The Mineral Conchology of Great Britain by James Sowerby, £14,000 at Flints.
The first six volumes of this famous work were published between 1812-29 with the unfinished seventh volume or supplement published much later (1840-46) in eight parts. Typically, it is absent from most surviving sets.
All of the volumes bar the supplement in this set have ink corrections and additions in the same unidentified contemporary hand. They include many of the printed specimen titles crossed out and corrected, changes to the text, alterations to page numbers and contents and, in the case of Volume IV, two pages completely handwritten.
As an intriguing and complete copy, it sold at £14,000, well above the estimate of £2000-4000.
The Mineral Conchology…, a comprehensive catalogue of many invertebrate fossils found in England, was one of several monumental publishing projects attempted by Sowerby. After he died in 1822, some of the 650 coloured plates were completed by his sons James De Carte Sowerby and Geroge Bettingham Sowerby.
