Details
REGENFUSS, Franz Michael (1713-1780). Auserlesne Schnecken, Muscheln und andre Schaalthiere... Choix de Coquillages et de Crustacés... Copenhagen: Andreas Hartwig Godsiche, 1758.
Volume I (all published), large 2° (598 x 454mm). Two letterpress titles, one in French, a second in German, parallel text in French and German. 12 fine hand-coloured engraved plates, 7 with imprint: by Regenfuss after Gab. Müller, mezzotint head- and tailpiece, printed in sanguine and finished by hand. (Lacking engraved frontispiece portrait of Frederic V, King of Denmark and Sweden, old generally unobtrusive dampstain to lower blank margins.) 19th-century green half morocco gilt (very slight scuffing to extremities).
FIRST EDITION, second issue of the tallest and most sumptuous of all conchological works. The very fine colouring of the plates is principally the work of Regenfuss's wife. The first issue with slightly less text was withdrawn, for reasons now unknown, by order of Frederic V. Brunet gives a detailed collation of both issues, and goes on to mention the intended second volume: "On a gravé 12 pl. destinées à un 2e vol., pour lequel O.-F. Müller avait préparé un texte, mais elles n'ont pas été publiées." Brunet IV.1180; Nissen ZBI 3338 (listing a second volume of 12 plates without text; this may be a mis-reading of the details given by Brunet, quoted above).
Volume I (all published), large 2° (598 x 454mm). Two letterpress titles, one in French, a second in German, parallel text in French and German. 12 fine hand-coloured engraved plates, 7 with imprint: by Regenfuss after Gab. Müller, mezzotint head- and tailpiece, printed in sanguine and finished by hand. (Lacking engraved frontispiece portrait of Frederic V, King of Denmark and Sweden, old generally unobtrusive dampstain to lower blank margins.) 19th-century green half morocco gilt (very slight scuffing to extremities).
FIRST EDITION, second issue of the tallest and most sumptuous of all conchological works. The very fine colouring of the plates is principally the work of Regenfuss's wife. The first issue with slightly less text was withdrawn, for reasons now unknown, by order of Frederic V. Brunet gives a detailed collation of both issues, and goes on to mention the intended second volume: "On a gravé 12 pl. destinées à un 2e vol., pour lequel O.-F. Müller avait préparé un texte, mais elles n'ont pas été publiées." Brunet IV.1180; Nissen ZBI 3338 (listing a second volume of 12 plates without text; this may be a mis-reading of the details given by Brunet, quoted above).