Travel
Contact Jonathan Harrison, Alex Day or Andrea Mazzocchi
We stock Western books in European languages, generally – but not exclusively – published before circa 1850. We are especially interested in early travel accounts – from the late fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries – in all areas beyond Europe.
Geographical regions in which we have tended to specialise include the Pacific and its surrounding countries – South America, the Northwest Coast of America, Japan, China, the maritime regions of Asia, including the Philippines and Indonesia, and Australia. Books on Africa, the polar regions, manuscripts and separately published maps are also handled.-
BURCKHARDT, Johann Ludwig (John Lewis).
Travels in Arabia, comprehending an account of those territories in Hedjaz which the Mohammedans...
London, Henry Colburn, 1829.
First edition, in one volume, recounting Johann Ludwig Burckhardt’s journey to Mecca on behalf of the Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior of Africa in 1814.
£3750
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BURTON, Richard Francis, and James MACQUEEN.
The Nile Basin. Part I. Showing Tanganyika to be Ptolemy’s western lake reservoir....
By James M’Queen … London, Tinsley Brothers, 1864.
First edition, complete with the three maps. This work, ‘which absolutely exudes venom, was the heart of Burton’s frontal attack on [John Hanning] Speke’s geographical theories. Burton dedicated it, with a marked degree of sarcasm, to “those kind friends, especially to those members of...
£2500
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[CAESAR.] RAMUS, Petrus (Pierre de la RAMÉE).
Liber de militia C. Julii Caesaris, cum praefatione Joannis Thomae Freigii.
Frankfurt, heirs of Andreas Wechel, 1584.
An attractively bound copy of Ramus’s uncommon treatise on Caesar’s military tactics, with unusual edge decoration. The humanist Petrus Ramus (1515–1572) published widely on classical history and grammar while teaching at the Collège de France. He was briefly forced from his post after...
£450
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CAMPBELL, Thomas.
Gertrude of Wyoming; a Pennsylvanian Tale. And other Poems.
London, T. Bensley, for the Author ... 1809.
First edition of Campbell’s most re-printed poem, based on a massacre of American patriots by British forces and their Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) allies in 1778. Its portrayal of ‘pastoral innocence evoked only to be destroyed by the savagery of war (embodied in this case by Mohawk allies of...
£650
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CAPRA, Alessandro.
Geometria famigliare, et instruttione pratica d’Alessandro Capra architetto cremonese. Per gl’edificii nuovi,...
Cremona, Gio[vanni] Pietro Zanni, 1671.
An exceedingly rare extract from the first edition of the treatise of practical geometry by the architect and inventor Alessandro Capra (c. 1605–c. 1685), seemingly prepared and sold as a manual for surveyors and early estate agents.
£575
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CARDONNEL, Adam de.
Picturesque Antiquities of Scotland [I–II] …
London: Printed for the Author, and sold by Edwards … also by Edwards’s, in Halifax. 1788.
First edition, the very rare issue with the plates in sepia, printed directly onto thick wove paper.
£975
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[CAVALRY.]
Cours d’équitation militaire, a l’usage des corps de troupes a cheval, approuvé par s. exc. le ministre de la guerre.
Saumur, H. Fournier for A. Degouy and Névo-Degouy, and Paris, Anselin, 1830.
First edition of an encyclopædic work on horsemanship for the use of the French cavalry, with the suite of plates. ‘L’ouvrage est en effet une veritable encyclopédie hippique : hippologie, extérieur, emploi à la selle, au trait et au bat, alimentation, hygiène, maladies et accidens, haras...
£225
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CÉSPEDES Y MENESES, Gonzalo de.
Varia fortuna del soldado Pindaro.
Lisbon, Geraldo de la Viña, ‘626’ [i.e 1626].
Rare first edition of this semi-autobiographical picaresque novel, printed while the author was in exile in Lisbon following the publication of his politically controversial Historia apologética en los sucesos del reyno de Aragon (1622).
£6750
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[CHINA.]
Précis des nouvelles reçues des missions de Chine et des royaumes voisins, en 1819.
[Paris, Adrien Le Clere, 1819?].
An extremely rare summary of the state of French Christian missions in Su-Tchuen (China), Tong-King (Vietnam), Cochinchine (Vietnam), Siam (Thailand), and Pondichery (India) in 1819.
£180
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[CHINA.]
Peking.
Peking, S[anshichiro] Yamamoto, May 1909.
Second enlarged edition, with ten further plates compared to the first (1906). A thorough portrayal of the city, through the eyes of foreigner-photographer Yamamoto. During the Boxer Rebellion he had come to the city from Tokyo to record events, then stayed. This selection includes a good series...
£2800
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CHOPPIN, Henri.
La cavalerie française … illustrée de nombreux dessins et de 16 gravures hors texte en couleurs.
Paris, Garnier brothers, 1893.
First edition of a well illustrated history of the French cavalry. A cavalry captain, Henri Choppin (1831–1916) published widely on the French military: the first of several works devoted to the cavalry, La cavalerie française is handsomely illustrated throughout and accompanied by sixteen...
£175
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CHURCHILL, Winston S.
A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, Volume I: The Birth of Britain [– Volume II: The New World;...
London, Cassel & Company Ltd, [1956; – 1956; – 1957; – 1958].
First editions, with dust-jackets, of Churchill’s History of the English-Speaking Peoples, his last major historical work.
£200
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CHURCHILL, Winston Spencer; F. RHODES, editor; Angus McNEILL, illustrator.
The River War: An Historical Account...
[London, Spottiswoode & Co. for] London, New York, & Bombay (Mumbai), Longmans, Green, & Co., 1899.
First edition of Churchill’s second book, a history of Lord Kitchener’s conquest of Sudan in 1896-99 informed by his own service as both a cavalry officer and a war correspondent on the campaign, profusely illustrated with drawings and maps.
£2500
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CLARENDON, Edward Hyde, Earl of.
The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, begun in the Year 1641. With...
Oxford, Printed at the Theater, 1702[–4].
First edition of Clarendon’s monumental History of the Civil War, with a presentation inscription by his son Henry Hyde, the second Earl (1638–1709).
£3250
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[CLIFFORD, Jeronimy].
The case of Jeronimy Clifford, merchant and planter of Surinam. Paper, No. 160.
[London, n.p., 1711].
First extended account of Clifford’s long-running legal battle with the Dutch West India Company in Surinam over Corcabo, his sugar plantation. The earlier publications had been just four pages long; this work furnishes us with plantation account details and testimonies, chronologically arranged with...
£650
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[COAL].
The miner’s journal. Coal statistical register, for 1869… also, statistics of the iron trade… rates of wages… together...
Pottsville, PA, Miners’ Journal Office, 1869.
First edition, rare. A synopsis of the trade, transportation and activities connected with coal between Pennsylvania and New York. The Miner’s Journal tracked the pulse of American coal trade, including importations of foreign coal and exports of domestic material. It prided itself on circulating ‘more...
£125
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COLLIE, John Norman.
Climbing on the Himalaya and other Mountain Ranges.
Edinburgh, T. and A. Constable for David Douglas, 1902.
First edition, published in the year that Collie (1859-1942) became professor of organic chemistry at University College London. ‘Besides his eminence as a scientist, [Collie] acquired great fame as a climber and explorer of mountains. Beginning with the Cuillin peaks in Skye, where he discovered many...
£750
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[COLUMBUS.] QUARITCH, Bernard, and Michael KERNEY.
The Spanish Letter of Columbus … A facsimile of the original edition...
[London,] Quaritch, 2006.
Over the centuries, booksellers have contributed much to the elucidation and sometimes to the falsification of historical documents. The story of the first printed account of the New World, usually known as Christopher Columbus’s Letter to Santángel or simply the Columbus Letter, illustrates...
£60
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[COOK, James, and Jean-François de Galaup, Comte de la PÉROUSE.]
Tableau des decouvertes du Capne. Cook, & de la Pérouse....
S. Sauveur, l’an 7 de la République Française [1798-1799].
A splendid hand-coloured engraving depicting indigenous peoples of the Pacific and beyond, drawn from the voyages of James Cook (1728–1779) and La Pérouse (1741–1788), and published by the Canadian-born writer, artist and diplomat, Jacques Grasset de Saint-Saveur (1757–1810).
£1500
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COPPERTHWAITE, R.H.
The Turf and the Racehorse, describing Trainers and Training, the Stud-Farm, the Sires and Brood-Mares of the...
London, Day & Son, 1865.
First edition of a scarce account of mid-nineteenth-century race horses, including notes and anecdotes on breeding, buying, training, and racing, and with an extensive table of ‘the tried brood mares of the day’, showing their pedigrees and progeny.
£160