Five mollusc shells from the collection of August Martin Shadeloock, parson of St Lorenz, Nurmberg. After Johann Keller, Professor of drawing at Erlangen.

George Wolfgang Knorr’s elegant work on sea-shells was one of the most sumptuously illustrated German works of the 18th century. Les Delices des Yeux were in precis groupings according to Carl Linneas’s system of scientific classification, the basis for how all organisms are grouped today.. Drawn by Johann Keller, Professor of drawing at Erlangen and executed by a number of eminent engravers, the plates were then enhanced with delicate hand-colouring.

The late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries saw a growing number of wealthy collectors acquiring specimens and illustrations of rare and exotic shells, a trend to which Knorr’s work made a significant contribution. A gifted painter, engraver, prominent collector and art dealer, he acted as an intermediary between the collectors of cabinets of natural history and those who used the specimens for identification and scientific enquiry. Knorr gained an international reputation for producing works of fine quality and extreme accuracy, and this was one of his greatest productions.