Catalog Archive
Auction 140, Lot 63

"Ideal Section of a Portion of the Earth's Crust, Intended to Shew the Order of Deposition of the Stratified Rocks, with their Relations to the Unstratified Rocks",

Subject: Cartographic Miscellany

Period: 1837 (dated)

Publication:

Color: Hand Color

Size:
46.8 x 8 inches
118.9 x 20.3 cm
Download High Resolution Image
(or just click on image to launch the Zoom viewer)

This large-scale folding chart, by Webster and Buckland, shows the rock strata of the earth's crust. This was one of the earliest attempts to visually integrate Steno's principle of superposition with William Smith's use of fossils to identify the age of rock strata. The chart shows younger sedimentary rocks overlying older metamorphic and igneous rocks, and recent volcanic deposits above previously deposited strata. Buckland added 120 striking illustrations of fossil and living organisms, arranging them from left to right above the rock layers according to their presumed age. Dinosaurs, not yet named and recognized, are represented by a horned Iguanodon. A Dodo bird is shown, along with a note that it had not been found alive since 1691. Published in the 1837 London edition of William Buckland's Geology and Mineralogy.

References:

Condition: A

Beautiful color, with just a hint of toning at top and a tiny edge tear at bottom.

Estimate: $550 - $700

Sold for: $400

Closed on 5/23/2012

Archived