(Catalog — Delalain) | A rare 1769 auction catalog of an extensive mineral collection, with manuscript prices

[Delalain, Nicolas Augustin — Auction Catalog]

Catalogue raisonné d'une collection choisie de minéraux, cristallisations, madrépores, coquilles & autres curiosités de la nature & de l'art. Paris: Delalain, 1769

8vo (202 x 128 mm). Woodcut device on title, typographic headpiece and tailpiece ornament, ownership inscription on title, the catalog is priced throughout, the text with a few emendations and annotations in the text, and the sale total is given at end, all written in ink in a contemporary hand; marginal stain mostly to verso of leaf A8 but affecting the entire gathering, a short marginal tear at top edge of leaf H8, the final three leaves creased and lightly soiled, the final two leaves with Japanese tissue repairs to tears at top edge. Modern brown mottled paper boards, brown morocco gilt spine label.

A rare, priced auction catalog of an extensive mineral collection, filled with detailed descriptions of specimens. The minerals are followed by short sections on shells, jewelry, and various other “curiosités de l’art et nature.” The sales were held in Paris from April 4 to 26, 1769, realizing 28,858 livres and 9 sous in total, an enormous amount at the time. 

The mid-eighteenth century was a period of increasing interest in minerology and, by association, mineral collecting, spurred on by the new discoveries being made by scientists and naturalists such as Lavoisier, Macquer, Romé de l’Isle, and Werner. According to the catalog’s Avant-Propos, “la collection de Mineraux que nous présentons au publique, dans ce Catalogue, est bien propre à entretenir le goût de la Minérologie, qui, secondé par Chymie, fait tous les jours dans cette capitale le progrès les plus rapides. Cette collection est un choix formé dans plusiers cabinets d'Allemagne & d'Angleterre, ou dans les Mines memes; on s'y flatte que les Amateurs y trouveront des morceaux dignes de grandes & belles Collections qu'ils possedent; les Naturalistes des variétés neuves, rares & singuliers; & enfin ceux qui veulent s'instruire, de petites suites intéressantes pour l'étude des Mines.”

Rare—no other copies of this catalog have appeared at auction, per Rare Book Hub; only a handful of examples in libraries, mostly in France with UC Berkeley as the only US holding per WorldCat.