Regenfuss, Franz Michael | The most sumptuous illustrated conchological book ever published, with plates colored by the artist's wife

Regenfuss, Franz Michael

Auserlesne Schnecken, Muscheln und andre Schaalthiere auf allerhöchsten Befehl Seiner Königlichen Majestät nach den Originalen gemalt, in Kupfer gestochen, und mit natrlichen Farben erleuchtet / Choix de Coquillages et de Crustacés peints d'après nature, gravés en taille-douce et illuminés de leurs vraies couleurs. Copenhagen: Andreas Hartwig Godsiche, 1758

Volume I (all published). Broadsheets (642 x 460 mm). Neatly mounted on guards throughout, half-title in French and German (with dual-language instructions to bookbinders on verso), two letterpress titles, one in French, the other in German, parallel text in French and German in roman and gothic types, allegorical mezzotint portrait frontispiece of Frederic V, King of Denmark and Sweden, printed in sanguine, 12 very fine handcolored engraved plates after and by Regenfuss, mostly colored by his wife, Margaret Helene, as well as by G. Mueller and Johann M. Leyh, mezzotint head- and tailpiece printed in sanguine; some plates a little spotted, soiled, or creased, plate IV with several short tears at lower margin artlessly repaired at early date, a few leaves with marginal fraying or tears, very occasional light marginal dampstaining. Contemporary marbled boards, plain endpapers and edges; rebacked and recornered in calf. Yellow cloth folding-box. 

First edition, second issue, of the largest and most exquisite of all shell books, including images of 145 species "peinte avec la plus grande perfection" (Brunet). "Published in 1758, the year Carl von Linné brought out the definitive tenth edition of his Systema Naturae, this outsized book … was written by Christian Gottlieb Kratzenstein but illustrated with engravings based on original drawings by Regenfuss. Its twelve plates display exotic shells decoratively arranged and exquisitely coloured, the artist's wife being responsible for most of the colouring. Appropriately the Danish royal family and the nobility helped to defray the production costs of this aristocrat among shell books" (Dance, "Delights").

Regenfuss, a German painter and engraver, was evidently inspired by the 1742 publication of Conchyliologie by Antoine Joseph Dezallier d'Argenville, a conventional but popular identification guide, to plan "the publication of book which was to contain a scientific text on shells and crustaceans and numerous illustrations. He issued an advertisement in 1748 in which the study of shells was greatly recommended and invited subscriptions for his forthcoming book. The text, which had been supplied by Friedrich Christian Lesser, a German pastor and author of a semi-thological work on shells, Testaceo-Theologia, did not satisfy Regenfuss and he halted the work temporarily. Through the mediation of the Dane, Count A.G. Moltke, and the King of Denmark and Norway, Frederic V, Regenfuss went to Copenhagen where he was appointed engraver to the King [a position he held until his death in 1780] and was able to continue with his book. He produced twelve plates with figures of shells, all of them drawn by himself and coloured mostly by his wife. In 1758, after further setbacks with the text, to which several persons contributed, the book was finally published [and] was an immediate success, principally, one suspects, for the superb quality of its plates and, perhaps, for the size of the book itself which has a larger surface area than any conchological work published before or since" (Dance, History).

The first issue, published the same year with a brief text by C. G. Kratzenstein, was supressed by King Frederic V; the second issue featured a longer, collaborative text by Lorenz Spengler, Johann Andreas Cramer, and Peter Ascanius, expanded from Kratzenstein's original. Regenfuss completed twelve further watercolor illustrations for a planned second volume, but although a few sets of engravings were printed, a text was not completed and the work was never published.

Once settled in Copenhagen with a royal appointment, Regenfuss evidently went to some length to conceal the Nuremberg origin of his illustrations, and most copies of Auserlesne Schnecken, Muscheln und andre Schaalthiere have evidence of at least some plate imprints being effaced, although such evidence in the present copy is very indistinct. Of course, Regenfuss may have eliminated the imprints at the foot of the engravings in order to make the plates look as much as possible like original watercolors.

REFERENCE:

BM (NH) IV, p.1665; Brunet IV. 1180; Dance, A History of Shell Collecting (1986) 38; Dance, "Delights for the Eyes and the Mind: A Brief Survey of Conchological Books" (http://www.bio-nica.info/biblioteca/DanceBibliophile.pdf); Nissen ZBI 3338; Van Benthem Jutting, "On the Conchological Work of F.M. Regenfuss" (https://repository.naturalis.nl/pub/319124) 

PROVENANCE:

Wilbraham Egerton (1781-1856, Tatton Park, Cheshire, armorial bookplate) — Christie’s London, 22 March 2000, Lot 138 (undesignated consignor)