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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. 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

  2. BORLASE, William.

    The natural History of Cornwall: The Air, Climate, Waters, Rivers, Lakes, Sea, and Tides; Of the Stones, Semimetals,...

    Oxford, W. Jackson for the Author, and London, W. Sandby, 1758.

    First edition of Borlase’s monumental survey of Cornwall. Though aged over sixty at the time of publication, William Borlase (1696 – 1772), rector of Ludgvan, toured central and eastern Cornwall between 1752 and 1757, gathering material for his Natural History. The result, though less...

    £750

  3. BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE.

    Report of the First [-Eighth] Meetings.

    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

  4. [BRUNEL, Antoine de.]

    A journey into Spain.

    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

  5. BURBURY, John.

    A Relation of a Journey of the Right Honourable my Lord Henry Howard, from London to Vienna, and thence to Constantinople;...

    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

  6. CAESAR, Caius Julius.

    Rerum gestarum commentarii XIV … omnia collatis antiquis manuscriptis exemplaribus, quae passim in Italia,...

    Frankfurt, Georg Rab for Jacopo Strada, 1575.

    First Strada edition of Caesar’s Commentaries, with woodcut illustrations, annotated by the Feuillants against François Hotman. Prepared by the humanist scholar Jacopo Strada (1507 – 1588), Rab’s edition prints Caesar’s Commentaries with Aulus Hirtius’s additions, Eutropius’s epitome of...

    £1650

  7. CALLINI, Bartolommeo.

    Arrolandosi sotto le insegne di Gesù Cristo col prender l’acqua del santo battesimo nell’insigne cattedrale...

    Vicenza, Tipografia Paroni, 1802.

    Unrecorded broadsheet celebrating the conversion to Catholicism of Marco Mortera, a Jew from Vicenza.

    £350

  8. CAMPANELLA, Tommaso.

    A discourse touching the Spanish monarchy. Wherein we have a political glasse representing each particular...

    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...

    £4750

  9. 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

  10. CAREY, Henry Charles.

    Principles of social science.

    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...

    £1200

  11. CARTWRIGHT, John.

    England’s Aegis; or, the military Energies of the Empire ...

    London, Richard Phillips, 1804.

    First edition, scarce, by the gentleman reformer and former naval officer John Cartwright. ‘Ever the patriot, when Britain was facing possible French invasion he took up a passionate advocacy of the utility of the pike and the creation of an Anglo-Saxon-type militia in his … England’s...

    £400

  12. CAVADA, José de la.

    El Contador ó tablas de reducción de las pesas y medidas legales de Castilla y demás que están en uso...

    Manila, Amigos del País, 1865.

    Presumably first edition of this colonial government-endorsed Filipino handbook for converting Castilian weights and measures into the new metric system, which had been introduced into law across all Spanish dominions in 1849 by Queen Isabella II. It includes the text of the law, as of an administrative...

    £350

  13. 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

  14. CHANDLER, Richard.

    Travels in Greece: or an Account of a Tour made at the Expense of the Society of Dilettanti.

    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,...

    £1750

  15. [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

  16. [CHINESE ARTS DEALER.]

    ISKANDRIAN-HUPEDEN, A. [Cover title:] ‘My Treasure Box’ [Title-page:] ‘Some selected objects of Chinese...

    Shanghai, Spring 1938.

    A charming and insightful trade catalogue compiled by a female Chinese arts dealer, covering porcelains, cast bronzes and irons, stone and wood sculpture, lacquered figures, furniture and screens, pottery and embroidery. The colours and dimensions are often described in the text, and the final page lists...

    £1600

  17. [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...

    £1250

  18. COBBETT, William.

    A Collection of facts and observations, relative to the peace with Buonaparte, chiefly extracted from the Porcupine...

    London, Cobbett and Morgan, 2 November 1801.

    First edition, collecting anti-Jacobin articles from Cobbett’s Porcupine 51 June to 27 October 1801, alongside eight letters by him to Lord Hawkesbury, and nine appendices of treaties and speeches. The Porcupine, launched as an independent newspaper by Cobbett in October 1800,...

    £350

  19. COLLIE, John Norman.

    Climbing on the Himalaya and other Mountain Ranges.

    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

  20. [COLUMBUS.] QUARITCH, Bernard, and Michael KERNEY.

    The Spanish Letter of Columbus . . . A facsimile of the original edition published...

    [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