[Herbier de champignons].[Paris and Maison-Laffitte], 1862-1912. 4to & folded folio leaves in a 4to portfolio (23 x 18 cm). A mushroom herbarium comprising samples of 23 varieties of mushroom, each mounted on paper, with manuscript notes and an occasional pencil drawing, the two earliest mounted and written on a pre-printed form. Loosely inserted in a contemporary half green cloth portfolio.

[26] ll., the 2 folio ll. folded in half.A collection of original samples of 23 varieties of mushroom, mounted on paper leaves or bifolia and dried, with manuscript notes providing information about the samples and with an occasional pencil drawing. Most give the name of the mushroom (in Latin or French) and the date and/or place where it was collected. Most were collected in or around Paris or within a few hours travel of Paris. The earliest two, both dated 19 October 1862, give much more detailed information written on a pre-printed (lithographed?) form in script lettering. On the front paste-down is a letterpress label with name and address, "F. Bertillon|3, Rue d'Achères|Maison-Laffitte", the name repeated in a similar label on the front board. This may be François Bertillon (b. 1889), the grandson of the Paris mycologist Louis-Adolphe Bertillon (1821-1883), whose family had a residence at Maison-Laffitte, outside Paris. Louis-Adolphe was the father and François the nephew of the anthropologist Alphonse Bertillon. The samples collected in 1862 and 1869, particularly those of 1862 with the data methodically and scientifically noted on a pre-printed form, were probably described by Louis-Adolphe. François probably found his late grandfather's samples and notes and began collecting himself around 1911, when he would have been 22 years old.As is almost inevitable with samples like these, some parts of the samples have been lost or have come loose from the paper. Some were apparently mounted before they were completely dry and have stained the paper around the samples. But some dried sample survives for all 23 varieties. The portfolio shows some abrasions and some damage from former damp.