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

London, John Murray, 1833-39.

‘The principal effort in the initial organisation of the British Association came from Edinburgh and the provincial scientific societies. Babbage himself was prevented from attending the first meeting in York by pressing work ... However his central position was acknowledges when he was appointed one...

£1200

London, printed for Henry Herringman, 1670.

First edition in English. A free and abridged translation of Voyage d’Espagne curieux, historique et politique, first published anonymously in 1665. Setting out from the Netherlands in 1651 in the company of François van Aerssen, Brunel toured France, Germany and Italy before travelling to...

£950

London, Printed for T. Collins and I. Ford … and S. Hickman … 1671.

First and only edition of this account of a special embassy to the court of Sultan Mehmed IV, undertaken in 1664-5 by Walter Leslie, the Scottish-born Ambassador Extraordinary of the Holy Roman Empire. In his party was Henry Howard, later sixth Duke of Norfolk, along with the author John Burbury, who...

£5750

London, printed for Philemon Stephens in Paul’s Church-Yard, 1654.

First edition in English. The translator’s preface to the reader is unsigned, but the translation is usually attributed to Edward Chilmead (see Oxford DNB). He explains that he could not discover in which language the Discourse was originally written in, but that the recent [1653] Latin edition published...

£7500

Tournay, Blanquart, 1800.

First edition, very rare, of a book on arithmetic which concentrates on its applications to trade and accountancy. The book deals with tariffs, tables of exchange, measures, calculation of interest, rent, and chapters on the nature of companies and of bankruptcy.

£1200

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

Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott, 1858-1860.

First edition, a very attractive copy, of Carey’s principal work. ‘His treatment of social science was original, and led him to a series of supposed discoveries, the order of which he has stated in the introduction of his most important work The Principles of Social Science. His point of departure...

£1500

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).

£9500

Oxford: ‘Printed at The Clarendon Press ... Sold by J. Dodsley, J. Robson, T. Cadell, P. Elmsley, and G. Robinson, London; and by D. Prince,...

First edition. The classical scholar, traveller, and author Chandler (bap. 1737, d. 1810) was educated at Winchester College and Queen’s College, Oxford, and awarded a demyship at Magdalen College in 1757. Following the publication of an annotated collection of fragments by Tyrtaeus, Simonides, Theognis,...

£2500

[The second edition]. Llanfwst, Gan John Jones, 1840.

Second edition, but first procurable one (see below), of Chidlaw’s comprehensive guidebook about Ohio State aimed at Welsh people considering immigration to the United States. The Welsh had started settling in Ohio in 1796, and by the 1830s ever greater numbers arrived in Ohio. The immigration guide...

£650

[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...

£1250

Edinburgh: T. and A. Constable for David Douglas, 1902.

First edition. The organic chemist and mountaineer Collie (1859-1942), was educated at Charterhouse and Clifton College, before studying chemistry at University College, Bristol and at Queen's College, Belfast. A series of teaching and research positions at Würzburg University, the Ladies' College,...

£1350

[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 both themes.

£60

Venice, [1630].

First and only edition of a rare account of the journey Ferdinando II de’ Medici, Granduke of Tuscany, made to celebrate his coming of age and taking on the running of government. Ferdinando II travelled from February to July 1628 and first visited Rome to pay homage to the Pope, then Loreto, Bologna,...

£3750

France, Draeger for SNCF, 1970.

A gorgeous and colourful surrealist design of delicate butterflies fluttering against a rugged Alpine backdrop, one of six designs commissioned from Dali by SNCF, French national railways, to promote travel into the Alpine region.

£250

France, Draeger for SNCF, 1970.

Mont Saint-Michel meets stone circles, butterflies and surrealist heads in this promotional SNCF poster for train travel in Normandy.

£200

France, Draeger for SNCF, 1970.

Further butterfly-interspersed surrealism for SNCF, this time for the Roussillon
region, featuring a stylised cross of Languedoc above a beach scene against a
mountainous backdrop

£250

France, Draeger for SNCF, 1970.

A striking monochrome image of the Temple Saint-Étienne, also known as the Cathedral of Mulhouse, against a murky sky. A vast butterfly blends into the foreground.

£250

Edinburgh, 1706

Sole edition. Before the Treaty of Union, England, ‘very careful to Encourage her own Shipping, and … Building of Ships, being one of the Principal Foundations of her Wealth’, did not admit foreign-built ships to the freedom of English ports. Foreign owners and foreign bottoms were both excluded....

£950