrangements, and the practice of crowding many sheets of different families into one plate, have not only confused the subject, and created a distaste to the science itself, but made it necessary that even the most experienced collector should have some clew to conduct him through those labyrinths of difficulties' (p.4). By comparison with such works, the shells on Martyn's plates are beautifully detailed and very clearly displayed; the first eighty plates each showing two shells, the second eighty with one shell per plate. The shells used as models for the plates were drawn from some of the most distinguished collections of the day: the work commences with examples collected in the South Seas by Captain Byron, Captain Cook and other members of the expedition, and also includes shells from the celebrated collection of the Duchess of Portland and the cabinets of the Countess of Bute, Miss Fordyce, George Humphries, and John Hunter The exquisitely-coloured plates were the work of an academy of indigent young artists recruited by Martyn. His early experiments, using independent and established artists had proved costly and unsatisfactory; their services were expensive, and the results of their work too disparate. Therefore, Martyn recruited young men who showed artistic talent, and trained them himself; since their styles were as yet unformed, he felt that there 'would generally be found that uniformity and equality of style, conception, and execution which it would be in vain to expect from a variety of independent artists' (Martyn, quoted by Dance op . cit ., p.101). Eventually his Academy comprised nine talented, young artists. The first two volumes of Martyn's remarkable work appeared in 1784-1787, but the quality of the plates did not satisfy him, and the 80 plates of these two volumes were re-drawn to a higher standard, for the present second 'edition' (i.e. issue), which also includes the 39-page introductory text in volume I, and two engraved plates of medals. These re-drawn plates seemed to have attracted a range of aristocratic and discerning bibliophiles: the present copy is from the noted library of John Towneley, and the work has remained a sought-after rarity. In 1916, Quaritch stated that only one complete copy had appeared at auction since 1895, and in more recent