Shells from nature. And God said, let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life.

Shells from nature. And God said, let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life . Genesis 1.20. In the great and wide sea are breeding things innumerable. Psalm 104, Verse 25. English manuscript on paper. No place 1828. Illustrated watercolour title with manuscript text, 90 watercolour plates with hundreds of images of shells, plates and including title numbered in a cont. hand 1 through 91 in upper right corner. Cont. English dark purple half morocco, flat spine richly gilt. Endpapers lined with yellow Spanish marbled paper based on polychrome stone marbled decoration. All edges gilt. 4to (285 x 224 mm). Extremeties slightly worn.

A finely executed pictorial survey on shells by a talented English female watercolourist. Hephzibah Need (1758-1841) was born into a wealthy family. Her father Samuel Need (1718-1781), was a successful hosiery industrialist in Fountain Dale, Nottingham and a key figure in the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. In 1747 he acquired a row of three houses on Low Pavement in Nottingham and converted them into a single house and a warehouse. The property provided a base from which to run his hosier's business from. Soon after this date a silk mill was added on the site. In 1759 he invested in Jedediah Strutt's Derby Rib Machine. Their partnership proved to be very successful, so that they could invest returns in Richard Arkwright's new spinning technology. Together the three partners built Cromford Mill (1771), followed by mills at Belper (1778) and Milford (1779). Hephzibah Need married Edward Abney of Measham Hall (1751-1827), son of William Abney and Katherine Wotton, on November 17, 1779 at St. Peter's Parish in Nottinghamshire, England. She died in 1841 in Measham Hall, Derbyshire. She was an accomplished amateur watercolourist specialised in natural history subjects. Whether she received formal training as a draughtswoman and watercolourist isn't verifiable for me. A number of her botanical and zoological drawings are known to have been sold on auctions.