London, G. B. Sowerby, 1838. 8vo (20.0 x 13.3 cm). 31 pp.; one engraved plate. 20th-century green buckram with gilt title on the spine. Original printed front wrapper bound in.

The very rare first issue of by far the first purely malacological magazine. Added: the second (and last) issue of the Malacological and Conchological Magazine (in photocopy); two different, original announcements of this work, as well as for Sowerby's Conchological Illustrations, and for the New Series of the Magazine of Natural History, with two malacological plates. All bound together in the typical fashion of the library of the American malacologist Richard Irwin Johnson (1925-2020), with his stamp in the top margin of the front free endpaper and front wrapper, below a handwritten dedication by George Sowerby to the British malacologist Thomas Norris (1765-1852), or his nephew, with the same name (d. 1873). Boards a bit spotted, otherwise very good. Dance, A History of Shell collecting, pp. 145 (for the Magazine), 169 (for Norris).