Seashell Engravings by Niccolo Gualtieri, 1742

A pair of Seashell Engravings by Niccolo Gualtieri, Engraved by Antonio Pazzi and Giuseppe Menabuoni.

Dated 1742.

Paper.

A pair of framed hand coloured sea shell prints from the Index Testarum Conchyliorum by Niccolo Gualtieri. Engaved by Antonio Pazzi and Giuseppe Menabuoni, and published in 1742.

These extremely rare prints are some of the most desirable of all the shell prints, with large, beautiful illustrations. Menabuoni and Pazzi created 110 splendid plates reproducing specimens of Gualtieri's shell collection.

Niccolo Gualtieri (1688-1747) was a doctor and professor, who also studied mollusks. He amassed a large collection of shells, and it was these that provided the subject matter for Index Testarum Conchyliorum.

Antonio Pazzi was an Italian painter and printmaker, and Giuseppe Menabuoni was an Italian painter, draftsman and engraver based in Florence. He studied with Tommaso Redi.

Aside from being a painter and printmaker, Italian Antonio Pazzi was also an abbot. He was born in Florence and studied with Cosimo Mogalli. He engraved the well known series of portraits of painters in the Florence Gallery for A.F. Gori's Museum Florentinum (1731-62).

He also engraved the natural history studies of seashells for Niccolo Gualtieri's Index Testarum Conchyliorum. The Royal Gallery of Florence has his self-portrait in its collection.

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