London, J. Sowerby, 1819-1821. 8vo (22.0 x 14.1 cm). 118 pp.; 62 hand-coloured engraved plates (several larger, folded), numbered 204-265. Contemporary half calf over marbled boards. Spine with gilt ornamental bands, blind-tooled compartments and two black morocco labels with gilt title. Green endpapers. Edges speckled red.

The third volume of a series that would be ended, rather than completed, with seven volumes and 648 plates. This part contains the first 65 of 103 plates, with their accompanying text. The complete work may be regarded as the conchological magnum opus of the British naturalist, artist and publisher James Sowerby (1757-1822), the first of a dynasty of conchological authors and illustrators. Although not a complete copy, this sectionis still very rare. Bound in the rear is a set of plates from the early volumes of The Zoological Journal, edited by James de Carle Sowerby, and published in London by W. Phillips. Most plates are hand-coloured and depict shells. Included are a few turtles. Provenance: a marine (chiefly ichthyological) bookplate of Alice J. Moberg mounted on the front pastedown, next to a smaller bookplate of the American medical doctor and naturalist, Avery Judd Skilton (1802-1858) "who practiced medicine in Troy, New York, for 30 years. He was also a curator at the Troy Lyceum of Natural History, studying mineralogy, geology, botany, conchology, and paleontology" (Wikipedia). Inserted: a handwritten note, on his own stationery, by the American malacologist and natural history dealer Phil Clover, dealing with this copy. Boards much rubbed, front board detached; spine cover partly singed, partly perished; three plates with a marginal damp-stain (from before binding?), but otherwise a very good copy with fine plates. Caprotti II, p. 57 (221); Nissen ZBI, 3917; Ward and Carozzi, 2093.