Scope and Contents: Mss.
James de Carle Sowerby was an English naturalist and artist. "The majority of Sowerby's time was soon devoted to describing and illustrating material for leading geologists, including Sedgwick, Murchison, Buckland, and Fitton, who employed him to deal with their fossils."--DNB.
[Item 1: "Descriptions of fossil shells for Frederic Dixon Esqr. 1844", being a list of plates and figures to include in Dixon's 'The geology and fossils of the Tertiary and Cretaceous formations of Sussex' (London, 1850)]
[Items 2-5: Notes on fossils, some with intended plate and figure numbers for Dixon's work]
[Item 6: Penciled sketch of fossils]
[Item 7: "Descriptions of the fossils of the chalk formation (new species) to follow Echinodermata"]
[Item 8: Notes on "mollusca", including intended plate and figure numbers]
[Items 9-10: Notes on production status of plates for Dixon's work]
[Item 11: "Size of the work for Mr. Dixon's plates of shells" on recto; penciled sketches and notes, with "Dec. 26 1846 returned to Mr. Edwards his specimens numbered ...", on verso]
[Item 12: Letter, 1 Feb. 1850, "Dear sir, Will you be so good as to say what title is to be at the bottom of the plates below? Yours faithfully J. de C. Sowerby Tab XX, XXI and XXII, XXIII, XXIV, XXIVA"].
Item 1 is a codex (commercially produced notebook, ruled); remainder are single leaves.
Item 5 measures 325 x 104 mm., folded to 169 x 104 mm.
Items 2-10 are undated.
Purchased from Bernard Quaritch, London, 4 Dec. 1965.
Former shelf-mark: Uncat. 66 386 (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library).
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