Compiled from specimens in the foremost French shell collections of the 18th century, almost all of which were dispersed after the French Revolution, the album may have been made as a model to show owners of Cabinets de Curiosités while the artist (who could be the lady on the shell held by Neptune in the watercolour title page pictured right) looked for a patron, but it is now of both conchological and historical significance, as well as offering examples of the difficult art of shell painting that are in many instances superior to those found in such well known shell books of the period as Knorr and Martini.
Buyer’s premium: 17.5/15/10%
The Lady of the Seashells?
Sold for £90,000 as part of the November 15 Natural History & Travel sale at Sotheby’s was an album of 162 conchological watercolours put together c.1764-82 by Mlle. J.C. Xavery, a miniaturist of Dutch descent and probably the sister of the flower and landscape painter Jacob Xavery, who was working in Paris around the same time.
