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Fossil Conchology, Capt. Brown |
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| The Illustrations of Fossil Conchology, of Great Britain and Ireland, by Captain Thomas Brown., 1849
These plates were engraved by artists of established reputation, being "well-known to the public as men of celebrity." The engravings were executed from drawings made by the Capt. Brown expressly for the work. Captain Thomas Brown (1785-1862) was British naturalist and malacologist. Upon publication, this book was praised as one that will
"always remain a monument of his industry, ability, and scientific acumen."
Born in Perth, Scotland, he joined the militia, rising to the rank of captain in 1811. When he was quartered in Manchester, he became interested in nature, and edited Oliver Goldsmith's Animated Nature. In 1840 he became curator of the Manchester Museum, a position he held for twenty-two years.
Captain Thomas Brown was a prolific author of natural history books and a fine artist, the first edition of his " Illustrations of the Conchology of Great Britain and Ireland" (1827) being noteworthy for the high quality of its hand-colored engravings. Among his lesser productions was a pocket-sized, elementary guide, "The Conchologist's Text-Book", first published in 1833. It would have been forgotten but for some publicity it received in 1839 from an unexpected quarter. Its contents re-surfaced in that year, virtually unaltered, in "The Conchologist's First Book", published in Philadelphia as a work 'By Edgar A. Poe', whose only contributions to it were a Preface and an Introduction (more than enough, though, to make the book a target for collectors of that illustrious writer's work). This was the only American publication of Poe's which went into a second edition during his lifetime. Size (in): 9 X 13 |
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