G. B. Sowerby Junior - A Conchological Manual - 1852

A Conchological Manual. 4th edition of 1852, with hand-colored plates by G. B. Sowerby Junior.
Publisher Henry G. Bohn, London. Book format Octavo (14.5 x 23 cm).
6 (i–vi) + 337 text pages with 98 illustrations in the introduction text, with 2 folding plates containing tabular summaries, as well as 28 plates with a total of 600 carefully hand-coloured illustrations of shells and snails, engraved by George Brettingham Sowerby junior. Opposite the title page is a frontispiece with hand-coloured illustrations of a Spondylus shell and a Nautilus.

Condition: The book is bound, with a dark green linen binding featuring embossing on the front and back, as well as gold title embossing with text and snail illustrations on the spine.
The spine shows cracks and parts of the title embossing are coming loose, but largely present (see photos); the rear cover has also nearly detached. A restoration seems feasible and is recommended.
The book block itself is in good order and cohesive. Page 337 of the text is missing. It is the last page of the plate commentary for plates 575–600 (see photo) and has been inserted in the book as a loose sheet in photocopy.
Otherwise, the book is complete with all the remaining pages and the 28 plates.

The text pages are consistently clean, and the illustration plates show no foxing, only here and there a very light browning on the far right edge of the page, which does not touch the illustrations. Furthermore, with regard to the photos: all plates are reproduced.

Dark shadows on the scanned pages and plates are caused by the scanner. Flattening them completely would have caused damage. The pages are clean.

The work is presented as an encyclopedic listing of species and genera of snails, mollusks, and others, mostly extant but also partly fossil mollusks. Since the first printing in 1839, the work has been significantly expanded, for example by an “Introduction” of 55 pages on the science of conchology (malacology). The alphabetical part, originally 115 pages of text, was expanded to 255 pages.
The previous editions all contained 23 plates with 488 illustrations; in the present 4th edition, 5 plates (24–28) have been added with 112 additional illustrations.

On the inside of the book cover there is a bookplate of a former owner, Charles Whymper (born 1853 in London; died 1941 in Houghton, Huntingdonshire). He was a British animal, landscape, and portrait painter, book illustrator, and wood engraver.
On the first inside page there is, written by hand, another name: Edward Hull (born 1829 in Antrim; died 1917). Edward Hull was an Irish geologist.

Additionally (see close-up photo), in the upper right corner of this page there is an oval embossed stamp bearing the text “Wight & Bailey, Booksellers, Cheltenham”.
Wight & Bailey were prominent booksellers in the town of Cheltenham, and they often worked with publishers from London. They were active mainly in the 1850s of the 19th century. This, therefore, fits the year 1852 as the publication year of this edition.

The book is carefully packaged and shipped with DHL tracking. NO SHIPPING TO THE USA !!!