Eric Classey’s personal working collection?

CONTAINING THE FAMOUS OCTOBER 1950 JOINT-EXHIBIT BY E. W. CLASSEY AND H. S. ROBINSON

Early in his career Eric Classey decided to present his fine collection of moths to the Natural History Museum. The bulk of his extensive collection, including his studies of microlepidoptera, are now part of the British national collection of butterflies and moths administered by the Cockayne Trust, of which he served a term as Chairman.

These cabinets contain what Classey retained for himself: his personal working collection of British moths, their drawers serving as homes for the specimens that passed through his hands in the course of his work as a field collector, breeder, scholar and scientist. These included moths that he had had hatched, exchanged with other entomologists and specimens of peculiar interest or rarity.

The collection contains (by my count) 6,139 specimens of 411 species, almost all retaining labels listing the original collector, date and where taken. The dates range from 1899 to 1959. The moths are housed in three mahogany 20-drawer pillar chests with oak detachable locking bars by Watkins and Doncaster, fitted to sit together as one.

The cabinets contain certain items of personal significance to Classey. One of his original August 1950 Burren Greens. The drawer from the famous joint-exhibit (with H.S. Robinson) in the South London Entomological and Natural History Society Exhibition of October 1950 at which Classey showed his Burren Greens and a series of Diursia florida (both new additions to the British list), and Robinson showed a series of moths taken by his newly-invented Mercury Vapour Moth Trap. It thus commemorates several historic firsts.

The exhibit drawer (3:19) is now empty apart from the original labels, which correspond in every detail to the description given in the (the Society’s Proceedings. After the exhibition some specimens were donated to the Society. Most of the moths in the exhibit were returned to their usual places in the collection, where all but a few still remain.

During his career Eric Classey must have put together hundreds of exhibits in drawers like this. Of all of them he kept this one and its labels and most of its contents. See Bringing Classey & Robinson’s historic exhibit back to life for a reconstruction of the original exhibit from specimens currently in the collection.

Follow the links below for a full list of species, drawer by drawer, accompanied by photographs of each drawer (click to enlarge). The Burren Green specimen is in 2:19.