Cassel, Theodor Fischer, 1858-1878. 4to (29.1 x 22.0 cm). [i], 144 pp.; 45 originally hand-coloured lithographed plates. Red buckram with gilt title on the spine.

This is Volume I of a well-illustrated series, written by the German malacologist Wilhelm Bernard Rudolph [or Rudolf] Hadrian Dunker (1809-1885). It took twenty years to complete this volume. A second volume was started while this one was not finished, but never completed. The present volume deals mainly with Fasciolariidae, Mitroidea, Muricoidea, Arcoidea, and Veneroidea, but includes also cowries, pectinids, tonnids, and more. Bound in: Richard Johnson's four-page collation of the work, published in J. Soc. Bibl. Nat. Hist.(1965). Johnson added the missing title page in a loose photocopy. In his collation he mentions a three-page preface, but that is inaccurate: there is only a single printed leaf, with the preface in both French and German on the same page. It is included. Scattered, mostly light foxing; one text leaf with an old, marginal repair; otherwise very good, clean. This series is much rarer than its sister series, Novitates conchologicae extramarina, edited by Louis Pfeiffer, as reflected by the much lower number of auction records. Nissen ZBI, 4724.