10 parts comprising Japanese text and illustrations 5 vols oblong 4to (270 x 390mm), each with printed explanatory booklet in French, 8vo. Japanese volumes with lithographic text and 89 hand-coloured lithographic plates of pottery. Original wrappers, Japanese parts in blue and green papers with lithographic labels in Japanese and French, stitched, the French pamphlets in multi-coloured wrappers titled on upper cover. The ten parts in the original blue cloth folder, titled on the upper front, lack one clasp. A fine set of this rare and vital work on Japanese Ceramics is complete with 89 plates. Only two copies have appeared at auction in the US in the last 33 years. The plates depict some very unusual and rare pieces sealed in the Treasury of the Todaiji temple. The Treasury was only open for view once or twice a century by Imperial Commission. Ninagawa was a member of one such commission. Ninagawa's work and scholarship of Chinese porcelains were continued in America by Edward Morse at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem. Morse spent time with Ninagawa on his visit to Japan in 1877-79 and acquired after Ninagawa's death (1882) his manuscript notes and annotated works for his collection (now at the Peabody).