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Folio (16 6/8 x 10 2/8 inches). Half title. 4-page Introduction, text leaves watermarked H. Smith 1818. 61 aquatint plates of shells with original hand-colour by John Clarke mostly after Perry, without watermarks (lightly browned throughout, some offsetting of text onto plates). Contemporary brown straight-grained morocco, the covers with elaborate and broad borders of gilt and blind roll tools, the spine in six compartments with five raised bands, gilt-lettered in the second, the others decorated with fine gilt tools (decorations a bit dulled, one or two surface abrasions, corners bumped). Provenance: with the early ownership inscriptions and bookplates of Benjamin M. Everhart, of West Chester, Pennsylvania, on the front paste-down and head of the title-page, dated 1870 and 1883. THE FIRST PUBLISHED WORK ON SHELLS TO BE ILLUSTRATED WITH AQUATINT PLATES Second edition, with the last page of the text beneath "Remarks" for the first plate printed in 16 lines, with "Criterion" appearing alone in the last line, and the Index leaf at the end printed by M'Creery. Sadly not much is known about Perry, largely because in publishing his "Conchology" he diverged from the Linnaean nomenclature currently being adopted by J.E. Gray, G.B. Sowerby and L.A. Reeve to specimens described and depicted by them, and they effectively consigned his work to scientific oblivion until 1827. It wasn't until 1902, when Hedley and Gatliff independently published papers on Perry's Australian species, that Perry's work was rehabilitated: "The work is post-Linnean, the species are named binomially, and are systematically figured and described. In short, the nomenclature fulfils the requirements of modern zoological legislation, and must take precedence of younger names. The illustrations vary in merit; some are excellent, others are wretched; but most, if not all, are recognisable. Sowerby and Reeve were not disposed to acknowledge any work which upset their species. They ungenerously denied Perry's right to be cited, and assailed his nomenclature with hatred and abuse. So powerful and evil was their influence that Perry's 'Conchology' has been practically suppressed by London writers. Even the brothers Adams, who offended against modern usage by adopting names from polynomial and pre-Linnean writers, yet refused to admit Perry's names" (C. Hedley, "Studies on Australian Mollusca". Part VI. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales". For his "Conchology" Perry studied the collections at the British Museum, which included specimens collected by William Bullock, H.C. Jennings and Elizabeth Bligh (wife of Captain Bligh) among others. Plates 3,4,9, 30 and 54 all depict Australian species of mollusc. In addition to his now iconic work on shells, Perry also published "Arcana; or the museum of natural history", a monthly publication issued from January 1810 through September 1811 that included accounts of birds, mammals, fish, reptiles, insects, and other animals. Buchanan pp.192; Dance pp.120-121, no.223; Nissen ZBI 3134'; Petit "George Perry's molluscan taxa." New Zealand: Magnolia Press, 2003. Seller Inventory # 002034
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