18thC antique print of L'Oreille de Cochon Shell c1742.

by Gualtieri, Niccolo

Gualtieri Conchology, Pig's Ear Shell. Original antique print, drawn and engraved by Guiseppe Menabuoni for Niccolo Gualtieri's Index Testarum Conchyliorum quae adservantur in Museo Niccoli Gualtieri (List of Shells in the Museum of Nicolai Gualtieri), published in Florence, Italy circa 1742.

Marine life were illustrated in family groups, artistically arranged, with shells standing on end and casting shadows. The shell illustrations combine scientific observation with aesthetic appreciation of the natural colors, textures, and shapes of the shells. The draughtsmen of the superb arrangements of seashell specimens from Gualtieri's shell collection for this series of engravings were painter, draughtsman and engraver Giuseppe Menabuoni (1708-1745) and painter-engraver Giovanni Domenico Campiglia (1692-1768). The engravers of the fabulous illustrations of Gualtieri's shell collection were Italian painter, printmaker, Abbot, Pietro Antonio Pazzi (1706-1766) (who studied with Cosimo Mogalli (1667-1730)), Mogalli's daughter Teresa Mogalli (active artist from 1716 to 1760), and Bernardo Sansone Sgrilli (fl.1733-1755).

Niccolo Gualtieri (1688-1744) was an Italian medical doctor and professor at the University of Pisa.  In 1716 Gualtieri co-founded the first European botanical society, the Botanical Society of Florence. His main passion was conchology (shells). Gualtieri's collection of molluscs, and the system he devised for their classification, were praised by eminent zoologists, including Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and Carl Linnaeus.

A superb engraving!  Page size is 455 x 320mm (17.75 x 12.5 inches). To plate mark, approximately 370 x 240mm (14.5 x 9.5 inches).