Using well-defined selection criteria applied to the LEDA galaxy catalogue we have constructed a sample of elliptical galaxies that can be taken to lie in the field .
Such criteria can easily be applied to theoretical simulations for direct comparison with observations .
The variation of the number of ‘ isolated ’ ellipticals with selection criteria is also investigated .
A preliminary study of the environment of the field ellipticals shows that , in the mean , they are surrounded by a population of dwarf galaxies , out to projected radii of at least 500 kpc , with a radial density profile of r ^ { -0.6 \pm 0.2 } and a luminosity function slope of \alpha \sim - 1.8 .
The results are compared and contrasted to the satellite population around isolated spiral galaxies .