This note is meant to clear up some possible confusion with respect to the
arrangement of plates in the four volumes of Chenu's "Illustrations
Conchyliologiques" (1842-1853) which I had mentioned in a contribution last
week.
Gary Rosenberg remarked that the plates of the Naticidae which I has stated to
be in volume 4 were actually in volume 1 according to Sherborn, and were in
volume 3 of the set Gary had consulted at the ANSP.
At first glance this may appear to be a strange thing, discussing the exact
position of a plate within a multi-volume work. However, in the old days books
were often issued in several parts over a long period of time, with the parts
later on being collated by the binder into volumes. In most cases instructions
were provided to the binder as to which parts should be bound together.
However, in some cases no such instructions were issued, so every book binder
was free to come up with his own idea of how to arrange the various parts.
Particulary in those cases where plates were not numbered consecutively, they
could be arranged according to publication date, or alphabetically by some key
word in the plate legend, or according to some taxonomic system.
 
The "Illustrations Conchyliologiques" obviously have been bound in various
different ways. Sherborn in the Index Animalium cites the Natica species as
being published in volume 1.
The first collation of the many parts of this work later was reported by
Sherborn & Smith in 1911 (Proc. Malacol. Soc. Lond. 9, 264-267). They cited
pls. 2 and 3 of the genus Natica as published in 1843, with parts 12/13 of the
work, and plate 4 of Natica with parts 18/19, also published in 1843. However,
they did not mention any specific organization of the 85 parts into four
volumes. Probably, they were aware of the fact that different sets had
different arrangements.
Richard I. Johnson in 1963 then published a paper entitled "The arrangement
and contents of the genera described in J.C. Chenu's "Illustrations
Conchyliologiques" (J. Soc. Bibl. Nat. Hist. 4, 92-95). He reported on 88
parts, and listed the arrangement of the copy in the British Museum where the
Natica plates appear in volume 3. He also mentions a personal copy of this
work in which the genera are arranged alphabetically, and in which the Natica
plates appear in volume 2.
The set I quoted when I discussed the status of N. delessertiana last week is
the set kept at the Delaware Museum of Natural History in Wilmington. In this
set the Natica plates are bound in volume 4, the last volume of the set. The
reason for this might have been the fact that these plates had been issued
without any descriptive text, and therefore might have been moved to the end
of the set by the binder.
 
In conclusion, the Natica plates may appear in each of the 4 volumes of this
work. It would be best not to refer to a volume number at all, but rather to
the name of the first genus appearing in the legend of the plate and the plate
number (plates were numbered, though not consecutively, but rather within each
genus).
 
Michael Hollmann
 
 
 
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