This selection from Choix de Coquillages et de Crustaces is a Perfect Recreation™ of a part of the largest format work on shells ever produced. The composition of shells on this page gives great esthetic value to this highly detailed scientific reference for shell collectors.

About Franz Michael Regenfuss

Regenfuss' famous illustrations of exotic seashells reflected and stimulated the great interest of 18th century Europeans in the arrival of elaborate specimens from increasingly distant locales.

His Choix de Coquillages et de Crustaces is the largest format work on shells ever produced. The 1758 publication was an immediate success that appealed equally to collectors of art and to 18th-century conchologists working to identify and classify types and species.

The Regenfuss drawings are highly detailed and were delicately hand-colored by his wife. The combination of exceptionally fine drawing, engraving and coloring produces a distinctly three-dimensional impression. Commissioned by the King of Denmark, more care was given to the production of these images than to any other shell illustrations in history -- with clearly magnificent results.