Paris, F. Savy, 1864. 8vo (24.2 x 15.1 cm). 100 [86, 14] pp.; three lithographed plates with explanatory text leaves. Later red half linen over marbled boards. Spine with gilt bands and title. Marbled endpapers. Speckled edges.

A typical Bourguignat title. It deals with the terrestrial molluscs of a region in the French Alps, between Geneva and Grenoble. Dance calls the French malacologist Jules-René Bourguignat (1829-1892) the "Bête noir" of French conchology, and says that the "practice of species-mongering represents an unsavoury aspect of systematic conchology in the 19th century". Bound in the rear is a 14 pp. list of works by Bourguignat, "En vente aux librairies J. B. Baillière et fils, Savy et Challamel. 1864". The number 46, on the spine refer 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 100 copies were published, therefore rare. Provenance: stamp of the American malacologist Richard Irwin Johnson (1925-2020) in the top margin of the half-title and title page. Scattered, mostly marginal spotting, otherwise very good. Dance, S. P., A History of Shell Collecting, pp. 163-164. Neither in Nissen nor in Caprotti.