Credit: © The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.9820
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    ‘Patella oblonga’ shell

    Date
    1785
    Creator
    John Agnew (British) , Gardener
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Material
    Dimensions
    height (painting): 223mm
    width (painting): 181mm
    Subject
    Content object
    nature
       > animal
    Description
    Plate 3 figures 1-4 from the paper “An account of some minute British shells, either not duly observed, or totally unnoticed by Authors. In a letter to Sir Joseph Banks...”, by John Lightfoot, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, vol.76 (1786), pp.160-170.

    Six figures of a freshwater shell discovered “adhering to the leaves of Iris pseudacorus in waters near Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire.” Figures 1-4 show the shell at life size and in different orientations. Figure 5 shows the shell magnified Figure 6 shows the Patella lacustris.

    John Lightfoot stated in his paper [p.168] that specimens were found “by Mr Agnew, Gardener to the late Duchess Dowager of Portland; by whose sagacity all the preceding shells were discovered, and by whose faithful pencil they were drawn”.

    Inscribed in ink with the title and a numbered key to the figures. Not signed.
    Associated place
    <The World>
       > Europe
          > United Kingdom
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