Donald Heald Rare Books - The London International Antiquarian

Transcription

Donald Heald Rare Books
A Selection of Fine
Books and Manuscripts
A Selection of Fine
Books and Manuscripts
124 East 74 Street New York, New York 10021
T: 212 · 744 · 3505 F: 212 · 628 · 7847
info@donaldheald.com
www.donaldheald.com
Travel: Items 1 - 44
Colour Plate and Illustrated: Items 45 - 73
Natural History, including Landscape Design: Items 74 - 100
All purchases are subject to availability. All items are guaranteed as described. Any purchase may be
returned for a full refund within ten working days as long as it is returned in the same condition and
is packed and shipped correctly. The appropriate sales tax will be added for New York State residents.
Payment via U.S. check drawn on a U.S. bank made payable to Donald A. Heald, wire transfer, bank
draft, Paypal or by Visa, Mastercard, American Express or Discover cards.
TRAVEL
1
ANNESLEY, George, Viscount Valentia & Earl of Mountmorris (1770-1844); and Henry SALT (1780-1827).
Voyages and Travels to India, Ceylon, the Red Sea, Abyssinia and Egypt, in the years 1802, 1803, 1804,
1805, and 1806.
London: W. Bulmer for William Miller, 1809. 3 volumes, 4to (10 13/16 x 8 3/4 inches). Half-titles,
1p. ad for Salt’s Twenty-four views in St. Helena, the Cape, India, Ceylon, the Red Sea, Abyssinia,
and Egypt. 3 engraved vignette headpieces, 63 engraved plates by Fittler, Angus, Heath, Landseer,
Storer and others, most after Henry Salt (5 folding, 1 double-page), 6 engraved maps (5 folding).
Contemporary dark blue straight grain morocco, covers panelled in gilt and blind, spines in five
compartments with semi-raised bands, tooled in gilt on each band, lettered in the second and fourth
compartments, the others with a repeat decoration in gilt and blind, marbled endpapers, gilt edges
(expert restoration at the joints).
[With:] William MILLER (1769-1844, publisher and bookseller). Nine autograph letters signed from Miller
to the Viscount Valentia, London, 30 July 1807 - 22 December 1809. Together 23 pages, 4to, loosely inserted
into a pocket affixed to the vol. 1. front endpaper.
A lovely set of the first edition of the Viscount Valentia and Henry Salt’s tour through India and to the Red Sea,
illustrated with engravings after Salt. This copy with original manuscript letters by the publisher to Valentia
concerning its publication.
Henry Salt accompanied Viscount Valentia as secretary and draughtsman on this four and a half year tour
through India, and Ceylon and to the Red Sea, Ethiopia and Egypt. Salt’s “Twenty-four Views,” published in
1809 and advertised in this work, was a result of the tour and two engravings present here are depicted in
that work. For a lengthy contemporary review of Valentia’s Voyages, see the London Quarterly Review, vol.
2 (1810), pp. 82-117.
The original correspondence present here concerning the publication of the work is fascinating. In a 30 July
1807 letter Miller declines to purchase the copyright of the work and explains that in light of “the expences
attending...a large edition...& the anxiety and time which must attend the getting up of such a work, the
profits which would remain would not be a sufficient compensation...” But two years later, on 3 June 1809,
the project is very much alive: “I intend to subscribe the work to the trade early next week in order to
ascertain the number of copies to be wanted immediately...” 30 June 1809: “The fate of the Travels is going
as well as could be expected...” But there are inevitable hassles: 10 July 1809: “as to the carelessness of the
Binders, it is proverbial and I lament my inability to make them better...” On 10 October 1809 he plans the
timing of the octavo edition. In the final letter, 22 December, he is selling Valentia a copy of Thomas Daniell’s
Oriental Scenery and other works. A fascinating correspondence offering insight not only on the evolution
of this book, but on the London book trade at the beginning of the 19th century.
Abbey, Travel 515 (note); Lowndes p.2747; Allibone, p. 2504; P. Godrej and P. Rohatgi, Scenic Splendours, p. 52.
(#25527) $ 7,500
2
BIGGS, Thomas Hesketh (1822-1905, photographer) - Theodore C. HOPE.
Architecture at Ahmedabad, the capital of Goozerat, photographed by Colonel Biggs ... with an historical
and descriptive sketch, by Theodore C. Hope ... and architectural notes by James Fergusson ... Published
... under the patronage of Premchund Raichund.
London: John Murray, 1866. Quarto (11 x 9 inches). Half-title, tinted wood-engraved frontispiece,
2 lithographic maps (one printed in two colours), 22 wood-engraved illustrations (2 full-page). 120
albumen photographs by Thomas Biggs, on individual thin card mounts, the mounts with printed
red single line borders with small decorative flourishes at each corner, numbers and captions, all
printed in red. Original green pebble-grained cloth, covers elaborately blocked in gilt with a wide
decorative border in the “Indian” style surrounding a central gilt vignette drawn from plate number
112 titled “Meer Aboo Toorab’s Tomb”, rebacked to style with green morocco, spine gilt extra, yellow
endpapers, g.e.
An important, early and rare photographically-illustrated record of the art and architecture of western India.
“Like many military men in India, Biggs became fascinated with archaeology, but he soon discovered
the difficulty and uncertainty of sending manual copies of stone inscriptions back to London. Biggs was
furloughed on sick leave in England starting in 1850 ... he watched his brothers practicing photography and
it struck him ‘that it would be a perfect method of copying the sculptures and inscriptions.’ ... Biggs took
lessons from Samuel Buckle and then presented his plan to the directors of the East India Company, who
were so impressed that they traded him a complete new photographic outfilt in exchange for his first album.
He was appointed ‘Government Photographer, Bombay’ and was the first person to officially assume that
position” (Taylor, Impressed by Light, pp. 290-291).
As a member of the Bombay Photographic Society he had been equipped with a set of Ross’s single and double
lenses and a kit which allowed him to make 15 x 12 inch pictures. His task was to photograph the Muslim
buildings, sculpture and inscriptions of Western India. The preface to the present work notes that “The
Government of Bombay has at various times taken steps towards portraying ... the magnificent architecture
with which the Presidency and the territories bordering it abound.” Biggs made over one hundred paper
negatives of Bijapur, Aihole, Badami and other sites in Western India. The results were exhibited at the
Photographic Society of Bombay and much admired, but the increasing unrest, which culminated in the
Mutiny of 1857, forced him to hand over his work to surgeon and fellow photographer Dr. Pigou. The
preface continues: “Subsequently, a series of plans and drawings of Beejapoor, which had been prepared
under the superintendence of Captain Hart, were published for the Government under the editorship of
James Fergusson.”
In 1865, at the request of the Governor of Bombay a committee was set up and given the task of publishing
the photographs of Biggs, Pigou and a third photographer A.C.B. Neilly “in the form of a comprehensive
series of volumes on the Architectural Antiquities of Western India” (preface). The present work, published
in London under Biggs supervision, was the first fruit of this ambitious enterprise and is believed to have
been limited to forty copies.
Gernsheim, Incunabula of British Photographic Literature 332
(#21869) $ 17,500
3
BLOUNT, Sir Henry (1602-1682).
A Voyage into the Levant. A Breife Relation of a Journey, lately performed by Master H.B. Gentleman,
from England by the way of Venice, into Dalmatia, Sclavonia, Bosnah, Hungary, Macedonia, Thessaly,
Thrace, Rhodes and Egypt, unto Gran Cairo: With particular observations concerning the moderne
condition of the Turkes, and other people under that Empire. The Second Edition.
London: Printed by I.L. for Andrew Crooke, 1636. Small 4to (7 x 5 inches). [2], 126pp. Trimmed,
touching the first work title and a few headlines and page numbers. Expertly bound to style in 19th
century straight grained brown morocco, covers elaborately bordered in gilt, spine with raised bands
in six compartments, lettered in the second, the others with a repeat decoration in gilt, marbled
endpapers, gilt edges. Provenance: E.B.,Trinity College, Cambridge (inscription on verso of title
dated 1748).
Scarce early English work on the Levant.
Blount journeyed to the Levant in 1634 and first published his account two years later (the present second
edition appearing later in the same year). It is an important English work and one of the first to view the
Turks without prejudice. “Blount wrote objectively and viewed Turkish society as different from, but equally
valid to, the life he knew in England” (Blackmer catalogue).
Atabey 119 (first edition); Blackmer 154; STC 3137; Wing B3317; Weber 289.
(#27695) $ 3,750
4
BOURNE, Samuel (1834-1912); Charles SHEPHERD (fl. 1858-1878) and Arthur ROBERTSON (fl. 18581864); and Juan LAURENT (1816-c.1892).
[Important album containing 90 albumen photographs, predominantly landscape images of India,
including views in the Himalayas, as well as ethnographic studies of its peoples].
[India: circa 1860-1870]. Oblong folio (11 1/2 x 18 inches). 90 mounted albumen photographs (70
by Bourne and 11 by or attributed to Shepherd & Robinson, all of India, the remaining images of
the Alhambra by Laurent), nearly all with a period manuscript captions, mounted recto only. Most
images signed and numbered in the negative. Contemporary black morocco, covers bordered in gilt
and blind, expertly rebacked to style, flat spine divided into six compartments by gilt and blind rules,
lettered in gilt in the second compartment, marbled endpapers, gilt edges.
An important collection of photographs by the most influential landscape and architectural photographer active
in India during the nineteenth century.
Born in Nottingham, England, Samuel Bourne was an outstanding landscape photographer. He is now best
known for his valuable and beautiful record of the Indian sub-continent. He wrote of photography that it
allowed him to change the way he looked at the world: “...it teaches the mind to see the beauty and power
of such scenes ... For my own part, I may say that before I commenced photography I did not see half the
beauties in nature that I do now, and the glory and power of a precious landscape has often passed before me
and left but a feeble impression on my untutored mind; but it will never be so again.”
Working in India between 1863 and 1870, Bourne made well over three thousand negatives (mostly using
the collodian process) during his travels, which included three separate expeditions to the Himalayas. Major
collections of his work are held by the British Library (India Office collection), London, and at the Royal
Photographic Society, Bath, England.
The present album is quite unusual in terms of its content, including many more images of Himalayan
landscape than normally encountered. The Bourne images comprise (titles from the manuscript captions,
with Bourne’s negative number in brackets):
1) Calcutta [1704]. 7 3/8 x 12 1/2 inches
2) Calcutta [street scene with the Great Eastern Hotel at the far right, unnumbered]. 7 1/2 x 12 5/8 inches
3) View on the Plains of India [1738]. 7 1/2 x 12 1/2 inches
6) Commander in Chief of British Forces in India in Travelling Carriage [unnumbered]. 9 1/8 x 11 3/8 inches
7) State Elephants of the Governor General of India at Agra [unnumbered]. 8 3/8 x 11 1/2 inches
8) Banyan Tree [1748]. 9 1/2 x 11 3/4 inches
9) Benares [1168]. 9 1/4 x 11 3/4 inches
10) Hindoo Astronomical Observatory at Benares [1171]. 9 1/4 x 11 5/8 inches
11) Benares [1169]. 9 1/4 x 11 3/4 inches
12) Palace of Akbar’s Turkish Wife at Futtehpore Sikri [1276]. 9 3/8 x 11 5/8 inches
13) Ancient Hindoo Temple at Birrabund [1305]. 9 3/8 x 11 1/2 inches
14) Buddhist Figures cut in the rock at Gwalior [1328a]. 9 1/2 x 11 1/2 inches
15) Elephant Tower at Futtehpore Sikri [1278]. 9 1/2 x 11 5/8 inches
16) Akbar’s Pillar in Council Chamber [1271]. 11 5/8 x 9 1/4 inches
17) Gooriki Mundi or Temple of Hindoo Saint [1273]. 9 1/2 x 11 5/8 inches
18) Panch Mahal [1275]. 9 3/8 x 11 3/4 inches
19) Hindu Temple at Ramnuggur [1176]. 9 1/2 x 11 3/4 inches
20) Lucknow [1051]. 9 1/2 x 11 5/8 inches
21) Cawnpore - Scene of the Slaughter by Nana Sahib [1208]. 7 5/8 x 12 1/2 inches
22) The Imambara at Lucknow [1052]. 9 1/4 x 11 3/4 inches
23) The Residency at Lucknow [unnumbered]. 7 5/8 x 12 1/2 inches
24) Memorial Monument at Cawnpore [1206]. 11 1/2 x 9 1/2 inches
25) Gate of Mosque enclosing Tomb of Selim Chisti [1263]. 9 1/2 x 11 5/8 inches
26) Tomb of Selim Chisti [1265]. 9 1/4 x 11 5/8 inches
27) Marble Screen in the Tomb of Selim Chisti [1266]. [1265]. 9 1/4 x 11 5/8 inches
28) Entrance Gate to grounds surrounding Tomb of Akbar at Secundra [1247]. 9 1/4 x 11 3/8 inches
29) Tomb of Akbar at Secundra [1251]. 9 1/2 x 11 3/4 inches
30) Upper portion of Tomb of Etmud oo Dowla at Agra [1234]. 9 3/8 x 11 1/2 inches
31) Tomb of Mirza Jahangir [1365]. 9 1/4 x 11 3/4 inches
32) Tomb of Nizam Oo Deen [1364]. 9 x 11 3/8 inches
33) Tomb of Etmud oo Dowla at Agra [1233]. 9 1/4 x 11 3/8 inches
34) Jumma Musjid (or Mosque) at Delhi [1334]. 9 1/2 x 11 1/2 inches
35) Ruins of Mosque near Delhi [1376]. 9 1/2 x 11 3/4 inches
36) Lahore Gate - Fort at Delhi [1349]. 9 1/8 x 11 5/8 inches
37) Remains of Hindoo Astronomical Observatory near Delhi [1367]. 9 x 11 5/8 inches
38) Delhi Gate - Fort at Agra [1219]. 9 1/8 x 11 3/4 inches
39) Dewan Khas (Audience Chamber or Throne Room) in the Palace within the Fort at Delhi [1350]. 9 1/4
x 11 3/4 inches
40) Mosque [1351]. 9 x 11 5/8 inches
41) Portion of Palace at Goridund [1312]. 9 3/8 x 11 3/4 inches
42) Fort at Agra [1217]. 7 1/4 x 12 1/2 inches
43) Palace of Akbar at Agra - the Taj Mahal in the distance [1221]. 9 1/2 x 11 3/4 inches
44) The Motee Musjid [1229]. 9 1/2 x 11 5/8 inches
45) Entrance Gate to the grounds of the Taj Mahal [1074]. 9 1/4 x 11 3/4 inches
46) Taj Mahal [1077]. 9 1/4 x 11 1/2 inches
47) Taj Mahal - side view [1080]. 9 3/8 x 11 5/8 inches
48) Taj Mahal - from the river [1078]. 9 3/4 x 11 1/2 inches
49) Tomb and Interior of Taj Mahal [1251]. 11 x 8 inches
50) Simla - Summer [1793]. 9 1/2 x 11 5/8 inches
51) Simla - Winter [1757]. 9 1/2 x 11 3/4 inches
52) View in the Himmalayas [1535]. 9 1/2 x 11 3/8 inches
53) View in the Himalayas [1432]. 9 1/2 x 11 3/4 inches
54) View in the Himalayas [1506b]. 11 5/8 x 9 1/2 inches
57) View in the Himalayas [unnumbered]. 9 1/2 x 11 1/2 inches
58) View in the Himalayas [1529]. 9 1/4 x 12 inches
59) Glaciers in the Himalayas [unnumbered]. 9 1/2 x 11 3/4 inches
60) Source of the Ganges [1543]. 9 1/2 x 11 5/8 inches
63) Town of Dunker Himalayas [1461]. 7 1/2 x 12 1/2 inches
64) Scene in the Valley of Cashmere [unnumbered]. 9 5/8 x 11 5/8 inches
65) Bridge of Twigs in the Himalayas [776]. 9 1/8 x 11 1/2 inches
66) “Mussocks” - Inflated Skins of Bullocks for crossing rivers [unnumbered]. 9 1/2 x 11 3/4 inches
67) Scene in the Valley of Cashmere [825]. 9 3/8 x 11 3/4 inches
70) Mussocks [696]. 4 3/8 x 7 5/8 inches
The India portion of the album closes with 11 ethnographic studies by Shepherd & Robertson, four signed
in the negative and the remaining attributed. Shepherd & Robertson first established their studio in Agra in
1862; in 1864 the firm moved to Simla and was joined by Bourne; the firm’s name changed shortly thereafter
to Bourne & Shepherd. The present fine ethnographic images include several with the earliest version of the
signature in the negative.
71) Rajah and attendants. 7 1/8 x 9 1/4 inches
72) Native servants or Kitmudgars. 7 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches
73) Native servants. 7 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches
74) Dancing Girls. 6 7/8 x 9 inches
75) Weaver. Signed in the negative Shepherd & Robertson and numbered 1104. 7 1/2 x 9 1/8 inches
76) Snake Charmers with cobras. Signed in the negative Shepherd & Robertson and numbered 1123. 7 1/2
x 9 inches
77) Mountaineers of the Himalayas. 8 3/4 x 11 1/2 inches
78) Natives of the Khyber Pass. Signed in the negative Shepherd and numbered 1387. 8 3/8 x 11 3/8 inches
79) Natives of Thibet. 7 1/8 x 9 5/8 inches
80) [Uncaptioned image of four armed natives]. Signed in the negative Shepherd & Robertson. 7 1/2 x 9 3/8
inches
81) Thugs in prison at Jubbulpore. 8 1/2 x 11 1/8 inches
The concluding 9 images are period photographs of the Alhambra, unsigned but by Juan [i.e. Jean] Laurent.
Laurent, born in France but active in Spain as early as 1856, followed Charles Clifford as the best photographer
active in Spain in the 1860s, known for his delicate treatment of architecture and masterful use of light and
camera position.
82) The Alhambra (Spain) with the Sierra Nevadas in the distance. 7 1/2 x 9 3/4 inches
83) The Alhambra with part of the city of Granada. 7 x 10 inches
84) Gateway of the Alhambra. 7 1/2 x 9 3/4 inches
85) Gateway - Interior of Alhambra. 10 x 7 1/2 inches
86) Entrance to the Court of Lions - Alhambra. 7 1/2 x 10 inches
87) Court of Lions. 7 1/2 x 9 3/4 inches
88) Court of Alhambra. 7 1/2 x 10 inches
89) [Interior of the Alhambra]. 9 3/4 x 7 1/2 inches
90) Granada. 7 1/2 x 10 inches
(#28093) $ 35,000
5
BROUGHTON, William Robert (1762-1821).
Voyage de decouvertes dans la partie Septentrionale de l’Ocean Pacifique, fait par le capitaine W.R.
Broughton, commandant la corvette de S.M.B. la Providence et sa conserve, pendant les annees 1795,
1796, 1797 et 1798; dans lequel il a parcouru et visite la cote d’Asie, depuis le 35° degre nord, jusqu’au
52°; l’ile d’Insu, ordinairement appelee Jesso; les cotes Nord, Est et Sud du Japon; les iles de Likeujo et
autres iles voisines, ainsi que la cote de Coree.
Paris: Dentu, 1807. 2 volumes, 8vo (7 3/4 x 4 3/4 inches). Half-title in each volume, 2pp. errata
in rear of vol. II. [6], xxxii, 243, [1]; [iv], 341, [3] pp. 3 large folding engraved maps, 4 engraved
plates (3 folding) and 5 folding tables. Period tan calf, covers bordered in gilt, flat spine divided into
six compartments, red morocco lettering pieces in the second and fourth, the others tooled in gilt,
marbled endpapers.
First French edition of a “scarce and exceedingly important work” (Hill). A foundation work for any collection
of voyages, here with important surveys and accounts of Japan, Korea, China, the northwest coast of North
America and including one of only a handful of 18th-century accounts of Hawaii.
“In 1793 Broughton was made commander of the Providence, Captain Bligh’s old ship, and was sent out
to the northwest coast of America to join Captain George Vancouver. He sailed to Rio de Janeiro, thence
to Australia, Tahiti, and the Hawaiian Islands, and on to Nootka Sound on Vancouver Island. Finding that
Captain Vancouver had left, Broughton sailed down the coast to Monterey, across the Pacific to the Hawaiian
Islands and on to Japan. For four years he carried out a close survey of the coast of Asia and the Islands of
Japan. The ship was lost off Formosa, but the crew were all saved, and work continued in the tender. He
arrived back in England in 1799 and, until his death, saw much further important service, for the most part
in the Far East. This voyage was one of the most important ever made to the northwest coast of America. It
is on this document that Great Britain based her claim to the Oregon Territory, in 1846” (Hill).
The work was first published in London in 1804; the present French translation, which includes an additional
appendix, followed. This copy with first state title pages.
Cordier Japonica , p.457; Ferguson 440; Forbes 382; Hill 191 (first edition); Howes B821; Judd 28; Lada-Mocarski 59 (first
edition); Sabin 8424; Kroepelien 135.
(#27140) $ 3,750
6
BURTON, Sir Richard Francis (1821-1890).
Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-Medinah
and Meccah.
London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans,
1855-56. 3 volumes, 8vo (8 5/8 x 5 1/2 inches).
xvi, 388; [2], iv, 426; xii, 448pp. Half-title in vol. 3,
without publisher’s ads. 4 maps & plans (3 folding),
5 colour lithographed plates, 8 tinted lithographed
plates. Later half morocco over marbled paper
covered boards, bound by Zaehnsdorf, spine with
raised bands in six compartments, lettered in
the second and fourth, the others with a repeat
decoration in gilt, marbled endpapers, top edge
gilt.
First edition of Burton’s classic account of his journey
across the Arabian peninsula.
In the fall of 1852, Burton first proposed to the Royal
Geographical Society an expedition to central Arabia
with the intent on visiting the holy cities. His request
was denied by the RGS and the East India Company
as being too dangerous for a westerner, though he was
funded to study Arabic in Egypt. Upon arrival there,
in April 1853, disguised as a Pashtun and travelling
under the pseudonym Mirza Abdullah, Burton made
the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina.
“The actual pilgrimage began with a journey on camel-back from Cairo to Suez. Then followed twelve days
in a pilgrim ship on the Red Sea from Suez to Yambu, the port of El-Medinah. So far the only risk was from
detection by his companions. Now came the dangers of the inland road, infested by Bedawin robbers. The
journey from Yambu to El-Medinah, thence to Meccah, and finally to the sea again at Jeddah, occupied
altogether from 17 July to 23 Sept., including some days spent in rest, and many more in devotional exercises.
From Jeddah, Burton returned to Egypt in a British steamer, intending to start afresh for the interior of
Arabia via Muwaylah. But this second project was frustrated by ill-health, which kept him in Egypt until his
period of furlough was exhausted. The manuscript ... was sent home from India, and seen through the press
by a friend in England. It is deservedly the most popular of Burton’s books ... as a story of bold adventure, and
as lifting a veil from the unknown, its interest will never fade” (DNB). Indeed, the work would be described
by T.E. Lawrence as “a most remarkable work of the highest value.”
Abbey, Travel 368; Penzer, pp. 43-50; Macro, 640; Howgego IV: B95.
(#27818) $ 9,000
7
CHARDIN, Sir John (1643-1713).
Journal du Voyage du Chevalier Chardin en Perse & aux Indes Orientales, par la Mer Noire & par la
Colchide. Premiere Partie [all published].
London: Moses Pitt, 1686. Small folio (12 x 7 1/2 inches). Engraved headpieces and initials. Engraved
title-page, engraved portrait of Chardin, engraved folding map, and fifteen engraved plates and views
(most folding). (Minor repaired tears to the plates). Eighteenth century citron morocco, spine with
raised bands in seven compartments, morocco lettering piece in the second compartment, the others
with a repeat overall decoration in gilt, marbled endpapers. (Old staining, minor splits at head and
tail of joints).
Rare first edition, complete with the often lacking portrait of the author.
Chardin was of French origin, the son of a wealthy Protestant jeweler based in Paris. In an effort to combine
his wish to travel with his father’s business, Chardin suggested that he be allowed to attempt to set up a direct
trade link for diamond trading with the East. On his first journey in 1665 he travelled with a merchant from
Lyon - he travelled through Persia to Ormuz and Surat, returning to France in 1665. The success of this
first journey encouraged him, and having acquired a knowledge of the Persian language, he set out again
in 1671, alone this time, and travelling via Constantinople (where he met the accomplished draughtsman
Guillaume Grélot), and eventually reaching Isphahan. In the Persian capital he was appointed the Shah’s
personal jeweler/ jewel merchant. He was then granted permission to make an extended tour through much
of Persia. accompanied by Grélot. This journey gave Chardin an opportunity to study not only the country,
but also its culture, government and religion in detail. He returned to France in 1670. His final journey
proved to be the most dangerous: he left for the East in 1671, but it took him two years to reach Persia,
through Constantinople and southern Russia. He made his way back to France via India and the Cape of
Good Hope, arriving in 1677. The turmoil in France, specifically the persecution of the Protestants, led him
to settle in London in 1681. It was here that Chardin published the first part of the account of his travels,
publishing the work simultaneously in English and French.
Wing C2041; Atabey 218; Weber 377
(#27698) $ 6,500
8
CHEWETT, James (1753-1849); and Thomas RIDOUT (1754-1829).
A Map of the Province of Upper Canada and the Adjacent Territories in North America ... Shewing the
Districts, Counties and Townships in which are situated the Lands purchased from the Crown by The
Canada Company.
London: published for the Canada Company by C. Smith and Son, [1826]. Hand-coloured engraved
map on three sheets, each sectioned and linen backed, original green silk edging and paper labels on
verso, engraved by I. S. Cox for the Canada Company. Overall sheet size: approximately 40 1/2 x 72
inches. Housed in a period black morocco box, gilt arms of the Canada Company.
A stunning example of the rare first complete issue of Chewett & Ridout’s Canada Company map of Upper
Canada.
An impressive, large-format engraved map of Upper Canada and portions of Lower Canada, Michigan,
New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont and Lakes Erie, Huron and Ontario. “The
Canada Company was a land and colonization company set up in 1824 and chartered in 1826, designed to
promote the settlement of lands hitherto unoccupied by Europeans. The company was the idea of John Galt,
a Scotsman. He had been hired by Loyalists attempting to gain redress for damages they suffered during the
War of 1812. Unable to persuade the British government to pay directly, the creation of the Canada Company
was a compromise, using instead the available resource -- land ... At a cost of three shillings and sixpence
per acre plus some annual payments that went towards the governmental expenses of Upper Canada, the
Company acquired a little over a million hectares of land, including 400,000 in an area of western Upper
Canada that became known as the Huron Tract” (Hayes). The present general map of the region was first
published shortly after that purchase, drawn by James Chewett under the supervision of surveyor general
Thomas Ridout, and served as a guide to the region and the lands under the Company’s control. It remained
the best map of the region, and the source map for many other cartographers, for many decades.
The present second issue published in 1826 is considered the most desirable of the various states of this map
detailed by Winearls. It includes information not found on the unfinished first issue of the year prior: the
coat of arms has been completed, additional blocks of land have been laid out, Huron territory includes the
notation that “The Company’s Territory to be selected in these districts, the Lake Huron shoreline has been
corrected from Bayfield’s surveys, Horton township has been added, etc.
“Undoubtedly one of the most important maps to be published in the first half of the century -- because of
its accuracy and for its impact on other map makers -- was the Canada Company map of 1825-6. The first
state of 1825 was unfinished, probably because the company was delayed in receiving its charter, and the
1826 state, the finished map, adds information from the hydrographic charting of the Lake Huron coast by
Henry Bayfield to produce the most accurate map of the province until the late 1850s” (Winearls, p. xxii).
The map is very rare: we find only two examples appearing at auction in the last half century: the Streeter
copy selling in 1969 and another example selling at Sotheby’s London in 1985.
Winearls, Mapping Upper Canada 69:2; Olsen, “Aspects of the Mapping of Southern Ontario” p. 214; Hayes, Historical Atlas of
Canada, map 281; Streeter sale 3697.
(#27903) $ 12,000
9
[CHINON, Père Gabriel de (1610-1668); and Louis MORÉRI (1643-1680)].
Relations Nouvelles du Levant; ou Traite’s de la Religion, du Gouvernement, & des Coûtumes des Perses,
des Armeniens, & des Gaures.
Lyon: Jean Thioly, 1671. 12mo (5 1/2 x 3 inches). Publisher’s device on title, woodcut head
and tailpieces. [28], 481, [17] pp. Contemporary speckled calf, spine with raised bands in five
compartments, lettered in the second compartment, the others with a repeat decoration in gilt.
Provenance: P. Agnes (early signature on pastedown).
Rare first edition of an early work on the Capuchin missions in Persia.
Chinon was a Capuchin missionary who journeyed to the Levant on an ecclesiastical and diplomatic mission,
arriving at Isfahan circa 1640 under the favor of Shah Abbas II. Chinon, who learned most of the region’s
languages, established a mission at Tabriz in 1656, and travelled from there to Urmia, Georgia, Yerevan and
elsewhere and established additional missions in Kurdistan and at Tiflis. About 1670 he went on a mission to
Malabar, where he died at Tellicherrm June 27, 1670. He wrote observations on the countries he had resided
in, which were afterwards published by Moreri, with a life of Chinon. This book is one of the few and most
valuable accounts of these Catholic missions, and is a very rare item, with no copies in Atabey or Blackmer
and only a single copy appearing in the auction records.
Not in Atabey or Blackmer; not in Howgego.
(#27699) $ 4,950
10 COOK, Capt. James (1728-1779).
A Voyage towards the South Pole, and Round the World. Performed in His Majesty’s Ships the Resolution
and Adventure, In the years 1772, 1773, 1774, and 1775. In which is included Captain Furneaux’s
Narrative of his Proceedings in the Adventure during the Separation of the Ships.
London: W. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1777. 2 volumes, quarto (11 x 9 inches). Engraved portrait of
Cook by J. Basire after Wm. Hodges, 63 engraved plates, maps and charts (15 folding, 16 doublepage), 1 folding letterpress table. (A few plates trimmed close, as usual). Contemporary calf, covers
with decorative borders tooled in blind, expertly rebacked to style, spine with raised bands in six
compartments, red and black morocco labels in the second and fourth, the others with a repeat
decoration in gilt.
First edition of Cook’s second voyage on which he was directed to circumnavigate the globe as far south as
possible to search for any southern continent.
“Cook earned his place in history by opening up the Pacific to western civilization and by the foundation
of British Australia. The world was given for the first time an essentially complete knowledge of the Pacific
Ocean and Australia, and Cook proved once and for all that there was no great southern continent, as had
always been believed. He also suggested the existence of antarctic land in the southern ice ring, a fact which
was not proved until the explorations of the nineteenth century” (Printing and the Mind of Man p.135).
“The success of Cook’s first voyage led the Admiralty to send him on a second expedition, described in
the present work, which was to circumnavigate the globe as far south as possible in search of any southern
continents ... the men of this expedition became the first to cross the Antarctic Circle. Further visits were made
to New Zealand, and on two great sweeps Cook made an astonishing series of discoveries and rediscoveries
including Easter Island, the Marquesas, Tahiti and the Society Islands, Niue, the Tonga Islands, the New
Hebrides, New Caledonia, Norfolk Island, and a number of smaller islands. Rounding Cape Horn, on the
last part of the voyage, Cook discovered and charted South Georgia, after which he called at Cape Town, St.
Helena and Ascension, and the Azores ... This voyage produced a vast amount of information concerning
the Pacific peoples and islands, proved the value of the chronometer as an aid to finding longitude, and
improved techniques for preventing scurvy” (Hill p.123)
“This, the official account of the second voyage, was written by Cook himself ... In a letter, dated June 22nd,
1776, to his friend Commodore William Wilson, Cook writes: - ‘The Journal of my late Voyage will be
published in the course of the next winter, and I am to have the sole advantage of the sale. It will want those
flourishes which Dr. Hawkesworth gave the other, but it will be illustrated and ornamented with about sixty
copper plates, which, I am of the opinion, will exceed every thing that has been done in a work of this kind;
... As to the Journal, it must speak for itself. I can only say that it is my own narrative ...’” (Holmes pp.35-36).
Beddie 1216; Hill (2004) 358; Holmes 24; Printing and the Mind of Man 223; Rosove 77.A1
(#25578) $ 7,500
11 CORRY, Joseph.
Observations upon the Windward Coast of Africa, the Religion, Character, Customs, &c. of the Natives;
with a System upon which they may be Civilized, and a Knowledge Attained of the Interior of this
Extraordinary Quarter of the Globe; and upon the Natural and Commercial Resources of the Country,
made in the years 1805 and 1806.
London: Printed for G. and W. Nicol and James Asperne by W. Bulmer, 1807. 4to (10 1/2 x 8
1/4 inches). Half-title. Single-page engraved map, 8 hand-coloured engraved and aquatint plates.
Expertly bound to style in half period russia over period marbled paper covered boards, flat spine in
six compartments, lettered in the second compartment, the others with a repeat decoration in gilt.
The African side of the slave trade: a finely-illustrated account of Corry’s travels to West Africa in the early years
of the 19th century.
There is much information regarding the region’s inhabitants, particularly their religion and customs, as well
as the area’s natural productions and commercial resources. In addition to advancing England’s commercial
prospects, the author was also interested in ending the practice of slavery. To this end, the text includes
the author’s letter to Lord Howick abolishing the slave trade. The author hoped that “if in the most remote
degree, I excite the interference of my countrymen in behalf of the African, extend our commerce, and
enlarge the circle of civilized and Christian society, I shall think that I have neither travelled, nor written in
vain.”
Abbey, Travel 278.
(#27878) $ 10,000
12 COVERTE, Robert.
A True and Almost Incredible Report of an Englishman, that (being cast away in the good Ship called the
Assension in Cambaya, the farthest part of the East Indies) travelled by Land thorow many unknowne
Kingdomes and great Cities. With a particular Description of all those Kingdomes, Cities, and People:
As also, a Relation of their commodities and manner of Traffiqne, and at what seasons of the yeere they
are most in use. Faythfully related: With a Discovery of a Great Emperour called the Great Mogoll, a
Prince not till now knowne to our English Nation.
London: Printed by I[ohn] N[orton] for Hugh Perry, 1631. Small 4to (7 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches). [vi], 68,
[1] pp. Printer’s colophon leaf in rear. (Title and A4 on stub guards). Full red morocco by Zaehnsdorf,
covers bordered with a gilt triple fillet, spine in six compartments with raised bands, ruled in gilt on
either side of each band, lettered in the second compartment, the others with repeat decoration in
gilt, marbled endpapers, gilt edges. Provenance: early ink and pencil marginalia throughout.
A very rare early account of an overland journey through India and the Middle East.
The author and his men left Plymouth in March 1607 aboard the Ascension and were among the first
Englishmen to see the Cape of Good Hope, arriving there in July 1608. Coverte eventually reached Gujarat,
where the ship ran aground while approaching Surat. Not granted permission to remain in Surat, the crew
departed to various destinations. Coverte and others set out overland for the Moghul Court at Agra via
Burhanpur (describing the important military post as larger than London), arriving at Agra in December
1609. Although asked by the emperor Jahangir to serve in his military service, Coverte and other crew
members left Agra in January 1610 “with the intention of making their way back to the Levant by the overland
route. Travelling by way of Kandahar, Esfahan, and Baghdad, they reached Aleppo in December 1610 and
from the coast of the Levant sailed for England. They subsequently arrived home in April 1611” (Howgego).
An absorbing account presented in the form of a travel diary, Penrose described this work as a “vigorous
narrative. It relates its author’s reception by the Emperor Jahangir, and his ... journey across India, Afghanistan,
and Persia, and ... is one of the best examples of a travel journal that the period produced.” The work was
first published in 1612, with a second edition appearing two years later before the present third edition: all
English editions are rare and desirable. Two German translations followed and the account was further
published in compilations of discovery and exploration, including those published by De Bry, Hulsius, and
van der Aa.
Howgego C211; Penrose, Travel and Discovery in the Renaissance, p. 324; Oaten, European Travellers in India, pp. 158-161; STC
5897.
(#25255) $ 10,000
13 DAULIER DESLANDES, Andre (1621-1715).
Les Beautez de la Perse, ou, La Description de ce qu’il y a de plus Curieux dans ce Royaume.
Paris: Gervais Clouzier, 1673. Small 4to (7 3/4 x 5 7/8 inches). Engraved additional title, engraved
folding map, 7 engraved plates (5 folding). Nineteenth century half green straight grained morocco
over paper covered boards, spine with raised bands in six compartments, lettered in the second
compartment, marbled endpapers.
First edition of a rare illustrated account of travels in Persia with Tavernier.
The author accompanied Tavernier on the majority of his sixth and final journey to the Orient, between in
1663-65. The work describes his stay in Isfahan, as well as visits to Tabriz, Shiraz and Persepolis. The map
shows the route of his travels from Smyrna to the Persian Gulf via a hachured line. The plates, engraved by
Silvestre and Paillet after designs by the author, include folding views of Isfahan and Persepolis, the latter
believed to be the first accurate engraving of the palace.
Weber II, 349. Not in Atabey or Blackmer.
(#27701) $ 4,500
14 DELUC, Jean Andre (1727-1817).
Account of a New Hygrometer.
London: W. Bowyer and J. Nichols, 1774. Small 4to (8 3/4 x 7 inches). Engraved folding plate,
engraved by Basire. Period marbled paper wrappers. Housed in a blue morocco backed box.
Provenance: Thomas Hornsby (1733-1810, presentation inscription by the author).
Author’s presentation copy of a rare offprint from the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, detailing
Deluc’s invention to measure humidity.
Jean Andre Deluc (1727-1817) was a Swiss-born English geologist and meteorologist. He was made a fellow
of the Royal Society in 1773, the year prior to the present paper. Deluc’s hygrometer, detailed here, used
an ivory bulb that when damp allowed mercury to move down a tube. Among his more noted discoveries
was that the measurement of the quantity of aqueous vapor contained in any space was independent of the
presence or density of the air. He was also the first to accurately measure height using a barometer.
The account of his hygrometer was published in Vol. LXIII of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal
Society. The present offprint was separately printed, with this example being an author’s presentation copy
to Thomas Hornsby, a noted astronomer and an influential member of the Board of Longitude. Scarce.
(#27846) $ 3,250
15 DIROM, Alexander (1757-1830).
A Narrative of the Campaign in India which terminated in the war with Tippoo Sultan in 1792.
London: W. Bulmer for G. Nicol, 1794. 4to (10 5/8 x 8 3/8 inches). 9 engraved maps and plates (some
folding). Full contemporary tree calf, covers bordered in gilt, spine richly gilt in compartments, red
morocco lettering piece in the second. Provenance: Edward Clive, 2nd Earl of Powis (1785-1848,
grandson of Robert Clive of India. Inscription dated ‘Eton College ... 1800’).
A fine copy in a lovely contemporary binding of an important account of British India and the third AngloMysore war.
Alexander Dirom here gives a largely first-hand account of the final campaign in the Third Anglo-Mysore
War, including the siege of Seringapatam, and covering a period between the spring of 1791 and the beginning
of March 1792 when Tipu Sultan sued for peace with General Cornwallis, and eventually surrendered his
two sons as hostages.
Alexander Dirom, who served as Deputy Adjutant-General during the war was well placed to provide an
informed account of events, and apparently compiled this work, with the help of fellow officers, on the
voyage home. The first edition was published in 1793; the present second edition appeared in the following
year. The work was admired by Lowndes: “A very amusing and entertaining detail [sic.] of the operations
which closed the late Indian war in 1792.”
This fine copy with provenance to the grandson of an important British figure in India, Major General
Edward Robert Clive (1725-1774). Also known as “Clive of India,” he is credited with helping to establish
the military and political supremacy of the East India Company in Southern India and Bengal, securing
India, and the wealth that followed, for the British crown.
Lowndes I, p.620.
(#24496) $ 2,000
16 [EAST INDIES].
Courante of Newes from the East India. A true Relation of the taking of the Islands of Lantore and
Polaroone in the parts of Banda in the East Indies by the Hollanders, which hands had yielded themselves
subject unto the King of England ... [caption title].
[London]: February 8, 1622. 6pp. Small quarto. Modern half morocco and cloth, spine gilt. Leaves
lightly tanned and stained, with light edgewear.
Breaking English news on conflicts in the East Indies, 1622.
This newsletter is probably the earliest surviving English bulletin of current information concerning events
in the Far East and the East Indies. This news sheet reports the capture of the islands of Lantore (Great
Banda) and Polaroone (Pulau Run) in the Banda Islands from the British by the Dutch East India Company.
The islands had been discovered and annexed to Portugal in 1512, and were valued for their spices, especially
nutmeg. Early in the seventeenth century the Dutch expelled the Portuguese. The British subsequently
gained control of the islands from the Dutch for a brief period. Despite treaties, the Dutch attacked and
expelled the British in 1621, as detailed here. According to ESTC, a Second Courante of news from the East
Indies was printed in London on February 18th. Lach notes that the Dutch and English produced several
tracts during this period, each giving their respective accounts of hostilities in the East Indies and Banda in
particular. The present Courante is among the rarest such works. ESTC locates a total of only five copies of
this February 8 newsletter, at the British Library, Cambridge, Oxford, the Folger Shakespeare Library, and
the University of Minnesota, and this particular title is not mentioned by Lach. Rare.
Lowndes, p.1670; Bell IV, 34; STC 7457; ESTC S113953; Lach, Asia in the Making of Europe, III, pp.555-556 and 1427-1436.
(#26307) $ 22,500
17 FER, Nicholas de (1646-1720).
Les Forces de l’Europe, ou description des principales villes aves leurs fortifications ... pour l’usage de
Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne ...
Paris: Chez l’Auteur, 1693-1696. 8 parts in 1, oblong folio (11 x 15 inches). Title pages to each part
printed in red and black, allegorical frontispiece engraved by Schoonebeck (bound following the
part 2 title), engraved dedication to Bourgogne (bound following the part 1 title), letterpress table
of plans for parts 1-5 (with contemporary manuscript listing of parts 6-8 on verso), 9 preliminary
engraved plates (7 with corresponding letterpress or engraved text leaves), 175 engraved plans and
views (1 folding). Contemporary mottled calf, spine with raised bands in six compartments, lettered
in the second, the others with a repeat decoration in blind (worn). Provenance: Algernon Capell, Earl
of Essex (1670-1710, armorial bookplate on verso of dedication leaf).
A noted French military atlas.
Although predominantly maps, plans and views of fortifications of European cities in France, Germany, and
the Netherlands, the atlas also includes a number of other regions, including Malta, Constantinople, Tripoli
and elsewhere. Among the most interesting of these is the plan of Quebec (Kershaw 279), bound as the map
23 in part 5. “In August 1690, Sir William Phips left Boston to attack and capture Quebec. Previous military
success at Port Royal had given the English an excess of confidence, which Phips fully exploited in planning
his expedition against Quebec, but which quickly evaporated when the under-equipped force discovered the
extent of the defenses at Quebec. The operation was disastrous, and the English struggled back to Boston
losing a number of ships on the way. The battle lines of the English fleet and the details of the French
defenses were recorded by Villeneuve in manuscript form, which were subsequently the source of a sequence
of printed maps [including the present]” (Kershaw). See Pastoureau for a complete list of plates in this atlas.
Phillips, A List of Geographical Atlases in the Library of Congress, 517a; Shirley, Maps in the Atlases of the British Library, T.Fer1c; Pastoureau, Les Atlas Francais XVle-XVlle Siecles, Fer IX A.
(#26391) $ 9,500
18 GONÇALVES, Joaquim Affonso (1780-1841).
Diccionario Portuguez-China no estilo vulgar Mandarim e classico Geral ... [with:] Diccionario ChinaPortuguez.
Macao: S. Jose, 1831-1833. 2 volumes, thick 8vo (7 5/8 x 6 inches). [4], iv, 872pp; [4], viii, 1028,
[2], 126pp. Text in two columns. 19th century mottled calf, flat spines in five compartments divided
by gilt double rules, red morocco spine labels in the second compartments, coloured patterned
endpapers.
First edition of a rare Mandarin dictionary and a scarce Macao imprint.
Gonçalves traveled to China in 1812 and remained until his death in 1841, during which time he completed
several important lexicographical works, including the present volumes on Chinese and Western languages.
The present Chinese-Portuguese dictionary was written by Father Gonçalves specifically for the students
of the Colegio de São José de Macau who were studying to become missionaries. The work is particularly
scarce with both volumes present.
Cordier BS1595; Lowendahl 879; Lust 1042.
(#26811) $ 7,500
19 HANWAY, Jonas (1712-1786).
Common Sense: in Nine Conferences, between a British Merchant and a Candid Merchant of America
in their private capacities as friends; tracing the several causes of the present contest between the mother
country and her American subjects ...
London: J. Dodley, 1775.
[Bound preceding:] Jonas HANWAY. The Defects of Police the Cause of Immorality, and the continual
Robberies committed, particularly in and about the Metropolis: with various proposals for preventing hanging
and transportation: likewise for the establishment of several plans of police on a permanent basis ... London: J.
Dodsley, 1775.
2 volumes in 1, 4to (11 x 8 1/2 inches). Contemporary calf, covers bordered with a gilt rule, spine with raised
bands in six compartments, red morocco lettering piece in the second compartment, the others with a repeat
overall decoration in gilt. (Repairs to joints). Provenance: Lord Walsingham (armorial bookplate).
Two important works by the noted English philanthropist and reformer, including his scarce work on the
impending American Revolution.
Hanway as a merchant and British patriot looked askance at what was happening in the American colonies.
The text is in the form of a dialogue between a British and American merchant, in which the nature of
sovereign authority, taxation, trade, and the pros and cons of seeking independence are discussed in a friendly
and amicable way. “Arguments supposed to have converted the ‘candid’ Yankee seem quite unconvincing”
(Howes). It is unclear if Thomas Paine knew of Hanway’s work, but would of course issue his own Common
Sense shortly after, though with arguments convincingly in favor of the patriot cause.
[Common Sense:] Sabin 14998; Howes C646, “aa.”; Adams, American Controversy 75-29; Higgs 6321; Taylor, Jonas Hanway
Founder of the Marine Society, p.230. [Defects of Police:] Higgs 6458; Goldsmiths 11353; Kress 7115.
(#26356) $ 6,000
20 HARRISON, John (1693-1776); [and Nevil MASKELYNE (1732-1811)].
The Principles of Mr. Harrison’s Time-Keeper, with plates of the same. Published by order of the
Commissioners of Longitude.
London: Printed by W. Richardson and S. Clark; and sold by John Nourse and Mess. Mount and
Page, 1767. Quarto (10 1/4 x 7 7/8 inches). [4], v-xvii, [1], 19-31pp. Half-title. 10 engraved folding
plates. Expertly bound to style in half 18th century russia over period marbled paper covered boards,
spine with raised bands in six compartments, ruled in gilt on either side of each band, morocco
lettering piece in the second compartment.
A navigational rarity: the first edition of the primary account of the invention of the marine chronometer.
In 1714, the Board of Longitude offered a substantial reward of £20,000 to anyone who could find an accurate
method for determining longitude at sea. In 1730, clockmaker John Harrison completed a manuscript
describing some of his inventions, including a chronometer “accurate enough to measure time at a steady
rate over long periods, thus permitting the measurement of longitude by comparison of local solar time with
an established standard time” (Norman). On the strength of his descriptions, Harrison obtained a loan from
George Graham, a leading maker of clocks and watches, for the construction of his timekeeper.
After numerous attempts, involving instruments in several different shapes and sizes, most of which Harrison
himself or his son William tested on ocean voyages, Harrison succeeded in constructing a chronometer
that was both accurate and convenient in size. The chronometer was successfully tested on two voyages to
the West Indies in 1761 and 1764. Following these successful trials Harrison felt that he had a right to the
prize, but the Board of Longitude hedged, insisting on a demonstration and full written description of his
invention. To that end, a demonstration took place on 22 August 1765, in the presence of the astronomerroyal Nevil Maskelyne and a six-member committee of experts appointed by the Board, and the present
work was published. It records the results, along with Harrison’s own description of his timekeeper. Still
unsatisfied, the Board awarded Harrison only half the prize money, and continued to raise obstacles,
subjecting his chronometer to extreme and unrealistic tests, and requiring him to build yet two more
examples. It was not until 1773, after direct intervention by King George III, that the 80-year old inventor
was paid the remainder of the prize money. Several of his earliest chronometers are preserved at the Royal
Observatory in Greenwich. Although Harrison’s chronometer was soon supplanted by simpler mechanisms,
the timekeeper “revolutionized the science of navigation, as it gave navigators their first means of observing
true geographical position at any given moment during a voyage. There was no comparable advance in
navigational aids until the development of radar in the twentieth century” (Norman).
Grolier/Horblit 42b; Norman 995.
(#27189) $ 57,500
21 JACKSON, Sir Keith Alexander (1798-1843).
Views in Affghaunistaun ... from sketches taken during the campaign of the Army of the Indus.
London: published by W.H. Allen & Co. and T.M’Lean, [1841]. Folio (14 3/4 x 10 1/2 inches).
Tinted lithographed title, uncoloured lithographed dedication “To The Chairman and Directors of
the Honble the East India Company,” hand-coloured lithographed frontispiece, engraved map and
26 tinted lithographed plates after Jackson by W. L. Walton, T. Allom and others. Publisher’s moire
cloth boards, lettered in gilt on the upper cover, expertly rebacked to style, original yellow endpapers.
A fine and rare record of the first Afghan War.
An army of 21,000 troops under the command of Sir John Keane set out from the Punjab in December 1838
with orders to take Kabul and replace the emir Dost Mohammad with Shah Shuja. By late March 1839, the
British forces had reached Quetta, crossed the Bolan Pass and begun their march to Kabul. They advanced
through rough terrain, crossed deserts and 12,000-foot-high mountain passes, but made good progress and
took Kandahar on April 25, 1839. On July 22, in a surprise attack, they captured the until-then impregnable
fortress of Ghazni, which overlooks a plain leading eastward into the North West Frontier Province: the
British troops breached the defenses by blowing-up one of the city gates and, following some fierce fighting,
marched into the city. In taking this fortress, they suffered 200 men killed and wounded, while the Afghans
lost nearly 500 men. 1,600 Afghans were taken prisoner, and an unknown number were wounded. Following
this, the British achieved a decisive victory over Dost Mohammad’s troops, led by one of his sons. Dost
Mohammad fled with his loyal followers across the passes to Bamian, and ultimately to Bukhara. This first
and most successful stage of the war ended in August 1839, when, after almost thirty years, Shuja was again
enthroned in Kabul.
The present work records this period in words and pictures and was published before the setbacks which
led to the eventual decision by the British to withdraw from Afghanistan. Following the completion of this
first campaign, Jackson, a Captain in the 4th Light Dragoons, was granted leave to return to Britain and was
able to arrange for the publication of the present work. Although including some historical information
and topographical description, the chief attraction of this fine work are the fine lithographed views. These
include images referencing specific military engagements (enhanced by Jackson’s eye-witness descriptions),
as well as general views of “Caubul” and other cities, forts and mountainous passes. Although some images
show British officers, most include depictions of locals in native dress.
A contemporary reviewer, in the Literary Gazette, writes: “A great dandy of Affghaun and a great gun of
Ghuznee, as frontispiece and vignette, introduce us to these views, which embrace a variety of objects
of Oriental interest-scenery, fortifications, storming attacks, ruins, minarets, travelling, costume, cities,
navigation, tombs, and, in short, the most remarkable features in the territories lately invaded by the British
army. They are executed on a large scale, and with a combined aspect of fidelity and spirit which strongly
recommends them to our approbation. We should say, from comparison with other Eastern works of the
same kind, that they are accurate in relation to truth and clever in relation to art” (Literary Gazette, 12 June
1841).
Following the publication of this work, Jackson returned to India and then to Kabul, where he died in 1842.
Abbey Travel II, 506; Bobins The Exotic and the Beautiful I, 259.
(#26764) $ 12,000
22 KHAN, Mirza Mohammed Ali.
Epitome of India. Containing a brief and concise description of the land, from the political, social,
statistical & general points of view, including that of all the principal & petty Native states.
Bombay: Haidary Printing Press, 1893. 8vo (9 1/4 x 6 inches). Text in English and Persian. 16
portrait plates, lithographed at Chitrotejuck Press, Bombay. Contemporary black morocco, covers
elaborated blocked in gilt, gilt spine with raised bands in six compartments, cloth gilt endpapers, gilt
edges, bound at the Education Society’s Press, Byculla.
Scarce Bombay imprint, illustrated with portraits of the Maharaja.
The author served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Imperial Persian Government.
(#26433) $ 3,500
23 KING, Richard (1811-1876).
Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Arctic Ocean, in 1833, 1834, and 1835; under the Command
of Capt. Back, R.N.
London: Richard Bentley, 1836. 2 volumes in 1, 8vo. xv, 312, [1]; viii, 321, [1]pp. 4 plates, including
2 frontispieces and a map. Modern half morocco over marbled paper covered boards.
Rare narrative by the surgeon and naturalist on the Back expedition.
“Dr. King’s narrative is full of the details of Indian life, as it was presented to the members of Captain Back’s
expedition. He looked at the same transactions with the natives, and the same phases of their character
which Captain Back portrays, from a different point, and their coloring to his eye bears another tinge. His
journal, filled with descriptions of interviews with the Chippewyans, Crees, Dog-Ribs, and Esquimaux, is
therefore exceedingly interesting even after the perusal of Captain Back’s narrative. Although every chapter
is largely devoted to incidents associated with the natives, and anecdotes illustrative of their character, Dr.
King yields the whole of Chapter xii. to an examination and relation of the present condition of the tribes
inhabiting the Hudson’s Bay territories. The Doctor does not attempt to conceal the chagrin he felt, at the
cool absorption of his own careful researches in the narrative of Captain Back. In the splendid work of that
really eminent explorer, there appears a little, and but a little of that want of generosity which the relation
of Dr. King insinuates. Both give the most minute narrations of the peculiar traits of the Northern Indians,
their destructive wars, their wasting from disease, and famine, and debauchery, all of which are directly
traceable to their communication with the whites. Dr. King, however, finds in them traces of some of the
nobler, as well as the more tender emotions, the possession of which Captain Back somewhat superciliously
derides. Dr. King very justly reminds him that the gallant Captain owed his life, and that of his entire party,
to the devotion and self-denial, through two long starving winters, of the Chippewyan chief Akaitcho. This
remarkable Indian deserves an honorable fame. While his tribe in common with himself were starving, he
shared with Captain Franklin in his two expeditions, and with Captain Back in a third, the scanty food,
which his superior hunter-craft enabled him to obtain, when the duller white reason failed. Captain Franklin
would never have sailed upon his fateful voyage, but for the humanity of Akaitcho, as he would have perished
of starvation on his first exploration” (Field).
“King, surgeon and naturalist of the Back expedition that descended the Back River to the arctic coast of
Canada, includes much material similar to that contained in Sir George Back’s Narrative of the Arctic Land
Expedition, 1836, with additional detail on birds, mammals, and fishes, especially as observed near Fort
Reliance” (Arctic Bibliography).
Most notable from a historical perspective is King’s charge that Capt. Back appropriated his own research and
that Back’s conclusions were less than exact. King praises to great length the Chipewyan chief Akaitcho who
fed the starving parties of the first two Franklin expeditions and Back’s third and without whose generosity
Franklin would not have sailed on his last fateful journey.
Arctic Bibliography 8708; Field 831; NMM 857 (ref); Sabin 37831 (calling for 7 plates); Staton & Tremaine/TPL 1899; Streeter
Sale 3705; Wagner-Camp 62
(#27894) $ 13,500
24 KOTZEBUE, Moritz von (1789-1861).
Voyage en Perse, a la suite de l’Ambassade Russe, en
1817 ... Traduit de l’Allemand par M. Breton.
Paris: Chez A. Nepveu, 1819. 8vo (7 7/8 x 4 7/8
inches). Half title. 4 engraved plates, printed in
sepia and hand coloured, each plate depicting 2
images. Contemporary calf-backed pink paper
covered boards, flat spine divided by gilt roll
tools in six compartments, lettered in the second
compartment, the others with a repeat decoration
in gilt. Provenance: Baron du Puget (period ink
stamp on title).
First edition in French of a journal of travels in Persia,
illustrated with hand coloured plates.
In 1817, Moritz Kotzebue, the brother of explorer Otto
van Kotzebue, “as a young lieutenant in Russian service,
he travelled to Persia in the cortege of a Russian embassy
sent to the encampment of Fatha-al-Shah at Soltaniyeh.
He kept an informative journal of this embassy, which was
afterwards published by his father in Weimar” (Howgego).
French, English, Dutch and other editions followed; the
present French edition is prized for its hand colored plates,
not found in other editions.
Howgego K19; Abbey, Travel 390 (English edition with uncolored
aquatints)
(#27707) $ 900
25 KRASHENINNIKOV, Stepan Petrovich (1711-1755) James GRIEVE, translator (d. 1773).
The History of Kamtschatka, and the Kurilski Islands,
with the countries adjacent; illustrated with maps and
cuts. Published at Petersbourg in the Russian language,
by order of Her Imperial Majesty, and translated into
English by James Grieve, M.D.
Glocester [sic]: Printed by R. Raikes for T. Jefferys,
1764. 4to (10 1/8 x 7 3/4 inches). 7 engraved maps
and plates (four folding). Errata leaf in the rear.
Period calf, covers with a gilt fillet border, expertly
rebacked to style, spine in six compartments with
raised bands, original red morocco lettering piece in
the second compartment, the others with a repeat
decoration in gilt, original marbled endpapers.
First English edition of a noted work on Kamchatka and
one of the earliest accounts of Alaska and the Aleutian
Islands, by a member of Bering’s second expedition.
“The Russian Krasheninnikov started out across Siberia
with Gerhard Friedrich Mueller and Johann Georg Gmelin, and then made his own way to Kamchatka.
When Georg Wilhelm Steller arrived in Kamchatka to supervise his work, Krasheninnikov left in order to
avoid becoming Steller’s assistant, and returned to St. Petersburg. Krasheninnikov nonetheless was able to
make use of Steller’s notes in the preparation of his own narrative, and the inclusion of Steller’s observations
on America, made during his travels with Bering’s second voyage, are an important part of this work,
and constitute one of the earliest accounts of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. Steller’s account was not
published until 1793. This work details the customs, morals, and religion of the Kamchatka peninsula, and
discusses the power exercised by the magicians. Also described are the differences between the dialects of
the Kamchatkans and those of the Korsairs and of the Kurile islanders. This is the first scientific account of
those regions” (Hill).
Steller’s own account of the voyage with Bering was not published until 1793. The second part of
Krasheninnikov’s narrative is devoted to the botanical and natural history aspects of the region, including
many valuable observations, comprising what is generally considered to be the pioneering natural history
work concerning Alaska and Kamchatka. The attractive plates are some of the earliest depictions of the
natives and their habitat. Lada-Mocarski states that the first edition “is a very rare book and difficult to
secure.”
First published in Russian in 1755, the present first English edition was translated by James Grieve, at the
time of the original publication serving as the personal physician to the Empress of Russia. The present
scarce English edition was the first to be published outside Russia and would be followed by French and
German translations.
“Contains one of the earliest descriptions of Russian America and the Kurile Islands” (Howes).
Sabin 38301; Hill 948; Howes K265; cf. Lada-Mocarski 12; Howgego K37.
(#24677) $ 5,400
26 LE BRUYN, Cornelius (1652-1727/28) [or Le Brun].
Voyages ... par la Moscovie, en Perse, et aux Indes Orientales.
Amsterdam: Chez les Freres Wetstein, 1718. 2 volumes, small folio (13 x 8 inches). Half-title in
volume II, titles printed in red and black. Vol 1: engraved portrait of the author by G. Valck after
G. Kneller, engraved allegorical frontispiece by B. Picart, dedication with engraved headpiece, 3
engraved double-page maps, 111 engraved plates (numbered 1-110, plus 1 unnumbered) on 52 sheets
(29 double-page, 7 folding), 24 engraved illustrations within the text (illustration on p. 164 pasted on
slip as issued). Vol 2: 162 engraved plates (numbered 111-262, plus 10 unnumbered) on 56 sheets
(33 double-page, 9 folding), 20 engraved illustrations within the text. (A few plates shaved at margin,
some plates bound out of order). 18th-century calf, nicely rebacked retaining the original lettering
pieces, spines in seven compartments with raised bands, lettering pieces in the second and third
compartments, the others with a repeat decoration in gilt. Provenance: Thomas Lennard Barrett,
Lord Dacre of the South, of Belhus, Essex (1717-1787, armorial bookplate).
First edition in French of Le Bruyn’s important illustrated account of his voyage to Russia, Persia, India and
Java.
In his first expedition of 1674, Dutch traveller and painter Cornelius Le Bruyn remained in the Levant for
seven years, travelling principally in Asia Minor, Syria, the Holy Land and Egypt. On his return, he published
his Voyages au Levant, and encouraged by its success, undertook a second, more far-reaching expedition.
“In 1701, Le Bruyn started on the second of his journeys taking a ship to the country of the Samoyeds ... and
then proceeding to Moscow. Travelling by way of Asia Minor, he arrived in Persia where he remained for
the years 1704-05. Leaving Persia he proceeded [by ship] to India [stopping at Cochin], Ceylon and the East
Indies [i.e. Batavia]. He returned by much the same route, residing in Persia between 1706 and 1707 and
describing the ruins of Persepolis and Pasargades” (Howgego).
The numerous finely engraved illustrations include large folding panoramas of Moscow and Isfahan, views
of Astrakhan, and the antiquities at Persepolis and many of the forts encountered on his journey, as well as
portraits of native peoples, and depictions of the flora, fish, birds, animals etc. Of particular note are Le
Bruyn’s description and images of the Samoyeds and their country, among the earliest for the region. Le
Bruyn also gives an account of an encounter with William Dampier in Batavia, and describes the route taken
by Everard Ysbrants Ides, the Danish Russian ambassador to China.
Brunet III:911 (calls for 262 plates based on the numbering of the plate list which does not include the unnumbered plates);
Chadenat II, 5085; Chahine 2078; Cohen-de Ricci 610; Lipperheide Kaa 6 (calls for 128 plates and 45 engraved illustrations);
Howgego B177.
(#25534) $ 14,000
27 LE GOUZ DE LA BOULLAYE, François (1623-1668/9).
Les Voyages et Observations... Où sont décrites les Religions, Gouvernemens, & situations des Estats
& Royaumes d’Italie, Grece, Natolie, Syrie, Perse, Palestine, Karamenie, Kaldée, Assyrie, grand Mogul,
Bijapour, Indes Orientales des Portugais, Arabie, Egypte [etc.] ... Nouvellement reveu & corrige par
l’Autheur & augmente de quantite de bon aduis ...
Paris: François Clousier, 1657. Three parts in one, small 4to (8 3/8 x 6 1/2 inches). Woodcut headand tailpieces and initials. Full-page woodcut portrait of the author, 33 woodcut illustrations (17
full-page). (Very minor scattered worming in gutter margin). Early vellum, early morocco lettering
piece. Provenance: M. Delaloge (early signature); M. de Plumerey (early signature).
Rare corrected and expanded second edition of a noted mid-17th century narrative of travels in Persia, India,
Egypt and the Levant.
“La Boullaye le Gouz began his travels shortly after 1643, when he fought in the English civil war as a
member of the French forces defending Charles I. Using the name Ibrahim Bey, he eventually made his way
to Goa via Greece and Turkey; on the return journey he visited Egypt ... The illustrations include the castle of
Amasia, a plan of the Seraglio and a view of Mt. Ararat, in addition to many cuts of natural history subjects
and Indian wall paintings, as well as a portrait of the author in Oriental dress ... There is a long bibliography
of the works of earlier travellers at the beginning of the volume...” (Atabey).
“The work is notable for its information on northern India and its relation to Persia, and for its inclusion of
a summary of Ramayana” (Howego).
First published in 1653, Atabey erroneously asserts that the portrait of the author does not appear in the
second edition; it is present, as issued, in this copy.
Brunet III:718; Atabey 645 (first edition); Howego L4.
(#27696) $ 5,950
28 LUSIGNANO, Steffano di (1537-1590).
Description de Toute l’Isle de Cypre, et des Roys, Princes, et Seigneurs, tant Payens que Chrestiens, qui
ont commandé en icelle ... [Bound with:] Histoire contenant une sommaire description des Genealogies,
Alliances & gestes de tous les Princes & grans Seigneurs, dont la pluspart estoient François, qui ont iadis
commadéés es Royaumes de Hierusalem, Cypre, Armenie, & lieux circonuoisins.
Paris: Chez Guillaume Chaudiere, 1580 [first work]; Paris: Chez Guillaume Chaudiere, 1579 [second
work]. 2 volumes in one, 4to (8 3/8 x 6 5/8 inches). Titles with woodcut device, woodcut headpieces
and initials. [10], 292, [xviii]; [iv], 72 ff. Contemporary limp vellum, yapp edges, manuscript titling
on spine. Provenance: Artus de Prunier, Comte de Clermont, la Seigneurie de Virieu en Dauphine
(period inscriptions and signature); Nicolas de Prunier (armorial bookplate).
Very rare first edition in French of a noted early history of Cyprus and account of the Ottoman Empire conquest
of 1571.
This work is sometimes mistaken to be simply a French translation of the Italian 1572 work by Lusignano titled
Chorograffia: et breve historia universale dell’Isola de Cipro, though is in fact here considerably augmented
and corrected. Though published following that work, it was begun earlier in the convent of the Jacobins
at Paris on 9 May and completed on 22 November 1568. Furthermore, this work includes a translation of
Calepio’s account of the Turkish conquest of Cyprus. It is believed that Lusignano, a descendant of the famed
Cypriot family of that name, was hopeful that his work would induce the French to drive the Turks from
Cyprus, and restore the island to his compatriots.
Rare: we know of only two other copies of the first work in commerce in recent years (Sotheby’s London, 13
May 2004, £18,000; Christie’s Paris, 2 June 2005, €7800).
This copy with important provenance. Artus Prunier de Saint-André and his family owned an important
library which was started by Artus I and was completed by his grand-son, Nicolas (1628-1692), himself
president of the parliament of Grenoble from 1679 to 1692. Afterwards the library passed into the family of
Saint-Ferriol until its dispersion. On the Prunier library, see A. Masimbert: Artus Prunier de Saint-André.
Sa bibliothèque et son bibliothécaire, in Petite Revue des Bibliophiles Dauphinois, 2e série, n° 4, 1928, pp.
1-15.
Brunet III, 1239; BM French 293; Cobham-Jeffery p.35. Not in Atabey.
(#27702) $ 17,500
29 MACAULAY, Colman (1848-1890).
[Confidential]. Report of a Mission to Sikkim and the Tibetan Frontier with a Memorandum on Our
Relations with Tibet.
Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Press, 1885. 4to (10 3/4 x 8 1/2 inches). 22 mounted albumen
photographs. Folding map. Publisher’s russet cloth, lettered in gilt on the upper cover, rebacked
with leather. Provenance: Joseph D. Hooker (presentation inscription from the author on the front
blank, dated June 1885).
A presentation copy of a scarce photographically illustrated work on the Tibetan frontier during the period of
British interest amidst the Great Game.
Macaulay undertook his mission in October-November 1885, and reported enthusiastically on the value of
extending British relations with Tibet, but though he was chosen to lead a subsequent mission to promote
this, an Anglo-Chinese treaty led to its abandonment. In his introduction to the present volume, he notes
that “photographs were taken on the journey.”
This copy gifted by the author to the botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817-1911), who had travelled to
Sikkim in 1848, a journey that resulted in his famous Rhododendrons of the Sikkim-Himalaya.
(#26967) $ 9,850
30 MEARES, John (1756-1809).
Voyages made in the years 1788 and 1789, from China to the north west coast of America. To which are
prefixed, an introductory narrative of a voyage performed in 1786, from Bengal, in the Ship Nootka;
observations on the probable existence of a north west passage; and some account of the trade between
the north west coast of America and China; and the latter country and Great Britain.
London: printed at the Logographic Press and sold by J. Walter, 1790. Quarto (11 5/8 x 9 inches).
5pp. list of subscribers. 28 engraved, stipple or aquatint plates and maps (comprising: 1 stippleengraved portrait frontispiece of Meares by C. Bestland after Sir William Beechey, 3 folding engraved
maps, 7 engraved charts, 6 aquatint coastal profiles [4 folding, including “Views of the Land on
the Philippine Islands” facing p.17], 3 portraits [1 aquatint, 2 engraved], 8 views [7 aquatints, 3
of these folding]). Contemporary half speckled calf over marbled paper covered boards, flat spine
divided into compartments by gilt rules, red morocco lettering piece in the second compartment.
Provenance: presentation copy, inscribed “Presented by the Author” on the title; William Perceval
(bookplate).
Presentation copy of the first edition of “one of the fundamental books on the Northwest coast of America in
general and on Alaska in particular” (Lada-Mocarski). A fine, tall copy in its original binding.
“Meares made two fur trading voyages to the Northwest Coast. The first, sponsored by Bengal merchants,
included the ships Nootka and Sea Otter, which sailed from Calcutta on March 2, 1786. On this voyage
Meares reached Alaska and visited Kodiak but was continually frustrated by the presence of the Russians.
On the northwest coast he met Portlock and Dixon. In June 1787 he sailed to Hawaii and continued on to
Canton, taking with him the Hawaiian chief Kiana (whose portrait is included among the plates). On the
Nootka, Meares again arrived at Hawaii August 2, 1787 and departed September 2, 1787. Meares returned to
Hawaii as master of the Felice, [the renamed Nootka], October 18 and departed October 26, 1788.
Meares’ second voyage to the American coast (1787-1788) was to alter the course of history. In 1788 he
determined to establish a permanent fur-trading settlement at Nootka and engaged Colnett of the Argonaut
and Hudson of the Princess Royal to accompany him. Shortly after arrival in territory claimed by Spain,
the ships Iphigenia, Argonaut, and Princess Royal were seized by a Spanish frigate, and the resulting action,
known as the Nootka Controversy, nearly precipitated a war between England and Spain. The appendixes
to this work contain letters and instructions, Dufferin’s journal kept while exploring the Straits of Juan de
Fuca in July 1788, and Meares’ memorial to the House of Commons, May 13, 1790, claiming exclusive
rights to Nootka and the prior raising of the British Flag. Meares’ account was central to British claims to
the Northwest Territory and led to the convention by which Spain’s claim was finally disallowed” (Forbes I,
pp.157-158).
The work is noted for its fine illustrations, including aquatint views of Macao, Nihoa (Hawaii) and the
Northwest coast of America, as well as important maps. This copy includes the plate titled “Views of the
Land on the Philippine Islands” which is often lacking.
We have never before encountered a presentation copy of Meares.
Abbey Travel II 594; Cordier Sinica 2103; Hill (2004) 1126; Howes M469; Howgego M-86; Sabin 47260 (26 plates); Staton &
Tremaine 612); Streeter sale VI:3491; Wagner Northwest Coast 758, 758a, 759-766.
(#28197) $ 17,500
31 MOUNT & DAVIDSON (publishers).
The English Pilot. Describing the West-India Navigation, from Hudson’s Bay to the River Amazones
[sic.]. Particularly delineating the coasts, capes, headlands, rivers, bays, roads, havens, harbours,
streights, rocks, sands, shoals, banks, depths of water, and anchorage, with all the islands therein ... also
a new description of Newfoundland, New England, New York, east and west New Jersey, Dellawar [sic.]
Bay, Virginia, Maryland, Carolina, &c. shewing the courses and distances from one place to another;
the ebbing and flowing of the sea, the setting of the tides and currents, &c. with many other things
necessary to be known in navigation. The whole being much enlarged and corrected, with the additions
of several new charts and descriptions.
London: Mount and Davidson, 1794. Folio (18 3/4 x 12 inches). Letterpress title (verso blank), text
pp.[3-]66 with numerous illustrations (including 1 half-page ‘Draught of the Bay of Homda’, 4 three
quarter-page engraved maps or charts, and about 250 wood-cut coastal profiles and harbours). 22
engraved maps and charts. Expertly bound to style in half eighteenth century russia over period
marbled paper covered boards, flat spine with gilt rules, lettered in the second compartment.
Rare final edition of the fourth book of the English Pilot, the first wholly English sea-atlas of American waters.
The English Pilot, in five separate books, was the first major sea-atlas published in England. The ...Fourth
Book was the first wholly English sea-atlas of American waters. The English Pilot, taken as a whole, had a
long and complex publishing history that illustrates the development of the chart trade in England during its
formative period. Introduced in 1689, by John Thornton and William Fisher, the Fourth Book was the most
successful of the five, and had the longest continuous run of editions.
“The Fourth Book of the Pilot is of special interest to American carto-bibliographical description because
it was the first great atlas of wholly English origin to deal exclusively with American waters; because its
production involved some of the most noted map makers and publishers of the time; and because through
successive editions its maps illustrated the unfolding geographical knowledge of the American coast within
a century of exploration and settlement” (Verner, p. vii)
The present 1794 edition of the Fourth Book contains important material not found in the earliest editions:
Andrew Hughes’s A Draught of South Carolina and Georgia, added in 1778, is one of the best sea charts
of these regions of the late 18th century; Edmund Halley’s A New and Correct Chart of the Western and
Southern Oceans, in its various editions, is one of the landmarks of English cartography; the revised 1775
edition of Cyprian Southack’s famous A Map of the Coast of New England is the first to contain the large
inset of Boston based on John Bonner’s great map; the unattributed A Chart of New York Harbour is a
significant addition to the cartography of that city.
The charts in this edition, comprise:
1.) [Edmund HALLEY (1656-1742).] A New and Correct Chart of the Western and Southern Oceans Shewing
the Variations of the Compass According to the latest and best Observations. London: Sold by W. & I. Mount
& T. Page on Tower Hill. Folding (25 x 22½ inches), flanked by panels of separately-printed pasted-on text
titled “The Description and Uses of a New and Correct Sea-Chart of the Western and Southern Ocean,
Shewing the Variations of the Compass.” This folding chart precedes the title-page. It is a corrected edition
of Edmund Halley’s landmark 1701 chart with the same title. Peter Barbour hailed that chart as the “most
significant cartographic achievement of Williamite England” (The Age of William III & Mary II, plate 106.)
It was one of the earliest thematic maps, and the first to show lines of equal magnetic variation which was
an important advance for navigation. A version of Halley’s chart was added to the Fourth Book in 1721, but
was discontinued in favor of this revised version in 1749. As noted in the flanking text, there is a “perpetual
though slow Change in the Variation almost everywhere, which as made it necessary to construct [the chart]
anew from accurate Observations, made by the most ingenious Navigators.”
2.) A New and Correct Chart of the North Part of America from New Found Land to Hudsons Bay. London:
sold by W. & I. Mount & T. Page. Double-page (19 x 23 inches)
3.) A New Generall Chart for the West Indies of E. Wright’s Projection. London: sold by W. and J. Mount and
J. Page. Double-page (19 x 23 1/8 inches).
4.) Emanuel BOWEN (d.1767). A New and Accurate Chart of the vast Atlantic or Western Ocean. [London:]
sold by J. Mount & T. Page. Folding (26 1/4 x 31 3/4 inches). This fine general chart was a recent addition to
the Fourth Book, first appearing in the 1778 edition.
5.) [Captain Cyprian SOUTHACK (1662-1745).] The Harbour of Casco Bay, and Islands Adjacent. London:
sold by J. Mount & T. Page. Double-page (19 x 23 inches). Cf. William P. Cumming, British Maps of Colonial
America, p. 42.
6.) A New and Correct Chart of the Coast of New Foundland from Cape Raze to Cape Bonavista. [with inset of
Chebucto Harbor]. London: sold by W. & I. Mount & T. Page. Folding (19 x 41 inches).
7.) A Chart of the South-East Coast of Newfoundland. [London:] printed for Mount and Page. Folding (19 7/8
x 24 3/4 inches). Added to the Fourth Book in 1780.
8.) Captain Henry BARNSLEY. A New and Correct Chart of the Sea Coast of New-England from Cape Codd
[sic] to Casco Bay. London: sold by W. & I. Mount & T. Page. Folding (22 1/4 x 47 1/4 inches).
9.) Captain Cyprian SOUTHACK. A Map of the Coast of New England, from Staten Island to the Island of
Breton; as it was actually Survey’d by Capt. Cyprian Southack. London: sold by I. Mount, T. Page & W. Mount.
Folding (26 x 32 inches). This is a reduction of the 8 sheet chart that made up The New England Coasting Pilot
(London, 1729-34), by Southack, one of New England’s most knowledgeable and experienced pilots. This
reduction was added to the Fourth Book in 1775, and replaced an earlier version of the chart that had first
appeared in the 1737 edition. The present new version is distinguished by two new insets that do not appear
on any other edition of Southack’s chart. One of these, a large plan of ‘The Town of Boston in New England,’
is an unattributed reduction of John Bonner’s famous map, “the earliest and most important engraved plan
of Boston” (Cf. Wheat & Brun 224; Deak 79). Cf. Reps, American Maps and Mapmakers, pps. 221-222;
Krieger & Cobb, Mapping Boston, pps. 43-44.
10.) A Chart of New York Harbour with the Banks Soundings and Sailing marks from the most Accurate Surveys
and Observations. [No place: no publisher’s imprint]. Folding (25 1/4 x 22 3/4 inches). A fine sea chart of
New York Harbor which replaced Mark Tiddeman’s outdated Draught of New York, which had appeared in
early editions of this work since 1732.
11.) [John THORNTON.] Virginia, Maryland, Pennsilvania, East & West Jersey. [London:]sold by Jno:
Mount & Thos. Page. Folding (23 1/4 x 32 1/4 inches). A classic chart of the Chesapeake Region, originally
published in 1689. It is a close copy of Augustine Herrman’s map. The delineation of Delaware Bay and New
Jersey includes additional data, probably from the Holme map of Pennsylvania. Verner describes this chart
as Thornton’s most notable contribution to Maryland-Virginia cartography. Morrison, On the Map, fig. 36.
12.) Mark TIDDEMAN. A Draught of Virginia from the Capes to York River and to Kuiquotan or Hamton in
James River. London: sold by W. & I. Mount & T. Page. Double-page (19 x 22 7/8 inches). The first printed
map to show Williamsburg. Trimmed close as usual.
13.) Andrew NORWOOD. A New Mapp of the Island of St. Christophers being an Actuall Survey taken by Mr.
Andrew Norwood Surveyr. Genll. [with insets of Guadeloupe and Martinique]. [London:] sold by W. Mount
& T. Page. Double-page (19 x 23 inches).
14.) Andrew HUGHES. A Draught of South Carolina and Georgia from Sewee to St. Estaca. [with lengthy
integral engraved text entitled ‘Instructions for the Coast of South Carolina Georgia and the Coast of St.
Augustine.’] London: sold by W. Mount and T. Page. Folding (19 x 33 1/8 inches). This is one of the finest
18th century sea charts for the coasts from Sewee River to St. Augustine, and an important recent addition
to the Fourth Book. It was first added to the 1778 edition.
15.) A Correct Chart of the Caribbee Islands.London: sold by Mount & Page. Double-page (19 x 23 1/4
inches).
16.) C. PRICE, C. A Correct Chart of Hispaniola with the Windward Passage. London: Jno. Mount & Tho.
Page. Folding (20 1/8 x 24 /8 inches).
17.) A Draught of the West End of the Island of Porto Rico and the Island of Zachee.... A Draught of the Island
of Beata...[etc. five charts on one sheet]. [No place: no publisher’s names] Folding (19 5/8 x 24 1/2 inches).
18.) A New & Correct Chart of Cuba, Streights of Bahama, Windward Passage, the Current through the Gulf
of Florida [with an inset plan of Havana.] [London:] sold by Mount & Page. Folding (21 1/4 x 26 1/8 inches).
First added to the atlas in 1767.
19.) R. PEARSON. A New and Correct Draught of the Bay of Matanzas on ye North Side of ye Island Cuba....
[No place: no publishers]. Half sheet (18 7/8 x 12 inches).
20.) A New & Correct Chart of the Island of Jamaica, with its Bays, Harbours, Rocks, Soundings &c. [London:]
sold by J. Mount & T. Page. Folding (21 1/8 x 27 1/4 inches).
21.) R. WADDINGTON. A Chart of the Coast of Guyana. [with two insets of the Orinocco and Surinam
rivers]. [No place: no publishers]. Folding (19 1/4 x 25 inches).
22.) A New and Correct Chart of the Trading Part of the West Indies. London: sold by I. Mount & T. Page.
Folding (19 x 32 3/8 inches). This is a general chart of the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, showing the
entire United States Gulf Coast.
Phillips, Atlases, 1171 (1784 edition); Verner, A Carto-bibliographical Study of The English Pilot The Fourth Book (Charlottsville,
1960) 37; Cf. Verner, [facsimile] The English Pilot The Fourth Book (London: 1689); .
(#26778) $ 45,000
32 NARBROUGH, Sir John (1640-1688), and others. - [Sir Tancred ROBINSON (editor)].
An Account of Several Late Voyages and Discoveries: I. Sir John Narbrough’s Voyage to the South-Sea...
II. Captain J. Tasman’s Discoveries on the Coast of the South Terra Incognita. III. Captain J. Wood’s
Attempt to Discover a North-East Passage to China. IV. F. Marten’s Observations made in Greenland,
and other Northern Countries...to which are added, a large introduction and supplement, containing
short abstracts of other voyages into those parts, and brief descriptions of them.
London: printed for D. Brown, J. Round, W. Innys and T. Ward, 1711. Octavo (7 1/2 x 4 1/2 inches).
3 large folding engraved maps, 19 engraved plates (7 folding). (Two images with flags of ships with
early hand-colouring). Contemporary calf, covers panelled in blind, rebacked with the spine in six
compartments with raised bands flanked by gilt rules, black morocco lettering-piece in the second
compartment. Provenance: Earl Ferrers, Robert Lord Viscount Tamworth (armorial bookplate on
verso of title).
An excellent copy of the second edition, which “is preferred because it has the chart of the western and southern
oceans, which was not included in the first edition, and additional text relating to Greenland and to whales and
whaling” (Hill).
This work was originally published in 1694, and was probably edited by Sir Tancred Robinson. Hill describes
this work as of particular importance for its account of the Straits of Magellan, much relied upon by the
next generation of navigators, and says further: “The book is of the greatest importance to an Australian
collection, as it contains one of the earliest English accounts of Abel Janszoon Tasman’s famous voyage of
1642 from Batavia.” Also contained herein are two important northern voyages, including Marten’s account
of whaling in the Greenland waters. Three of the folding plates depict whales and whaling, while the other
plates depict indigenous birds, animals, and plants.
Cox I, pp.8-9; Hill (2004) 1476; European Americana 711/183; Sabin 72186.
(#26753) $ 9,000
33 NOÉ, Louis Pantaleon Jude Amedee de, Comte (1777-1858).
Mémoires Relatifs a l’Expédition Anglaise Partie du Bengale en 1800 pour Aller Combattre en Égypte
l’Armée d’Orient.
Paris: L’Imprimerie Royale, 1826. 8vo (8 1/8 x 4 7/8 inches). [4], iii, [1], 288, [2]pp. Half title.
2 folding maps, hand-coloured in outline. 19 hand coloured lithographed plates, some with gilt
highlights. Period tan calf, covers bordered in gilt and blocked in blind, expertly rebacked to style,
marbled endpapers and edges.
First edition with beautifully coloured plates depicting natives and scenery of India, Ceylon and Egypt.
The author, a French royalist serving in the British Army in India, accompanied Sir David Baird with the
Bengal Army in their expedition from India to Egypt as part of the larger expedition under Sir Abercromby
to remove Napoleon’s armies from Egypt. This rare work, noted for its beautifully hand coloured plates,
includes worthy descriptions of India, Ceylon, as well as the travels up the Nile to the Battle of Alexandria.
De Meulenaere 157; Colas 2208; Lipperheide 1584; Gay 2168; Abbey Travel 350.
(#27827) $ 1,850
34 NORDEN, Frederik Ludvig (1708-1742).
Travels in Egypt and Nubia ... Translated from the original published by command of his Majesty the
King of Denmark and enlarged with observations from ancient and modern authors, that have written
on the antiquities of Egypt, by Dr. Peter Templeman.
London: Lockyer Davis and Charles Reymers, 1757. 2 volumes, folio (18 x 11 inches). [12], xxxiv,
124; [4], viii, 156pp. Half-titles. Engraved initials, head- and tail-pieces. Engraved allegorical
frontispiece in vol. 1, engraved portrait of the author in vol. 2, 157 engraved plates, maps and plans
(numbered I-CLIX, with plates CXL/CXLI and CXLII/CXLIII on two sheets, 5 folding). Period
speckled calf, covers with a gilt roll tool border, spines with raised bands in seven compartments, red
and green morocco lettering pieces in the second and third, the others with repeat overall elaborate
tooling in gilt (expert restoration at the joints). Provenance: Abraham Roumieu, architect, 1734-1780
(signature and block-printed and ink-ruled bookplate); Richard Hill of Thornton House, Thornton
Dale, Yorkshire, England (armorial bookplate).
First edition in English of an important early illustrated account of exploration in Egypt.
Norden, a Captain in the Danish Navy, made a journey in 1737-1738 through Egypt as far south as Sudan at
the request of King Christian VI of Denmark. “After touring Alexandria and Cairo he proceeded up the Nile
as far as Derr in Nubia, one night unknowingly passing Richard Pococke travelling in the opposite direction.
Norden then retraced his steps to Alexandria and re-embarked for Europe in May 1738. During his year in
Egypt, Norden produced the first coherent maps of the country ... He died in Paris in September 1742, but
his friends organized his papers on Egypt and published them in two volumes in French at Copenhagen in
1752-55” (Howgego). The present first English edition followed in 1757.
He “was the first European to penetrate as far as Derr in Nubia and to publish descriptions of any Nubian
temples. This important work was the earliest attempt at an elaborate description of Egypt, and its plates are
the most significant previous to those by Denon” (Blackmer).
This copy with provenance to architect Abraham Roumieu, a pupil of architect Isaac Ware.
Blackmer 1211; Hilmy 2:74; Weber 2:520; Howgego N38.
(#26814) $ 14,000
35 PALLAS, Peter Simon (1741-1811).
Travels through the Southern Provinces of the Russian Empire, in the Years 1793 and 1794 ... Second
Edition.
London: printed for John Stockdale, 1812. 2 volumes, quarto (11 3/8 x 9 1/4 inches). 55 engraved
or engraved and aquatint plates, plans and maps, most by or after G. Geissler (45 hand-coloured,
25 folding, 4 double-page), 29 vignette illustrations (23 hand-coloured). Period diced russia, covers
bordered with a gilt roll tool and double fillet, rebacked at a later date with the original black morocco
lettering pieces retained, endpapers renewed.
Scarce second edition in English of “an extremely charming colour plate book” (Tooley).
Tooley goes on to observe that this work “deserves a place in every colour plate book collection for its
numerous attractive coloured vignettes, an unusual feature.” Pallas’s odyssey was first published in German
in St. Petersburg under the title St Reise durch verschiedene Provinzen des russichen Reichs (St. Petersburg,
1771-76). Pallas, the newly-appointed professor of natural history at the Imperial Academy of Science in
St. Petersburg, undertook an official six-year expedition from 1768 to 1774 during which he explored the
most distant regions of the Russian empire. The journey (taking him first to the Caspian sea, and then across
the Urals to Tobolsk, the Altai mountains, Omsk, Kolyvan, Tomsk, and Krasnojarsk, next to Irkoutsk, Lake
Baikal, Oudinsk, Sélinghinsk, Kiakhta, the Amour river, and back to Krasnojarsk, thence to Tara, JaitskoiGorodsk, Astrakhan, Tasaritzin and St. Petersburg) is here well described and beautifully illustrated with
most of the plates and vignettes by Geissler.
cf. Abbey Travel I.222; cf.Cat. Rusica P59; cf. Tooley 357.
(#26730) $ 3,750
36 ROSS, Sir John (1777-1856).
Explanation and Answer to Mr. Braithwaite’s Supplement.
London: Whiting for A.B.Webster, [1835]. Quarto. 8pp. Original light brown paper wrappers, titled
in letterpress on upper cover.
Rare separately issued pamphlet responding to criticism of the narrative of Ross’ second Arctic voyage.
After his failure to explore Lancaster Sound in his first voyage of 1818, Ross had his 1829-33 second voyage
privately financed. Forced to abandon his steamship Victory in the ice at Felix Harbour, Ross in his Narrative
placed the blame largely on the shortcomings of the boilers supplied by Messrs. Braithwaite and Ericsson.
Braithwaite responded to the accusations by publishing his craftily titled Supplement to Captain Ross’s
Narrative, and Ross, here, followed with his Explanation and Answer.
Arctic Bibliography 14862; cf. Fergus Fleming Barrow’s Boys (1998) pp.310-311; Sabin 73370.
(#27892) $ 3,000
37 SCHMIDTMEYER, Peter.
Travels into Chile, over the Andes, In the Years 1820 and 1821, with some sketches of the productions
and agriculture; mines and metallurgy; inhabitants, history, and other features, of America; particularly
of Chile and Arauco.
London: Printed by S. McDowall ... For the Author; and ... Longman, [etc.], 1824. 4to (10 1/2 x 8 1/4
inches). 31 lithographed plates on 29 sheets, as issued (2 folding plans, 17 uncoloured views and 12
hand coloured views on 10 sheets). (Scattered foxing to the text). Early nineteenth century half red
straight grained morocco over marbled paper covered boards, flat spine tooled and lettered in gilt.
Provenance: Joseph Y. Jeanes (booklabel); Isaac W. Jeanes II (bookplate).
First English edition, illustrated with beautiful hand coloured views.
Schmidtmeyer began his journey at Buenos Aires, and gives an account of that City; he then travelled
through the Argentine, across the Andes, and through Chile to Santiago; next he ventured to Valparaiso and
Huasco, before returning to Santiago. The work is well illustrated with early lithographed views, including
12 with beautiful hand colouring.
Sabin 77692; Abbey, Travel 71; Palau 304890; Bobins, The Exotic and the Beautiful I:25.
(#28246) $ 5,750
38 SHOBERL, Frederic (1775-1853).
The World in Miniature ... Persia, containing a brief description of the country; and an account of its
government, laws and religion, and of the character, manners and customs, arts, amusements &c. of its
inhabitants.
London: R. Ackermann, [1822] . 3 volumes, 12mo (5 1/2 x 3 3/8 inches). 30 hand coloured stipple
engraved plates (plates watermarked 1822). Period half red morocco over marbled paper covered
boards, spine with semi-raised bands in five compartments, lettered in the second and fourth, the
others with a repeat overall decoration in gilt, marbled endpapers and edges.
Shoberl’s Persia, complete with all hand coloured plates and in a lovely period binding.
“The aim of this interesting series ... [was] to increase the store of knowledge concerning the various branches
of the great family of Man” (Abbey). The religions, customs, arts, and geography of Persia are described, as
taken from some of the most famous accounts of the day, as well as incorporating new information. The
work is comprehensively illustrated with superb hand-colored plates of costumes, ceremonies, architecture,
crafts, boats, musical instruments, and other scenes. In all Shoberl’s series the World in Miniature, with
each part published between 1820 and 1827 and sold separately, ran to 42 volumes, covering Africa, Russia,
Hindoostan, Turkey, China, and virtually every other part of the occupied world.
Abbey Travel 6; Tooley 515; Colas 2726
(#27708) $ 1,500
39 STAUNTON, Sir George Leonard (1737-1801).
An Historical Account of the Embassy to the Emperor of China ... Including the Manners and Customs
of the Inhabitants and preceded by an account of the causes of the Embassy & voyage to China. Abridged
principally from the Papers of Earl Macartney...
London: John Stockdale, 1797. 8vo (8 1/4 x 5 1/8 inches). Directions for the binder and ad leaf in
the rear. Engraved title, 2 engraved folding maps, 22 engraved plates [complete, i.e. 33 images on 25
plates, as issued]. Modern calf, spine with raised bands in six compartments, black morocco lettering
piece in the second.
First abridged edition of Staunton’s Embassy to China, illustrated with plates not found in the folio atlas.
George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney (1737-1806) was dispatched to Beijing in 1792 traveling via Madeira,
Tenerife, Rio de Janeiro, the Cape of Good Hope and Indonesia. He was accompanied by Staunton, and a
retinue of suitably impressive size, including Staunton’s 11-year-old son who was nominally the ambassador’s
page. On the embassy’s arrival in China it emerged that the 11-year-old was the only European member of
the embassy able to speak Mandarin, and thus the only one able to converse with the Emperor. The embassy,
the first such to China, had two objectives: the first to register with the Emperor British displeasure at the
treatment that the British merchants were receiving from the Chinese, the second to gain permission for a
British minister to be resident in China. The first objective was achieved, the second was not. Macartney was
twice granted an audience with the Emperor and in December 1793 he was sumptuously entertained by the
Chinese viceroy in Canton, and returned to England via Macao and St. Helena, arriving in September 1794.
The present octavo abridged edition was published the same year as the full account, but prior to the
publication of the latter’s atlas. “Owing to popular demand, this abridged edition was brought out in the
same year as the official account, at a considerably lower price. It was issued without the atlas volume, and the
atlas plates were not incorporated into this abridgement. A preliminary Advertisement in this edition reveals
the rivalry between the two printers of this work, Stockdale, and Nicol [the publisher of the official account];
Stockdale writes: ‘And not withstanding Mr. Nicol has presumed to bestow the epithet of miserable on the
Prints, the Public will see, by comparison, that none are inferior, many are superior to his own engravings”
(Hill).
Lowendahl 698; Hill 1630; Cordier Sinica 2383-2384; Lust 548.
(#27190) $ 675
40 STRAHLENBERG, Philipp Johann von (1676-1747).
An Histori-Geographical Description of the north and eastern part of Europe and Asia; but more
particularly of Russia, Siberia, and Great Tartary; both in their ancient and modern state: together with
an entire new polyglot-table of the dialects of 32 Tartarian nations: and a vocabulary of the KalmuckMungalian tongue. As also, a large and accurate map of those countries ... Written originally in high
German ... Now faithfully translated into English.
London: printed for J. Brotherton, J. Hazard, W. Meadows [and others], 1738. Quarto (8 5/8 x 6 5/8
inches). 1 large folding engraved map “Nova descriptio geographica Tattariae Magnae...” (by Seale,
dated 1737, sheet size: 26 x 39 inches), 1 folding woodcut map, 1 folding letterpress chart, 10 engraved
plates (3 folding) at rear, and numerous illustrations in the text (old dampstaining). Modern antique
calf, covers panelled in blind, spine in six compartments with raised bands, lettering-piece in the
second, repeat decoration in blind in the other compartments. Provenance: J. Lind (inscription dated
1778): discreet indistinct blindstamp to leaves a2-4.
Second edition in English of a key work on Siberia and Mongolia, with an important large folding map of the
region.
A Swedish officer taken prisoner during Charles XII’s campaign in Russia, Strahlenberg was held captive in
Siberia for thirteen years. Situated in Tobolsk from 1711 to 1721, he was able to explore the lower basins of
the Ob and Yenisey rivers, gathering the geographical information regarding the northern and eastern parts
of Europe and Asia recorded in this book and its large folding map.
The text is of great importance offering much first-hand information -- geographical, historical and
ethnographic -- about Siberia and Great Tartary. The work also includes early descriptions of the linguistics
of the region, with a Kalmyv vocabulary including the translations of Mongolian words.
The most important aspect of the present work, however, is Strahlenberg’s rare and significant map
representing the Russian realm and Great Tartary, containing extensive information regarding Siberia.
Strahlenberg utilized a wide array of sources in preparing his map. He used his own latitude calculations,
as well as readings he had taken with Daniel Gottlieb Messerschmidt, a Prussian naturalist with whom he
travelled in Russia. Measurements and other geographic information were obtained from other sources
as well, including Swedish officers on different expeditions, Swedish and German travellers, and Russian
cartographers and explorers.
The present second English edition (after the first edition in 1730 and the first edition in English of 1736)
was re-engraved by R.W. Seale. The map encompasses the area between 50° and 185° east longitude and
32° and 75° north latitude. It records the Russian territories from west of Moscow to Japan in the east and
includes northern China, Tibet, and Turkestan in the south. Neighboring countries such as Poland, Persia,
India, and Mongolia are documented. Numerous important geographic features are also represented: the
Arctic and Pacific oceans, and the Caspian Sea; the Urals, Caucasus, and the Himalayan mountains; and the
Gobi desert.
The map is most notable, however, for its accurate representation of Siberia, particularly the settlement
patterns of the region’s various populations. Bagrow notes that after Semyon Remezov’s map, Strahlenberg’s
map is the “most important source of historical-geographical information about Siberia.”
Cf. Cordier 2713; cf. Cox I, 194; Lowndes III, 2528.
(#24506) $ 11,000
41 SWIFT, Jonathan (1667-1745).
Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon.
London: Printed for Benj. Motte, 1726. 4 parts in two volumes (as issued), octavo (7 1/2 x 4 5/8
inches). Engraved portrait frontispiece, 6 engraved maps and plates. Contemporary panelled calf,
spine with raised bands, morocco lettering pieces in the second compartments. Neat repairs to hinge
of vol. 1. All within a modern black morocco-backed box.
First edition, second issue of this 18th century masterpiece of English literature: both the greatest of all satirical
fables and a classic children’s tale.
This copy is a first edition, Teerink’s “AA” issue, with the portrait of Gulliver in the second state as usual.
Unusually, both volumes conform to Teerink’s AA, with that issue more commonly found with a Teerink B
of the second volume.
Swift’s best known work was published anonymously. Written in Dublin between about 1720 and 1725, the
finished manuscript was brought to England by Swift when he left Ireland for London in March 1726. During
his visit he stayed with friends, including Alexander Pope. Pope, along with John Gay and John Arbuthnot,
helped Swift arrange for the publication of the book which was first published on 28 October 1726. Even after
its publication Swift kept up the public pretence of having had no hand in it, but the immediate popularity
of the work can be gauged from the fact that there were four printings within a year, as well as translations
in French, German, and Dutch.
Ashley VI, p.28; Grolier English 42; PMM 185; Rothschild 2104; Teerink 293.
(#25940) $ 12,000
42 TANCOIGNE, Joseph Michel.
A Narrative of a Journey into Persia, and Residence at Teheran: Containing a Descriptive Itinerary from
Constantinople to the Persian Capital ... From the French of M. Tancoigne, attached to the Embassy of
General Gardane.
London: Printed for William Wright, 1820. 8vo (8 1/2 x 5 3/8 inches). Engraved folding map after
Arrowsmith, hand colored engraved plate. Twentieth century half smooth tan calf over marbled
paper covered boards, spine with raised bands in six compartments, morocco lettering piece in the
second.
First edition in English of a noted French epistolary narrative describing an Embassy to Persia.
“Tancoigne was attached to the French embassy in Persia from 1807 to 1809” (Atabey). First published in
French, this first English edition includes a charming hand colored plate of the interior of a harem. This
one volume edition is dedicated to Mirza-Aboul-Hassan-Khan, the Persian Ambassador in London; the
dedication reads: “The following Letters, in which an impartial though flattering picture, of the present state
of Persia is given, and above all, ample justice has been done to the virtues and talents of his illustrious and
enlightened sovereign...”
Atabey 1193 (first edition in French); Wilson, p.222; Weber I:82.
(#27709) $ 1,800
43 TOD, James (1782-1835).
Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajpoot States of India ... Second
edition.
Calcutta: [printed by G.C. De. The New Sanskrit Press] published by Harimohan Mookerjee, 1877.
2 volumes, quarto (10 3/4 x 8 3/4 inches). Pp.[i]-xxxiii, [1], [1]-639 [1]; [1-4], [i]-xxvi, [1]-674. 2
folding letterpress tables. 16 plates by N.C. Bose, S.C. Dass, T.N. Dev and others after Captain Waugh
(6), Ghafsi (5) and others (including: 1 folding engraved cross-sectional map and 1 folding plate of
script printed on recto and verso), occasional illustrations. Original green cloth, covers blocked in
blind, the flat spines divided into five compartments with double fillets in blind, lettered in gilt in the
second and fourth compartments.
Very rare Calcutta edition of this valuable early study of the history, beliefs and topography of Rajasthan: only
a single incomplete copy is recorded by OCLC.
No complete copies of this Calcutta edition are recorded by OCLC, and no copy is listed as having sold at
auction in the past thirty-five years. The plates are of particular interest. The plates are after the London
edition of 1829-1832, and provide an interesting insight into the work of engravers working in the region
at the time: little is known or recorded of the work of native engravers working in India in the mid-19th
century.
The author went to India as a cadet in the Bengal army of the British East India Company in 1799. He
commanded the escort attached to the Resident at Sindhia from 1812 to 1817. In the latter year he was in
charge of the Intelligence Department which largely contributed to the break up of the Maratha Confederacy
in the Third Anglo-Maratha War, and was of great assistance in the campaign in Rajputana. In 1818 he was
appointed political agent for the states of western Rajputana, where he successfully acted as an arbitrator
between rival chieftains, settling their feuds. While Resident in Rajputana, Tod collected materials for his
Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, a work of great importance for South Asian scholars. Tod presents the
contemporary geography and a detailed history of Rajputana along with the history of the Rajput clans
who ruled most of the area at that time. Tod’s work drew on local archives, Rajput traditional sources, and
monuments such as the Edicts of Asoka found at Junagadh. He returned to England in 1823 with a wealth of
material for what became a fundamental study of Rajasthan’s historical development. The first edition was
published in London between 1829 and 1832, with a total of fifty plates. Most of the images were engraved
by Edward Finden from originals from various sources - most notably a local artist whose name is given as
Ghafsi, or Captain Waugh, a friend and kinsman of the author. The present edition demonstrates the esteem
in which the work was held in the region, even fifty years later. A more immediate token was given by the
ruler of Udaipur, who, when the work first appeared, renamed a village in Tod’s honour: Barsawada became
“Todgarh” (or Tods fort) - a name that it still bears today.
OCLC 504180584 (British Library copy, imperfect: i.e. BL integrated catalogue, shelf mark 9057.cc.12)
(#25126) $ 2,750
44 YOUNG, Arthur (1741-1820).
Travels During the Years 1787, 1788, and 1789. Undertaken more particularly with a View of
ascertaining the Cultivation, Wealth, Resources, and National Prosperity, of the Kingdome of France.
Bury St. Edmund: Printed by J. Rackham for W. Richardson, 1792. Quarto (10 3/4 x 8 3/8 inches).
viii, 566, [4] pp. Three engraved folding maps (one hand-coloured). Errata on verso of terminal
leaf. Early citron morocco, covers bordered with a gilt double fillet, flat spine divided into five
compartments, green morocco lettering piece in the second compartment, the others with a repeat
decoration in gilt, marbled endpapers, gilt edges. Provenance: François Alexandre Frédéric Duc de
La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt (1747-1827, author’s presentation inscription on front endpaper).
Presentation copy of the first edition, inscribed and signed by Young to François Alexandre Frédéric Duc de
La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, the best English description of France during the tumultuous early days of the
Revolution.
“The interest of Travels in France is enhanced by the accounts of lands that were for the most part strange
to Young and unknown to many of his readers. His commentaries, in consequence, were broad in scope,
and in addition to farming, described aspects of the scenery, roads, inns, manners, and the signs of wealth
or poverty which in England he would have taken for granted or passed over in a very few words. His visits
to France took place in a period which saw the beginnings of the French revolution, and this gives his first
hand accounts an importance which is almost as vital now as it was to those who lived through those years.
Indeed, historians on both sides of the channel have drawn heavily on Young for his view of France at this
critical juncture” (ODNB).
The present example is a stunning association copy between Young and François Alexandre Frédéric Duc
de La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt. Liancourt was highly influential in arranging Young’s stay in Paris, a fact
recounted by Young on page 279 of the work: “My last day in Paris, and, therefore, employed in waiting on
my friends, to take leave; amongst whom, the Duke of Liancourt holds the first place; a nobleman, to whose
uninterrupted, polite, and friendly offices I owe the agreeable and happy hours which I have passed at Paris,
and whose kindness continued so much, to the last, as to require a promise, that if I should return to France,
his house, either in town or country, should be my home. I shall not omit observing, that his conduct in the
revolution has been direct and manly from the beginning; his rank, family, fortune, and situation at court,
all united to make him one of the first subjects in the kingdom...” In August 1792, following the storming of
the Tuleries Palace, the Duc de Liancourt would flee Paris for the safety of England, where he stayed as the
guest of Young.
McDonald, pp. 190-195; Allibone, p. 2892; Brunet V:1509-1510.
(#28204) $ 4,500
COLOUR PLATE AND ILLUSTRATED
45 ALKEN, Henry Thomas (1785-1851).
The National Sports of Great Britain ... With descriptions in English and French ... Chasse et Amusemens
Nationaux de la Grande Bretagne.
London: printed for Thomas M’lean by Howlett & Brimmer,, 1823 [plates watermarked 1822-1824].
Folio (18 3/4 x 12 1/4 inches). Parallel titles and text in English and French, text leaves with numerical
signatures from 1-50. Hand-coloured engraved additional title, 50 hand-coloured aquatint plates by
I. Clark after Henry Alken. (Final two plates and text leaves with minor paper loss to blank margins).
Contemporary black straight-grained morocco, the covers elaborately panelled in gilt, the spine in
six compartments with raised bands, lettered in the second compartment, the others with elaborate
repeat pattern built up from small tools, gilt turn ins, cream-glazed endpapers, red morocco inner
hinges, gilt edges.
A fine copy of an early impression of “Alken’s most important work ... It must always form the cornerstone of any
Alken collection” (Tooley).
The plates and text between them offer a thorough survey of the sports practised in Great Britain in the
first quarter of the nineteenth century. The subjects covered including riding, fox, stag and otter hunting,
beagling, racing, falconry, various types of dogs and horses, shooting grouse, partridge, pheasant, snipe,
wild-fowl, bittern, pigeon, fishing for pike, and salmon, fishing from a punt, prize-fighting, cock-fighting,
badger, bear, and bull-baiting and perhaps most extraordinary of all: “owling.” It is interesting to note that
although both the artist and the author felt that it was necessary to record badger, bear and bull baiting they
did not hold back from condemning all three sports as barbaric.
This copy is a later issue. The additional title is dated 1821 (rather than 1820, as in the first issue), a letterpress
title in French has been added (only the English title is present in the first and second issues) and the
explanatory text leaves are signed consecutively from 1 to 50 (Podeschi records an intermediate state/issue
where only some of the text leaves are numbered). The watermarks suggest a date of circa 1824. The plates,
very carefully hand-coloured, are all aquatints by I. Clark, and retain all of the liveliness that is such a feature
of this work.
The artist Henry Thomas Alken was born into what became a sporting artistic dynasty. He studied under
the miniature painter J.T. Barber and exhibited his first picture (a miniature portrait) at the Royal Academy
when he was sixteen. From about 1816 onwards he “produced paintings, drawings and engravings of every
type of field and other sporting activity. He is best remembered for his hunting prints, many of which he
engraved himself until the late 1830s ... To many, sporting art is ‘Alken’, and to describe his work or ability is
quite unnecessary” (Charles Lane British Racing Prints pp.75-76).
Litchfield 14; cf. Mellon/Podeschi 111; cf. Schwerdt I, p.19 & IV, p.4; Tooley 42.
(#23456) $ 30,000
46 BEARDSLEY, Aubrey (1872-1898).
The Early Work of Aubrey Beardsley ... [With:] The
Later Work of Aubrey Beardsley ... [And with:] The
Uncollected Works of Aubrey Beardsley.
London: John Lane The Bodley Head, 18991901-1925. 3 volumes, 4to (11 x 8 inches). Halftitles in each volume. 501 plates (including six
extra plates in the third volume for this edition
only). Publisher’s cream cloth with title stamped
on upper covers within an architectural frame in
green or gold (very minor soiling).
The deluxe edition on japan vellum, number 94 of
110 copies: a wonderfully illustrated set, depicting the
complete oeuvre of the famed artist of the Aesthetic
and Art Nouveau movements.
Beadsley was largely self-taught and began working
as an illustrator at the age of nineteen, achieving
notable and lasting acclaim for his illustrations in the
Dent edition of Malory’s Le Morte Darthur in 1892. In 1894, Beardsley became the art editor of The Yellow
Book under the general editorship of Oscar Wilde, but his advancing tuberculosis and Wilde’s arrest put
an end to that satirical periodical. Although in increasingly poor health, Beardsley continued to produce
illustrations, including those in The Savoy, The Rape of the Lock, and Lysistrata. He would die prematurely
in France on 16 March 1898.
(#26317) $ 4,000
47 [BIBLE IN ENGLISH].
The Holy Bible containing the Bookes of the Old and New Testament ... and Illustrated with
Chorographical Sculps. by J. Ogilby.
Cambridge: John Field, 1659-1660. 2 volumes, folio (17 1/8 x 11 1/8 inches). Vol. 1: Full page
engraving of the Royal arms by Hollar, letterpress dedication to the King by Ogilby, section title
to the Prayer Book with ornamental surround dated 1660, A2-4, B1-L2 (bound in twos) [Book
of Common Prayer]; engraved general title, ¶1-¶¶4 (in fours) [Notes to the Reader and Table of
Contents]; A1-3K6 (bound in sixes), 3L1-4 [Genesis through Job]. Vol. 2: Section title page, 3M14Y6 (bound in sixes), 4Z1-4Z8 [Psalms through Malachi]; a-x6 (in sixes), y1-4 [Aprocrypha];
letterpress NT title dated 1659, A2-2D6 (in sixes), 2E1-8 [New Testament]. 111 engraved plates by
Visscher, Hollar, Lombart and others after Rubens, De Bruyn de Vos, Tintoret and others (vol 1: 50
double-page engraved plates, 1 engraved map by Hollar dated 1657; vol. 2: 59 engraved double-page
plates, large folding engraved view of Jerusalem by Hollar). Ruled in red throughout. Contemporary
English red morocco, covers elaborately panelled in gilt, expertly rebacked to style, spines in eight
compartments with raised bands, morocco lettering pieces in the second compartment, the others
with an alternating overall repeat decoration in gilt, gilt edges. Provenance: G. Dickens (bookplate).
A superb copy of Ogilby’s illustrated issue of Field’s folio Bible of 1659, here with a larger number of illustrations
than usually found, bound in period red morocco and ruled in red throughout for presentation: “...an unrivalled
specimen of the press of the time...” (Lowndes).
In 1659, John Field, the printer to the University of Cambridge, published a handsome, large folio King
James version of the Bible. Seeing an opportunity for improvement, much of the edition was purchased by
bookseller and publisher John Ogilby. Ogilby added to the Bible several engravings, including a number by
Wenceslaus Hollar. In select copies, however, Ogilby further augmented the edition with sets of engravings
purchased from Amsterdam publisher Nicolaes Visscher, including engravings after Rubens, de Vos, De
Bruyn, Tintoretto and others. The most elaborate and most expensive of such copies, were then ruled in red
and bound in red morocco, as here.
Darlow & Moule 525; Herbert 668; Lowndes 1367; Lowndes, The Bibliographer’s Manual, p. 188; cf. Schuchard, A Descriptive
Bibliography of the Works of John Ogilby (Frankfurt, 1975).
(#25962) $ 38,500
48 BOWLES, Carington (1724-1792, publisher).
Twelve Prints, representing the Surprising Events in the Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe.
London: 1783. Oblong small folio (9 1/2 x 15 inches). 12 engraved plates, on laid paper. Later green
cloth.
Very rare suite of 18th century engravings illustrating Defoe’s masterpiece Robinson Crusoe.
The titles of the engravings comprise:
1) Robinson Crusoe and the Crew escaping from the Wreck in the long Boat
2) Robinson Crusoe threatening to shoot Muley, if he approach’d the Boat
3) Robinson Crusoe carrying away on his Raft the most useful remains of the Wreck
4) Robinson Crusoe during the building of his Habitation, makes daily excursions on the Island
5) Robinson Crusoe’s Summer Retreat
6) Robinson Crusoe astonished at the Print of the Foot
7) Robinson Crusoe frighten’d at the appearance of the Old He-Goat in the Cave
8) Robinson Crusoe viewing the Savages
9) Robinson Crusoe releases a Savage whom he afterwards calls Friday
10) Robinson Crusoe and Friday shooting the Savages
11) The Mutineers land their Captain with intent to kill him
12) Robinson Crusoe and Family, at his Farm in Bedford-shire
This suite is very rare, with no copies cited in the auction records for the last thirty years.
(#28212) $ 3,750
49 [BRASS FOUNDRY PATTERN BOOK, English 18th century].
[Early English trade catalogue of mostly rococo furniture hardware designs].
[Birmingham, England: circa 1765-1770]. 4to (11 1/4 x 7 1/4 inches). 112 engraved plates (one
folding), on laid paper, priced throughout in manuscript. (A few plates trimmed close at the foreedge, original stab-stitch holes in the lower margin, two plates with small areas of loss repaired at an
early date). Nineteenth century Italian purple morocco backed pebbled cloth covered boards, spine
in five compartments with raised bands, lettered in the second compartment, marbled endpapers.
A rarely encountered pattern book or trade catalogue of 18th century English furniture hardware, including
drawer pulls, keyholes, hinges, locks, castors, bolts and more.
By 1770, over thirty different brass founderies operated in Birmingham, England, making it the epicenter
of furniture hardware design at the height of mid-Georgian and English rococo style. At roughly the same
period, trade catalogues, like the present, began to be issued by both furniture and hardware makers alike.
As with most of the brass foundry trade catalogues of this early period, the name of the foundry issuing the
catalogue is not identified. It is believed that as most hardware was sold by middlemen, or agents which
could have represented multiple foundries, that such books were largely bespoke and likely contained
hardware from multiple foundries; furthermore, as the patterns were widely copied, it is believed that the
same engraved plates were used by multiple makers; some have suggested that the agents selling the designs
to prospective buyers would have removed such references to obscure the identity of their supplier. As with
most such extant books, the plates are annotated at a period date with pricing for each piece. In all over 700
designs are shown on the 112 plates, from rather simple hinges and pulls, to incredibly ornate ones no doubt
intended for large carved mahogany chests being designed for England’s grandest estates.
Although no engravers’s names are identified, it has been suggested that the foundries themselves produced
such plates, utilizing the talents of their own craftsmen, who by their very occupation would have been highly
skilled at etching on metal. Such pattern books “illustrate the beginning of what was then a new movement
in the conditions of the crafts, namely, the growth of the organised factory as a means of production and
distribution, as compared with the earlier limitation of these functions to the efforts of individuals” (Young).
Cf. Hummel, Charles F. “Samuel Rowland Fishers Catalogue of English Hardware.” Winterthur Portfolio, Vol 1 (1964): 188-197;
cf. Symonds, R. W. “An Eighteenth-Century English Brassfounders Catalogue.” Magazine Antiques (Feb. 1931): 102-105; Young,
W. A., comp. Old English pattern books of the metal trades: a descriptive catalogue of the collection in the V&A Museum. London:
HMSO, 1913.
(#28173) $ 15,000
50 [BRASS FOUNDRY PATTERN BOOK, English 18th century].
[Early English trade catalogue of brass furniture hardware designs].
[Birmingham, England: late 18th century (watermarked 1797)]. Oblong 4to (7 1/2 x 11 inches). 143
engraved plates (13 folding), on laid paper, priced throughout in manuscript. Period calf-backed
marbled paper covered boards. Provenance: W. G. & Co. (inscription on front endpaper).
A rarely encountered pattern book or trade catalogue of 18th century English furniture hardware, including
drawer pulls, keyholes, hinges, locks, castors, bolts, watch stands and more.
By 1770, over thirty different brass founderies operated in Birmingham, England, making it the epicenter
of furniture hardware design in the last quarter of the 18th century. At roughly the same period, trade
catalogues, like the present, began to be issued by both furniture and hardware makers alike. Although
most of the brass foundry trade catalogues of this early period have no indication of the foundry, the present
pattern book is inscribed W. G. & Co. on the front pastedown. In all, nearly 1000 designs are shown on the
143 plates, from rather simple hinges and hooks, to incredibly ornate pulls, knockers, watchstands, etc.
Although no engravers’s names are identified, it has been suggested that the foundries themselves produced
such plates, utilizing the talents of their own craftsmen, who by their very occupation would have been highly
skilled at etching on metal. Such pattern books “illustrate the beginning of what was then a new movement
in the conditions of the crafts, namely, the growth of the organised factory as a means of production and
distribution, as compared with the earlier limitation of these functions to the efforts of individuals” (Young).
Cf. Hummel, Charles F. “Samuel Rowland Fishers Catalogue of English Hardware.” Winterthur Portfolio,
Vol 1 (1964): 188-197; cf. Symonds, R. W. “An Eighteenth-Century English Brassfounders Catalogue.”
Magazine Antiques (Feb. 1931): 102-105; Young, W. A., comp. Old English pattern books of the metal trades:
a descriptive catalogue of the collection in the V&A Museum. London: HMSO, 1913.
(#28174) $ 15,000
51 CHIPPENDALE, Thomas (1718-1779).
The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director. Being a large collection of the most elegant and useful
designs of household furniture in the Gothic, Chinese and Modern-taste ... The Second Edition.
London: Printed by J. Haberkorn for the Author, 1755. Folio (17 1/8 x 11 inches). Letterpress title
in red and black, 4pp. list of subscribers. Engraved dedication to Earl of Northumberland, 160
engraved plates by Darly and Miller after Chippendale. Expertly bound to style in full period mottled
calf, covers bordered with a gilt roll tool, spine with raised bands in seven compartments, tooled
in gilt on either side of each band, red morocco lettering piece in the second compartment, period
marbled endpapers.
Chippendale’s groundbreaking furniture pattern book, the first and most important published book of furniture
designs in 18th century England.
Chippendale intended for his Director to function as a trade catalogue, principally depicting four of
Chippendale’s most famous styles: English and French rococo, Chinoiserie, and Gothic. “His special claim
for artistic fame is as a brilliantly original, innovative, and influential designer who also made masterpieces of
furniture. His designs were plagiarized from at least the early Victorian period by the publisher John Weale,
and more or less free adaptations from The Director have been a staple product of commercial furniture
makers since the mid-nineteenth century” (ODNB).
The first edition of Chippendale’s Director was published in 1754, with the present second edition issued
a year following. Chippendale’s Director was extensively used by furniture makers in the 18th and 19th
centuries, making copies with the plates in good condition exceptional.
(#27687) $ 8,750
52 [COSTUME, Qajar School].
[Album of 28 watercolours of costume of peasants and merchants of Persia].
[Persia: circa 1820s-1840s]. Small 4to (9 x 7 1/2 inches). 28 watercolours, each mounted on card with
a ink manuscript border surround. Period dark blue morocco backed blue velvet covered boards,
patterned endpapers. Housed in a dark blue morocco backed box.
Unusual album of Qajar School watercolours depicting Persian merchants of various trades as well as itinerants
and beggars.
Among the most notable aspects of the Qajar Dynasty was the extraordinary growth in native art. Most of
the portraiture of the period, however, was dedicated to images of Royal figures, making the present album
of great interest. The images include not only laborers of the poorest class, but several images of women
as well. Among the trades depicted are an egg seller, a wine seller, a hat maker, a bird fancier, a bird seller,
a blind beggar, a book dealer and more. An album at the British Museum (ID: 2006,0314,0.1 through
2006,0314,0.28 or P&D 2001,0728.60), which also includes 28 watercolours, is clearly from the same source,
with a few similar images, and many of same faces on different trades.
(#26988) $ 24,000
53 DAMAME-DÉMARTRAIS, Michel François (1763-1828).
Paris et ses alentours, à plus de trente lieues à la ronde; ouvrage national de gravures.
Paris: Firmin Didot, 1818. Large folio (28 3/4 x 21 inches). Letterpress title (verso blank), 1p.
dedication to Louis XVIII (verso blank), 1p. ‘avant-propos’ (verso blank), 30ll. explanatory text (all
but two printed recto only, one leaf preceding each plate). 30 fine uncoloured aquatint plates by and
after Damame-Démartrais. (The 12th plate, a view of Notre-Dame, with a repaired tear in the outer
margin). Contemporary blue/green straight-grained morocco-backed paper-covered boards, the flat
spine divided into six compartments by double gilt fillets, lettered in the second compartment, old
repairs to spine.
A beautiful and rare large-scale work of views of Paris and its environs.
According to Dulau’s 1828 catalogue this work was originally sold in parts. They offered the present
uncoloured issue at £20 (item 12456), whilst the issue with the plates printed in colours and finished by
hand (item 12457) was on sale at £40. An idea of the book’s current rarity can be garnered from the fact
that OCLC list only a single copy: that in the Victoria & Albert Museum’s “National Art Library” in London,
and even the distinguished Bobins collection contains only a fragmentary work (with 5 plates in two states).
Damame-Démartrais is now best known for his Collection complete des divers jardins et points de vue des
maisons de plaisance imperiales de Russie.... [Paris, 1811]: a result of the nine years he spent living in Moscow
and St.Petersburg between 1796 and 1805. Paris born, Damame-Démartrais was apparently taught by David
but is now celebrated for his drawings and aquatints. The present work, dedicated to King Louis XVIII, was
prompted by the artist’s wish to record the new open vistas in Paris and its environs: each of the beautiful
large-scale plates is accompanied by brief text which gives relevant details of the subject. The artist also notes
in the ‘avant-propos’ that this work fills a gap, as there were no other comparable books of views of Paris
and its environs. The majority of the plates are of places in Paris, but, as the title suggests, there are also a
significant minority of the views of beautiful locations outside the city.
Cf. Bobins The Exotic and the Beautiful II, 516; A Catalogue of the Library of the Athenæum (1845) p.85; A. Dulau & Co.
Catalogue of Books in Foreign Languages , A. Dulau & Co. (1828) p.600; F. E. Joubert, père. Manuel de l’Amateur d’Estampes
(1821) p.386; Le Blanc Manuel (1856) II, p.84.
(#20858) $ 37,500
54 DANIELL, Thomas (1749-1840), and William DANIELL (1769-1837).
Oriental Scenery [parts I-V]; Hindoo Excavations in the mountain of Ellora [part VI].
London: printed for Thomas and William Daniell at the Free-School Press ... and published by William
Daniell and Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, 1812-1816 [pre-publication watermarks]. 6
parts in three volumes, tall quarto (15 x 10 5/8 inches). 6 additional pictorial aquatint titles, 144
aquatint views, 8 engraved plans. Expertly bound to style in red half morocco over contemporary
marbled paper-covered boards, spines in six compartments with raised bands, lettered in gilt in the
second and third compartments.
Scarce complete set of the first quarto edition of Daniell’s masterpiece: the greatest pictorial record of India and
her antiquities ever published. This copy in extraordinary condition.
“The Daniells left England in 1785, when William was only about sixteen, and they were back in England in
September 1794. From an early stage Thomas seems to have set out to emulate and surpass Hodges (Select
Views in India) in popularizing his views through the comparatively new medium of aquatint. The uncle and
nephew were determined not only to do better than Hodges but to expose the weaknesses of the pioneer’s
work by choosing the same views as Hodges had done, drawing them more accurately, and aquatinting them
more skilfully” (Abbey Scenery II, p.377).
The plates here are reduced versions of the justly famous large folio, hand-coloured plates which the Daniells
engraved from their own drawings made during their extended expedition to India (except for the plates in
the sixth and final part which was issued under the title Hindoo Excavations and were based on the drawings
of James Wales). The Daniells’s reasons for publishing this beautifully prepared version of their masterpiece
is given at the front of the first series: they note that the large folio work is “well known, not only in the
British dominions, but on the Continent, where [it is] ... to be found in most of the principal libraries. This
collection, however ... has acquired a magnitude that necessarily limits its possession to the few who can
purchase works of such expense. To obviate this objection, and to give to materials, so generally interesting,
a more extensive range of circulation, Messrs. Daniell have determined to publish a careful and accurate
edition, in quarto, of the same work; on which ... they will be enabled to affix a price so moderate as to be of
easy purchase ... when completed, [the set] will be comprised in three volumes, containing in the whole 150
prints.” The success of this first quarto edition can be judged from the fact that it was reprinted at least twice,
in various forms, and was still available from Henry Bohn in the late 1840s.
This book is notorious for being found in poor condition. The present copy, however, is free of all foxing and
is the finest copy we have ever encountered.
Abbey Travel II, 432 (uncoloured, early issue); M. Hardie & M. Clayton Walker’s Quarterly Nos.35-36 Thomas
Daniell ... William Daniell (London: 1932) p.29; G. Michell, A. Martinelli, & T. & W. Daniell India Yesterday
and Today (Shrewsbury: Swan Hill Press, 1998); P. Rohatgi, G. Parlett, S. Imray & P. Godrej Indian Life and
Landscape by Western Artists pp. 149-170; Sutton The Daniells Artists and Travellers 13
(#24929) $ 24,000
55 DODWELL, Edward (1767-1832).
Views in Greece, from Drawings by Edward Dodwell.
London: Thomas Davison for Rodwell and Martin, 1819-1821. 6 parts, folio (21 3/4 x 15 inches).
Text in English and French. Titles with aquatint vignettes, 30 hand-colored aquatint plates by R.
Havell, T. Fielding, F.C. Lewis and others after Dodwell (24) and Pomardi (6), each trimmed and
mounted on card as issued. Printed captions on slips mounted on verso of the cards, as issued.
Original green morocco-backed lettered paper wrappers. The six parts housed in a modern green
morocco backed box.
First edition in the original parts of the deluxe issue of among the most spectacular colour plate books on Greece,
including plates engraved and coloured by Havell: this copy in fantastic original condition.
“A long residence in Turkey has enabled the author to examine, and the assistance of a first rate artist to
illustrate, the Topography of this seat of early history. Greece, including the Peloponnesus and the Ionian
Islands, were the particular objects of his tour; in the course of which many districts unexplored by preceding
travellers have been penetrated, and remains, hitherto unknown, examined, and faithful drawings made of
their actual state” (Prospectus).
Simultaneous to the beginning of the publication of the present work, Dodwell published his Classical and
Topographical Tour in Greece in two volumes quarto, containing numerous engravings. The prospectus to
the present work continues: “As the detailed accuracy of many of these drawings will not allow of reduction
to the size of the volumes of the author’s Tour, this work is published with the view of presenting the most
celebrated scenes and monuments of Greece upon a more adequate scale, while a style of engraving is
adopted, which, with the aid of colouring, will admit of the nearest approach to the originals.” Done in folio,
the present work had the added benefit of being the same size as Stuart’s Athens, thus forming a complete
picture of the region.
The plates are superb examples of 19th century hand coloured aquatints. Unusually, not only are the
engravers of each plate identified, but the colourists as well. That such skilled artists were used for both
engraving and colouring attests to the deluxe nature of this work. The present parts issue with the plates
mounted to resemble the original watercolours is without question the most beautiful, most rare and most
desirable issue.
Abbey, Travel 130; Blackmer 493; Tooley 182; Colas 876; Prideaux, pp. 234, 334; Atabey 357; Bobins, The Exotic and the Beautiful
I:136; Weber 1110.
(#26325) $ 57,500
56 FIELDING, Theodore Henry (1781-1851).
Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Lancashire Illustrated, in a series of forty-four engravings, exhibiting
the scenery of the Lakes, antiquities, and other picturesque objects.
London: Printed for Thomas M’Lean by Howlett and Brimmer, 1822 [pre-publication watermarks].
Folio (16 x 11 inches). Half-title. 44 fine hand-coloured aquatint plates by and after Fielding. Near
contemporary red morocco, covers with an elaborate gilt border composed of roll tools and small
tools and decorated with oval black morocco inlays, with a central decoration in gilt, spine in six
compartments with raised bands, lettered in the second compartment, the others with an overall
repeat decoration in gilt with central black morocco inlays, marbled endpapers, t.e.g.
A very fine deluxe, large paper copy of one of the greatest early-19th century celebrations of the beauties of the
Lake District and one of the most beautifully coloured English aquatint books of the 19th century.
The vogue for the picturesque had first been stimulated in Britain in the late 18th century. The writer
William Gilpin was amongst the first to point out to the English that it was unnecessary to venture abroad
to encounter spectacular landscape and scenery. Coleridge and Wordsworth, the Lake poets, narrowed the
search still further by extolling the superior beauty of the area of north-west of the north of England known
as the Lake District. “The beautiful Scenery of the Lakes becoming every year more the object of attraction
and admiration - and its delightful views and salubrious air having effected a change in the taste which
preferred Continental pleasures to those of our own Country, the Publisher has been induced to present this
volume as illustrative of the interesting views with which the Tourist will be gratified” (Address).
As with many English colour plate books from the period, the large paper copies are far more finely produced
than their regular counterparts. Besides the exquisite binding and larger margins, the hand colouring of the
large paper issue is vastly superior. The colouring of the large paper issue is luminescent, with rich golden
hues not found in the regular edition, making this issue not only one of the great works on the scenery of the
region but also an important example of colour plate book production at the zenith of the colour aquatint.
Abbey, Scenery 194; Prideaux p.335; Tooley (1954) 215; Bobins, The Exotic and the Beautiful 645
(#26328) $ 5,250
57 [GIGAULT de la Salle, Achille-Etienne (1772-1840)].
Select Views in Sicily; Accompanied by an Historical and Descriptive Account. Translated from the
original, published at Paris, by Mr. J. F. D’Ostervald.
London: John Weale, 1825 [plates watermarked 1824]. Small folio (14 x 10 1/2 inches). Text in
English, plates with English and French captions. 36 hand-coloured colour aquatint plates, after
Cassas, Count de Forbin, S. Birman, Cockerell and others, engraved by Reeve, Havell, Himely,
Fielding, Sunderland and others. Publisher’s calf-backed blue cloth boards, lettered in gilt on the
upper cover, rebacked.
One of the finest English colour plate books relating to Italy.
This English edition of Gigault de la Salle’s Voyage Pittoresque en Sicile (Paris, 1822-1826) includes a selection
of the views engraved on a smaller scale then the French edition by the same group of engravers. Interestingly,
the images represented by those engravers are not always the same subjects as those engraved in the French
edition, which is perhaps a reflection of the two works being published simultaneously. The hand colouring
and the colour aquatint are uniformly superb, making the work among the finest English colour plate books
relating to Italy.
“The above book is uncommon, and may have been originally issued in parts (probably four plates per
part), for the unnumbered and unfoliated leaves of text are typical of the slender part issues, where text and
plates were issued loose in a paper wrapper. The last eight plates are always found without text, and this may
mean that seven parts appeared, and that the book was then hastily completed...” (Abbey). See Abbey for a
complete list of plates.
Abbey, Travel 264; Bobins, Exotic and the Beautiful II:583.
(#26329) $ 13,500
58 HAVELL, William (1782-1857).
[A Series of Picturesque Views of the River Thames. From the drawings of Wm. Havell. Dedicated to the
commissioners of Thames navigation, by ... Robt. Havell].
[London: Robert Havell, 1818]. Large folio (22 7/8 x 17 3/4 inches). 12 hand-coloured aquatint
plates by Robert Havell after William Havell, each with black ruled border at the edge of the image
and a buff wash border, on thin card, all on guards. Expertly bound to style in dark green straightgrained morocco, covers with fine decorative border composed from fillets and an arabesque rolltool of stylized foliage, spine in eight compartments with double raised bands, the bands highlighted
in gilt, lettered in the second and fourth compartments, the others with repeat decoration in gilt
made up from various small tools, gilt turn-ins, gilt edges.
A very fine copy of this important series of Thames views: a visual essay in the picturesque from one of the great
watercolour landscape artists of the time, with plates by Audubon’s engraver.
The publication of the present work, present here in its rare second edition, marked the start of a long series
of important publications by Robert Havell that were to culminate with his work on Audubon’s Birds of
America.
The British Dictionary of National Biography describes William Havell as being “one of the best earlier
painters in watercolour,” an artist of the highest calibre whose images are “distinguished by pure and delicate
colour.” Born in 1782 in Reading, England, he traveled widely in his search for subjects: Wales, the Lake
District, Europe and eight years in India and Burma. However, the present series drawn from the river that
flowed through his home town is arguably his best work. The panoramic views betray the artist’s intimate
understanding of his subject, he ably captures both the river as a calm focus for scenes of great picturesque
beauty, and the river as a vital highway for transport and trade.
The plates, here bound without the title, offer the viewer a visual journey: from Oxford and the famous
skyline of the Colleges, through the busy market town of Abingdon, to Wallingford (a view taken in 1810
whilst the bridge was being repaired), then two wonderful truly panoramic views of the Thames Valley,
one viewed from higher ground at Streatley, and a second of Caversham Bridge near Reading. The journey
continues with bucolic views near Park Place in Oxfordshire, the weir viewed from Marlow bridge and
Clifden spring and woods, near Maidenhead. Taplow is next, then an interesting view of Windsor Castle
before the renovations showing a skyline that is strange yet familiar. The journey ends with a fine view of
Datchet Ferry near Windsor and a spectacular view of Staines church in newly emerged sunlight, whilst the
rain clouds behind are lightened by a beautifully observed double rainbow.
Abbey Scenery 433; Prideaux p.265; Tooley p.141.
(#16892) $ 30,000
59 HAWKSMOOR, Nicholas (1661-1736).
A Short Historical Account of London-Bridge; with a Proposition for a New Stone-Bridge at Westminster
...
London: J. Wilcox, 1736. 4to (9 1/4 x 7 inches). 47, [1] pp. 5 engraved folding plates. Period marbled paper
covered boards, rebacked to style. Provenance: Perforated library stamp in lower margin of title and M2 (not
affecting text).
The important English architect, Nicholas Hawksmoor, here describes and illustrates his design for a ninearch stone bridge over the river Thames at Westminster. He suggests that the existing London Bridge be
adapted by adding two wide arches to the existing structure. Additionally he provides a descriptive account
of well-known bridges on the European continent and elsewhere in Britain.
Cohen, p.36; Harris 326; Lowndes, p. 886; Kress 4277.
(#26553) $ 1,200
60 HITTORFF, Jacques Ignace (1792-1867).
Restitution du Temple d’Empédocle a Sélinote, ou l’Architecture Polychrome chez les Grecs ... Atlas.
Paris: Typographie de Firmin Didot Frères, 1851. Atlas only, folio (23 7/8 x 16 3/4 inches).
Letterpress title and list of plates. Chromolithographed title, 24 chromolithographed plates after
Hittorf, chromolithographed by Engelmann et Graf. Publisher’s dark purple cloth boards, upper
cover with large decoration in gilt, rebacked to style with dark purple morocco.
The discovery of the use of color in ancient Greek architecture.
A German-born French architect, Hittorf went to Paris in 1810 and studied for some years at
the Académie des Beaux-Arts while working concurrently as a draughtsman for Charles Percier. In
1822, he traveled to Italy and began research into the theory that ancient Greek architecture was coloured.
Upon a visit to Sicily, Hittorf discovered traces of painted stucco at Selinus. “When they unearthed a small
heroön (martyrion) from temple B on the Selinontan acropolis, they concluded that Greek architecture must
have been brightly painted ... In1851 Hittorff published his Restitution du Temple d’Empédocle a Sélinote,
ou l’Architecture Polychrome chez les Grecs, which, using the temple of Empedocles, at Selinus, Italy as
the example, set out their findings of classical polychromy in full. The book contained for the first time
anywhere a reconstruction of a temple with the brightly colored painting adorning it. Their work gained
general acceptance and is considered the foundation to the color theory of Greek architecture” (Dictionary
of Art Historians).
The work is quite rare: only one other copy, also lacking the separate octavo text volume as here, has appeared
at auction in the last 30 years, and with no copy in the famed collections of Blackmer or Atabey.
(#26332) $ 7,500
61 HOOGVLIET, Arnold (1687-1763).
Abraham, de Aartsvader. In XII Boeken.
Rotterdam: Jan Daniel Beman en Zoon, 1766. Small 4to (9 5/8 x 7 1/4 inches). Title printed in red
and black. Engraved title by J. Wandelaar and 12 engraved plates by J. Punt, all with very fine period
hand-colouring and gilt highlights. Eighteenth century Dutch red morocco, elaborately bordered
and panelled in gilt with imperial coronets at each corner, spine in six compartments with raised
bands, morocco lettering piece in the second compartment, the others with a repeat decoration in
gilt, marbled endpapers, g.e. Provenance: J. G. R. Acquoy (1829-1896, signature).
A beautifully hand coloured copy in a period red morocco binding.
Hoogvliet’s epic biblical poem celebrating the life of Abraham was first published in 1728 and went through
numerous printings in the 18th century. However, we have been unable to locate another copy of any edition
of the poem with full period hand colouring to the plates. The colouring and binding of this copy is superb
and would suggest an owner of high status.
Not in Landwehr.
(#26333) $ 11,000
62 LORY, Gabriel Ludwig (1763-1840); - and Frederic SCHOBERL (1775-1853).
Picturesque Tour from Geneva to Milan, by Way of the Simplon: illustrated with thirty six coloured
views ... engraved from designs by J. and J. Lory, of Neufchatel.
London: R. Ackermann, 1820 [plates watermarked 1818-1820]. Large 8vo (10 x 7 inches). Uncolored
engraved map, 36 hand-colored aquatint plates. Expertly bound to style in full dark blue straight
grain morocco, covers elaborately bordered in gilt, spine with raised bands in six compartments,
lettered in the second compartment, the others with a repeat decoration in gilt.
Scarce first English edition of one of the most celebrated books on Swiss scenery, with beautiful hand coloured
plates.
Lory’s views along the celebrated route from Geneva to Milan, include images of Geneva, Sion, Brieg,
Simplon, Algaby, Lake Maggiore, Gondo, Isola Bella, Crevola, Sesto, Lake Como, and Milan.
Tooley 446; Longchamp 1850.
(#27914) $ 4,750
63 LYCETT, Joseph (1774-1827).
Views in Australia or New South Wales, & Van Diemen’s Land delineated.
London: J. Souter, 1824 [-1825] [text watermarked 1830]. Oblong folio (10 x 14 inches). Handcolored lithographic title, 2 engraved maps, one folding, 48 hand-coloured aquatints by Lycett after
his original drawings. Dedication to Earl Bathurst, advertisement leaf, introductory account and
descriptive text for each view. (One folding map partially trimmed to image upper left, the other with
neatly repaired edges, occasional minor spots or browning not affecting images, a few neatly repaired
marginal tears). 20th century black morocco, spine with raised bands in five compartments, lettered
in gilt. Provenance: Quentin Keynes (sale, Christie’s, 7-8 April 2004, lot 140).
The finest colour plate book on Australia and Tasmania.
Lycett, a professional painter of portraits and miniatures, was transported to New South Wales in 1814 for
forgery, working as artist to Major General Macquarie, Governor of the colony. Impressed with Lycett’s
talents, Macquarie sent three of his drawings to Earl Bathurst, Secretary for the colonies (and the dedicatee
of this work). Granted a pardon through Bathurst’s influence in 1819, Lycett travelled extensively in New
South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land, continuing in his role of unofficial government artist. In 1821 he
returned to England. Following the success of his two lithographic panoramas of Sydney and Hobart, his
Views in Australia were published by Souter in 13 monthly parts between July 1824 and June 1825. Strong
demand for the first part enabled aquatints to be substituted for the lithographic plates originally proposed.
After completion of the parts issue, the work was published in book form over the next several years without
change to the imprint date. Copies vary in terms of the number of aquatints versus lithographs; the present
copy in the most desirable form comprised entirely of the superior aquatints.
Not only does the work provide an historical snapshot of New South Wales and Tasmania in the early decades
of settlement, but it is especially important for its depiction of colonial architecture, showing the colony’s
most important houses and lesser known structures. Wantrup calls Lycett “the outstanding artist of his
period in Australia ... his Views in Australia is a landmark in the development of the Australian illustrated
book.”
Abbey Travel 570; Tooley 310; Ferguson 974; Wantrup 218b
(#26973) $ 45,000
64 PARKER, Thomas N.; and C. MIDDLETON.
An Essay on the Construction, Hanging, and Fastening of Gates
... Second Edition; Improved and enlarged ... [Bound with:]
Designs for Gates and Rails suitable to Parks, Pleasure Grounds,
Balconys &c. also some Designs for Trellis Work on 27 plates.
London: Printed by C. Whittingham ... for Lackington, Allen
and Co., 1804; London: J. Taylor, [circa 1805]. 2 volumes
in 1, 8vo (9 x 5 1/4 inches). [Parker:] [8], 116pp. 6 engraved
folding plates. [Middleton:] Engraved title, 26 engraved plates
(numbered 2-27). 8pp. publisher’s ads. Early calf backed
marbled paper covered boards, vellum tips, flat spine divided
into compartments by gilt rules, black morocco lettering piece
in the second compartment.
Two scarce early 19th century English works on gates and railings
for landscape design, bound together.
While the first work approaches the subject from a practical
standpoint (with much information on the engineering of effective
latches), the second work is intended more for landscape design
and follies. Published without text other than the engraved title,
the second work includes ornate examples of gates and fences in
iron, wood and other materials. In the rear of the second work are
advertisements for J. Taylor’s Architectural Library, including an announcement of the publication of the
second edition of Humphry Repton’s Observations (published 1805).
Not in Berlin Kat.
(#28265) $ 2,850
65 POISSON, Michel.
Cris de Paris Dessinés d’après Nature.
Paris: chez l’Auteur, [1769-1775]. 12 parts in one, 8vo. Engraved title and 72 engraved plates. Expertly
bound to style in period mottled calf, spine gilt, period marbled endpapers. Provenance: Josse
(armorial bookplate); Ph.-L. de Bordes de Fortage (armorial bookplate); unidentified bookplate, a
crowned P.
Rare complete suite featuring the cries of the street tradesmen and women of Paris.
The first book of engravings is dated 1769, the third through the eighth are dated 1774, and the remaining
1775. Jean-Frédéric Bignon (1747-1784), to whom this book was dedicated and whose arms are depicted on
the title, was member of the Académie des Inscriptions and in charge of the king’s library.
Cohen-de Ricci 812; Colas 2405; Hiler p. 715.
(#27885) $ 12,000
66 PYNE, William Henry (1769-1843).
The History of the Royal Residences of Windsor Castle, St. James’s Palace, Carlton House, Kensington
Palace, Hampton Court, Buckingham House and Frogmore.
London: printed for A. Dry, 1819 [plates watermarked 1816-1818]. 3 volumes, large quarto (13
5/8 x 11 1/4 inches). Seven section titles. 100 fine hand-coloured aquatint plates by T. Sutherland,
W.J. Bennett, R. Reeve, and D. Havell after J. Stephanoff, C. Wild, R. Cattermole, W. Westall and
G. Samuel. Three quarters red crushed morocco over red pebbled cloth boards, bound by Morrell,
spines with raised bands in 6 compartments, lettered in the second, third and fourth, the others with
a repeat decoration in gilt, marbled endpapers.
A very fine set, with pre-publication watermarks, of this important architectural record of the British palaces
and among the best known and most wonderful English colour plate books.
One of the main glories of Pyne’s work is the remarkable pictorial record it offers of the interior decorations
and furnishings of Windsor Castle, showing the castle as it was before the extensive alterations carried out
from 1824-1828. Also depicted in some detail are St. James’s Palace, Carlton House (with a splendid series
of now-vanished interiors created for the Prince Regent by Holland with Wyatt and Nash as architects),
Kensington Palace, Hampton Court, Buckingham House (including a view of the east front as it was a
century before Aston Webb’s drastic remodelling carried out in 1913), and Frogmore as remodeled by Wyatt.
Abbey Scenery 396/397; Martin-Hardie, pp. 91; Prideaux, p. 348; Tooley 389.
(#26520) $ 8,500
67 REPTON, Humphry (1752-1818).
Designs for the Pavillon [sic.] at Brighton. Humbly inscribed to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.
By H. Repton ... with the assistance of his sons, John Adey Repton, F.S.A. and G.S. Repton, architects.
London: printed by Howlett & Brimmer for J. C. Stadler, sold by Boydell & Co., Longman, Hurst,
Rees & Orme, [etc.], [1822] [text watermarked 1821-1822; plates 1822]. Folio (21 5/8 x 14 3/4
inches). Emblematic frontispiece hand-coloured, 1 hand-coloured plan, 7 aquatint plates (one tinted
with a sepia wash, six hand-coloured [one with an overpage, one double-page with two overslips, one
folding with two overslips, one single-page with two overslips, one single-page with one overslip]),
11 aquatint illustrations (seven uncoloured, one with a sepia wash, three hand-coloured [two of
these with a single overslip]), all by J.C. Stadler after Repton. Uncut. Expertly bound to style in
half red morocco over contemporary marbled paper covered boards, original paper letterpress label
affixed to the upper cover, spine in eight compartments with semi-raised bands, bands tooled in gilt,
lettered in gilt in the second compartment, the others with a repeat decoration in gilt.
A fine uncut copy of Repton’s fascinating proposal for a royal palace at Brighton.
Humphry Repton was the main successor to Lancelot “Capability” Brown as an improver of grounds for the
English gentry in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. He was particularly noted for his Red
Books. These were produced for each individual client and were made up from a manuscript description
of his proposed improvements bound with Repton’s own watercolour drawings of the grounds, with his
proposed alterations displayed on an overlay. His proposal for Brighton pavilion was no different and the
present work “was based directly on the original Red Book, which was sent to the publisher and engraver,
J.C. Stadler, of 15 Villiers St., Strand. The drawings, by Repton and his sons, were sumptuously reproduced
in aquatint, mostly in color, complete with their overslips and slides. Stadler himself took on the financial
responsibility” (Millard, British p. 245).
“Repton was first summoned to Brighton by the Prince of Wales in 1797. Payments were made to him over
the next five years for works in the garden of the Prince’s still modest marine villa... Then, in October 1805,
Repton was requested to attend on the Prince in Brighton... The Prince and Repton met on 24 November. By
12 December Repton had returned to Brighton with a sheaf of drawings showing possible improvements...
The prince was intrigued and asked for a design for an entirely new house. Repton presented his scheme in
February 1806 in the form of [a]... Red book, now in the Royal Library at Windsor... By then the prince’s
initial enthusiasm had dulled; he was beset with financial difficulties and had laid aside all elaborate schemes
for the enlargement of the pavilion” (Millard op.cit. pp.243-244). Repton’s designs were inspired directly by
the wonderful Indian architecture so ably pictured in Thomas and William Daniell’s Oriental Scenery (17951808).
First published in 1808, the present issue dates from 1822 and may mark an attempt to take advantage of
the interest generated when architect John Nash completed his work on the Pavilion for King George IV.
Between 1815 and 1822 Nash redesigned and greatly extended the Pavilion, and it is the work of Nash which
can be seen today. The pavilion as it was finally completed still owed a huge debt to Indian architecture but
was in a form which re-interpreted the Indian ideal in a fashion more suitable to both English tastes and
climate.
Abbey Scenery 57 (1822 watermarks) and cf.55; Millard British 66 (2nd edition); cf. Tooley p.207; cf. Prideaux p.349.
(#25450) $ 14,000
68 ROBERTS, David (1796-1864).
The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt & Nubia. After lithographs by Louis Haghe from drawings
made on the spot by David Roberts...with historical descriptions by the Revd. George Croly.
London: Day & Son, 1855-56. 6 volumes in three, quarto (11 1/2 x 8 1/8 inches). List of subscribers.
Tinted lithographic portrait of Roberts, 2 uncoloured lithographic maps, 6 tinted lithographic titles
with vignette illustrations, 241 tinted lithographic plates after Roberts. Publisher’s full light brown
morocco, covers blocked in gilt with wide decorative borders surrounding the centrally blocked
arms of the City of Jerusalem, neatly rebacked preserving original spines in six compartments with
raised bands, lettered in the second and fourth, the others with repeat patterns in gilt, cream glazed
endpapers, g.e. Provenance: Richard Moreland, Jr. (circular armorial bookplate).
A fine original set of the quarto edition of Roberts’ masterpiece.
David Roberts was born at Stockbridge near Edinburgh, and at the age of ten was apprenticed to Gavin
Buego, a house painter. He continued to work for Buego after the end of his apprenticeship, carrying out
work in imitation stone-work and panelling at Scone Palace and Abercairney Abbey. By 1818 Roberts had
become assistant scene painter at the Pantheon Theatre in Edinburgh, moving to theatres in Glasgow and
finally in late 1821 to the Drury Lane Theatre in London where he worked with Clarkson Stanfield. Both
artists exhibited regularly at the Society of British Artists, Royal Academy and the British Institution and by
1830 Roberts was able to give up his theatre work. In these early years he toured Scotland and the Continent,
visiting Spain in 1832-1833.
His desire to travel farther afield was finally realized when in August 1838 he arrived in Alexandria. It is
claimed that he was the first European to have unlimited access to the mosques of Cairo - with the proviso
that he did not desecrate the holy places by using hog’s bristle brushes. Leaving Cairo, he sailed up the Nile
to record the monuments represented in the Egypt and Nubia part of the work and traveled as far as the
Second Cataract.
On his return to Cairo, Roberts formed a party which included John Kinnear, who left his own account
of the ensuing journey Cairo, Petra and Damascus (published in 1839). The party adopted Arab dress and
set out with over twenty camels and a native bodyguard. Their route to Petra took them via Mount Sinai,
St.Catherine’s Monastery and Akaba. The period at Petra (or Idumea) was for Roberts one of the high points
of the entire journey. Only trouble with local tribes forced him to move on to Hebron. From here rumours
of plague in Jerusalem forced a detour to Gaza, Askalon and Jaffa before it was safe to enter the Holy City.
From here he also visited Jericho, Lake Tiberias and other biblical sites. Finally Roberts made his way to the
Mediterranean via Nablus and Nazareth and then visited the coastal cities of Tyre, Sidon and Acre. Baalbek
was the last place visited before a combination of ill-health and the worsening political situation forced him
to abandon hopes of reaching Damascus and Palmyra, instead he went to Beirut and thence homewards.
After some initial difficulty in finding a publisher, Roberts published the results of his travels between 1842
and 1849 in six large format volumes, to great critical and popular acclaim. The success of the folio issue was
sufficient to persuade Day & Son to take on the publication of the present quarto edition of “one of the most
important and elaborate ventures of nineteenth-century publishing” (Abbey), with the “plates...reduced to
the required size by means of photography” (advertisement in the Monthly Literary Advertiser for June
1855). The present edition was originally available from the publishers in various forms, the present set in
morocco being the most expensive at nine guineas for the set.
Abbey Travel II 388.
(#26710) $ 9,000
69 SAUVAN, Jean Baptiste Balthazar.
Picturesque Tour of the Seine, From Paris to the Sea.
London: R. Ackermann, 1821 [plates watermarked 1820]. Folio (16 3/4 x 13 inches). Hand-colored
vignette title and tailpiece. Hand-coloured map and 24 hand-coloured aquatint plates by D. Havell
after A. Pugin and J. Glendall. Uncut. Original publisher’s wrappers bound in. Later half green
morocco over green cloth covered boards, spine with raised bands in six compartments, lettered in
the second and third.
First edition of one of the greatest 19th century English colour plate books illustrating the scenery along the
Seine: one of 50 large-paper copies.
“The River Seine is well known to form a distinguished feature in the Tour of France, as it winds through and
adorns the important province of Normandy, and is the great commercial Channel of the Metropolis of that
Kingdom. This River reflects, in its earlier stream, the most striking views of metropolitan grandeur; and,
as it proceeds, Nature has been most lavish in beautiful pictures on its banks, and presents, in its course, a
succession of objects, whose landscape enrichments are connected with antiquarian circumstances peculiarly
interesting to the English Traveller” (prospectus on verso of the wrappers).
The work was issued by Ackermann in six parts, each containing four plates, between January and June 1821.
Seven hundred and fifty copies were printed on regular paper, at 14s per part, and fifty large-paper copies
(like the present), “taken on Atlas Paper” at 21s per part. “Large-paper copies have remarkably brilliant
impressions of the plates and are greatly superior to small-paper copies” (Tooley).
Abbey, Travel 90; Tooley 445; Bobins, Exotic and the Beautiful II:548.
(#26311) $ 17,500
70 TEXIER, Charles; and R. Popplewell PULLAN.
Byzantine Architecture; Illustrated by Examples of Edifices Erected in the East During the Earliest Ages
of Christianity with Historical & Archaeological Descriptions.
London: Day & Son, 1864. Folio (16 1/2 x 11 1/2 inches). Half title. Chromolithographed additional
title, 70 tinted lithographed or chromolithographed plates, many printed with gold (numbered IILXX, [plate I being the additional title, plus LX bis), plates XVIII/IXX and LXIX/LXX on same
double-page sheets), numerous woodcut illustrations. Early tan cloth over period black cloth
covered boards, worn. Provenance: Haverhill Public Library (bookplate, blindstamp to title and two
text leaves).
First English edition.
Pullan was architect to the Bodrum Expedition sent to survey the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus in 1857 and
also carried out various excavations as agent for the Society of Dilettanti. Texier was in Asia Minor much
earlier, but the two collaborated to produce this interesting work.
Atabey 1213; Blackmer 1647
(#26286) $ 3,250
71 THOMSON, John (1837-1921) and Adolphe SMITH HEADINGLEY (1846-1924).
Street Life in London.
London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, 1877-78. 4to (10 5/8 x 8 inches). [6], 100pp.
37 woodburytypes on 36 leaves, each with printed caption and red ruled border. Publisher’s pictorial
red cloth, decoratively stamped in gilt, red and black, gilt edges (expert repair to the spine). Housed
in a modern red morocco-backed cloth box.
“The first photographic social documentation of any kind” (Gernsheim).
Thomson’s photographs in Street Life in London and the commentary upon the images by Thomson and
Adolphe Smith, depict a London in which life is a harsh and continuous struggle. The characters on view
here are familiar to us more from Dickens’ novels or from an idea of the Whitechapel of Jack the Ripper
than from any nostalgic image of a strait-laced or patrician Victorianism. Thomson and Smith are, however,
sympathetic to the objects of their study and seem intent on cataloguing the variety of types to be found
rather than attempting any Barnum-like freakshow. As Thomson himself writes: “The precision and accuracy
of photography enables us to present true types of the London poor and shield us from the accusation of
either underrating or exaggerating individual peculiarities of appearance.”
Hasselblad 42; Gernsheim, p. 447; Truthful Lens 169.
(#27944) SOLD
72
VAN LENNEP, Henry John (1815-1889).
The Oriental Album: Twenty illustrations in oil
colors of the people and scenery of Turkey, with an
explanatory and descriptive text.
New York: Anson D.F. Randolph, 1862. Folio (18
x 13 3/4 inches). Tinted lithographic additional
title by Charles Parsons, printed by Endicott &
Co., 20 chromolithographic plates by Parsons
after van Lennep, all printed by Endicott & Co.
of New York. Expertly bound to style in half
dark green morocco over period patterned cloth
covered boards, spine lettered and decorated in
gilt.
A rare and important color-plate book: One of the
relatively few American costume books, and certainly
the best such created in 19th-century America.
This is a notable and unusual instance of the taste for
the Ottoman or “Turkish” which manifested itself in
the furniture of the period but seldom in books. In
terms of American color-plate books, this is one of
the only large projects from the 1860s, when the Civil
War seems to have curtailed production of such lavish enterprises. “The one really big chromolithographic
book of this decade ... the art is simple, but [Charles] Parson’s hand is obvious in the good lithography, and
Endicott’s printing is well done for its time” (McGrath). “Endicott achieved a rich variety of color which
demonstrated the increased technical ability of American printers in the medium” (Reese).
Henry Van Lennep was born in Smyrna, the son of European merchants. Educated, on the advice of
American missionaries, in the United States, he returned to Turkey as a missionary in 1840, and spent most
of the next twenty years in various parts of the Ottoman Empire. Returning to the United States in 1861,
he turned his superb original drawings of Middle Eastern life into the Oriental Album. The plates include
two scenes of Jewish life in the Ottoman Empire. Included are plates of “A Turkish Effendi”, “Armenian
Lady (at home)”, “Turkish and Armenian Ladies (abroad)”, “Turkish Scribe”, “”Turkish Lady of Rank (at
home)”, “Turkish Cavass (police officer)”, “Turkish Lady (unveiled)”, “Armenian Piper”, “Armenian Ladies (at
home)”, “Armenian Marriage Procession”, “Armenian Bride”, “Albanian Guard”, “Armenian Peasant Woman”,
“Bagdad Merchant (travelling)”, “Jewish Marriage”, “Jewish Merchant”, “Gypsy Fortune Telling”, “Bandit
Chief ”, “Circassian Warrior”, “Druse Girl.”
Bennett, p.108; Blackmer Catalogue 1715; Blackmer Sale 1500; DAB XIX, 200; McGrath, pp.38, 115, 162; Reese, Stamped with
a National Character 97; Atabey 1274
(#27933) $ 12,000
73 WARE, Isaac (ca. 1717-1766).
The Plans, Elevations and Sections; Chimney-Pieces, and Ceilings of Houghton in Norfolk.
London: Published by I. Ware, sold by P. Fourdrinier, 1735.
Engraved throughout, title, dedication and 28 plates by Ware and Fourdrinier , 9 double-page. First Edition.
[Bound with:] Thomas SMITH, of Derby (d. 1767). Eight of the most extraordinary Prospects in the
Mountainous Parts of Derbyshire and Staffordshire commonly called the Peak and the Moorlands. [No place
of publication: plates dated March-August 1743]. Titled beneath the image of the first plate. 8 etched or
engraved double-page plates by Benoist, Vivares, Scotin and others after Smith (subjects include: Dovedale
(2), River Manyfold at Wetton, Matlock Bath (2), River Wye (2), Castleton). [And:] A collection of 10 other
topographical views (6 double-page after Smith: one of Haddon Hall, one of Chatsworth and 4 of views on
the rivers Trent and Derwent; 2 after W. Oram of Catterick Bridge on the River Swale and Knaresborough on
the Nidd; 2 double-page of the Giant’s Causeway after Drury). Folio (21 x 15 ½ inches), mounted on guards
throughout. Contemporary mottled calf gilt, covers with wide decorative border of fillets and roll-tools with
various motifs including birds and bees, spine in seven sections, red morocco lettering-piece in one, the
others tooled in gilt (joints weak, spine chipped at head and foot).
The views by Smith are particularly interesting and form a good representative selection of his work; he
was self-taught but achieved a high reputation during his lifetime and was ‘one of the earliest delineators
of the beauties of English scenery’ (DNB). The first work is on Houghton Hall in Norfolk which was built
for Sir Robert Walpole from Ripley’s designs, the interior detailing shown in the present work was designed
by William Kent: the designs for the plaster ceilings were carried out by Italian craftsmen, with gilded
and painted ornament; the walls are dressed with classical plinth, pilasters, and frieze; and pedimented
chimneypieces contain bas-relief panels above the mantelpiece. As a whole the present collection is in fine
condition with wide margins and clearly bound at the time of publication.
First work: Harris 911.
(#2826) $ 15,000
NATURAL HISTORY
74 ABBOT, John (1751-1840); and Sir James Edward SMITH (1759-1828).
The Natural History of the rarer Lepidopterous Insects of Georgia. Including their systematic characters,
the particulars of their several metamorphoses, and the plants on which they feed. Collected from the
observations of Mr John Abbot, many years resident in that country, by James Edward Smith.
London: printed by T. Bensley for J. Edwards, Cadell and Davies and J. White, 1797 [text watermarked
1794; plates watermarked 1817-1821]. 2 volumes, folio (15 7/8 x 12 1/4 inches). Parallel titles and
text in French and English. 104 hand-coloured engraved plates by John Harris after Abbot, some
heightened with gum-arabic. Expertly bound to style in half calf over contemporary marbled paper
covered boards, flat spines in six compartments divided by gilt triple fillets and roll tools, red-brown
morocco labels in the second compartments, the others with a repeat decoration in gilt.
A fine copy of John Abbot’s masterpiece: the earliest illustrated monograph devoted to the butterflies and moths
of North America.
John Abbot was one of the most important and prolific of the early American natural history artists. Born in
London in 1751, Abbot developed his interest in natural history and drawing as a child. His curiosity about
the natural world was encouraged by his parents who were relatively wealthy (at one time the family library
included copies of Mark Catesby’s Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands as well as
George Edwards’ Natural History of Uncommon Birds and Gleanings of Natural History).
Having received sponsorship from the Royal Society of London and the collectors Thomas Martyn and Dru
Drury, Abbot sailed for Virginia in July 1773, with orders for both actual specimens and drawings of the
local insects. For the next two years he continued to collect and paint, sending home three insect collections,
although only one arrived safely. The loss of these two valuable collections at sea together with the worry
over political unrest in Virginia led Abbot to move to Georgia: he settled in St. George Parish (later Burke
County), Georgia in December 1775.
Abbot traveled widely throughout Georgia devoting his time to the study of the natural flora and fauna.
The constant flow of specimen collections and watercolours of insects, and later of birds, ensured that his
name became known to many of the foremost natural scientists and collectors of the day, both in America
and Europe. Sir James Edward Smith, co-founder and first president of the Linnaean Society of London,
recognised Abbot’s talents, and responded enthusiastically to Abbot’s desire to publish an illustrated work
on the butterflies and moths of Georgia, agreeing to edit the work for Abbot. Smith, in the preface to the
present work, praised Abbot highly as the first author “since the celebrated Merian”, to illustrate and describe
the lepidoptera of the American continent scientifically, including both representations of the caterpillars
and “the plants on which each insect chiefly feeds.” The work is also valuable for the numerous first hand
comments and observations that Abbot has added. Like the Botfield copy, this copy was issued circa 1822,
with the plates on J. Whatman Turkey Mills wove paper.
Abbot’s water-colours are amongst the finest natural history illustrations ever made: elegant and scientifically
accurate, they rank with those of his famous contemporaries, William Bartram and Alexander Wilson.
William Swainson described Abbot as one of the United States’ most important natural history artists, as “a
most assiduous collector, and an admirable draftsman of insects. [This] work is one of the most beautiful that
this or any other country can boast of ” (quoted by Sabin).
Arnold Arboretum, p. 27; BM(NH) I, p. 2l; Dunthorne 287; cf. Pamela Gilbert John Abbot Birds, Butterflies and Other Wonders
London: Natural History Museum, 1998; Nissen ZBI 2; Vivian Rogers-Price John Abbot in Georgia: The Vision of a Naturalist
Artist Madison, Georgia: Madison-Morgan Cultural Center, 1983; Sabin 25.
(#25272) $ 67,500
75 AUDEBERT, Jean Baptiste (1759-1800) & Louis Jean Pierre VIELLOT (1748-1831).
Oiseaux dorés ou à reflets métalliques.
Paris: Crapelet for Desray, [1800-]1802. 2 volumes, folio (20 x 13 inches). Half-titles, section titles,
2pp. list of subscribers. 190 fine engraved plates, printed in colours, by and after Audebert, printed
by Langlois (all with the plate captions printed in gold, most with gold highlights to the birds, 1 plate
double-page). Contemporary diced russia, expertly rebacked to style, spines in seven compartments
with raised bands, black morocco lettering-piece in the second compartment, red morocco in the
fourth, the others with elegant repeat neo-classical design, gilt turn-ins.
First edition, deluxe folio issue with the plate captions printed in gold: limited to 200 copies. A fine copy of “one
of the most beautiful books of its era” (‘Fine Bird Books) and the best early work on humming-birds, jacamars,
promerops, tree-creepers, birds-of-paradise and other tropical birds.
The “colours of the birds and their handsome appearance have evidently been the cause of their selection for
inclusion in the book. The plates ... are in beautiful colours ... [and] are among the best colour prints found
in ornithology” (Anker). They were etched by Audebert from his own designs and those of the “very best
painters of Paris and London.” He received help with colouring from Louis Bouquet and with the printing
in oil-colours from Langlois. The exact method used in the printing of the plates was of Audebert’s own
invention and involved the extensive use of gold for both the captions and the highlights. As Fine Bird
Books points out, it is these “gold reflections of the plumage that renders this book unique and wonderful.”
The plates include three plates of details, 19 of Colibris; 50 of Oiseaux-Mouches; 6 Jacamars; 9 Pomerops;
88 Grimpereaux and 15 Oiseaux de Paradis. The text is largely by Vieillot who saw the work through to
completion using Audebert’s notes following the latter’s death in 1800.
Among the most desirable books on these delicate and beautiful tropical birds of South America, Africa,
southeast Asia and the Pacific.
Anker 14; BM (NH) I, p.71; Balis 52; Buchanan Nature into Art 105; Cottrell 19; Ellis/Mengel 93; Fine Bird Books (1990) p.73;
Nissen IVB 47; Ronsil 103; Zimmer 17.
(#18740) $ 45,000
76 AUDUBON, John James (1785-1851).
The Birds of America, from drawings made in the United States and their territories.
New York & Philadelphia: Audubon and J.B.Chevalier, 1840-1844. 7 volumes, octavo (10 3/8 x 6
1/2 inches). Half-titles. 500 hand-coloured lithographed plates after Audubon by W.E. Hitchcock, R.
Trembley and others, printed by J.T. Bowen of Philadelphia, numerous wood-engraved anatomical
figures in text. Contemporary half dark purple morocco over cloth covered boards, spines with wide
bands in five compartments, lettered in gilt in the second.
The first octavo edition of Audubon’s Great National Work. This is the first complete edition and the first
American edition. The work is one of the “most beautiful, popular, and important natural history books
published in America in the nineteenth century... representing the best of pre-Civil War American lithography
and giving Audubon the opportunity finally to display his scholarship and genius to a large American audience
for the first time” (Ron Tyler).
The plates, here accompanied by the text for the first time, were reduced and variously modified from the
Havell engravings in the double-elephant folio. Seven new species are figured and seventeen others, previously
described in the Ornithological Biography but not illustrated, were also shown for the first time. Audubon
may have been prompted to publish the reduced version of his double-elephant folio by the appearance in
1839 of John Kirk Townsend’s rival Ornithology of the United States; or, as he writes in the introduction to
the present work, he may have succumbed to public demand and his wish that a work similar to his large
work should be published but “at such a price, as would enable every student or lover of nature to place it in
his Library.”
The first edition of the octavo work is certainly the most famous and accessible of all the great American
colour plate books, and now represents the only realistic opportunity that exists for collectors to own an
entire collection of Audubon images in a form that was overseen and approved by the great artist himself.
The octavo Birds of America was originally issued in 100 parts, each containing five plates. The whole story of
the production of the book, with detailed information about every aspect of the project, is told by Ron Tyler
in Audubon’s Great National Work (Austin, 1993). The story Tyler tells of the difficulties of production and
marketing are revealing of the whole world of colour plate book production in mid-19th-century America.
By combining detailed text with careful observations next to his famous images, Audubon proved that he
was as good a scientific naturalist as the members of the scientific establishment who had scorned him.
Bennett p.5; Fries, Appendix A; Nissen IVB 51; Reese Stamped With A National Character 34; Ripley 13; Ron Tyler Audubon’s
Great National Work (1993) Appendix I; Sabin 2364; Wood p.208; Zimmer p.22.
(#28169) $ 75,000
77 BONAPARTE, Charles Lucian (1803-1857).
American Ornithology; or, the Natural History of Birds inhabiting the United States, not given by
Wilson.
Philadelphia: Samuel Augustus Mitchell [vol I]; Carey, Lea & Carey [vols II & III]; Carey & Lea
[vol IV], 1825-1828-1828-1833. Four volumes in two, small folio (14 5/8 x 11 1/4 inches). 27 handcolored engraved plates by Alexander Lawson (11 after Titian R. Peale, 15 after A. Rider, and 1 after
J.J. Audubon and A. Rider). 19th century maroon half morocco over cloth covered boards, spines
with raised bands in six compartment, lettered in the second and third, marbled endpapers.
A very fine set of the first edition, first issue of this important American ornithological work
Bonaparte’s important continuation of Wilson’s American Ornithology describes 60 birds not in the original
work. “A love for the same department of natural science, and a desire to complete the vast enterprise so far
advanced by Wilson’s labors, has induced us to undertake the present work,” Bonaparte writes in the preface,
“in order to illustrate what premature death prevented him from accomplishing, as well as the discoveries
subsequently made in the feathered tribes of these States.”
“The work which had been performed by Wilson’s hands alone now gave employment to several individuals.
Titian R., the fourth son of Charles Wilson Peale, not only collected many of the birds figured while on the
Long expedition, which were credited to Thomas Say, who originally described them in footnotes scattered
through the report; or in a subsequent private trip to Florida during the winter and spring of 1825, under the
patronage of Bonaparte; but also drew the figures engraved for the first, and two plates for the fourth and last
volume. A German emigrant by the name of Alexander Rider, of whom little is known beyond that he was a
miniature painter in 1813, and a portrait and historical painter in 1818, was responsible for the remainder of
the drawings with the exception of the two figures of plate 4 of volume I...” (Frank L. Burns, On Alexander
Wilson).
That plate, the Great Crow Blackbird, is notable as being the first book appearance of any engraving after
John James Audubon. Perhaps the most influential artist involved with the work, however, was Bonaparte’s
master engraver Alexander Lawson, arguably the most talented ornithological engraver in America at that
time.
Three issues of the first edition of Wilson’s continuation have been identified. This fine set is comprised of
the rare first issue of vol. 1 (with the Mitchell imprint and containing the first issue of plate 6 in that volume
(see Ellis/Mengel) and with first issues of volumes two through four (published by Carey & Lea and printed
by William Brown). Carey & Lea later reissued the first volume, with their own imprint, after purchasing
the rights to the publication from Mitchell in 1828. The third issue includes volumes reprinted by T.K. and
P.G. Collins (with their imprint replacing that of William Brown) for Carey & Lea with unchanged dates on
the titles but actually printed in about 1835 after the completion of the final volume.
Anker 47; Bennett 16; Coues 1:609; Ellis/Mengel 312a-b; Fine Bird Books (1990) p. 78; Nissen IVB 116; Sabin 6264; Wood 247;
Zimmer p.64.
(#26823) $ 13,500
78 BOOTH, William Chandler (1804-1874) & Alfred CHANDLER (1804-1896).
Illustrations and Descriptions of the plants which compose the natural order Camellieæ, and of the
varieties of Camellia Japonica, cultivated in the gardens of Great Britain.
London: C.Baynes for John & Arthur Arch, 1831. Volume I (all published), folio (14 5/8 x 10 1/2
inches). 40 hand-coloured engraved (or lithographed) plates, all heightened with gum arabic, after
Chandler, 8 by S.Watts, 22 by Weddell, the others unsigned. (Expert repair to upper blank margin
of title and preface, occasional craquelure to the gum arabic on the foliage. Expertly bound to style
in green straight-grained morocco, covers with elaborate wide border in gilt and blind built up from
various fillets and roll tools, with large cornerpieces composed from various small tools, spine in six
compartments with raised bands, lettered in the second and fourth compartments, the others with
elaborate repeat overall decoration in gilt, gilt turn-ins, marbled endpapers, t.e.g.
One of the most attractive of all the works on Camellias, with highly finished plates after the drawings of Alfred
Chandler. This “handsome and rare” (Blunt) work was published in three states: the present copy is in the most
desirable of the three, with the “very fine large plates, beautifully coloured with opaque pigments” (Dunthorne).
The work was issued with the plates in three states: uncoloured, coloured and coloured and highly finished. All
were from Alfred Chandler’s original drawings, most of which were based on specimens from the collection
of his father who was owner and proprietor of a nursery at Vauxhall. “The name Camellia was given by
Linnaeus in honor of George Joseph Camellus or Kamel, a Moravian Jesuit who traveled in Asia and wrote
an account of the plants of the Philippine Island, Luzon, which is included in the third volume of John Ray’s
Historia Plantarum (1704) ... Most of the cultivated forms are horticultural products of C. Japonica, a native
of China and Japan, which was introduced into Europe by Lord Petre in 1739. The wild plant has red flowers,
recalling those of the wild rose, but most of the cultivated forms are double” (Encyclopaedia Britannica).
The present work includes plates and descriptive text (including details of the plant’s first appearance in Great
Britain, a physical description and some details of its cultivation and propagation) of 40 species or varieties.
Camellia Japonica, of course, figures prominently, with plates of the species, together with 16 varieties bred
from the species by the Chinese and 19 English-bred varieties. In addition, plates and descriptions of the
Maliflora, Oleifera, Reticulata and Sasanqua are also included. The work ends with 8pp. on the Propagation
and Culture of the plants.
Dunthorne 77; Great Flower Books (1990) p.80; Nissen BBI 209; Stafleu & Cowan TL2 651.
(#13445) $ 35,000
79 CORY, Charles Barney (1857-1921).
Beautiful and Curious Birds of the World.
Boston: published by the author for the subscribers, 1883. Folio (26 1/2 x 20 1/2 inches). Letterpress
title (verso blank), preface leaf (verso blank), dedication to Joel Asaph Allen (verso blank), contents
leaf (verso blank), 20 text leaves. 20 lithographed plates (18 hand-colored) after Joseph Smit and
others, printed by M. & N. Hanhart or Forbes & Co. of Boston. Contemporary black morocco gilt,
gilt turn-ins, silk doublures and linings (rebacked, a few small repairs to edges). Cloth folding box.
“A very rare book” (Bennett), limited to 200 copies, with beautiful plates on a grand scale including some of
Smit’s finest work.
“In writing the present work I have striven to bring together some of the wonderful examples of the
ornithological world, and to illustrate them in such a manner that others besides naturalists may become
acquainted with the beautiful forms of bird life which inhabit our globe” (Preface). Given Cory’s stated aim
it is unsurprising that he has concentrated on the most spectacular bird family of all: the Birds of Paradise
and their relatives the Lyre Birds and the Spotted Bower bird. Twelve of the twenty plates are from this
group. The other eight include two of the best known extinct bird species: the Dodo and the Great Auk (also
included amongst the extinct species is the Labrador Duck). The remaining depict many unusual species,
with images of the Kiwi, the Ruff, the California Condor, the Black-headed Plover, and the Sacred Ibis.
Bennett p. 28; BM(NH) I, p. 387; Fine Bird Books (1990), p. 87; McGrath p. 59; Wood 30; Nissen IVB 205; Nissen SVB 109;
Zimmer p.137.
(#26499) $ 29,500
80 CURTIS, William (1746-1799).
Flora Londinensis; or, Plates and Descriptions of such Plants as grow wild in the Environs of London.
London: printed for and sold by the Author & B.White & Son (vol.I), for the author (vol.II), [1775]1777-1798. 2 volumes, folio (17 7/8 x 11 inches). Engraved oval title vignette to vol.I, 432 handcoloured engraved plates, after Sydenham Edwards, James Sowerby and William Kilburn, with some
plates printed in colours and hand-coloured, as issued. 2pp. subscriber list in vol. 1, general index
to fascicules 1-3 in vol. 1 and part indices to fascicules 4-6 in vol. 2. Plates in vol. 1 with period
manuscript numbering in the lower left corner of each plate. Contemporary full tree calf, covers with
a gilt roll tool border, upper covers with central arms in gilt of Lord Willoughby de Broke, expertly
rebacked to style, flat spine in seven compartments divided by gilt roll tools, red and green morocco
labels in the second and fourth compartments, the others with a repeat overall decoration in gilt.
Provenance: John Peyto-Verney, Lord Willoughby de Broke (1738-1816, arms in gilt on the upper
cover); Robert John Verney, Lord Willoughby de Broke (1809-1862, armorial bookplate).
Rare first edition of the first English colour-plate national flora: a large copy with wide margins to both plates
and text.
Curtis, with the support of Lord Bute, published the first part in 1775. For “ten years he continued ... at
his congenial but unremunerative task, [and] by 1787, the results of his labour were two splendid folio
volumes and a deficit that made the continuance of his venture impossible. He understood the cause of
the trouble and saw the remedy: if his clients refused to buy folio pictures of the unassuming plants that
grew by the wayside, he would win their patronage with octavo engravings of the bright flowers that filled
their gardens. Thus, in 1787, The Botanical Magazine was born” (Blunt. p.212). The success of the magazine
allowed Curtis to continue the publication of the Flora Londiniensis, the former, as Curtis put it, providing
the “pudding”, the latter the greater satisfaction and the critical acclaim from his peers. The majority of the
illustrations in the first volume are by William Kilburn with the rest of the plates divided between James
Sowerby and Sydenham Edwards. The present copy, includes the “Catalogue of certain plants, growing wild
in the environs of Settle” (here bound in the second volume). Unusually, the second volume here includes
the three individual fascicule indices which were often discarded.
Dunthorne 87; Great Flower Books (1990) p.88; Henrey III, 595; Hunt 650; Nissen BBI 439; Stafleu & Cowan 1286.
(#26759) $ 22,000
81 ELLIOT, Daniel Giraud (1835 -1915).
A Monograph of the Bucerotidae, or Family of the Hornbills.
[New York]: printed by Taylor & Francis of London, published for the subscribers by the author, 1877-1882.
1 volume bound from the ten original parts, folio (14 3/4 x 11 1/8 inches). 60 lithographic plates printed by M.
& N.Hanhart (comprising: 57 plates by and after John Gerrard Keulemans, all hand-coloured by Mr. Smith, 3
uncoloured plates by and after Joseph Smit), occasional uncoloured illustrations. Near-contemporary green
half morocco, spine in six compartments with raised bands, lettered in gilt in the second and third, date in
gilt at foot of spine, original brown paper wrappers to all ten parts bound at the back, top edge gilt.
A fine copy of the first edition of this “comprehensive treatment of the entire family of hornbills” (Zimmer) from
one of the best known American ornithologists of the second half of the nineteenth century, with illustrations by
Keulemans, the most popular ornithological artist of the period.
This is the important first monograph on this widely scattered family of extraordinary birds. “The Bucerotidae
are pretty equally divided at the present day between the Ethiopian and Oriental Regions, the first having
twenty-seven and the latter twenty-nine species, while but a few... are scattered about the islands of the Malay
archipelago” (introduction). Hornbills are extraordinary not only for their physical appearance but also for
their behavior - the most noteworthy shared trait amongst the species is the male’s habit of “enclosing the
female in the hollow of some tree, firmly fastening her in by a wall of mud, and keeping her close prisoner
until the eggs are hatched” (introduction). The male will feed the female through a slit in the wall whilst
she incubates the eggs. She will only break through the wall of mud and leave the nest once the young have
hatched, at which point the wall is rebuilt and remains in place until the young are ready to fly. The bizarre
beauty of this species is here ably captured by Keulemans highly accurate and beautifully observed plates.
Keulemans was born in Rotterdam, Holland, in 1842, but worked and lived chiefly in England, working on
most of the important ornithological monographs and periodicals published between about 1870 and his
death in London in 1912. He was “undoubtedly the most popular bird artist of his day as well as being the
most prolific. He was gifted with a superb sense of draughtsmanship and revealed his considerable versatility
in capturing the significant subtleties of color, form, and expression in the birds... represented in his various
illustrations” (Feathers to brush p. 47)
BM(NH) I,p.522; Fine Bird Books (1990) p.95; T. Keulemans & J. Coldewey, Feathers to brush... John Gerrard Keulemans, 1982,
p.61; Nissen IVB 297; Wood p.331; Zimmer p.207
(#16801) $ 21,000
82 FIELD, William B. Osgood.
Edward Lear on my shelves.
[Munich: Bremer Press for William B. Osgood Field] Privately Printed, 1933. Small folio (13 1/4
x 9 1/8 inches). 10 double-page plates (5 hand-coloured by Annette von Eckardt), 123 uncoloured
illustrations (many full-page), all after Lear, 1 full-page photogravure portrait. Original vellum by
Frieda Thiersch at the Bremer Press, gilt fillet border to the covers, the spine in six compartments
with semi-raised bands, lettered in the second, and date at the foot of the spine, yapp fore-edges,
top edge gilt, marbled paper-covered slipcase (spine a little soiled). Provenance: Henry Clap Smith
(presentation inscription from the author).
A fine presentation copy of the first edition, number ten of 155 copies, here in the rare full vellum binding.
Although the edition as a whole was limited to 155 copies, the number of copies in vellum was considerably
smaller (the vellum-bound copies are essentially an unstated deluxe issue). The work, printed at the Bremer
Press under the direction of Willi Wiegand, is beautifully produced, with informative text, numerous wellchosen illustrations and a useful bibliography and listing of original drawings, water-colours, lithographs,
engravings and woodcuts.
The inscription from Field reads “To Dear: / Henry Clap Smith, / who first gave me the / idea of doing this /
book./ Wm. B. Osgood Field. / “Bill.” / November 1933.” Intriguingly, Field contradicts himself in the preface
where he states that “This volume was first thought of during a conversation with my very good friend,
Leonard Mackall. I am deeply indebted to him for this original stimulus from which followed the joys of
study and of the production of the book itself.”
(#24473) $ 1,750
83 FREEMAN,
Strickland (d.1821), [& Dr. George
SHAW (1751-1813). - Charlotte STRICKLAND
(1759-1833) & Juliana Sabina STRICKLAND
(1765-1849) .
Select Specimens of British Plants.
London: printed by W. Bulmer & Co. and sold
by G. Nicol, 1797 [watermarked 1794]. 2 parts
[all published], folio (21 1/4 x 16 inches). 10
plates printed in colours and finished by hand,
engraved by William Skelton after drawings by
Juliana Strickland and Charlotte Strickland.
19th century half red morocco over marbled
paper covered boards, flat spine lettered in gilt,
marbled endpapers. Provenance: John Thomas
Stanley, 1st Baron Stanley of Alderley (armorial
bookplate on the front pastedown).
A very rare complete copy of this very beautiful
illustrated botanical work.
The spectacular plates in this work are from the
drawings of the talented sisters Charlotte and Juliana
Strickland, daughters of Sir George Strickland of
Boynton, Yorkshire. From the early 1800s they
lived at Apperley Court, Gloucestershire (the home
of their brother Henry Eustachius Strickland). As
the preface to the present work makes clear, their cousin (and brother-in-law) Strickland Freeman was keen
to see their work published, but felt that the engravers and colourists of the day would not be able to do
justice to the very fine originals. The publication of Bauer’s Delineations of exotick plants ... at Kew in 1796
apparently changed Freeman’s mind, and at his own expense he set out to publish (and edit, with the help
of Dr. George Shaw) what became the present work. Only two parts with 10 plates ever appeared, but the
quality of the plates was recognised and Sir J.E. Smith refers to “those exquisite elaborate plates ... said to be
the performances of two ladies, who certainly rank as artists in the first line.”
The book, complete or incomplete, is very rare. There are only two copies on Copac: the British Library
(complete) and Natural History Museum. OCLC adds the Fisher Library in Toronto, and the BSB in Munich,
but it is not clear if these last two are complete. Only one complete and two incomplete copies are listed as
having sold at auction in the past thirty five years.
BM (NH) II, p.616; Henrey III, 722; Nissen BBI 1904; Pritzel 3037.
(#25188) $ 13,500
84 GOULD, John (1804-1881).
A Monograph of the Odontophorinae, or Partridges of America.
London: Richard & John E. Taylor for the Author, [November 1844 - March 1846 - November]
1850. Folio (21 1/2 x 14 1/4 inches). 1p. list of subscribers. 32 fine hand-coloured lithographed plates
after Gould and H. C. Richter. Early half olive green morocco over green pebbled cloth covered
boards, bound for Sotheran’s, spine with raised bands in six compartments, lettered in the second
and fourth, the others with a repeat decoration in gilt, marbled endpapers, gilt edges.
A fine copy of the first edition of Gould’s fourth monograph, in which he considerably enlarged the number of
recorded species of the American partridge family.
Besides the spectacular plates of American birds, this work is interesting for the light it throws on the all
encompassing nature of science before specialization: Gould was inspired by the gift of an English Arctic
explorer, received much useful information from a Scottish botanist and finally dedicated the work to the
French ornithologist Prince Charles Lucien Bonaparte (1803-1857) the author of American Ornithology. In
this, Gould’s fourth monograph, he considerably enlarged the number of recorded species of the American
partridge family. Gould was persuaded to undertake this project “by the sight of the beautiful Callipepla
Californica, presented to the Zoological Society of London by Captain Beechey, in 1830. The graceful actions
and elegant deportment of these birds inspired me with a desire to become thoroughly acquainted with the
entire group of which they form a part; this desire was even strengthened by the details furnished to me by
the late celebrated traveller and botanist, Mr. David Douglas, respecting species seen by him in California,
of the existence of which we had until then no idea ... In the course of my researches I have several times
visited most of the public and many of the private collections of Europe, and have besides corresponded
with various persons in America: the result is that I have had the pleasure of extending our knowledge of the
group from eleven to no less than thirty-five species” (Preface).
Anker 176; Fine Bird Books (1990) p.102; Nissen IVB 376; Sauer 13; Wood p.365; Zimmer p. 257.
(#27929) $ 20,000
85 HAMILTON, Edward (1815-1903); and Henry SOWERBY (1825-1891).
The Flora Homoeopathica; or, Illustrations and Descriptions of the Medicinal Plants used as
Homoeopathic Remedies.
London: H. Bailliere [and others], 1852-53. 2 volumes, 8vo (9 7/8 x 6 1/4 inches). 66 hand coloured
plates, lithographed by H. Sowerby, printed by Reeve & Nichols, after drawings by Sowerby and
others. (Scattered minor dampstaining). Contemporary half green morocco over marbled paper
covered boards, spine with raised bands in six compartments, lettered in the second and fourth, the
others with a repeat decoration in gilt, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt.
First edition of the most desirable of all homoeopathic floras, beautifully illustrated with hand coloured plates.
Hamilton, a member of the British Homoeopathic Society, was involved in the founding of the London
Homoeopathic Hospital and became Physician to the hospital for a time. Of great importance to this work,
he was a Fellow of the Linnaean Society and Zoological Society. Issued in parts, each finely illustrated
plate is accompanied by text which gives the history, description, geographical distribution, parts used in
medicine, mode of preparation, poisonous effects, medical (homoeopathic) uses, cases, clinical observations,
and antidotes for each plant.
Upon receiving the first number, the British Journal of Homoeopathy proclaimed: “[Hamilton’s work] gives
a certain physical reality to homoeopathic medicines which they much want. Being all little white pellets like
sugar sparrow hail, or colourless liquid, it is very difficult to realize the fact that things so like one another
are really different; but when one sees the Aconite with its deadly blue hood, like a poisoner’s mask, or the
Agaricus Muscarius with its large red, angry speckled mushroom-form, then it becomes credible that in such
strange and diverse and questionable forms should reside powers different and dangerous.”
The plates are drawn on stone throughout by Henry Sowerby, the grandson of famed naturalist James Sowerby.
Henry served as the curator/librarian of the Linnaean Society from 1843-1852; he went to Australia in 1854
and became a drawing instructor and gold miner.
Nissen 778
(#28176) $ 3,500
86 HOOKER, Sir Joseph Dalton (1817-1911).
Illustrations of Himalayan Plants, chiefly selected from drawings made for the late J.F.Cathcart Esq. of
the Bengal Civil Service.
London: Lovell Reeve, 1855. Folio (20 x 14 3/4 inches). Half-title. 2pp. subscriber’s list. Lithographic
title with hand-coloured botanical border, 24 fine hand-coloured lithographic plates by and after
Walter Hood Fitch from original drawings by native artists and the author. Publisher’s boards with
the lithographed additional title repeated on the upper cover, rebacked to style in quarter black
morocco, spine with raised bands in six compartments, lettered in the second compartment, the
others with a repeat decoration in gilt.
Hooker’s second work on Himalayan plants containing some of the most spectacular work of Walter Hood Fitch,
arguably the greatest botanical artist of the second half of the 19th century: “one of the finest flower books ever
produced” (Jan Lewis).
In the eloquent and evocative introduction to the present work, Hooker writes that he wished the work to
stand as a monument to the botanical contributions of James F. Cathcart (1802-1851). Cathcart, during
the lengthy period when he suffered from ill-health, spent his time assiduously recording the flora of the
Himalayas, and with the help of native artists assembled a series of nearly one thousand drawings of the
plants of the remote region. The original plan had been for Cathcart to have given Hooker £1000 to pay for
“a work similar to the Sikkim-Himalaya Rhododendrons, and to distribute it to the principal botanists and
scientific establishments in Europe.” Having sent his collection of drawings ahead to Hooker, Cathcart died
in Lausanne during his journey back to Britain. The work subsequently appeared in its present form: partly
through subscription (176 names are listed) and partly after Cathcart’s family agreed to honour his promise
of financial support for the work.
The plates were re-drawn and transferred to stone by Fitch who “corrected the stiffness and want of botanical
knowledge displayed by the native artists.” In addition Fitch worked from a number of drawings supplied
by Hooker himself of alpine plants found at greater elevation than Mr. Cathcart was able to visit. In his
introduction, Hooker readily acknowledges the importance of Fitch’s beautiful images “that have been justly
pronounced as of unrivalled excellence in an artistic point of view” and makes the general point that “works
like the present must appeal to the lovers of art and horticulture” in equal measure.
The combined efforts of Hooker, Fitch and Cathcart produced “probably the finest plates of Magnolia
Campbellii and Meconopsis simplicifolia ever made, as well as other important Himalayan plants” (Great
Flower Books).
Great Flower Books (1990) p.101; Jan Lewis Walter Hood Fitch A celebration 1992, p.16; Nissen BBI 910; Stafleu & Cowan TL2
2973.
(#26848) $ 22,000
87 LAMBERT, Aylmer Bourke (1761-1842).
A Description of the Genus Pinus, with directions relative to the cultivation, and remarks on the uses of
the several species: also descriptions of many other new species of the family Coniferae. Plates.
London: James Bohn, 1842. Folio (21 1/2 x 14 5/8 inches). 93 hand-coloured engraved plates
(including 7 plates of views of trees in landscapes, 86 plates of botanical details,) after Ferdinand
Bauer, J. Sowerby, J.T. Hart and others, engraved by Warner, Mackenzie, J. Sowerby, E.S. Weddell,
Quiroz and others. Expertly bound to style in half purple morocco over original purple cloth covered
boards, flat spine in six compartments, lettered in the second and third, the others with a repeat
overall decoration in gilt.
A fine copy of Lambert’s masterpiece: the ultimate edition, including spectacular plates after Ferdinand Bauer.
Only a few copies of this edition, published by James Bohn, appear to have been printed and no other copies
are listed as having sold at auction in the past twenty-five years. It was the first edition to gather all the plates
into a single large-format volume (with a separate octavo text volume not present here) thus eliminating any
possibility of problems with the text offsetting onto the image area.
The majority of the plates are after Ferdinand Bauer, who with his brother Franz “may well claim to be the
greatest of all botanical draughtsmen. Their skill in execution of detail is miraculous, yet they never lost sight
of the wood for the trees; everything is understood, balanced, controlled ... The splendid illustrations to [the
present work] ... deeply impressed Goethe ... The botanical draughtsman was no longer the mere recorder
of floral beauty; he now had the more difficult task of serving both Art and Science” (Great Flower Books,
p.37).
The earliest edition of this work, with the fewest number of plates, was published in two volumes between
1803 and 1824. It then appeared in various formats with varying numbers of plates until the Bohn issue of
1842. According to Henrey the largest number of plates found is 103 in a 3-volume folio edition published by
George White between 1837 and 1842 (although Nissen gives a plate total of 117 for the same edition). The
present example has one more plate than the Lindley Library copy described by Henrey.
Lambert’s work is of primary importance as a record of the genus Pinus, and is often cited in subsequent
works. However as Renkema and Ardagh point out, the somewhat haphazard way in which the work
was published means that these citations are often contradictory and to gain a full understanding of the
information given by Lambert it is essential to have access to not just one but all of the main editions,
culminating with the present work.
Great Flower Books (1990) p.111; Henrey III, 925; cf. H.W. Renkema & J. Ardagh ‘Aylmer Bourke Lambert and his “Description
of the genus Pinus”’ in Journal Linnaean Society London, Botany (1930) vol.48, pp.439-466; cf. Stafleu & Cowan TL2 4146.
(#26254) $ 58,500
88 LANGLEY, Batty (1696-1751).
New Principles of Gardening: or, the laying out
and planting parterres, groves, wildernesses,
labyrinths, avenues, parks, &c. ... with
experimental directions for raising the several
kinds of fruit-trees, forest-trees, ever-greens and
flowering-shrubs with which gardens are adorn’d
... Second Edition.
London: printed for A. Bettesworth and C.
Hitch ... [and others], 1739. Quarto (9 5/8 x
7 1/2 inches). 28 folding engraved plates by
Thomas Bowles and David Lockley after B. and
T. Langley. Contemporary calf, covers bordered
with a gilt double fillet, rebacked with the spine
with raised bands in six compartments, lettered
in the second, the others with a repeat decoration
in gilt, endpapers renewed.
An important and influential work on landscape
gardening.
Langley was an early champion of the freer style
of landscaping which was to dominate landscape
and garden design in the 18th century. According
to Blanche Henrey, Langley’s ideas were probably
influenced by his contact with Charles Bridgeman,
Alexander Pope and William Kent, and she goes on to note: “In the introduction [to the present work]
Langley declares that there is nothing ‘more shocking than a stiff regular garden; where after we have seen
one quarter thereof, the very same is repeated in all the remaining parts’. He believed that a garden should
consist of what he calls ‘regular irregularities’. For instance, groves must not be planted like orchards ‘with
their trees in straight lines ranging every way, but in a rural manner, as if they had receiv’d their situation
from nature itself ’. Langley stipulated that views should be as extensive as possible and he is much in favour
of ha-ha’s ... Langley, like Switzer, decried the art of topiary and cut parterres, and encouraged meandering
paths, and the use of fine trees for shade. New principles of gardening contains descriptions of the principles
of geometry as applied to garden design, and rules concerning the situation and disposition of gardens in a
rural manner. There are directions concerning the culture of fruit trees, forest trees, and shrubs, and there
are also details concerning the names, medicinal properties, and culture of the plants of the kitchen and
physic gardens. The illustrations include geometrical diagrams, garden plans, and designs for ruins suitable
for the termination of walks” (Henrey, British Botanical and Horticultural Literature before 1800, II, p 499).
The present second edition, composed of sheets of the first edition with a cancel title, is quite scarce.
Bradley Bibliography III, p.108; Harvard. Catalogue of the Library of the Arnold Arboretum p.411; Hunt II, 472; Henrey III, 927;
Nissen BBI 1136.
(#26428) $ 7,500
89 LOUREIRO, Juan de (c.1715-1791).
Flora Cochinchinensis: sistens plantas in Regno
Cochinchina nascentes, quibus accedunt aliae
observatae Sinensi Imperio, Africa Orientali,
Indiaeque locis variis, omnes dispositae secundum
systema sexuale Linnaeanum.
Ulyssipone [Lisbon]:
typis et expensis
Academicis, 1790. 2 volumes in 1, quarto (10 1/4
x 8 inches). Half-titles, errata and publisher’s ad
leaves in the rear. [2], xx, 353; [4], 357-744, [4]
pp. Uncut and unopened. Later speckled calf,
spine in five compartments with raised bands,
red morocco lettering pieces in the second and
fourth compartments, the others with a repeat
decoration in gilt. Provenance: Warren H. Corning
Collection, Holden Arboretum (booklabel).
First edition of the most important early flora and
medical botany of Vietnam and Southeast Asia, but
also including many Chinese plants.
Loureiro, a Portuguese Jesuit missionary, arrived
in Cochinchina circa 1743 and was appointed as
a physician in the court of the King. As European
medicines were unavailable, Louireiro began to learn of the local flora and their medicinal properties. He
began collecting plants for his own use, which in turn was the foundation for among the largest and most
important herbariums devoted to the region to have ever been collected. In 1779, Loureiro arrived in
Canton, where he remained for three years, dedicated to the study of its local flora. Hiring a local peasant
with some knowledge of medical botany to collect specimens from outside the city limits (as a foreigner he
was not permitted to leave Canton), he diligently recorded the specimens. He left Canton in 1782, returning
to Lisbon. After several years of arranging his specimens according to the Linnaean system, he published the
present work, notably identifying plant names in both Latin and with transliterated native dialects (including
Mandarin for the plants gathered near Canton), and including the medicinal uses for many of the plants.
Parts of Loureiro’s herbarium survive at the British Museum and the Paris Museum of Natural History.
Although the title of the work focusses on his descriptions of plants from Cochinchina, much of the work
is devoted to his specimens gathered in Canton. In total, 1257 plants are described (of which 36 were
gathered in India, Sumatra, and Mozambique on his voyage home). Of the remaining 1221, 976 plants are
identified as from Cochinchina and of these, 294 he had also gathered in China. As found only in China, 245
distinct specimens are identified. Thus, the total number of Chinese plants observed by Loureiro is 539. See
Bretschneider, Early European Researches into the Flora of China, pp. 129-184 for a detailed listing of each of
the 539 Chinese plants identified by Loureiro.
Pritzel 5637; Stafleu & Cowan 5038; Brunet III, 1188; Cordier, BI 446; Johnston 598; Merrill and Walker, p. 285; Bretschneider,
Early European Researches into the Flora of China (Shanghai: 1881).
(#27213) $ 1,000
90 MILLER, John (1715-1780).
Illustratio Systematis Sexualis Linnaei ... An Illustration of the Sexual System of Linnaeus.
London: by the Author, [1770]-1777 . 2 volumes in 1, folio (20 x 14 inches). 1p. list of subscribers.
Engraved titles to each volume printed on wove paper, emblematic frontispiece to first volume, 216
engraved plates on laid paper (i.e. 108 engraved plates in two states: printed in black with letters
and uncoloured and proofs before letters printed in brown and hand-coloured), all by and after
Miller. The hand-coloured plates of individual plants with their Latin binomials added in ink in a
single neat hand (probably by William Tighe, see below). Late 18th century calf, covers elaborately
panelled in gilt and blind with a large central diamond design, expertly rebacked to style, spine in
seven compartments with raised bands, lettered in gilt in the second and fifth compartments, the
others with a repeat overall decoration in gilt, marbled endpapers, marbled edges. Provenance: Isabel
Clayton of Chesters (armorial bookplate).
A very fine copy of the first edition of an “immense work of botany wherein the pencil of Miller illustrated, in
a style of unprecedented elegance, the sexual system of Linnaeus” (Lettsom, The Memoirs of John Fothergill,
p.106). This copy with the plates in two states, including beautifully hand coloured proofs before letters.
This work was issued in twenty parts between 1770 and 1777, and according to the list of subscribers 105
copies were ordered by 85 individuals. The plates were issued in both coloured and uncoloured states. The
uncoloured plates included lettering for scientific purposes, whilst the hand-coloured plates with no lettering
and warm brown printing were undoubtedly intended to be more aesthetically pleasing.
The botanical specimens described and illustrated came in the main from Dr. John Fothergill’s famous
garden at Upton in Essex. Fothergill was an enthusiastic supporter and indeed, superintendent of the work,
but refused Miller’s attempt to dedicate the work to him - he felt that dedications were “more productive of
envy to the patron, than of advantage to the author.”
“John Miller, otherwise Johann Sebastian Mueller, was a native of Nürnberg. He came to this country in 1744
and remained here until his death which took place in London. He was a botanical artist and engraver of
considerable note. Besides the figures of plants ... [in the present work], many examples of his work are to be
found in Philip Miller’s Figures of the most beautiful... plants...(1755-60), Hunter’s edition (1776) of Evelyn’s
Sylva and Lord Bute’s Botanical Tables (1785?)” (Henrey II, p.279). Linnaeus was sent the first two parts of
the published work and responded enthusiastically, stating that the plates were “more beautiful and more
accurate” than any he had seen.
BM(NH) III,p.1370; Bradley I, p.258; Dunthorne 206; Great Flower Books (1990),p.120; Henrey III,1153; Nissen BBI 1372;
Stafleu & Cowan TL2 6482.
(#27134) SOLD
91 [MILLER, Philip (1691-1771)].
Catalogus Plantarum... A Catalogue of Trees, Shrubs, Plants, and Flowers, both Exotic and Domestic,
Which are propagated for Sale in the Gardens near London ... By a Society of Gardeners.
London: printed for the Society of Gardeners, to be sold by the said Society, C. Rivington, T. Cox,
P. du Barrit, and also by the following Gardeners and Nursery-men. Robert Furber [etc.], 1730.
Folio (19 x 12 inches). Two letterpress title-pages. Uncoloured engraved frontispiece of an idealized
garden by Henry Fletcher, 21 coloured plates after Jacob Van Huysum printed on two paper stocks
(7 mezzotints printed in colours by Elisha Kirkall [5 with touches of hand-colouring, 1 with pasted
on slip with contemporary manuscript correction to the title of the plate], 14 hand-coloured etched
plates by Henry Fletcher), two uncoloured engraved headpieces by Fletcher. Uncut. Expertly bound
to style in half eighteenth century russia over period marbled paper covered boards, spine with
raised bands in eight compartments, red morocco lettering piece in the second compartment, others
with an overall repeat decoration in gilt.
First edition of a beautiful and scarce work, including a high proportion of American species and “one of the
earliest flower books to contain plates printed in colors” (Hunt). The only substantial work to be illustrated
entirely by the work of Jacob van Huysum.
The genesis of this work is interesting. Much trouble had been caused to the trade and to the public by the
same plant being sold under different names. In an effort standardize the naming of these commercial species
the Society of gardeners (referred to on the title of the present work) was formed “consisting of a number of
the most eminent gardeners and nurserymen situated near London [who] agreed to hold monthly meetings.
At these meetings members were required to bring exhibits of their flowers and fruits for examination and
comparison. A Register was kept recording names and descriptions. After a period of five or six years it was
decided to have the various plants drawn and painted ‘by an able hand.’ A resolution was then passed to
publish a catalogue of the plants... which was to be illustrated with coloured plates. This was to be issued in
parts. Only the [present] first part, however, on trees and shrubs was published” (Henrey).
“The Catalogus plantarum is notable as one of the earliest flower books to contain plates printed in colors.
It is perhaps unique in that one third of its plates are so printed, in mezzotint from a single plate, while
two thirds are engraved and handcolored in the usual way. The book is also unusual in that it is ostensibly
the work of twenty authors, listed as the Society of Gardeners at the end of the Preface, though it is usually
assumed that one of their number, Philip Miller, was responsible for the text” (Hunt).
The original plan had been to issue the work in three or four volumes with coloured plates, and to this end
watercolour drawings were prepared by the Dutch flower painter Jacob van Huysum (1687-1746), brother
of Jan van Huysum. The British Museum possesses two albums (from the library of Sir Hans Sloane) that
contain what appear to be the originals for the unfinished work. The plates that were published include a
number of images intended for the later volumes; as a consequence, these have no corresponding text. Of
particular interest is the image of the double Nasturtium, which as Blunt notes “was subsequently lost to
cultivation and only reintroduced quite recently.”
“An important work as it is one of the first attempts to establish a nomenclature ... Eighty-eight American
trees and shrubs are listed among those which the London nurserymen could supply in 1730 …. Three
volumes were planned for this work but only the first of Trees and Shrubs was completed; it includes plates
which would have illustrated the volumes on Greenhouse Plants and Flowers had they been issued. The
frontispiece is one of the few medium-sized engravings shewing the details of an English formal garden of
the period” (Dunthorne).
Dunthorne 119; Great Flower Books (1990) p.95; Henrey 1360; Hunt 485; Nissen BBI 2230; Stafleu & Cowan TL2 6036
(#27126) $ 9,750
92 MORRIS, Richard.
Essays on Landscape Gardening, and on uniting picturesque effect with rural scenery: containing
directions for laying out and improving the grounds connected with a country residence.
London: Printed by S and R. Bentley for J. Taylor, 1825 [text watermarked 1824-1825, plates
watermarked 1825]. Quarto (12 3/4 x 10 inches). Half-title, uncut. 6 aquatint plates (3 hand-coloured,
3 printed in sepia [2 of these with overlays]). Original paper-covered boards, paper title label to
backstrip, green morocco backed box, spine in six compartments with raised bands, ruled in gilt on
either side of each band, lettered in the second compartment, the others with a repeat decoration in
gilt.
A fine, unsophisticated copy of a beautifully illustrated work on the art of landscape gardening as practiced in
England at the start of the 19th century.
In the preface to the present work, Morris acknowledges his inspiration to have been the works of Humphry
Repton, Uvedale Price, William Gilpin and to a lesser extent William Shenstone, William Mason, Richard
Payne Knight and Thomas Whately. Taking the “instructive hints” from these disparate sources, Morris here
offers essays on eight aspects that need to be considered when laying out an English country garden and
estate, together with six plates that further illustrate his points. As in the works of Repton, two of the plates
contain overlays showing the landscape before and after Morris’s improvements.
Morris, a plantsman and surveyor approaches his subject from a more detailed and practical point of view
than his illustrious predecessors. For example, where Repton had suggested a hillside be moved and trees
planted, Morris suggests a similar scheme but also lists the trees and shrubs which would be suitable. Given
this attention to horticultural detail, it is unsurprising that Morris’s other works included Flora Conspicua; a
selection of the most ornamental flowering, hardy, exotic and indigenous trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants,
for embellishing flower-gardens and pleasure-grounds (London, 1826) and The Botanist’s Manual. A catalogue
of hardy, exotic, and indigenous plants, according to their respective months of flowering (London, 1824).
Abbey Life 40.
(#24550) $ 5,900
93 PORTLAND MUSEUM. - John LIGHTFOOT (1735-1788).
A Catalogue of the Portland Museum, lately the property of the Dutchess Dowager of Portland,
Deceased: Which will be sold at auction, by Mr. Skinner and Co. on Monday the 24th of April, 1786,
and the thirty-seven following days, at Twelve O’Clock ... at her late Dwelling-House, in Privy-Garden,
Whitehall.
London: 1786. 4to (9 1/2 x 7 3/4 inches). Engraved frontispiece by Grignion after Burney. Early tree
calf, covers bordered with a gilt double fillet, expertly rebacked to style, flat spine in six compartments,
red morocco lettering piece in the second, the others with a repeat neo-classical decoration in gilt.
Provenance: Charles Stanhope, 4th Earl of Harrington, Viscount Petersham (inscription and shelf
mark on front pastedown).
The rare and important catalogue of the Duchess of Portland’s famed natural history collection, featuring
specimens collected by Captain Cook.
Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, the second Duchess of Portland, was a noted patron of Captain Cook and her
private museum was “considered the finest in England and rivalled the best in Europe” (Dance). Following
her death, her wunderkammer was put on the block. The auction was held from 24 April to 3 July 1786
and included over 4000 lots. The catalogue was drawn up by her chaplain and librarian the Reverend John
Lightfoot. It was “an impressive publication and was to become of lasting importance, once it was realized
that it utilised valid binomial nomenclature to denote most of the zoological specimens and that many
scientifically correct names were first published therein. Another unusual feature of the catalogue is the
frequent appearance of locality information in the description of lots” (Chalmers-Hunt).
This copy with provenance to noted snuff box collector the 4th Earl of Harrington
Dance, pp. 102-103; Forbes 116; Chalmers-Hunt, Natural History Auctions 1700-1972, pp. 46 and 62.
(#27106) $ 4,500
94 REDOUTÉ, Pierre-Joseph (1759-1840) & Claude-Antoine THORY (1759-1827).
Les Roses, peintes par... Redouté...décrites et classes selon leur ordre naturel, par...Thory. Troisième
edition, publiée sous la direction de M. Pirolle.
Paris: Crapelet for P. Dufart and J.F. Hauer & Cie. of St. Petersburg, 1835. 3 volumes, octavo (9 1/2 x
6 1/2 inches). Half-titles. 2 lithographic portraits of Redouté and Thory by C.Motte after Mauraisse,
hand-coloured engraved floral wreath by Manceau after Redouté, 183 stipple-engraved plates printed
in colours and finished by hand by Chardin, Langlois, Lemaire and others after Redouté (including
3 plates illustrating the anatomy of the rose). Contemporary French blue half morocco gilt, the flat
spine in five compartments delineated by horizontal rules, titled in the second, numbered in the
fourth, green silk page-markers, marbled endpapers.
A very fine set of Redouté’s best known work. The “most complete edition” (Madol) to be published during his
lifetime, this is a re-issue of the second octavo edition, with the addition of St. Petersburg to the imprint, and
containing the 23 additional plates, the portraits and the frontispiece floral wreath, the biographical note on
Thory and additional text.
Pierre-Joseph Redouté, the most successful flower painter of all time, together with Claude-Antoine Thory,
an ardent botanist and collector of roses, have together in Les Roses produced a work not only of great artistic
merit, but also an invaluable scientific record. “Redouté and Thory knew, described and figured almost all the
important roses known in their day. Included were many of the key ancestors of our present-day roses. The
plates in Les Roses have artistic value, botanical and documentary value, both for the species and cultivars
still surviving and for those that have disappeared” (Gisele de la Roche). The roses used as specimens for the
work were taken from the collections of Thory, the Malmaison gardens, and from other collections around
Paris. Many of the flowers were novelties in Redouté’s time, and a number were dedicated to the memory of
his friends and acquaintances, such as l’Héritier de Brutelle and Ventenat.
The success of the folio edition prompted the issue of a second (first octavo) edition in 40 parts between
1824 and 1826 with 160 plates and an expanded text. New information and new varieties led to the issue
of a third edition (second octavo) edition, published in 30 parts between 1828 and 1829. The popularity of
the first issue of this edition warranted the publication of the present second issue (with reset and reprinted
title pages). In both issues the text was expanded yet again to contain not only more information about the
culture of the rose but also by the addition of a biography of Thory by D.Beaumont, the inclusion of Thory’s
Traité du Rosier and the descriptive text to the 23 additional plates. In addition a floral wreath plate was
added as a frontispiece to volume I and the portraits of Redouté and Thory were included for the first time.
The plates are masterpieces in miniature of the engraver’s art and lose none of the impact of their larger
precursors in the process of reducing them from the folio to octavo format. Redouté as presiding genius is
plainly discernable.
Dunthorne 233; Lawalrée 39; Madol 42; Macphail Redoutéana 22; cf. Nissen BBI 1599; Stafleu & Cowan TL2 8751; Stock Rose
Books 2371.
(#3877) $ 28,000
95 REPTON, Humphry (1752-1818).
Sketches and Hints on Landscape Gardening. Collected from designs and observations now in the
possession of the different noblemen and gentlemen, for whose use they were originally made. The whole
tending to establish fixed principles in the art of laying out ground.
London: printed by W. Bulmer & Co., sold by J. & J. Boydell and G. Nicol, [1794]. Oblong folio
(10 1/4 x 14 inches). 10 hand-coloured aquatints engravings (1 folding, 3 double-page), each with
one or more overslips, and 6 aquatint plates printed in black with a single tint added (4 with one or
more overslips), 2 wood-engraved illustrations, 1 wood-engraved tailpiece, bound without the half
title. Expertly bound to style in 18th-century half russia over contemporary marbled paper-covered
boards, the flat spine divided into six compartments by fillets and a Greek-key roll, red morocco
lettering-piece in the second compartment, the others alternately decorated with a large centrallyplaced vase and flower spray tool, with foliate cornerpieces and a large centrally-placed goblet and
birds tool with foliate cornerpieces, gilt edges. Provenance: early crowned ‘C’ monogram at foot of
title.
The first of Repton’s three great works on landscape gardening.
Humphry Repton was the main successor to Lancelot “Capability” Brown as an improver of grounds for the
English gentry in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. He was particularly noted for his Red
Books. These were produced for each individual client and were made up from a manuscript description
of his proposed improvements bound with Repton’s own watercolour drawings of the grounds, with his
proposed alterations displayed on an overlay. The present work is made up to a large degree of extracts from
the Red Books of 57 houses which Repton had been called upon to improve. A list of these houses, their
location and their owners is given in a valuable two-page list towards the front of this volume. The work is
broken down into various chapters: Concerning Buildings, Concerning Water, Concerning Approaches,
etc. In each chapter Repton selects the relevant section from each Red Book that is helpful to the point he is
trying to make.
In addition to the specific ideas that he is trying to convey, Repton also enters the fray on behalf of “Capability”
Brown. The theoreticians, Payne Knight and Uvedale Price, had both written disparagingly of Brown’s work
and Repton here answers their arguments, a lengthy letter that Repton wrote to Price in July 1794 is quoted
in full. The work ends with an intriguing list of sixteen “Sources of pleasure in Landscape Gardening” and
William Wyndham’s letter to Repton in support of his theories: “Places are not to be laid out with a view to
their appearance in a picture, but to their uses, and the enjoyment of them in real life, and their conformity
to those purposes is that which constitutes their true beauty: with this view gravel walks, and neat mown
lawns ... are in perfect good taste, and infinitely more conformable to the principles which form the basis of
our pleasure in these instances, than the docks and thistles, and litter and disorder, that may make a much
better figure in a picture.”
The plates echo the watercolours with which Repton invariably illustrated the Red Books. He makes extensive
use of movable flaps or slides - generally to explain the effect he is trying to create by showing the property
before his improvements (with the flap down) and after, with the flaps lifted. The quality of the aquatints
is exceptional, and the folding view of the Duke of Portland’s house Welbeck Abbey in Nottinghamshire is
particularly interesting as it apparently shows Repton and his assistants at work on a survey of the estate.
Abbey Scenery 388; Archer 280.1; ESTC t073696; Henrey III, 1269; RIBA III, 405; Tooley 400.
(#17339) $ 24,000
96 SCLATER, Philip Lutley (1829-1913); and Osbert SALVIN (1835-1898).
Exotic Ornithology, containing figures and descriptions of new or rare species of American Birds.
London: Bernard Quaritch, [1866-]1869. Imperial quarto (14 1/2 x 10 7/8 inches). 100 handcoloured lithographed plates, finished with gum arabic, by Joseph Smit. Contemporary half red
morocco over marbled paper covered boards, spine with raised bands in six compartments, lettered
in the second and third, the others with a repeat decoration in gilt, marbled endpapers. Provenance:
R. J. Balston, F.Z.S. (bookplate).
A lovely copy of a noted work on tropical South American ornithology, wonderfully illustrated with hand
coloured plates by Joseph Smit.
Published in 13 parts between October 1866 and November 1869, the preface states it was originally intended
to cover “the many new and rare ornithic forms that have been recently discovered in nearly every part of
the world’s surface. As it progressed, however, the authors found that it would be more convenient to restrict
it to the birds of the Neotropical Region -- that is America south of the United States. No other part of the
world can vie with Tropical America in the richness of its avifauna; and nowhere else have so many brilliant
discoveries been recently made...”
‘’The authors’ original plan was that their work should form a continuation of well-known atlases, such as
Buffon and Daubenton. According to the plan, the work was to give figures and descriptions of new and rare
birds from all parts of the world; however, the authors soon limited the task to the birds of the Neotropical
region” (Anker).
“The plates are all by Mr. Smit; they are very beautiful. The whole number of species figured is 104, referring
to 51 genera. In most cases, a systematic list of the other American species of the same genus is appended to
the final illustration of each, thereby enlarging the scope and greatly increasing the value of the work. Each
of the species is systematically treated with synonymy, diagnosis and critical and biographical matter. The
authors are the highest authorities in neotropical ornithology and this work is a monument of erudition,
industry and artistic excellence” (Coues).
“Smit has done an excellent job with these plates, for the lovingly detailed birds stand out sharply against
their backgrounds of trees, branches and leaves. It is obvious that Smit enjoyed painting the leaves as well as
the birds, for they are beautifully executed” (Jackson, Bird Illustrators: Some Artists in Early Lithography,
p.76).
This copy with provenance to Richard J. Balston (1839-1916), a fellow of the Zoological Society, a member of
the British Ornithologist’s Union and author of a monograph on the birds of Kent. Balston was perhaps best
known as the head of the firm Messrs. Balston, LTD., the maker for many years of the celebrated Whatman
paper.
Fine Bird Books (1990), p. 139; Nissen IVB 844; Anker p.450; Wood p.558; Zimmer p.260; Sabin 78138.
(#26830) $ 12,000
97 SPALOWSKY, Joachim Johann Nepomuk Anton (1752-1797).
Prodromus in systema historicum testaceorum ... Vorschmack einer Vollständigen Systematischen
Geschichte der Schalthiergehäuse.
Vienna: Ignaz Alberti, 1795 [but 1801]. Folio (17 x 11 1/2 inches). Title and text in Latin and
German. 13 hand-coloured engraved plates. (Lacks the engraved dedication plate). Original blue
paper wrappers. Provenance: Later inked bookseller stamp on the upper cover.
Among the rarest and most beautifully coloured books on shells.
“Spalowsky’s 1795 treatise on conchology ... is among the rarest of published books on mollusks and other
shelled organisms ... Certain of the fine illustrations of shells in this book readily strike the viewer for their
metallic, almost iridescent sheen. As noted by Finlay (in Finlay and Garvey, 1988:112): -- ‘Although the text
... is of little interest, the manner in which the hand-colored plates capture the iridescent quality of the shells
has never been surpassed. This was achieved through the use of gold and silver leaf, in some cases heavily
overpainted with watercolor, for the shiny inside surfaces of shells, such as the Haliotis, or abalone’” (Kabat).
The thirteen engraved plates depict 115 shells, the vast majority of which are exotic in nature, including
shells from North and South America, the Mediterranean, the Far East, as well as the Pacific (including two
shells from New Zealand). The shells are depicted to size and are intricately and lavishly hand coloured
over light etched line, giving the impressions of original watercolours. Although Spalowsky’s sources for
the shells is not indentied (referring in his preface to the collection of “meiner Gemahlinn” and friends), it
would seem likely that at least some of the shells are derived from ones in Empress Maria Theresa’s collection
at the Natural History Museum of Vienna or from Baron Ignatius von Born.
There are two distinct issues of the work: the 1795 first (issued without the letterpress dedication leaves)
and the 1801 second (with the letterpress dedication leaves dated 1801). The two issues contain variant
frontispieces, the former an allegorical image with the central area left blank; the second with a portrait of
the dedicatee Prince Carl Ludwig.
The work is very rare, with only a handful of institutional holdings worldwide of either issue; the only copy
on the market in recent times was in part four of the Vershbow collection (Christie’s 29 October 2013, lot
775), selling for $32,500.
Alan R. Kabat, “J.J.N.A. Spalowsky and the Prodromus in System Historicum Testaceorum” in Archives of Natural History (1996)
vol. 23, p.245-254; Nissen ZBI 3923; Catalogue of the Library of the British Museum (Natural History) V:p.1987; Cf. Stafleu and
Cowan, V:p.772
(#26974) $ 24,000
98 THOUIN, Gabriel (1747-1829).
Plans Raisonnés de Toutes les Espèces de Jardins ... Seconde Édition.
Paris: LeBèue, 1823. Folio (17 x 11 1/2 inches). Half-title. 56, [1]pp. 57 hand-coloured lithographed
plates, lithographed by C. Motte after Thouin. (Scattered minor foxing). Expertly bound to style in
half calf over period blue marbled paper covered boards, endpapers renewed.
Scarce early work on landscape design, issued with hand coloured plates.
Among the most noted French landscape designers of the early 19th century, Thouin trained under his
father, the chief gardener at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. Along with his brother, Thouin undertook a
major redesign and expansion of the royal garden, though his plans were never enacted due to lack of funds.
The present work, which depicts both actual gardens designed by Thouin as well as proposed designs, was
aimed at landscapers at all levels, providing working plans for many different types of gardens, including
large parks (including some of the plans for the Jardin des Plantes), pleasure gardens, orchards, a Chinese
garden, an English garden, a pharmaceutical garden and more.
The first edition of this book was issued uncoloured, with the present preferred second edition the first to
include hand colouring highlighting the paths and waterways of the gardens.
Johnston, The Cleveland Herbal, Botanical and Horitcultural Collections, 838 (First Edition). Mosser & Teyssot, The Architecture
of Western Gardens, 377.
(#26732) $ 6,500
99 VIEILLOT, Louis Jean Pierre (1748-1831).
Histoire naturelle des oiseaux de l’Amérique septentrionale, contenant un grand nombre d’espèces
decrites ou figurées pour la première fois.
Paris: chez Desray, 1807-[1808]. 2 volumes, folio (21 5/8 x 13 1/2 inches). Uncut. 131 etched plates
after J.-G. Pretre by L. Bouquet, printed in colors by Langlois and finished by hand, extra-illustrated
with a double-page engraved map of L’Amerique Septentrionale (as usual, plate number 42 from
an Atlas Universel). Contemporary red morocco, covers with border of gilt fillets and a dog-tooth
roll, spines in six compartments with double-raised bands, the bands highlighted with gilt tooling
and the space between each pair of bands with a narrow onlay of black morocco, lettered in gilt on
labels in the second and third compartments, gilt turn-ins, marbled endpapers. Provenance: Samuel
Jones-Loyd, 1st Baron Overstone (1796-1883, armorial bookplate); Robert James Lindsay (18321901, Baron Wantage of Lockinge, VC, KCB, FRS, circular armorial booklabel).
A fine uncut wide-margined copy of the first edition of this classic of American ornithology.
The work contains descriptions of many North American birds, some of which predate those of Alexander
Wilson. Vieillot, along with Wilson, was a pioneer in a new kind of ornithology in which birds were no
longer assessed as specimens and skins but studied as living organisms within their environment. “Louis
Jean Pierre Vieillot was one of the more discerning ornithologists who gave particular study to female,
immature and seasonal plumages” (Allen). The plates bear all the hallmarks of the great French natural
history books of the first two decades of the 19th century. The plates are individual works of art, whilst
also being scientifically-accurate pictorial documents of the highest order, and they are, invariably, carefully
observed and beautifully printed.
Allen 549-552; Anker 515; Fine Bird Books (1990) p.112; Nissen IVB 957; Ronsil 3030; Yale/Ripley p.300; Zimmer p.654.
(#20257) $ 58,000
100
WILSON, Alexander (1766-1813).
American Ornithology; or the Natural History of the Birds of the United States. Illustrated with plates
engraved and coloured from original drawings taken from nature.
Philadelphia: published by Bradford & Innskeep, 1808-1814. 9 volumes in three, imperial quarto (13
1/2 x 10 1/8 inches). 7pp. list of subscribers at back of vol.IX. 76 hand-coloured engraved plates (two
folding), some heightened with gum arabic, all after Wilson. Expertly bound to style in half green
morocco over early marbled paper-covered boards, spines with raised bands in six compartments,
lettered in the second and third, the others with an overall repeat decoration in gilt, yellow endpapers.
Provenance: Mary Grey Bonham Carter (booklabel); Martin Lubbock (booklabel).
First edition of Wilson’s monumental American Ornithology.
Wilson’s Ornithology was the most comprehensive illustrated work on the subject published to its date. In
all, the 76 plates depict 320 birds from 278 different species, of which 56 had never before been illustrated.
All of the illustrations were after drawings made by the self-taught Wilson, who travelled the country in
search of specimens, covering some 10,000 miles through mostly rugged terrain over a seven year period.
Much of the hand-colouring of the sets was accomplished by Wilson himself (indeed, during the publication
of much of the work, it was his only source of remuneration): “the correct execution of the plates will be
rendered more secure, by the constant superintendence of the Author; and by the whole of the colouring
being performed in his own room, under his immediate inspection” (Vol. IV, Preface). The work is further
notable as among the earliest entirely native colour plate books; i.e. authored in America and printed in
America on American paper, using type produced in America, and illustrated with plates engraved in
America and hand-coloured in America.
In August 1813, during his research for the final volume and before the publication of the penultimate volume,
Wilson observed a bird from a distance he believed was a specimen he desired and waded across a river to
get a closer look. He died ten days later from dysentery. Thus, the final two volumes were seen through
the press and edited by his close friend George Ord, later President of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural
Sciences. Ord, writing in the Preface to the final volume, writes of Wilson: “Upon the future Ornithologist
will devolve the pleasing duty of completing the history of the Birds of the United States, so ably commenced
and carried on by the indefatigable Wilson, with honor to himself and advantage to science and literature.
With respect to our country in particular, how much gratitude do we owe that excellent naturalist, for the
treasure which he afford us in his inestimable work! He has unfolded a rich scene to our view; revealed
new wonders to our meditation; and taught us that there cannot be a more rational amusement, that which
springs from the study of the birds, that diversified portion of animated nature.”
This first edition set is comprised of the second, corrected issue of volume one and first issues of the
remaining. Referring to the second issue of the first volume, Burns writes: “Three hundred additional copies
of [the] initial volume with the original imprint of 1808 appeared after Wilson’s return from his successful
canvass through the Southern States in 1809, and explains the long break between publication of the first and
second volumes. This is not merely a reprint, for the type was reset, errors corrected, and the author made
... changes in the text under the head of the Wood Thrush, p. 33” (Burns).
Only 500 sets of the first edition of Wilson’s Ornithology were produced and considering the lengthy
publication, few sets are found complete. Furthermore, the first edition is notorious for being susceptible to
severe foxing and browning; the present set is among the cleanest sets we have ever handled.
Anker 533; Bennett p. 114; Fine Bird Books (1990) p. 155; Nissen IVB 992; Sabin 104597; Zimmer p. 679-80; Wilson Bulletin #69
(December 1909) pp.176-177; Wood p.630
(#23541) $ 27,500
INDEX
ABBOT, John 74
ALKEN, Henry 45
ANNESLEY, George 1
AUDEBERT, Jean Baptiste 75
AUDUBON, John James 76
BEARDSLEY, Aubrey 46
BIGGS, Thomas Hesketh 2
BLOUNT, Henry 3
BONAPARTE, Charles Lucian 77
BOOTH, William Chandler 78
BOURNE, Samuel 4
BOWLES, Carington 48
BROUGHTON, William Robert 5
BURTON, Richard Francis 6
CHARDIN, Sir John 7
CHEWETT, James 8
CHINON, Gabriel de 9
CHIPPENDALE, Thomas 51
COOK, James 10
CORRY, Joseph 11
CORY, Charles Barney 79
COVERTE, Robert 12
CURTIS, William 80
DAMAME-DÉMARTRAIS, Michel François 53
DANIELL, Thomas and William 54
DAULIER DESLANDES, Andre 13
DELUC, Jean Andre 14
DIROM, Alexander 15
DODWELL, Edward 55
ELLIOT, Daniel Giraud 81
FER, Nicholas de 17
FIELD, William B. Osgood 82
FIELDING, Theodore Henry 56
FREEMAN, Strickland 83
GIGAULT de la Salle, Achille-Etienne 57
GONÇALVES, Joaquim Affonso 18
GOULD, John 84
HAMILTON, Edward 85
HANWAY, Jonas 19
HARRISON, John 20
HAVELL, William 58
HAWKSMOOR, Nicholas 59
HITTORFF, Jacques Ignace 60
HOOGVLIET, Arnold 61
HOOKER, Joseph Dalton 86
JACKSON, Keith Alexander 21
KHAN, Mirza Mohammed Ali 22
KING, Richard 23
KOTZEBUE, Moritz von 24
KRASHENINNIKOV, Stepan Petrovich 25
LAMBERT, Aylmer Bourke 87
LANGLEY, Batty 88
LE BRUYN, Cornelius 26
LE GOUZ DE LA BOULLAYE, François 27
LORY, Gabriel Ludwig 62
LOUREIRO, Juan de 89
LUSIGNANO, Steffano di 28
LYCETT, Joseph 63
MACAULAY, Colman 29
MEARES, John 30
MIDDLETON, C. 64
MILLER, John 90
MILLER, Philip 91
MORRIS, Richard 92
MOUNT & DAVIDSON 31
NARBROUGH, John 32
NOÉ, Louis Pantaleon Jude Amedee de 33
NORDEN, Frederik Ludvig 34
PALLAS, Peter Simon 35
PARKER, Thomas N. 64
POISSON, Michel 65
PORTLAND MUSEUM 93
PYNE, William Henry 66
REDOUTÉ, Pierre-Joseph 94
REPTON, Humphry 67, 95
ROBERTS, David 68
ROSS, Sir John 36
SAUVAN, Jean Baptiste Balthazar 69
SCHMIDTMEYER, Peter 37
SCLATER, Philip Lutley 96
SHOBERL, Frederic 38
SPALOWSKY, Joachim Johann 97
STAUNTON, George Leonard 39
STRAHLENBERG, Philipp Johann von 40
SWIFT, Jonathan 41
TANCOIGNE, Joseph Michel 42
TEXIER, Charles 70
THOMSON, John 71
THOUIN, Gabriel 98
TOD, James 43
VAN LENNEP, Henry John 72
VIEILLOT, Louis Jean Pierre 99
WARE, Isaac 73
WILSON, Alexander 100
YOUNG, Arthur 44

Donald Heald Rare Books - The London International Antiquarian

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