Index Testaceologicus; or A Catalogue of Shells, British and Foreign, Arranged According to the Linnean System with the Latin and English Names, References to Authors, and Places Where Found

London, UK: Richard Taylor. Good. 0. Second Edition. Hardcover. With: Supplement to the Index Testaceologicus and A List of the Plates of the "Index Testaceologicus," with the Lamarckian Names Adapted to the Figures in Each Plate. No date. 188pp + supplements. Over 2700 miniature hand-colored engravings were drawn from original specimens in private collections. Originally trained as a surgeon, Wood left the trade to work as a naturalist and wrote several books, this one being his most important. Full leather with gilt rules and blind stamping on both covers, a bit scuffed, edges of boards rubbed. Text is clean and free of markings, several owner and bookseller stamps and signatures to first few pages. With laid in envelope and letter from Mark Cohen of Marks & Co. Booksellers to Mary Helen Dawson dated January 30th, 1953, with additional receipt from bookseller Norman Colbeck. This copy was the gift of Mark Cohen at Marks & Co., Booksellers at 84, Charing Cross Road to Mary Helen Dawson, wife of Glen Dawson, co-owner of Dawson's Book Shop in Los Angeles during the 1940s through the 1990s. Mary Helen was an avid shell collector. In the book 84, Charing Cross Road, the author begins a correspondence with Frank Doel, bookbuyer for the Marks & Co. bookstore in 1949 after being unable to find a US source for the British literature. The correspondence developed into a friendship, with gifts and food parcels being sent overseas to help with the shortages after WWII. The story of the Marks & Co. bookstore with the Dawsons is a nice parallel, with Glen Dawson originally visiting England in the 1930s to learn the book trade and maintaining a close relationship after. As WWII threatened, Marks & Co. sent many of their books to the US for safekeeping, with the understanding that they would be returned or sold. Dawson's was able to sell the books and send large checks back to England. The letter, handwritten on Marks & Co. stationery, attests to this friendship.; Book; 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall .