MURCHISON, Sir Roderick Impey (1792-1871) - photo 1
MURCHISON, Sir Roderick Impey (1792-1871) - photo 2
MURCHISON, Sir Roderick Impey (1792-1871) - photo 3
MURCHISON, Sir Roderick Impey (1792-1871) - photo 4
MURCHISON, Sir Roderick Impey (1792-1871) - photo 5
MURCHISON, Sir Roderick Impey (1792-1871) - photo 6
MURCHISON, Sir Roderick Impey (1792-1871) - photo 7
MURCHISON, Sir Roderick Impey (1792-1871) - photo 8

MURCHISON, Sir Roderick Impey (1792-1871)

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£ 3 780
Auction dateClassic
14.12.2022 10:30UTC +01:00
Auctioneer
CHRISTIE'S
Event location
United Kingdom, London
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ID 870845
Lot 181 | MURCHISON, Sir Roderick Impey (1792-1871)
MURCHISON, Sir Roderick Impey (1792-1871)

The Silurian System. London: John Murray, 1839.

Complete copy – with the extremely rare three-sheet geological map – of this 'important milestone in geology, for it established the oldest fossil-bearing classification then known' (ODNB). Murchison's geological research in the Welsh borderland and South Wales brought to an end the confusion hitherto surrounding the so-called 'Transition' rocks. 'Murchison was the first to establish a uniform sequence of Transition strata, to which he gave the name "Silurian" after a British tribe; these strata constituted a major system with uniform fossil remains, displaying an abundance of invertebrates and a complete lack... of the remains of vertebrates or land plants' (Norman 1596). The implications for the evolutionary history of the earth were enormous. 'Although the map is a rarity today, every copy of the text was published with a map' (Thackray, p.69). BM(NH) III, 1380; Challinor 141; Dibner Heralds 97; Norman 1569; J.C. Thackray 'R.I, Murchison's Silurian System (1839)' in J. Soc. Biblphy nat. Hist. (1978) 9 (1): 61-73; Ward & Carozzi 1620.



2 parts in one volume, quarto (311 x 246mm). Errata slip, 2 engraved topographical maps, 14 lithographic plates of views of which 2 folding and 3 hand-coloured, 9 folding hand-coloured engraved geological sections, 31 plates of fossils of which 25 engraved and 6 lithographic (variable spotting, more heavily affecting the lithographic plates, the text mostly clean). Slightly later 19th-century morocco by Hering (rebacked preserving original spine, extremities lightly rubbed); hand-coloured engraved 3-sheet geological map dissected and mounted on linen and housed in an accompanying ?publisher's cloth slipcase, gilt lettered leather spine label (unevenly faded, one side spotted, extremities rubbed). Provenance: Robert Aglionby Slaney (1791-1862, MP for Shrewsbury; ownership inscription with place of Walford Manor, Shropshire; by descent to:) – William Slaney Kenyon-Slaney (1847-1908, MP for Newport, Shropshire; armorial bookplate).





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Place of origin:Northern Europe, Europe, United Kingdom
Auction house category:Medicine & science, Printed books
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10.12.2022 – 13.12.2022
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