Oh! Que rara couza!

Mawe, J.

The voyager's companion or shell collector's pilot; with instructions and directions where to find the finest shells; also for preserving the skins of animals; and the best methods of catching and preserving insects, &c., &c., &c. Fourth edition.

Published 1825
Item ID 75161
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London, privately printed, 1825. Small 8vo (14.3 x 9.2 cm). vii, 75 pp.; full colour hand-coloured frontispiece, one fine hand-coloured plate. Contemporary full pebbled cloth. Printed label mounted on the front board.

Very interesting 'pocket' book, meant to be used by sailors and travellers in particular, and published in four editions, of which this is the last. Includes a marvellous hand-coloured plate of birds and a tropical beach strewn with rare and precious shells – some of which are identifiable to the species level – from the South Pacific, Australia, and other regions that were little explored in the early 1800s. First published in 1821, without plates, followed by an identical second edition, both under a different title, viz., Directions to Captains of Ships, Officers, and Travellers; particularly to those engaged in the South Sea fishery. This final edition seems to be slightly expanded, compared to the 1822 third edition, which has only 70 pages. The front label title is slightly different and runs: "The voyager's companion: with instructions for collecting & preserving subjects of natural history. By John Mawe. Price 5s". This shows that the booklet was quite expensive from the start. Apparently, Mawe aimed at ship's captains and surgeons, the naturalists on board navy ships and merchantmen; the only ones who could afford it. Like so many booklets which were easily portable and therefore exposed to wear, the work is rare. The printed verso of page 75 (the last of the work proper) contains a list of four papers "Recently published by messrs Longman and co. ... and by the author". Provenance: a stamp of the American malacologist Richard Irwin Johnson (1925-2020) in the top margin of the front free endpaper and title page. Rather weak, irregular toning to the endpapers; title page a bit toned in the margin, otherwise a very fine clean and fresh copy in an original binding. This is by far the best-preserved copy we have seen. Dance, A History of Shell Collecting, pp. 93-94; Stilwell, J. D. (2003). The World’s First Shell Collecting Guide from 1821: John Mawe’s The Voyager’s Companion, or Shell Collector’s Pilot. Neither in Caprotti, nor in Nissen ZBI.

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