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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.
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  1. BAEDEKER, Karl.

    Madeira, Canary Islands, Azores, Western Morocco. Handbook for travellers by Karl Baedeker.

    Leipzig, Karl Baedeker, 1939.

    First edition in English, very rare; first published in German in 1934. Published shortly before the outbreak of the war, few copies of the English edition were distributed and the rest of the publisher’s stock was entirely destroyed by British bombing on 4 December 1943.

    £1500

  2. BALL, Alexander.

    A personal narrative of seven years in Spain.

    London, J. Chappell, 1846.

    First edition of a remarkably rare account of the First Carlist War and its aftermath. Little is known of Alexander Ball, but according to the title he was ‘an officer of the late British Legion, and subsequently of several partisan expeditions’. He sailed from the Cove of Cork on 1 September 1835...

    £600

  3. BARETTI, Joseph.

    A journey from London to Genoa, through England, Portugal, Spain, and France.

    London, T. Davies and L. Davis, 1770.

    First edition in English. First published in Italian in 1762–3 following a journey made in 1760, Baretti rewrote the book in English, considerably expanding it, after a second journey made in 1768–9. The result is ‘Baretti’s longest and best sustained work in English, and upon it rests his chief...

    £1200

  4. BARETTI, Joseph.

    A journey from London to Genoa, through England, Portugal, Spain, and France . . . The third edition.

    London, T. Davies and L. Davis, 1770.

    First published in English earlier the same year in both quarto (two volumes) and octavo (four volumes) formats. First published in Italian in 1762–3 following a journey made in 1760, Baretti rewrote the book in English, considerably expanding it, after a second journey made in 1768–9. The result...

    £375

  5. 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

  6. [BARSANTI, Pier Vincenzo.]

    Della futura rinnovazione de’ cieli e della terra e de’ suoi abitatori libri tre.

    [Florence,] Stamperia Bonducciana, 1780.

    First edition of this utopia by the Tuscan Dominican Pier Vincenzo Barsanti.

    £685

  7. BATTY, Robert.

    Campaign of the Left Wing of the Allied Army, in the western Pyrenees and south of France, in the years 1813–14;...

    London, John Murray, 1823.

    First edition; very scarce. Robert Batty (1789–1848) was the son of the obstetric physician and amateur artist Dr Robert Batty (1762–1849; see Oxford DNB). ‘After attending school in Kirkby Lonsdale, Westmorland, and in London, at the age of fifteen he travelled to Italy with his cousin, Henry...

    £1250

  8. 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

  9. 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

  10. [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). The Memoirs enjoyed immense popularity, undergoing at least twelve eighteenth-century editions in English and contemporary translations...

    £650

  11. BERKELEY, Grantley F., and John LEECH and G.H. JALLAND (illustrators).

    Reminiscences of a Huntsman … a new...

    London and New York, R. & R. Clark for Edward Arnold, 1897.

    Second edition, with John Leech’s original four illustrations and a further ten by G.H. Jalland. Hunting anecdotes by the controversial Grantley Firtzhardinge Berkeley (1800–1881), first published two years after his early retirement from politics following defeat at the general election of 1852.

    £120

  12. BINGFIELD, William, pseud.

    The Travels and Adventures of William Bingfield, Esq; containing, as surprizing a Fluctuation...

    London: Printed for E. Withers ... and R. Baldwin ... 1753.

    First edition of one of the most entertaining imaginary voyages of the eighteenth century.

    £2100

  13. BIRKETT, Dorothy Nina Forbes (editor).

    Hunting Lays and Hunting Ways: An Anthology of the Chase … with fourteen Illustrations...

    London, John Lane at the Bodley Head, 1924.

    First edition of Lady Birkett’s collection of poetry and prose relating to fox-hunting, handsomely printed and generously illustrated.

    £75

  14. [BLADEN, Martin.]

    An impartial enquiry into the management of the war in Spain, by the ministry at home, and into the conduct of...

    London, John Morphew, 1712.

    First edition of this examination of the British participation in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714) down to 1710, with particular emphasis on the years 1703–7. The author, Martin Bladen (1680–1746), ‘matriculated at St John’s College, Cambridge, in 1697 and in the same year was...

    £425

  15. BLAINE, Delabere Pritchett.

    An Encyclopaedia of rural Sports, or, complete Account, historical, practical, and descriptive, of...

    London, Spottiswoodes and Shaw for Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1852.

    Second edition of Blaine’s comprehensive work on rural sports. First published in 1840, the Encyclopædia of rural Sports marks a considerable departure from Blaine’s earlier scientific texts on veterinary medicine, with sections on the history and philosophy of field sports, and on...

    £275

  16. BLAKENEY, Robert (Julian STURGIS, editor).

    A boy in the Peninsular War. The services, adventures, and experiences of Robert Blakeney,...

    London, John Murray, 1899.

    First edition, second impression. Robert Blakeney was born in Galway in 1789 and joined his regiment in 1804, at the age of fifteen. He landed in Portugal on 20 August 1808, and fought throughout the war until shot in the leg at the Battle of Nivelle (10 November 1813), soon after which he returned to...

    £75

  17. BONVALOT, Gabriel.

    Du Caucase aux Indes à travers le Pamir.

    Paris: Librairie Plon, 1889.

    First edition. The French orientalist and explorer Bonvalot (1853-1933) made his first expedition into Central Asia in 1880, and undertook a second journey into the area with the artist Pépin and the physician and scientist Guillaume Capus in 1886-1887. In the course of a remarkable expedition,...

    £500

  18. BORROW, George.

    The Zincali; or, an account of the gypsies of Spain. With an original collection of their songs and poetry, and...

    London, John Murray, 1841.

    First edition. ‘Borrow’s success as a writer began with the publication of The Zincali in 1841 and The Bible in Spain in 1843. The translations he had published earlier had passed virtually unnoticed, but these two books established him in the public imagination as an original writer...

    £375

  19. BORROW, George.

    The Bible in Spain; or, the journeys, adventures, and imprisonments of an Englishman, in an attempt to circulate...

    London, John Murray, 1843.

    First edition. Borrow (1808–1881) joined the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1833: ‘Borrow impressed the society not just by his appearance – he was an imposing 6 foot 3 inches, with prematurely grey hair – but by his linguistic capacities. They sent him to St Petersburg (1833–5) to oversee...

    £500

  20. BORROW, George (Angus M. FRASER, editor).

    A journey to Eastern Europe in 1844 (thirteen letters).

    Edinburgh, The Tragara Press, 1981.

    First edition of these letters; no. 36 of 140 copies. ‘Apart . . . from his stirring missions to Russia, Portugal and Spain in the service of the Bible Society, Borrow’s only attested foreign travelling took place in 1844. The letters assembled in this centenary collection are all those known to...

    £50