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MOSTLY MOLLUSCS: 61 PUBLICATIONS WITH 100 PLATES (30 IN COLOUR)
WITH 16 ORIGINAL INK DRAWINGS BY CHARLES OZENNE





OZENNE, Charles, P.J. van BENEDEN, B.-C. DUMORTIER, F.S. BEUDANT, A. MOQUIN-TANDON, Baron de FÉRUSSAC, G. CUVIER, A. DUMÉRIL, M. EDWARDS, F. DUJARDIN, H. CROSSE and 35 others.  [Collection of Publications on Molluscs and Related Subjects].
[various places], [1782-1885]. 4to & 8vo. 61 publications in 9 volumes, all together about 2614 pages. An extraordinary collection of scholarly publications on invertebrate zoology, mostly on molluscs (and mostly from the 1840s and 1850s), assembled by Charles Ozenne (active ca. 1845-1885). With 16 original drawings by Charles OZENNE, 100 zoological plates (30 wholly or partly in colour, including 5 colour-printed), and 44 illustration figures in  the texts. Several are inscribed by the authors. Mostly bound in nineteenth-century half sheepskin, pseudo-marbled sides, marbled endpapers.

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€ 6250

A large collection of publications on molluscs and related topics in the field of invertebrate zoology, including land, sea and river molluscs. The collection was assembled by Charles Ozenne, a Doctor of Medicine at the University of Paris, best known for his 1858 monograph on molluscs and their medicinal uses. For the period 1846 to 1858 the collection includes almost every scholarly publication on the subject, most of them now extremely difficult to find. The majority are offprints (usually with their own pagination) of articles in French scholarly journals, but monographs and foreign publications are also covered. Many include lithographed or engraved illustration plates, some hand-coloured and a few printed in colour. Tipped into or loosely inserted in two publications are Charles Ozenne's own original ink (and sometimes pencil) drawings (some in colour) with his hand-written explanatory notes. Fourteen of Ozenne's drawings, made in 1850 and 1852, are partly based on and supplement the plates in Dumortier's 1837 "Mémoire sur l'Embryogénie des Mollusques Gastéropodes." The other two illustrate Moquin-Tandon's 1855 "Observations sur les Spermatophores des Gastéropodes Terrestres Androgynes," which was published without any illustrations.
Among the scholarly zoological publications that make up the bulk of the collection are surprises such as one on pearls; one giving the invertebrate zoologist Hyppolyte Crosse's view of the monstrous "Poulpe" in Victor Hugo's 1866 Les Travailleurs de la Mer (poulpe fiction?); and a lithographic reproduction of an 1855 hand-written military report on the preservation of blood. Highlights among the colour plates include the spectacular bright colours of Angas's shell-less snails and the subtle shades of (mostly) green and brown of Moquin-Tandon's leeches.
All volumes include the bookplate and/or stamps of Charles Ozenne. In very good condition, with a few publications foxed. A definitive collection of mid-nineteenth-century publications on molluscs and related subjects.
A complete list of all publications available on request.