This little shell may be considered as affording an excellent type of one of the rarer kinds of Conus Ammiralis, the variety denominated the Six-banded high-spired Admiral Cone. During a period of some years that have now elapsed since the dispersion of that collection, no other example of this variety has occurred to our observation more perfect and characteristic in all its markings.
FIGURE III.
CONUS AMMIRALIS var CEDO NULLI α.
OLIVE-BANDED NONPAREIL CONE.
Spire high and tapering; marbled white, fulvous, and dusky; body-wreath with three subolivaceous bands, the broadest towards the spire, with four belts of whitish dots; the two others towards the narrow end each with a single row of dots.
If in the preceding instances we have produced some novelties worthy of particular attention, the present shell, in point of value as well as beauty, must also lay a distinguished claim to our consideration. This is one of those rare varieties of Conus Ammiralis denominated the Cedo Nulli, or Cedo Nulli pretiossissimus, in allusion to the incomparable value affixed to the varieties of this peculiar species. The importance attached to the shells of this kind may indeed be best conceived by stating that some of its varieties have been valued at twenty, fifty, and one hundred guineas; one, in almost every respect resembling that delineated at figure 4, the celebrated Cedo Nulli of Lyonet’s cabinet, was valued by Lyonet himself, about the year 1732, at three hundred guineas; and either this shell, or another very similar to it, actually realized a sum of 1200 florins.
As the shells of this kind may very justly be presumed to be of the first rarity, every trait of information that may appear calculated to elucidate their history, it is presumed, will not only be permitted but be deemed acceptable, and under this impression the ensuing observations are submitted.
Much about the æra of the first explosion of the French Revolution of 1789, and within the space of a few years after, it is perfectly well known that many of the choicest cabinets and collections of rarities that had before been the pride of France and Holland were consigned to this country for the sake of safety, and being in some instances afterwards dispersed, had tended, in no small degree, to enrich the cabinets of our own country. It was at this period that many very rare shells occurred to our observation which have since disappeared, and among others, several of those varieties of Cedo nulli which had been before held in other parts of Europe in considerable estimation. In the year 1797 we saw no less than five specimens of this rare shell, all varying a little from each other, in the cabinet of the French Minister of State, M. de Calonne; in one, the colour was pale, in another deeper, one was lineated, and another distinguished by having three distinct bands.
At the dispersion of the Calonnian Museum, which took place by public sale rather more than twenty years ago, the series of these valuable shells passed into the fine collection of the present Earl Tankerville, a collection his lordship was then forming for the pleasure of an amiable and beloved daughter since deceased, and these shells are still considered among the more choice rarities of that valuable cabinet.
The shell, however, more immediately under our consideration, the variety, delineated at figure 3, is from another source; it was among the spoils of rarities sent over to this country from Holland, at the time of the insurrection connected with the first inroads of the French into that country. The shell passed into the hands of a merchant of curiosities in London, and being afterwards sold, its destination is uncertain; the price affixed was twenty guineas.
This shell corresponded very nearly with the variety denominated Seba’s Cedo nulli, having once formed a part of the museum of the celebrated Seba, but it could not be the same, because the entire collection of Seba, which at the period of the French invasion constituted part of the Royal Museum of the Stadtholder, was carried into France and its contents distributed among the other objects of natural history in the French Museum[[2]]. The description which Favanne has left us of the Cedo nulli De Seba is in the following words, and will be found on a near comparison to accord pretty accurately with our present shell:—“Le Cedo nulli de Seba, à large bande citron foncé, chargée de quatre cordelettes de grains inégaux, blancs, bleus, rouges et orangés. Le reste de sa robe est fascié et marbré d’orangé-brun, de jaune, de rouge et bleu-pâle sur un fond blanc avec deux bandes grenues vers le bas.”