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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. [‘FULIGNATI, Giuntino’ (pseud. Tommaso BUONI?)].

    Della famosissima compagnia della lesina.

    Dialogo, capitoli, e ragionamenti … Vicenza, Giorgio Greco, 1601.

    Scarce humorous dystopia of indigence, first edition thus: the first to include a section specifically directed at women.

    £650

  2. GALLICO, Paul.

    An archive of thirty-four scrapbooks compiled by Gallico.

    1928–1972.

    A lovingly and meticulously compiled archive of the writing career of the novelist Paul Gallico. The scrapbooks are arranged chronologically and by book/film with letters, telegrams, publicity materials, photographs and ephemera neatly intermingled with copies of reviews and reactions from local,...

    £5500

  3. GARCIA, Gregorio.

    Origen de los Indios de el nuevo mundo, e Indias Occidentales, averiguado con discurso de opiniones por el padre...

    Madrid, Francisco Martinez Abad, 1729.

    Second enlarged edition (first 1607) of an extraordinary work on the origin of the Americans by the Spanish Dominican missionary Gregorio Garcia (c. 1556–1627), ‘a work of vast erudition’ (Sabin).

    £1200

  4. GARDINER, John Smallman. 

    The Art and the Pleasures of Hare-Hunting.  In six Letters to a Person of Quality … 

    London: Printed by R. Griffith … 1750. 

    First edition, scarce, of this eloquent and amusing account of hare-hunting, the first monograph on the subject in English, comprising letters on the superiority of hare-hunting to fox-hunting (less dangerous, less laborious), on the best types of dogs, of trailing and starting hares, &c.  Gardiner’s...

    £1250

  5. GASTALDI, Louis.

    De la liberté commerciale, du crédit et des banques, avec projet d’une banque générale du crédit et...

    Turin, Mussano, 1840.

    First edition, a very attractive copy with a good provenance, of this important monograph on credit and the banking system, and its role as support in the creation of wealth.

    £850

  6. GAY, John, and Gordon ROSS (illustrator).

    Rural Sports, together with the Birth of the Squire and the Hound and the...

    New York, William Edwin Rudge, 1930.

    Limited edition, numbered 94 of 200 copies for sale, signed by the artist. A handsome edition with hand-coloured illustrations by the sporting watercolourist Gordon Ross (1873–1946).

    £160

  7. GEE, Joshua.

    The trade and navigation of Great-Britain considered: shewing that the surest way for a nation to increase in riches,...

    London, A. Bettesworth, C. Hitch … and S. Birt, 1738.

    Fourth edition of Gee’s most important work, first published in 1729. Written at a time of declining exports, decaying agriculture and high unemployment Trade and navigation discusses foreign trade with strong protectionist tendencies. Gee is keen to improve trade with the North American colonies,...

    £250

  8. [GELENIUS, Sigismund (editor).] 

    Notitia utraque, dignitatum, cum orientis, tum occidentis, ultra arcadii honoriique tempora,...

    Lyons, [Jacques du Creux for] Jean de Gabiano, 1608. 

    An expanded edition, illustrated on almost every leaf, of an anonymous fifth-century description of the Roman Empire. 

    £875

  9. ‘G.’ [i.e. Terence Ian Fytton ARMSTRONG].

    Annotations on Some Minor Writings of “T.E. Lawrence” by G.

    London: W. Graves for Eric Partridge, Ltd. at the Scholartis Press, 1935.

    First edition, no. 484 of 500 copies. Annotations was the second bibliographical work on Lawrence to be published, and was written by the poet, author, bibliographer, and bookseller T.I.F. Armstrong (AKA ‘John Gawsworth’), who possessed ‘a bibliographic talent that led Lawrence Durrell to...

    £75

  10. [GOLD and SILVER.] 

    Bando generale per gli orefici, argentieri, ed altri che comprano, vendono, ed in qualsivoglia modo...

    Rome, ‘nella stamperia della Rev. Camera Apostolica’, 1815. 

    Rare edict governing goldsmiths, silversmiths, and traders in gold and silver operating in Rome and the Papal States, issued by Cardinal Bartolomeo Pacca (1756–1844) in January 1815 as Camerlengo to Pope Pius VII.

    £475

  11. GOLOVNIN, Vasilii Mikhailovich.

    Recollections of Japan, comprising a particular account of the religion, language, government,...

    London, Henry Colburn, 1819.

    First edition in English of Golovnin’s account of Japan and the Japanese, derived from his Russian original of 1816, with a preface on British relations with Japan and an appendix detailing Khvostov and Davydov’s fur-trading voyages to the northwest coast of America. Recollections followed Colburn’s...

    £1000

  12. GONZÁLES DE MENDOZA, Juan, and Robert PARKE, translator. 

    The Historie of the great and mightie Kingdome of China,...

    London, Printed by J. Wolfe for Edward White, 1588 [or 1589]. 

    First edition in English, rare, of the first significant European study of China, ‘one of the outstanding “best-sellers” of the sixteenth century’ (Boxer). 

    £50000

  13. [GREAT BRITAIN: PARLIAMENT].

    [Drop-head title:] ‘An act for repealing the several duties of customs and excise, and granting...

    London, Charles Eyre and Andrew Strahan, 1787.

    Rare first edition of the consolidation act that revolutionised British handling of customs and excise and the problem of smuggling, in line with Adam Smith’s 1776 recommendations.

    £2750

  14. [GROUX, Charles Jacques (engraver).]

    Planches relatives a l’instruction concernant l’exercice et les manoeuvres des...

    Paris, Magimel, ‘An X’ [1801].

    Second edition, expanded, of a set of French Revolutionary plates for the instruction of the cavalry. Comprising over one hundred and fifty copper-engraved plates showing cavalry horses, equipment, and manoeuvres, the present work follows a smaller publication by Magimel of the same title, issued...

    £275

  15. GUIGNES, Chrétien-Louis-Joseph de.

    Voyages à Peking, Manille et l’Île de France, faits dans l’intervalle des années 1784...

    Paris, l’Imprimerie Impériale, 1808.

    First edition, the complete four-volume set, containing a survey of Chinese history and customs, a narrative of the author’s journey to Beijing as part of the Dutch East India embassy in 1794–5, and a magnificent folio atlas featuring 97 beautiful illustrations and intricate maps.

    £6500

  16. HAKLUYT, Richard.

    The principal Navigations, Voiages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation, made by Sea or over-land,...

    London, George Bishop, Ralph Newberie, and Robert Barker, 1598 [– 1600].

    Second edition, first issue of ‘Hakluyt’s monumental masterpiece, and the great prose epic of the Elizabethan period’ (Penrose), complete with the section on the conquest of Cadiz by Essex (vol. I, pp. 607-619) ordered suppressed by Elizabeth I in 1599 (in ESTC state 1a).

    £20000

  17. HAKLUYT, Richard.

    The Principall Navigations, Voiages and Discoveries of the English Nation, made by Sea or over Land, to the most...

    Imprinted at London by George Bishop and Ralph Newberie, Deputies to Christopher Barker … 1589.

    First edition, a fine copy, with the world map, in a strictly contemporary London binding, of the first collection of English voyages.

    £350000

  18. [HALE, Thomas, Sir William PETTY, and Samuel PEPYS?].

    An Account of several new Inventions and Improvements now necessary for England,...

    London, Printed for James Atwood, and are to be sold by Ralph Simpson … 1691.

    First edition of Hale’s Account with several rare broadsides on the same topic – the use of milled lead (rather than cast lead, or even wood) for the sheathing of ships as a defence against worm. Thomas Hale operated a lead mill in Deptford (his brother? Charles was a leadworker) and was a...

    £2750

  19. HANWAY, Jonas.

    An historical account of the British trade over the Caspian Sea, with a journal of travels from London through Russia...

    London, Dodsley, Nourse, Millar, Vaillant, & Patterson, Waugh, and Willock, 1753.

    First edition of Hanway’s narrative of his trade mission to Russia, Persia, and the Caspian Sea. Having joined the Russia Company in 1743, Jonas Hanway (1712–1786) sailed for Riga in April that year, before travelling on to St Petersburg, Moscow, and Astrakhan in an attempt to re-establish...

    £1400

  20. HAREL, Charles.

    Ménage sociétaire ou Moyen d’augmenter son bien-être en diminuant sa dépense, avec indication de quelques...

    Paris, Bureau de la Phalange, à la librairie Sociale, 1839.

    1. First edition of this work by the entrepreneur and inventor Charles Harel (1771-1852), a friend and disciple of Charles Fourier’s. This plan describes Harel’s project for the founding of a community of 200 celibates: a utopia of communal life detailing rules (‘love’, ‘the library’etc.)...

    £975