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. SHAGINYAN, Marietta Sergeevna.

    Puteshestvie v Veimar [Journey to Weimar].

    Moscow & Petrograd, Gosizdat, 1923.

    First edition of Shaginyan’s account of a pilgrimage to Weimar, presented by the author ‘to the respected Vladimir Pavlovich Pirogov in dear memory’ (trans.).

    £600

  2. SHAW, Thomas.

    Travels, or observations relating to several parts of Barbary and the Levant, illustrated with cuts, the second edition,...

    London, A. Millar and W. Sandby, 1757.

    ‘Second and most valued edition’ (ODNB) of Shaw’s observations of North Africa and the Near East. Serving as Chaplain to the English factory at Algiers from 1720 to 1733, Thomas Shaw (1694–1751) travelled extensively in Egypt, Palestine, Cyprus, and North Africa, gathering extensive observations...

    £1200

  3. SICARDO, José.

    Christiandad del Japon, y dilatada persecucion que padecio. Memorias sacras, de los martyres de las ilustres religiones...

    Madrid, Francisco Sanz, 1698.

    Rare first edition of this important and comprehensive account of Christian missions to Japan by the Spanish Augustinian José Sicardo (1643–1715).

    £15000

  4. SNOW, William Parker.

    A two years’ cruise off Tierra del Fuego, the Falkland Islands, Patagonia, and in the River Plate: a narrative...

    London, Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts, 1857.

    First edition, with attractive coloured lithographed plates after drawings by the author.

    £850

  5. SOLVYNS, François Baltazard.

    The Costume of Hindostan, elucidated by sixty coloured engravings; with descriptions in English and...

    London, W. Bulmer and Co. for Edward Orme, 1804 [–1805].

    First edition in book form (originally issued in parts) of this superb record of the people of Bengal by the Flemish painter and ethnographer Solvyns (1760–1824), issued by the engraver and publisher Edward Orme (1775–1848).

    £4500

  6. [SOUTH OF FRANCE.]

    ‘Routes de Privas à Nîmes 1892’.

    June-July 1892.

    A nice sketchbook, by an anonymous artist, recording a trip to the South of France in 1892, capturing the beauty of the landscape, as well as some of the historic monuments in the départements of Ardèche, Gard, and Vaucluse.

    £575

  7. SPURR, George Graham.

    The Land of Gold. A Tale of ’49. Illustrative of early pioneer life in California, and founded upon fact....

    Boston, A. Williams & Company, 1881.

    First edition. ‘This narrative ... is contributed to the file of literature for the purpose of keeping green the memory of the achievements of the early pioneers in California, and to show future generations what it cost to add what was once a wild unbroken solitude to civilisation and fame’...

    £100

  8. [STANHOPE, Hester Lucy, Lady.]  [MERYON, Charles Lewis (editor).] 

    Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope, as related...

    London, [Frederick Shoberl for] Henry Colburn … 1845. 

    First edition, the entertaining memoirs of the Middle East traveller Lady Hester Stanhope (1776–1839).  Having looked after her uncle, William Pitt, during most of her youth and run his household while he was Prime Minister for the second time, Stanhope left for the Levant in 1810.  She took...

    £650

  9. SULIVAN, Richard Joseph.

    Philosophical Rhapsodies. Fragments of Akbur of Betlis. Containing Reflections on the Laws, Manners, Customs...

    London: Printed for T. Becket … Bookseller to his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, and their Royal Highnesses the Princes. 1784-5.

    First edition of this eccentric travel-inspired treatise drawing upon the author’s experience in India and his travels in Europe. The prefatory ‘advertisement’ establishes the fiction that ‘the following fragments were written by a native of Assyria [Akbur], who … was removed to the continent...

    £950

  10. [TANGIER.] 

    A Description of Tangier, the Country and People adjoyning.  With an account of the person and government of Gayland,...

    London, for Samuel Speed, 1664. 

    Scarce first edition of this entertaining account of Tangier, in north-western Morocco, during the English occupation of the city, which had begun in 1661 following Charles II’s marriage to Catherine of Braganza, and which would come to an end in 1684. 

    £2750

  11. [TURNER, John.] 

    Sufferings of John Turner, chief mate of the country ship, Tay, bound for China, under the command of William...

    London, Plummer for Thomas Tegg, [1809]. 

    Scarce account of piracy and shipwreck, with a striking aquatint frontispiece portraying a pirate attack. 

    £1500

  12. TURNER, Samuel. 

    An account of an embassy to the court of the Teshoo Lama, in Tibet; containing a narrative of a journey through...

    London, W. Bulmer and Co. for G. and W. Nicol, 1800.

    First edition of the ‘first eye-witness report on Tibet and Bhutan to be published in English.  The book remained the only account of those countries available to English readers until the publication in 1876 of the journals of George Bogle and Thomas Manning.  Through the editions that quickly...

    £1750

  13. VAN DER LINDEN, Jan. 

    Heerlyke en gelukkige reys naer het heylig land en stad van Jerusalem ... in ‘t jaer onzes heeren 1633...

    Antwerp, H. Verdussen, [approbation dated 1645, but c. 1790]. 

    Rare edition of this popular schoolbook, comprising the account of Jan van der Linden’s journey to Jerusalem in 1633, partly printed in civilité type. 

    £375

  14. VICTORIA, Crown Princess of Sweden.

    Vom Nil. Tagebuchblätter während des Aufenthalts in Egypten im Winter 1890/91... Mit Lichtdruckbildern...

    Karlsruhe: G. Braun’sche Hofbuchdruckerei, 1892.

    First edition, printed for private circulation. Vom Nil records a journey along the Nile made between October 1890 and April 1891 by Princess Victoria of Baden (1862–1930), later Queen Victoria of Sweden (queen consort 1907–1930).

    £1800

  15. WYLD, James.

    Map of the islands of Japan, Kurile &c. and part of the Chinese dominions and a sketch of the river Amoor and the...

    London, James Wyld, 1859–1860.

    Rare four-sheet map of Japan, the Russian Far East, Mongolia and Southern Siberia, Korea, and China’s central coast, by James Wyld the younger (1812–1887), published just a few years after the end of Japan’s long isolationist period.

    £3500

  16. WYLD, James.

    The islands of Japan by James Wyld, geographer to the Queen & H.R.H. the Prince Consort.

    London, James Wyld, 1 January 1859.

    Rare folding map of Japan by James Wyld the younger (1812–1887) published just a few years after the end of its long isolationist era, showing treaty ports opening soon following the signing of the 1858 Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Japan and the United States.

    £1950