Galerie des mollusques, ou catalogue méthodique, descriptif et raisonné des mollusques et coquilles du Muséum de Douai.

Paris, J. B. Baillière, 1838-1844. Four volumes (texts and atlasses) in two. Large 8vo (22.7 x 15.1 cm). 915 pp.; 70 lithographed plates. First volume (1838): xxxvi, 560 (iv) pp. (texte); 56 pp.; 37 plates (atlas). Second volume (1844): 8 [numbered xxxvii-xliv], 307, (ii) pp. (texte); 23 pp. [numbered 57-79]; 33 plates [numbered 38-70] (atlas). Uniform 20th-century green buckram with gilt title on the spines. Speckled edges. Original printed wrappers bound in. = A rare, complete copy. The work contains the description and illustration of the collection of molluscs in the museum of Douai (northern France). The museum collection was destroyed in WWII, augmenting the importance of the (good) images in the atlas. Many figured specimens were original types of species described by the authors and still regarded as valid today. Provenance: stamp of the American malacologist Richard Irwin Johnson (1925-2020) in the top margin of the front free endpapers and front wrappers of the two text parts. Some scattered, mostly very light foxing, plates 28-31 more foxed, and toned. This work is prone to foxing, but this is a much better than average copy. Caprotti II, p. 47 [211]; Nissen ZBI, 3231.