Essais ou Recueil de mémoires sur plusieurs points de minéralogie.

8vo: xxxvi-580 pp. (some min. browning).

Contemp. quarter mottled calf with corners, marbled paper on covers, gilt orn. spine on 5 raised bands, brown leather title label, red edges.

Original edition by the French chemist, physician and professor in natural history L.C.H. Macquart (1745-1808). Ill. with 7 engr. pl. by Sellier after Fossier. "The eight memoirs comprising the text are based on the author's travel experiences in the Urals, Siberia, the vicinity of Moscow, and Poland. Among them are several of great interest to the gemologist, eg, the first memoir, on chalcedony pseudomorphs after gypsum [...] with several specimens being depicted upon the first plate. A visit to the celebrated Wieliczka salt mines is narrated as well as visits to salt mines in Siberia. Memoirs three to five are mineralogically important [...]. The eighth memoir is gemologically the most important" (Sinkankas).
Ref. Sinkankas 4117. - Poggendorff II:7. - BnF. - Opac KBR. - COPAC.