Brander, Gustavus — Daniel Solander | First edition catalog of fossil shells in the Brander collection

Brander, Gustavus — Daniel Solander

Fossilia Hantoniensia collecta et in Musaeo Britannico deposita, a Gustavo Brander [catalogued by Daniel Solander]. London: [n.p.], 1766

4to (268 x 215 mm). Half-title, engraved vignette on title and 9 finely engraved plates by Green, depicting a total of over 120 fossil marine mollusk specimens; leaves mounted on guards, top of M1 shaved, M2 is an uncancelled state, missing R, catchwords don’t match from 42 to 43, pages lightly toned, primarily marginal foxing, small hole to two gatherings, finger smudges to margins. Nineteenth-century green half-morocco marbled boards, spine in 7 gilt-tooled compartments, third gilt lettered; corners bumped with slight loss, rubbing to extremities.

First edition, detailing the fossil shells of Hampshire in the Brander collection.

Brander, director of the Bank of England from 1761 to 1779, was an amateur naturalist and collector, amassing a “grand collection of minerals, fossils and petrifications” (Wilson). He was a trustee of the British Museum, to which he donated his collection. Daniel Solander, a Swedish scientist and member of the museum’s staff, carefully catalogued the collection for the present volume.

REFERENCES

Wilson, The History of Mineral Collecting, p. 88

PROVENANCE

Joseph A. Freilich (booklabel to upper pastedown; Sotheby’s New York, 10 January 2001, lot 84)