Delices des yeux et de l'esprit ou collection generale des differentes espèces de coquillages que la mer renferme, communiquée au public. 6 volumes bound in 3. by Knorr, Georg Wolfgang - 1760-1765-1768-1770-1771-1773: A fine copy of a beautifully handcoloured shell book

6 handcoloured additional engraved and handcoloured title-pages, 190 handcoloured engraved plates of shells by and after G. W. Knorr, J. C. Keller, J. C. Dietzsch, C. N. Kleemann, G. P. Trautner, J. A. Eisenmann, A. Hoffer and others, the majority of them with engraved calligraphic names of owners of natural history cabinets and shell collections in lower part of the plates. 6 letterpress title-pages (included in pagination), 24, (16), 52 pages; 56 pages; 55 pages; 54, (14) pages; 48 pages; 76, 11 (1), 18 pages.


Cont. marbled calf in light brown and red with green streaks, flat spine richtly gilt with two contrasting green and red gilt morocco labels, covers framed by gilt border. Inner dentelles gilt. All edges gilt. Endpapers covered with blue veined paste papers. Letterpress ownership ticket of M. le. Bon G. de Joigny pasted onto front paste-down of first volume, other volumes with manuscript inked ownership entry on front fly-leaf. 4to (285 x 210 mm). Minor rubbing to covers and extremeties.

Cf. Cobres, p. 428, 30 (German edition). Brunet III, 679: "Les figures sont enluminées avec beaucoup de soin"; Nissen, ZBI 2235 and vol. II, p. 151 f. Heidrun Ludwig. Nürnberger naturgeschichtliche Malerei im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert, pp. 346-348 (for Knorr). First French edition of a splendid set of this most beautiful book on shells. The plates are handcoloured, bringing out all the exotic beauty in brilliant colors. The last ten plates show the shells in white on dark brown background. Knorr (1705-1761), an artist and naturalist from Nuremberg, is the author of several sumptuous and exquisitely illustrated books on the wonders of natural history, among them one on geology and petrification, and this present work, on corals and shells, and other salt water animals. It required particular care since these objects appear in many striking and diversified colours. Knorr, and the artists who continued his work, employed some of the most accomplished Nuremberg artists to make the illustrations as faithful and perfect as possible, and the result is one of the most exciting and colorful illustrated books of the 18th century. The majority of the shells depicted on the plates are sketched after specimens contained in four German and three Dutch private natural history cabinets and shell collections which are named on the respective plates. Ranking first regarding number of specimens depicted are examples from the collection of August Martin Schadeloock (1707-1774), a theologian from Nuremberg, and an ardent book collector, his library described in two volumes was sold in 1774, who had also built up a natural history cabinet which contained about 4000 specimens of shells, a large collection of minerals and fossils and other cabinet of wonder objects. According to the scholar J. S. Schröter his natural history collection was regarded as one of the most important private collections existing in Germany in 1775. Unfortunately no catalogue of this natural history collection seems to exist. (Grieb, Nürnberger Künstlerlexikon vol. III, 1303. Not mentioned in Wilson, The History of Mineral Collecting 1530-1799). Other examples are from the collection of Philipp Ludwig Statius Müller (1725-1776), a German zoologist who published among many other works a German translation of Linnaeus' "Natursystem" and from the collection of Johann Phillipp Breyne FRS (1680-1764), a Polish botanist, palaeontologist, zoologist and entomologist. He is best known for his work on the Polish cochineal insect, used in the production of red dye. Proposed by Hans Sloane, he was elected, on 21 April 1703, a Fellow of the Royal Society. He was also a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (after 1715) and the Societas Litteraria (after 1720); last but not least a few examples are from the collection of a certain D. J. H. Sommer, a doctor from Nuremberg. Ranking second regarding number of specimens depicted are those from the shell collection of Martinus Houttuyn (1720 ?-1786), a Dutch naturalist who studied medicine in Leiden and an author of many books on natural history who brought together a large collection of shells which was said to contain numerous rare species. Other examples are from the collections of Joan Coenraad Brandt (1703-1791), an Amsterdam druggist, whose cabinet was famous and naturalists and travellers often came to see it and from the collection of Willem van der Meulen, a wealthy merchant from Amsterdam. (Cf. Dance, Shell collecting pp. 82-85). "In the French edition there are nearly a thousand figures, all extremely well drawn and beautifully painted ... No order is preserved in the figures, however, and the same species is sometimes figured more than once on different plates to show slight variations. The text is simply an amplification of the plates relating chiefly to the appearance of the shells represented" (Dance, Shell Collecting. An Illustrated History p. 74). According to Dance the plates to volume III in the French edition differ from those in the German edition (Dance p. 318). The six volumes are divided as follows: The first volume contains illustrations by Knorr himself, a few plates signed by him this being the only illustrations by Knorr for this book, and the shells represented not related to any specific collection. Volumes two through four contain illustrations after specimens from the collections of Schadeloock, Breyne, Müller and Sommer including a few from Houttuyn's collection in volume four. Volumes five and six contain illustrations after specimens from the collections of Hottuyn, van der Meulen and Brandt. "Trotz fehlender Universitätsbildung unterliess Knorr es nicht, die Texte zu seinen Werken selbst zu schreiben. Zwar bemerkte die gelehrte Welt durchaus, dass seine Werke unsystematisch angelegt waren und wissenschaftlich nicht befriedigten. Dennoch erfreuten sich seine schönen und sorgfältig gearbeiteten Kupferstiche grosser Beliebtheit. ... Wie in seinen Petrefakten- und Konchylienwerken griff Knorr auch hier auf Exponate aus Naturaliensammlungen zurück. ... Mit dem Werk wandte er sich nicht so sehr an die Naturgelehrten, sondern eher an ein bürgerliches Liebhaberpublikum, dem er auf dem Weg der graphischen Reproduktion rare Naturalien zugänglich machen wollte, die es selbst nicht erwerben konnte. ... Die meisterhaften Kolorierungen der Kupferstiche in Knorrs Publikationen sind besonders bestechend. ... Die alten Kolorierungen der Werke Knorrs, Seligmanns und Rösels gehören sicherlich zum Besten, was im 18. Jahrhundert auf diesem Gebiet geleistet wurde. Die schier unglaubliche Mühe, die um 1750 in Nürnberg für die Illumination naturgeschichtlicher Kupferstiche aufgewendet wurde, lässt sich nicht nur mit marktorientierten Verkaufsstrategien erklären. Wie in der naturhistorischen Kabinettmalerei waren es in den gedruckten Tafelwerken auch die ästhetischen Ideale der Physikotheologie, durch die diese hohen Qualitätsmassstäbe gesetzt wurden. Illuminatoren, Stecher, Sammler und Käufer orientierten sich am physikotheologischen Dogma der idealisierenden Mimesis." (Heidrun Ludwig. Nürnberger Naturgeschichtliche Malerei im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert, pp. 173-174). - Splendid set printed on very thick paper.