The Scallop: Studies of a Shell and its Influences on Mankind

First edition, first impression.  136pp with numerous illustrations, many in full colour.  Red cloth-covered boards with elaborate gilt decorations front and spine.  Illustrated endpapers.  8vo.  Cloth is a little rounded on corners and spine ends but remains vibrant.  Internally neat, clean, bright and tight. An extraordinary study of the sea scallop, with chapters on its pedigree, its life cycle, the scallop in ancient times, the Badge of St James, The Cradle of Venus, Escallops in Armoury, An Excursion into the Americas and the Scallop at the Table and its use as a foodstuff.  Produced for the Shell Transport and Trading Company, a forerunner of what is now Shell plc, a British multinational oil and gas company.  The "Shell" Transport and Trading Company (the inverted commas were part of the originally registered tradename) was originally founded by Marcus Samuel Sr, an antiques dealer in London in the early part of the 19th century to enable him to expand his business into the import and selling of decorative seashells.