Dear Linda,

The book is the first edition of Kira, T., 1954.  Colored illustrations of the
shells of Japan, volume I.

My copy has the three "Cymatium rubeculum" [actually C. rubeculum (Linnaeus,
1758), C. hepaticum (Röding, 1798), and C. flaveolum (Röding, 1798), left to
right].  I has no English other than the authors' names and the word "Family."
The scientific names appear in Latin characters, and depths, dates of
publication, page, plate, and figure numbers are Arabic.  None of the three
Cymatium species is treated in the text.

There were several subsequent editions, all with more English translation.
Several bear the title "Shells of the Western Pacific in Color."  A similar
series of iterations occurred with volume II by T. Habe.

One of my most memorable "shelling" experiences was witnessing auction sponsor
Nick Katsaras, during an uncommon ebb in the process, touting this (or a very
similar) book by interrupting his auctioneer to comment something like: "the
book may be Japanese, but the Latin is in English!"  That was about 40 years
ago.

Harry

P. S.  I just saw Patty Jansen's post; my book lacks the English title page; it
has a Japanese one.


>I have a Japanese shell book, with not a word of English in it except the
>family, genus, and speciess names.  On the cover are three color forms of
>what seems to be Cymatium rubeculum.  Does anyone know the author and the
>year of publication of this book?  (I bought it second-hand.)  Thanks,
>Linda

Harry G. Lee
Suite 500
1801 Barrs St.
Jacksonville, FL 32204
USA   904-384-6419
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Visit the Jacksonville Shell Club Home Page at:
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