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Travel

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. 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

  2. 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

  3. 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

  4. 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

  5. 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

  6. 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

  7. [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

  8. 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

  9. SULIVAN, Richard Joseph.

    Philosophical Rhapsodies. Fragments of Akbur of Betlis. Containing Reflections on the Laws, Manners, Customs...

    London, printed for T. Becket … Bookseller to his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, and their Royal Highnesses the Princes, 1784–5.

    First edition of this eccentric travel-inspired treatise drawing upon the author’s experience in India and his travels in Europe.

    £750

  10. [TANGIER.] 

    A Description of Tangier, the Country and People adjoyning.  With an account of the person and government of Gayland,...

    London, for Samuel Speed, 1664. 

    Scarce first edition of this entertaining account of Tangier, in north-western Morocco, during the English occupation of the city, which had begun in 1661 following Charles II’s marriage to Catherine of Braganza, and which would come to an end in 1684. 

    £2750

  11. THICKNESSE, Philip.

    A Year’s Journey through the Paix Bâs and Austrian Netherlands … Vol.

    I [all published]. London: Printed in the Year 1784.

    First edition, rare, and possibly suppressed, of a typically idiosyncratic account of a ‘quarrel-ridden tour’ of the Netherlands and Belgium by ‘the most irascible individual within the arena of late eighteenth-century print culture’ (ODNB), with a graphic depiction of the 1762...

    £1850

  12. THOMSON, John.

    Illustrations of China and its People. A Series of two Hundred Photographs, with letterpress descriptive of the...

    London, Sampson Low &c, 1873–1874.

    A good copy of this rare work (vol. I marked second edition, the rest first editions), showing superb images of Imperial China including rare portraits of high government officials as well as a large number of architectural and scenic views; this item ranks amongst the most spectacular photographically...

    £35000

  13. TRAVERS, John.

    A Letter to the Editor of the Courier Newspaper, in Reply to an Article inserted in that Journal of the 22d August,...

    London, Effingham Wilson, 1834.

    Second, expanded edition of this tract on reforming the duties on tea imported from China to Britain, this copy presented to the Sinologist Sir George T. Staunton, member of the Select Committee on Tea Duties and author of the letter appended here, likely with his annotations and corrections; bound...

    £850

  14. WINES, Enoch Cobb.

    A Peep at China, in Mr. Dunn’s Chinese Collection; with miscellaneous Notices relating to the Institutions...

    Philadelphia, for Nathan Dunn, 1839.

    Scarce first edition of a guide to the remarkable collection of Chinese artefacts accumulated by the American businessman Nathan Dunn (1782–1844).

    £1250

  15. [WUHAN.]

    武汉影集 [Wuhan yingji; ‘Wuhan Album’].

    Wuhan, 国营长虹摄影图片社 [State Changhong Photographic Agency], [1950s].

    Exceptionally rare promotional photobook depicting views of Wuhan with a striking cover and twelve gelatin silver prints tipped in.

    £150

  16. WYLD, James.

    Map of the islands of Japan, Kurile &c. and part of the Chinese dominions and a sketch of the river Amoor and the...

    London, James Wyld, 1859–1860.

    Rare four-sheet map of Japan, the Russian Far East, Mongolia and Southern Siberia, Korea, and China’s central coast, by James Wyld the younger (1812–1887), published just a few years after the end of Japan’s long isolationist period.

    £2750

  17. 山下 富吉 YAMASHITA Takayoshi.

    青島寫真帖 Souvenir Tsingtao.

    Tsingtao, Showa 16, [1941].

    A Japanese souvenir of Tsingtao (Qingdao) published during the second period of Japanese occupation of the city.

    £300

  18. YAMAZAKI Kane’ichirō 山崎 鋆一郎.

    满洲の展望 [Manshū no tenbō, i.e. Views of Manchuria].

    Dalian, Kane’ichirō Yamazaki for Kinjirō Hamai, 10 May Shōwa 7 [1932].

    A highly illustrated photobook on Manchuria published soon after the Japanese invasion.

    £650