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Contact Jonathan Harrison, Alex Day or Andrea Mazzocchi

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. SHERIDAN, Richard Brinsley.

    The Speech … in the House of Commons, (8th December 1802) on the Motion for the Army Establ shment...

    London: Printed for John Stockdale … 1802

    First edition of Sheridan’s impressive speech on the army estimates, in support of funding precautions against Buonaparte’s aggression – ‘the crisis in which we are placed … so big with tremendous importance, so pregnant with mighty difficulties, so full of apprehensions and dangers ….’...

    £75

  2. 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).

    £12000

  3. [SINO-JAPANESE WAR, 1894–95.]

    Terrible war of General Sakamoto, leader of the imperial warship Akagi.

    Tokyo, Sekiguchi Masajiro, 1894.

    A portrait of General Sakamoto at the battle of Yalu River (1894) executed by the Japanese artist, Toshikata Mizuno. General Sakamoto was killed in this battle.

    £350

  4. [SINO-JAPANESE WAR, 1894–5.]

    Punitive forces attacking Pyöngyang.

    Tokyo, Tsujiokaya Bunsuke, Meiji 27 [1894].

    First edition. The battle of Pyöngyang, 15 September 1894, was the second major land battle of the First Sino-Japanese War. In it, the town of Pyöngyang fell to the attacking Japanese forces who were then able to advance north to the Yalu River without opposition. Although the Chinese suffered heavy...

    £850

  5. [SKETCHBOOK.]

    Album of pencil sketches.

    Bristol and South-West of England, c. 1892–1904.

    A charming turn-of-the-century album of pencil sketches of the South West of England, seemingly by an accomplished Bristol amateur artist.

    £300

  6. SMITH, Albert Richard.

    The Story of Mont Blanc …

    London, David Bogue, 1853.

    First edition of Smith’s famous book on Mont Blanc, a lovely copy formerly in the possession of his sister, Laura Eady.

    £1275

  7. SMITH, Albert Richard.

    The new Game of the Ascent of Mont Blanc.

    London, printed by Hall, 43, South Molton St., [c. 1855–57].

    Rare first edition of this attractive board game based on Smith’s ascent of Mont Blanc on 12 August 1851. Upon his return, Smith opened a stage show based on his experiences at the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, mixing dramatic description, song, illustrations, and even St Bernard dogs. It was...

    £3750

  8. SMITH, Arthur Henderson.

    Chinese characteristics …

    Shanghai, printed and published at the “North-China Herald” office, 1890.

    First edition of this important and influential work on China by the American missionary Arthur Henderson Smith (1845–1932), for many decades the most widely read American book on the Chinese.

    £550

  9. SOONE, William, and Pomponius MELA.

    Gulielmi Sooni Vantesdeni Auditor, sive Pomponius Mela disputator, De situ orbis.

    Cologne, Johann Birckman, 1572.

    First edition of English jurist and cartographer William Soone’s notes on Pomponius Mela’s geography, presented in the form of an imaginary dialogue between the two authors.

    £1750

  10. [SPANISH FISHING.]

    Artes, aparejos e instrumentos de pesca de España.

    [Madrid, Artes Gráficas ‘Mateu’?, 1920?]

    First and only edition, very rare, a striking illustrated guide to the traditional Spanish fishing industry, with thirty-five large and unusual illustrations of typical fishing villages and dress; net designs, and floats; boats; drag-nets; tangle-nets, purse seins; hooks; and various ‘objetos curiosos’....

    £2000

  11. SPILBERGEN, Joris van, and Jacob LE MAIRE.

    Speculum orientalis occidentalisque Indiae navigationum; quarum una Georgii a...

    Leiden, Nicolaes van Geelkercken, 1619.

    First Latin edition of one of the classic Dutch illustrated voyages, identical in format and illustration to the same publisher’s Dutch-language edition of the same year.

    £20000

  12. SPON, Jacob.

    Voyage d’Italie, de Dalmatie, de Grece, et du Levant, fait aux années 1675 et 1676 par Jacob Spon docteur medecin...

    Lyons, Antoine Cellier, 1678.

    Very rare first edition of ‘one of the most important accounts of travels in the Levant, and the first description of Athens which was systematic, detailed, and trustworthy’ (Blackmer).

    £4750

  13. 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

  14. [STANHOPE, Hester Lucy, Lady.] [MERYON, Charles Lewis, editor.]

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

    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 with...

    £650

  15. STAVORINUS, Johan Splinter, and Samuel Hull WILCOCKE, translator.

    Voyages to the East-Indies … Translated from...

    London, for G.G. and J. Robinson, 1798.

    First edition in English of a first-hand account of two VOC voyages by Stavorinus (1739–1788): the first, 1768–71, to Batavia, Bantam and Bengal; the second, 1774–78, to Samarang, Macassar, Amboyna, Surat, and the Malabar Coast, corrected thanks to the translator’s connection to the author’s...

    £850

  16. STOEFFLER, Johannes.

    Elucidatio fabricae ususque astrolabii …

    Elucidatio fabricae ususque astrolabii … Oppenheim, Jacob Köbel, 1513 [(colophon:) 1512].

    A much-annotated copy, complete with the fold-out extensions to the woodcut illustrations, of the first edition of the first German book on astrolabes, a fundamental step forward in astronomy, navigation, and timekeeping.

    £12000

  17. STOURM, Auguste-African, dit Eugène.

    Opinion sur la question des sucres.

    [Paris, Bourgogne & Martinet, n. d., but 1840.]

    First and only edition of this work on the sugar beet trade; the French had begun cultivating sugar beet during the Napoleonic wars, when the British blocked shipments of cane sugar from colonies such as Martinique and Guadeloupe.

    £100

  18. STRABO.

    Strabonis geographicorum lib. XVII ... iam denuo a Conrado Heresbachio … ad fidem Graeci exemplaris, authorumque …...

    Basel, Johann Walder, 1539.

    Second edition of Strabo’s masterful Geographica in the Latin translation of the German Humanist and friend of Erasmus, Konrad Heresbach (1496–1576), here found with the first Latin translation of an epitome of Strabo’s work by the Basel professor of physic and logic, Hieronymus Gemusaeus...

    £2500

  19. SURTEES, Robert Smith.

    The Horseman’s Manual, being a Treatise on Soundness, the Law of Warranty, and generally on the Laws relating...

    London, M.A. Pittman for Alfred Miller, 1831.

    First edition of Surtees’s first work, the only publication to bear his name, from the family of the dedicatee. Though best known for his sporting articles and novels, Robert Smith Surtees (1805–1864) was, alongside his landed interests, a respected jurist in County Durham, serving as justice...

    £1250

  20. [SURTEES, Robert Smith,] and John LEECH (illustrator).

    Handley Cross series.

    London, Bradbury, Agnew, & Co., 1899-1900.

    Limited ‘Master of Foxhounds’ edition, finely printed at the Whitefriars Press. Having published the first editions of several of Surtees’s sporting novels, Bradbury, Agnew, & Co. gathered and reprinted the six most successful as the ‘Handley Cross series’ as luxury sets. Publisher’s...

    £1200