Cassel [Kassel], Theodor Fischer, 1869-1875. Three volumes in one. 4to (28.2 x 21.7 cm). Three title pages; 503 pp. ([ii], 192; [ii], 184; 123]); 37 [14; 14; 9] fine, hand-coloured lithographed plates. Later grained green half calf over marbled boards. Spine with four raised, gilt-ornamented bands and two green morocco labels with gilt title.

The Magnum Opus of the German mayor and malacologist Carl (or Karl) Emil Lischke (1813-1886). In 1875, Lischke travelled to the East Indies, but he never visited Japan. He had extensive contacts among diplomats, merchants and sea captains, providing him with many shells, and he managed to amass perhaps the largest collection of Japanese shells outside Japan. In this pioneering work, many species are described as new, or figured here for the first time. The third part contains an 18-page preface with malaco-geographical considerations. The three dedications are to the German malacologist and first European to write specifically about the Japanese fauna, Wilhelm Bernard Rudolph Hadrian Dunker (1809-1885); the Russian malacologist Peter Leopold Ivanovich von Schrenck (1826-1894), and the German malacologist Franz Hermann Troschel (1810-1882). Provenance: stamp of the American malacologist Richard Irwin Johnson (1925-2020) in the top margin of the title pages. This work is rarely seen complete; there are only three auction records after 1950, and a few of Part 1 only. Scattered foxing, as always, but usually very light, and with many leaves clean. A very good, attractive, and complete copy. Lutaenko, K. A. (2014) Carl Lischke historical molluscan collection in the Zoological Institute, St.-Petersburg (Birileff’schen Sammlung) pp. 60-63 in: Abstracts of the Conference Mollusks of the Eastern Asia and Adjacent Seas October 6-8, 2014, Vladivostok, Russia; Nissen ZBI, 2423.