George Perry

See also: Perry

One is unaware of about all the life of George Perry if it is not that he is the author of two works of Natural history. He had to live in London or near this city. The only trace which one has of him is the appearance of its name in the list of the member of Palaeontographical Society, founded in 1847.

The first is entitled Arcana; however the museum off natural history , a monthly publication published of January 1810 in September 1811 and which treats Oiseau X, Mammifère S, Reptile S, Insecte S and other animals. He is the author of many boards of this work and engraving is entrusted to T.L. Busby.

In 1811, it makes appear its second work Conchology, but the natural history off shells: containing has new arrangement off the generated and species, illustrated by coloured engravings executed from the natural specimens, and including the latest discoveries (which comprises sixty-and-a boards colored with the hand). It is about a very important work on the Taxinomie of the Mollusque S because he described there certain species for the first time. In addition to an introduction of four pages and a final index, the text is summarized with a text placed opposite each board describing the shells which appear in it.

The quality of the illustrations of two works is very variable but overall better than that of the majority of the works of its time. As it was of everyday usage, Perry copied the illustrations of other authors (like Friedrich Wilhelm Martini (1729-1778), Johann Hieronymus Chemnitz (1730-1800), Franz Michael Regenfuss (1713-1780) for the shells).

The work is not accommodated favorably by all the naturalists since Gerard Paul Deshayes (1795-1875) will write of him: This work, of a great luxury, offers figures engraved and colored made to like the eyes of the people not very versed in science, and not those of truths naturalists, because the majority do not have anything exact in the form and the color; as for the text, one notices many errors there…

The scarcity of the work explains the price which it can reach in public sales (between 8.500 and 18.000 dollars).

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