World Seashells of Rarity and Beauty
by Matsukuma, Akihiko - Habe, Tadashige - Okada, Yuji
ISBN (13) 9784990014711, published in 1991 by the National Museum of Science, Tokyo, Japan. It is a hardcover book with a printed dust jacket. The page size is about 8 by 11.7 inches (20.25 by 29.5 cm), 206 pages of which 156 are full page color photographs of the shells, the text is in Japanese and standard scientific names are used for the shell nomenclature.
This book is without a doubt one of the most beautiful shell books that was ever printed. There is a smaller, paperback edition with the same title that was printed in 1983 to commemorate the donation of the Kawamura collection, one of the largest and finest shell collections in the world, to the National Museum of Science. The earlier edition contained 48 of the plates that are also found among the 156 plates in this larger edition. This edition was very popular and, many copies were produced but today, it is very difficult to find copies and, even the smaller paperbacks bring high prices. The copy, although used, can easily pass as new.
