Pleioscene Fossils of South Carolina. Containing Description and Figures of the Polyparia, Echinodermata and Mollusca

M. Tuomey & F.S. Holmes

Published by Russell Jones, Charleston, South Carolina, 1857

About this Item

1st edition. Hardcover in 3/4 brown leather and brown cloth, 11" x 13.75", xvi,152pp. plus thirty lithographic plates, each with a leaf of descriptive text. Quarto. A rare work on the fossils of South Carolina, embellished by thirty attractive lithographic plates of shells and coral samples. The work was issued in parts over a span of three years, with two plates per part (in five instances two parts were issued together). Several eminent scientists, including Louis Agassiz, L.R. Gibbes, Joseph Leidy, and John McCrady assisted with the descriptions. The main author of the work, Michael Tuomey, was the geologist to state of South Carolina and a professor of geology at the University of Alabama. He died while the final parts of the work were in production. This work was initially meant to accompany Tuomey's REPORT ON THE GEOLOGY OF SOUTH CAROLINA, published in 1848, but ineptitude on the part of the original artist caused a delay. The plates in the present work were drawn on stone by C.G. Platen, an artist at the College of Charleston. The lithographic prints (mostly of shells and coral) are very well done. The plates are accompanied by text giving descriptions of the specimens, and their localities. The preface notes that "the expense of preparing and publishing such a work was much beyond the calculation we had made at the commencement, and the liberality of the Legislature in subscribing for two hundred copies, alone saved us from heavy loss, and enabled us to complete it in the best style of art. It is a good specimen of what can be done by our artists at home." SABIN 87532. MEISEL III, p.473. BM (NATURAL HISTORY) SUPPLEMENT, p.1332. Seller Inventory # 100980

Bibliographic Details

Title: Pleioscene Fossils of South Carolina. ...

Publisher: Russell Jones, Charleston, South Carolina

Publication Date: 1857

Binding: Hardcover

Edition: 1st Edition