Travel

Contact Jonathan Harrison, Alex Day, Andrea Mazzocchi or Katherine Thorn

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.
  1. ABBEVILLE, Claude d’.

    Histoire de la mission des peres capucins en l’isle de Maragnan et terres circonvoisines ou est traicte...

    Paris, François Huby, 1614.

    Second edition, enlarged and revised from the first edition published earlier the same year, a handsome copy. The first written account of the Capuchin mission to Maranhão, an island on the coast of Brazil, of which, Sabin notes, this is the earliest mention. In 1612 the mission, composed of...

    £30000

  2. [ALEXANDRIA, Battle of, 1801.]

    Plan of the action of the 21st of March fought near Alexandria by the French under Gn. Menou and...

    A detailed plan accurately illustrating the movements of the British and French armies at the battle of Alexandria. In it, Sir Ralph Abercrombie was fatally wounded but the action was considered a British victory as the French were forced out of Egypt soon after. This plan is signed ‘J. W. Hamilton’.

    £650

  3. ALLEN, John.

    Principles of modern Riding for Gentlemen, in which the late Improvements of the Manege and military Systems are applied...

    London, C. & C. Whittingham for Thomas Tegg, Glasgow, for R. Griffin & Co., and Dublin, for J. Cumming, 1825.

    First and only edition of an uncommon riding manual. A riding master teaching near Bryanstone Square, John Allen ‘flatters himself that, at a time when riding has become so fashionable an exercise, his work will more than any preceding one ensure the security, ease, and grace of the rider, both...

    £350

  4. ALMEIDA, Theodoro de.

    Lisboa destruida poema, author o P. Theodoro de Almeida, da Congregaçaõ do Oratorio de Lisboa.

    Lisbon, Antonio Rodrigues Galhardo, 1803.

    First edition of this poem in six cantos, with extensive notes, on the disastrous 1755 Lisbon earthquake, by the Oratorian priest and philosopher Almeida (1722-1804). One of the deadliest in history, the earthquake almost totally destroyed the Portuguese capital and accentuated political tensions within...

    £175

  5. ALVAREZ DE ARENALES, Jose.

    Noticias historicas y descriptivas sobre el gran pais del Chaco y Rio Bermejo; con observaciones relativas...

    Montevideo, [Imprenta del Comercio del Plata], 1850.

    Rare second edition, after the first of 1833, of this analysis of the Chaco and Rio Bermejo regions of Paraguay, divided into three sections. The first covers the geography, population and natural history of the area, the second relates the conquest of Paraguay and Peru, containing extracts from various...

    £100

  6. ANDREADES, Andreas Michael.

    De la monnaie et de la puissance d’achat des métaux précieux dans l’Empire Byzantin . . . Extrait...

    Liège, Imprimerie H. Vaillant-Carmanne, 1924.

    An offprint, with its own title-page and pagination, of this important study. This is a presentation copy, inscribed in ink ‘To Robert Byron. A. A.’ at the head of the front wrapper. Andreades was the first professor of public finance at the University of Athens and the author of a monumental work...

    £45

  7. ANDREWS, Mark E.

    The Science and Engineering of Materials: A Theatre of Machine Books, 1472–1800.

    Toronto, AE Publications, 2023.

    An extraordinary survey of four centuries of machine books, tracing the evolution of printing techniques and draughtsmanship alongside the development of the machines themselves. In this catalogue of eighty-six works from his collection of books on civil engineering, Mark Andrews situates a series...

    £85

  8. [ANGLO-SOVIET DIPLOMACY.] 

    Papers regarding the Anglo-Soviet Negotiations 1939.  Presented by the Secretary of State for Foreign...

    London, His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1939. 

    A proof copy, complete with typed errata attached, of this collection of ninety-five papers relating to the negotiations between the Soviet and British governments between March and December 1939. 

    £750

  9. [ANON.]

    ‘Voyage en Italie et au Midi de la France 1891’.

    [Geneva, c. April 1891].

    A handsome, illustrated travel journal compiled by a Swiss student as a gift for his parents, recording his eleven-day trip in north-western Italy and south-eastern France in March and April 1891 in the company of his teacher and three schoolfellows. The author was a student at La Chatelaine boarding...

    £1600

  10. ANSWER OF THE MERCHANTS-PETITIONERS,

    and Trustees for the Factory at Legorn, to the Account of Damages, laid to the Charge of the...

    London: Printed in the Year 1704.

    First and only edition, scarce, part of a fascinating trade (and piracy) dispute involving English merchants in Livorno (or Leghorn), which brought England and Tuscany to the brink of war in 1704.

    £1350

  11. ANVILLE, Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d’.

    Considérations générales, sur l’étude et les connoissances que demande la composition...

    Paris, Galeries du Louvres, 1777

    Two first edition works in one volume by the great French geographer and royal cartographer Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d’Anville, consisting of d’Anville’s general guide to geography and his remarks on the construction of his famous maps of China.

    £500

  12. [APPERLEY, Charles James.] ‘NIMROD’, and Henry ALKEN (illustrator).

    The Chace, the Turf, and the Road.

    London, A. Spottiswoode for John Murray, 1837.

    First edition of a series of articles first published in the Quarterly Review, illustrated by Henry Alken. A sporting writer who ‘may even be said to have created the role of gentleman hunting correspondent’ (ODNB), Charles James Apperley (1778–1843) published widely on hunting and...

    £350

  13. [APPERLEY, Charles James.] ‘NIMROD’, and Henry ALKEN and GILBERT (illustrators).

    The Chace, the Turf,...

    London, Vizetelly Brothers & Co. for John Murray, 1843.

    Second edition, in the publisher’s gilt cloth, illustrated by Henry Alken. A sporting writer who ‘may even be said to have created the role of gentleman hunting correspondent’ (ODNB), Charles James Apperley (1778–1843) published widely on hunting and horsemanship, from 1822 under the pseudonym...

    £125

  14. ATLANTICUS, pseud.

    Ein Blick in den Zukunftsstaat. Produktion und Konsum im Sozialstaat. Mit einer Vorrede von Karl Kautsky.

    Stuttgart, J. H. W. Dietz, 1898.

    First edition of this utopian discourse on the industrial and commercial composition of the ideal socialised state. The most common attribution is to the Latvian-born economist Carl Ballod, though some, including the British Library, suggest the author Gustav Jaeckh. There is a significant foreword (pp....

    £100

  15. AUDEN, Wystan Hugh, and Louis MACNEICE.

    Letters from Iceland.

    London, Faber & Faber, [1937].

    First edition. Was it perhaps Auden and MacNeice’s journey to Iceland that inspired Bridson’s own visit to the country in 1939?

    £150

  16. BARCLAY, David.

    Autograph letter, signed, to the Quaker banker and abolitionist Charles Lloyd, of Birmingham, on raising money...

    Walthamstow, 24 June 1807.

    A fine letter between two prominent Quaker bankers, philanthropists and abolitionists. The Parliamentary session of 1806–7 had been a crucial one for the campaigns of Wilberforce and Clarkson and saw the passing of the bill abolishing the slave trade in the British Empire on 25 March 1807, the last...

    £2750

  17. BARRINGTON, George.

    A Voyage to Botany Bay with a Description of the Country, Manners, Customs, Religion, &c. of the Natives by...

    London, C. Lowndes for H.D. Symonds, [c. 1800-1802, A1 watermarked ‘1800’].

    First and only combined edition, second issue. George Barrington was a ‘genteel young Irishman known for his sartorial elegance, his command of the etiquette of romantic sensibility, and for his prowess at picking pockets’ (Garvey p. 2). The fascinating contrast between Barrington’s charming...

    £875

  18. BENTHAM, Jeremy.

    Plan of Parliamentary Reform, in the Form of a Catechism, with Reasons for each Article. With an Introduction,...

    London: Printed in the Year 1817. Re-printed and Re-published, with Notes and Alterations, by Permission of the Author, by T. J. Wooler … 1818.

    First edition thus of an inexpensive reprint of Bentham’s Plan of Parliamentary Reform (1817), the style adapted by Thomas Wooler, with Bentham’s permission, to ‘render it more easy of comprehension to the popular reader’. In this form it first appeared in instalments in Wooler’s radical...

    £225

  19. BERENGER, Charles Random de.

    Helps and Hints how to protect Life and Property, with Instructions in Rifle and Pistol Shooting, &c.

    London, J. & C. Adlard for T. Hurst ‘for the Proprietor … at the Stadium, Chelsea’, 1835.

    First edition, with advice on riding and driving, illustrated by George and Robert Cruikshank. A marksman and inventor with an ‘inclination to self-publicity and aggrandisement’ (Credland), Charles Random de Berenger (1772–1845) in 1830 established ‘the Stadium’ or ‘British National...

    £180

  20. [BERINGTON, Simon, adapted by Jean-Baptiste DUPUY-DEMPORTES.] 

    Memoires de Gaudence de Luques, prisonnier de l’Inquisition...

    Amsterdam and Leipzig, Arkstée & Merkus, 1754. 

    Second edition of this much expanded and altered translation of Berington’s celebrated utopian novel, Memoirs of Sigr Gaudentio di Lucca (1737). 

    £500