Cuvier, Recherches sur les Ossemens fossiles, 1824, G. Mantell's copy, extra- illustrated

MANTELL, GIDEON--CUVIER, GEORGES.

Recherches sure les Ossemens Fossiles ... nouvelle edition ... tome cinquieme, 2e partie, contenant les ossemans de reptiles et le résumé général. Paris: Dufour et D'Ocagne, 1824

4to, 32 plates (11 folding), GIDEON MANTELL'S COPY, with scattered marginal annotations in pencil and ink to text and illustrations, EXTENSIVELY EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED with 15 pages of original drawings by George Nibbs of fossils, chiefly Iguanodon bones, in india ink, wash, and pencil; an additional unsigned leaf with ink drawings of fossil bones; 9 additional plates (3 folding) of fossil reptiles; two further prints loosely inserted (at p.328); FURTHER AUGMENTED WITH ADDITIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONTENT AND RELATED OFF-PRINTS, with an autograph note signed by Mantell on a gavial crocodile skeleton (2 pages); an autograph letter signed by Roderick Murchison, to Mantell, expressing his pleasure that "you are going to produce your dear pet the Iguanodon at our next meeting [of the Royal Society]", and other subjects, 4 pages, 8vo, 23 November [1824]; Mantell, 'Notice on the Iguanodon', offprint from Philosophical Transactions, London: W. Nicol, 1825, with engraved plate; William Buckland, 'Notice on the Megalosaurus or Great Fossil Lizard of Stonesfield', offprint from the Transactions of the Geological Society of London, London: Richard Taylor, 1824, with 4 engraved plates; Sir Everard Home, 'Some account of the fossil remains of an Animal more nearly allied to Fishes than any of the other classes of Animals' (headed "The 1st Memoir on the Icthyosaurus"), transcription from the Philosophical Transactions, 1814, in the hand of Mary Mantell, with four finely executed pencil and wash copies of the plates (one folding); G.F. Jaeger, Uber die Fossile Reptilien, welche in Würtemberg aufgefunden worden sind. Stuttgart: Metzler, 1828, 6 plates (5 folding); contemporary calf, rebacked retaining lettering piece, hinges crudely strengthened

A KEY WORK FROM THE LIBRARY OF THE PIONEER PALAEONTOLOGIST GIDEON MANTELL, INCLUDING ORIGINAL DRAWINGS OF IGUANODON FOSSILS BOTH BY HIS ILLUSTRATOR GEORGE NIBBS. AND HIS WIFE MARY ANN (WHO DISCOVERED THE FIRST IGUANODON FOSSIL). The great majority of Mantell’s library, some 1000 volumes, was given to the Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand, in 1927, including his copy of the 1835 English translation of Cuvier’s Recherches.

PROVENANCE:

Gideon Mantell (ownership inscription on title page and armorial bookplate); Brassey Institute Museum Library, Hastings (library stamp "Hastings Museum"); sold to Howes Bookshop, Hastings, in 1963 (de-accession letter accompanying current lot); acquired by the current owner in 2005 

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