lUHANG TILL K. SV. VET.-AKAB. HAND].. BAND 13. AFD. IV. X:0 5. 5 



eiastic way wlieu Iccturing on tlie Testacea in 1752, »possesses 

 a cabinet of shells tliat surpasses every otlicr in Europé. Its 

 foimdation was laid when Her Majesty acqiiired tlic clioice 

 coUection of a higli functionary at Amsterdam who liad spent 

 all liis life in forming it», and this »together with four or 

 fivc låter additions. Las become a truly matchless collection» '). 

 On these acqiiisitions some details are found in the accounts, 

 still cxtant, of expcnses paid from tbe privy purse of the 

 Queen in the ycars 1750 — 1752, kept by the ]\larshal of Her 

 Household Count Charles Gustavus Tessin, tlie stanch and 

 generous friend of Linn^us, and himself an excellent judge 

 in mattors of learning and taste. The first entry relating to 

 the Museum is the payraent, on tlie lotli of November 1750 

 and the ]5th of January 1751, of the sum of 11475 Dollars 

 Copper to the widow of one ^\. Schott'-) at Utrecht. It is 

 followed in the same year by tlie acquisition from oiit property 

 left by one M. Katen,^) of shells and »natural curiosities» for 

 a sum of 4189 Dollars, and by a lot of »butterfiies, insects, 

 miniatures and books» worth 4G10 Dollars. In the month of 

 Marcl) 1752 Pierre Balguekik, tlie Swedisli (konsul at Amster- 

 dam, reports that a rich collection of shells, minerals, petre- 

 factions, insects, from all parts of the world. iilling ten cabi- 

 nets, formerly the property of tlie renowned Seba, and esti- 

 mated to fetch the sum of lifty thousand Guilders, were to be 

 sold by auction on the 14th of April, and receives orders to 

 make purchases for the King and the Queen to the amount 

 of four thousand Guilders. From this sale objects for a sum 

 of 3612 Gopper-Dollars were added to the C^ueen"s cabinet* i, 

 while the rest went to the Kino-^s JMuseum and to that of 

 Count Tessin. In April 1752 another collection of shells is 

 received'^), and during that same year the outcomes arrive of 

 Kalm's vovaoe to North America and Osiieck's to China, as 



') See also L. to Wargentin, ^-Vi, 70. in Ahrling, Carl vox Linnés 

 Svenska Arbeten, I, p. 418, aud Egenh. Ant.. p. 50. 



^) Possibly tbe Jakob Eli.\s Schott of Amsterdam enamerated by 

 Valhntyn 1. c. among the great collectors. The nauie is not mentioned 

 by d'Argenville, 1. c. ed. 1742 and 1757, but in the third ed., 1780, I. 

 p. .387, is said, under Utrecht: »La collection de M:r Schvttk (sic), D:r en 

 Méd.. regarde particuliureraent les cocquilles». Perhaps a son of the for- 

 mer, whose widow may have renioveil from Amsterdam to Utrecht. 



') Mentioned by Valfjntyn 1. c. as possessor of a large collection. 



*) The Copper-DoUar of 1750 being worth 0,40 Crown in the present 

 Swedish mouey, these four Dutch items m.ake in all 1)5.58 Crowns, i 530. 



') Entry of "/^ 52. 



