REGENFUSS, FRANZ MICHAEL. Sammlung von Muscheln, Schnecken und andern Schaaltieren Recueil de Coquillages, de Limaçons et de Crustacés. Copenhagen [1758]. Vol. 1 only [all published], large folio, 612 x 419 mm. (24 1/8 x 16 1/2 in.), contemporary Danish brick-red morocco, a presentation binding, probably by August Heinrich Helmuth, the arms of Count Adam Gottlob Moltke af Bregentved on sides within elaborate frame of gilt rococco borders and ornaments incorporating floral, drawer-handle and shell tools, spine gilt in compartments with various shell tools, blue-stained and plain parchment gilt lettering-pieces, mottled edges, worn, upper inner hinge cracked, first engraved title and last plate creased, text faintly offset to plates, engraved titles marginally darkened . FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, [10], 28, LII pp., half-title, mezzotint frontispiece portrait showing the bust of King Frederick V within massed mythological figures, printed in sanguine, two engraved titles in German and French in blue and sanguine, letterpress dedication leaf, 4 pp. dedicatory epistle dated 1758, 1 p. Épître préliminaire , text in two columns in German and French by C. G. Kratzenstein, engraved head- and tail-piece vignettes printed in sanguine (frontispiece and vignettes printed in blue in the ordinary copies), 12 FINELY HAND-COLORED ENGRAVED PLATES showing 145 different shells and crustaceans. Brunet IV, 1180 (calling for a letterpress title, a privilege leaf, and an engraved dedication leaf not present in this copy and not called for by Nissen); Nissen BBI 3338 note. ONE OF A HANDFUL OF COPIES OF THE RARE EARLY ISSUE OF REGENFUSS'S Auserlesene Schnecken... Choix de Coquillages , published at the expense of King Frederick V. According to Brunet and Nissen (the latter apparently erroneously dating it to 1757), the somewhat shorter text of this earlier issue (or edition), which contains the same plates as the regular issue, was withdrawn by order of the King for reasons unknown. 12 plates were engraved for a second volume, with a text by O.-F. Müller, but the volume was never published. Among a collection of binders' bills preserved in the Royal Library at Copenhagen are bills from the binder August Heinrich Helmuth for a total of 55 copies of the present work, bound in calf, marbled calf, and morocco, during the years 1759-63 (two other copies were bound by Andreas F. Lyman in 1770). Of the 57 copies accounted for, most of which were intended for presentation to local nobility and foreign dignitaries, only 5 were bound in red morocco (one by Lyman), all 5 of which appear to belong to this present earlier issue (cf. S. Larsen and A. Kyster, Danish Eighteenth Century Bindings, 1730-1780 , Copenhagen and London 1930, pp. 28-32). No copies of this issue appear to have come on the market in this century. Provenance : Adam Gottlob Moltke af Bregentved, armorial binding as above (we are grateful to Mr. Peter Dewar for identification of the coat-of-arms) -- "LA", eighteenth-century crowned monogram inkstamp on verso of first engraved title.
REGENFUSS, FRANZ MICHAEL. Sammlung von Muscheln, Schnecken und andern Schaaltieren Recueil de Coquillages, de Limaçons et de Crustacés. Copenhagen [1758]. Vol. 1 only [all published], large folio, 612 x 419 mm. (24 1/8 x 16 1/2 in.), contemporary Danish brick-red morocco, a presentation binding, probably by August Heinrich Helmuth, the arms of Count Adam Gottlob Moltke af Bregentved on sides within elaborate frame of gilt rococco borders and ornaments incorporating floral, drawer-handle and shell tools, spine gilt in compartments with various shell tools, blue-stained and plain parchment gilt lettering-pieces, mottled edges, worn, upper inner hinge cracked, first engraved title and last plate creased, text faintly offset to plates, engraved titles marginally darkened . FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, [10], 28, LII pp., half-title, mezzotint frontispiece portrait showing the bust of King Frederick V within massed mythological figures, printed in sanguine, two engraved titles in German and French in blue and sanguine, letterpress dedication leaf, 4 pp. dedicatory epistle dated 1758, 1 p. Épître préliminaire , text in two columns in German and French by C. G. Kratzenstein, engraved head- and tail-piece vignettes printed in sanguine (frontispiece and vignettes printed in blue in the ordinary copies), 12 FINELY HAND-COLORED ENGRAVED PLATES showing 145 different shells and crustaceans. Brunet IV, 1180 (calling for a letterpress title, a privilege leaf, and an engraved dedication leaf not present in this copy and not called for by Nissen); Nissen BBI 3338 note. ONE OF A HANDFUL OF COPIES OF THE RARE EARLY ISSUE OF REGENFUSS'S Auserlesene Schnecken... Choix de Coquillages , published at the expense of King Frederick V. According to Brunet and Nissen (the latter apparently erroneously dating it to 1757), the somewhat shorter text of this earlier issue (or edition), which contains the same plates as the regular issue, was withdrawn by order of the King for reasons unknown. 12 plates were engraved for a second volume, with a text by O.-F. Müller, but the volume was never published. Among a collection of binders' bills preserved in the Royal Library at Copenhagen are bills from the binder August Heinrich Helmuth for a total of 55 copies of the present work, bound in calf, marbled calf, and morocco, during the years 1759-63 (two other copies were bound by Andreas F. Lyman in 1770). Of the 57 copies accounted for, most of which were intended for presentation to local nobility and foreign dignitaries, only 5 were bound in red morocco (one by Lyman), all 5 of which appear to belong to this present earlier issue (cf. S. Larsen and A. Kyster, Danish Eighteenth Century Bindings, 1730-1780 , Copenhagen and London 1930, pp. 28-32). No copies of this issue appear to have come on the market in this century. Provenance : Adam Gottlob Moltke af Bregentved, armorial binding as above (we are grateful to Mr. Peter Dewar for identification of the coat-of-arms) -- "LA", eighteenth-century crowned monogram inkstamp on verso of first engraved title.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
