Paris, Savy, 1863-1870. Two volumes in one. Thick 8vo (23.4 x 17.5 cm). Half-title, title page, 12 decade titles, 379 pp. [324; 55]; nine text figures (mounted), 49 [45; 4] lithographed plates of which four (plates 7, 22, 29, and 34) finely hand-coloured. Near contemporary half calf over marbled boards. Spine with gilt lines and title. Marbled endpapers. Edges speckled red.

Contains many new species and in contrast to some other works by Bourguignat it is well-illustrated. Dance calls the French malacologist Jules-René Bourguignat (1829-1892) the "Bête noir" in French conchology or the "practice of species-mongering represents an unsavoury aspect of systematic conchology in the 19th century". This is the complete published work, consisting of the first volume, with its own title page; and the two centuries of a second volume which was not continued. Some, mostly light and marginal foxing, but mostly clean. The number, 27, on the spine refers to the numbered list of papers in Oeuvres scientifiques de M. J.-R. Bourguignat, published by Servain. As with most of Bourguignat's papers only published in 100 copies, therefore a set like this, published over quite a long period, and including two decades of the second century, is very rare. Not one single auction record found. OCLC reports complete copies in Paris and Berlin only. The British Museum in London, and the Smithsonian have a complete copy, too. Apparently not in any other library in the USA, nor elsewhere in Europe or the rest of the world. We had a copy of the first century - without the Onzième and Douzième Décade - only once before. Provenance: this copy is from the library of the American malacologist and malaco-historian Richard Irwin Johnson (1925-2020). Caprotti II, p. 11 [175]; Cat. BM(NH), p. 214; Dance, S. P. A History of Shell Collecting, pp. 163-164; Nissen ZBI, 506.