Lot 63: 

DEZALLIER D'ARGENVILLE, Antoine Joseph (1680-1765). Manuscript title: "Nouvelle Edition de la Conchyliologie de M. d'Argenville donneé par MM. Favanne pére et fils." [Paris, ca 1784].

4υo (286 x 218 mm). Manuscript title-page. 3 engraved frontispieces, the first by François Boucher, and 80 engraved plates by J. Robert, F.A. Aveline, Jacques Juillet, Pierre Vernet, V. Vangelisti, Jacques Mesnil, J.B. Bradel, J.B.F. Germain, J.A. Herisset, H. Le Roy, Joseph Breant and Giraud after Guillaume and Jacques De Favanne and HAND-COLORED IN THE ATELIER OF THE DE FAVANNES. Interleaved with manuscript lists of the subjects in each plate, see below. Contemporary half russia (joints repaired, some wear at extremities). Provenance: Joseph Achard (signature on front flyleaf, presumably his manuscript interleavings) -- G. Price, 1st Fusiliers (18 September 1847 inscription on front flyleaf) -- Acquired from Marlborough Rare Books 1979.

A VERY FINELY COLORED COPY, ATTESTED BY THE COLORIST AND PAINTER JACQUES DE FAVANNE, AND WITH MANUSCRIPT IDENTIFICATION OF THE SHELLS AND THEIR RESULTS IN THE SALE OF THE CELEBRATED COLLECTION OF COUNT DE LATOUR D'AUVERGNE. The present series of plates is from the third edition of Dezallier d'Argenville's Conchyliologie, published posthumously by the De Favannes in 1780, and is preceded by De Favanne's manuscript note pasted beneath the title stating that this copy was colored and furnished to the bookseller Royer. He notes that the present copy is at least as beautiful and as well done, if not more beautiful, as those others that he has supervised and retouched with his own hand for Messieurs De Bure, the publishers of the second edition in 1757. The author of the manuscript title writes that his interleaved lists provide the names of every shell that he can recognize from Michel Adanson's classification, along with the synonyms of Linnaeus. He has also added the number under which each shell was entered in the catalogue of Count de Latour d'Auvergne for the sale of his collection, with their size and the price that each realized when it was sold in 1784. He notes that for every shell that did not make at least 20 sols, he has entered a zero.

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