Author: Kiener, L. C.
Title: Spécies générales et iconographie des coquilles vivantes comprenant la collection du Muséum d'Histoire naturelle de Paris, la collection Lamarck, celle du Prince Masséna (appartenant maintenant A. M. B. Delessert) et les découvertes récentes des voyageurs. Famille des enroulées. Genre Cone.
Description: Paris, Rousseau, and J. B. Baillière, 1844-1850. In two volumes (texte and planches). 8vo (24.0 x 16.7 cm). 379 pp.; 72 finely engraved and originally hand-coloured plates (and a further 39 plates in copy). Contemporary uniform half calf over marbled boards. Spines with gilt bands and title. = A rare and sought-after part of a beautifully executed work of great scientific (taxonomical and nomenclatural) importance containing the descriptions and illustrations of many new and poorly-known shells. With fine illustrations by Duménil, Roch, Vaillant, Kiener himself, and others, as this work was meant to be of a scientific and aesthetic value. Louis Charles Kiener (1799-1881) "...made use of the famous Delessert collection and that of the Natural History Museum of Paris, the largest and most varied repositories of conchological material on the continent. "He soon put it to good use; and in 1834 he published the first part of his ‘Spécies’... This exquisitely illustrated iconography, started before the Sowerbys and Reeve began to issue theirs, appeared at intervals up to 1880, when eleven volumes had been completed" (Dance). This set covers the complete Conidae (cone shells), divided over two volumes - text and atlas - as it is, by far, the largest section of Kiener's magnum opus. Many species are described here for the first time. Kiener listed the genus Conus under the "famille des enroulés", together with other groups with an elongate aperture and short spire. The fine, hand-coloured plates by Maubert, Vaillant, Roch, and others, including some by Kiener himself, are among the most beautiful illustrations of cone shells ever published. Publication started in 1844 and was completed in 1850 (Faber). Boards much rubbed, detached; several sections in text spotted, sometimes more heavily in the margins; a few plates age-toned. The colouring strong yet subtle, often bright, enhanced with gum arabic. Without title pages. Boards rubbed; rear boards detached; lower part of the text volume's spine missing. Text leaves with some, mostly very light foxing; last few leaves with a weak damp-stain in the upper outer margin. Those plates after plate 72 (i.e., 73-111) are lacking, and substituted with colour copies (photographs). Caprotti, p. 197; Dance, (1986) A History of Shell Collecting, p. 137; Faber, M. (2011) The holy grail of Louis Charles Kiener’s “Spécies général des coquilles vivantes”, pp. 64-65; Nissen ZBI, 2183.

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