Martens, [K.] E. von
Beiträge zur Meeresfauna der Insel Mauritius und der Seychellen. Mollusken. [Including] Anhang. Anatomie einiger Landschnecken.
[Berlin, Gutmann], 1880. 4to (30.3 x 25.3 cm). Title page, 172 pp. (numbered [181]-352); four lithographed and finely hand-coloured plates [numbered 19-22]. Later green, pebbled cloth with gilt title on the spine.
This forms the complete Mollusca part of Karl August Möbius' Beiträge zur Meeresfauna der Insel Mauritius und der Seychellen. The title is misleading, as brackish and freshwater molluscs are included, as are land snails (on pp. 185-209), but the great majority is indeed formed by marine taxa. The first plate shows non-marine species. The part on land snail anatomy is by the German malacologist Gustav von Schacko (1824-1917), and there is an additional description of a land snail by Möbius. The contents entirely agree with the collation in Kabat and Boss. Provenance: Oval stamp of the Conchological Society with handwritten acquisition date 11.X.[19]12 on the title page, and in the blank area above the chapter title of the Vorbemerkungen (Preface). Small stamp of the American malacologist Richard Irwin Johnson (1925-2020) in the top margin of the title page, below a pencilled annotation, "from J. W. T.". Pencilled note of Wheldon and Wesley in the lower margin of the last plate verso. Endpapers a bit foxed, otherwise a very good, clean copy. Kabat and Boss, Karl Eduard von Martens (1831-1904): His Life and Work, p. 65. Nissen ZBI, 2848.