Summer has finally arrived, and for those of us lucky enough to be heading for the beach, Taschen has come out with a solution to the beach house host or hostess gift, and as a bonus – something to do with all those bare walls once you get there.
Conchology/Shells (italics) or its other title Shells-Muscheln-Coquillages (italics), consists of very attractive reproductions of eighteenth-century illustrations by Antoine-Joseph Dezallier d' Argenville of freshwater, terrestrial, and fossil shells.
I would buy two of them, (at Amazon they cost $26.39 each) and while no one was looking, break the second book up, and go buy frames to hang the 10“ by 13&1/2" pages of detailed illustrations of colored shells in all shapes and sizes. If you want to be more economical, you could settle for Shells (Taschen Large Calendar,(italics) for only $16.49, and get the full-size version with fewer plates – and (italics) you will have to wait until its August 1st publication date.
Conchology/Shells (italics) is more than just a series of plates however. Author Veronica Carpita begins the book with an introduction to Antoine-Joseph Dezallier d'Argenville, a fascinating and colorful Frenchman who pulled together the original collection of scallops, terrestrial snails, molluscs, and gastropods back in 1780. He was a tireless and obsessive collector who was clearly a man of the future.
Dezallier d'Argenville prefigured the nineteenth-century connoisseurs and naturalists who spread the knowledge and discoveries of the new world. "In his elegant hotel particular (italics) in the rue du Temple, Dezallier d'Argenville established a veritable cabinet de curiosite (italics), where he would retire to study and write," explains Carpita. "His cabinet (italics) contained a richly endowed library, as well as a collection from the worlds of art and the natural sciences."
Dezallier d‘Argenville went to endless trouble to find rare shells, and spent a lifetime developing a system of classification and publishing books on the subject. Not to mention his other enthusiasms, which included that of a musician, amateur composer, gardener, and interest in hydraulics – even going so far as creating "actual projects of gardens, boscages, labyrinths, vegetal theatre structures and fountains for his estate at d'Argenville, and then for his ermitage (italics) in Bievres, near Versailles," writes Carpita.
The author traces the history of shell collecting; imagine being Aristotle in 300BC starting to sort out, for the first time, a pile of shells into some type of classification. And who knew that the Shell Oil Company was "involved in the commerce of shells“? Carpita also quite rightly points out that "the innumerable shapes and appearances of shells, sometimes immaculately white, other times dazzlingly coloured, have in fact always inspired the manufacture of artistic objects in all forms, from painting to the work of goldsmiths, from architecture to textiles, from sculpture to furniture, and from weapons to stage design."
I liked the sea urchins and chitons – they would make a great fabric design – and you could recreate the freshwater shells on planche LXII (italics)as a set of dishes. The inspiration is endless once you start looking. That is, if (italics) you decide to keep the book for yourself!