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.
  1. LATHAM, Simon.

    Latham’s Falconry: or, the Faulcons Lure, and Cure: in two Books. The first, concerning the ordering and training...

    London: Printed by Thomas Harper, for John Harison. 1633.

    First collected edition (third edition of volume I, originally published in 1614 and reissued in 1615, second edition of volume II, originally published in 1618).

    £8500

  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. PINDAR.

    Ολγμπια Νεμεα Πγθια Ισθμια … Olympia, Nemea, Pythia, Isthmia. Una cum Latina omnium versione carmine...

    Oxford, E Teatro Sheldoniano, 1698 … London, apud. Sam. Smith & Benj. Walford.

    First edition thus, the variant with the title-page dated 1698 rather than 1697. The Greek text was edited by Richard West and Robert Welsted, and the chronology of the Olympiads provided by the Bishop of Lichfield. 

    £5250

  4. MERCURIALE, Girolamo. 

    De arte gymnastica libri sex, in quibus exercitationum omnium vetustarum genera, loca, modi, facultates,...

    Venice, [Lucantonio II] Giunta, 1587. 

    Third edition of ‘the first illustrated book on gymnastics’ (Morton).  A physician occupying senior posts in the medical faculties of Padua, Bologna, Rome, and Pisa, Girolamo Mercuriale (1530–1606) draws heavily on accounts of ancient exercise to argue for its medical benefits, being the...

    £2750

  5. RAIMONDI, Eugenio. 

    Delle caccie … libri Quattro, aggiuntovi’n questa nuova ’mpressione il quinto libro della villa. 

    [Naples, Lazzaro Scoriggio, 1626.]

    Second edition, expanded and extended, with a new series of striking venatic plates.  The series of plates (attributable to Nicolas Perrey, who signs the title), showing composite scenes of hunters pursuing animals from birds and fish to lions and elephants, is wholly new, replacing the woodcut...

    £2500

  6. LYDEKKER, Richard. 

    The Great and Small Game of India, Burma, & Tibet … with contributions by sportsmen. 

    London, Rowland Ward, 1900. 

    Number 48 of a limited edition of 250 copies.  ‘A sumptuous rendering of south Asia’s wild game species in art and text.  Lydekker describes more than seventy varieties of game with attendant notes on sport from the experiences of Demidoff, Darrah, Valentine, and others.  The hand-colored...

    £1750

  7. 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

  8. 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

  9. [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

  10. RAMUS, Petrus.

    P. Rami ... Oratio de legatione.

    Paris, Andreas Wechel, 1557.

    First (?) edition: a fascinating pamphlet marking a critical epoch in the history of the University of Paris and the first occasion on which Ramus came into prominence as champion of his University and of higher education in general.

    £800

  11. [USTONSON, Onesimus.]

    [SMITH, John?]. The True Art of Angling: being a clear and speedy Way of taking all Sorts of Fresh-water...

    London: Printed for Onesimus Ustonson … 1770.

    The last eighteenth-century edition of an angling classic first published in 1696 and much reprinted and updated by other authorities. Having ‘passed several editions’, the introduction claims, it has been revised to omit ‘superfluous’ oils and ointments, ‘carefully corrected’ throughout,...

    £750

  12. [POETRY.] 

    ‘Trattato della [poesia Toscana]’. 

    [Asti?, 1780-1782.] 

    A manuscript treatise on the method of composing poetry in Italian, with numerous examples from renowned authors and eight apparently unpublished poems about horse-racing, with references to Arabian, Sardinian, English, and African horses, as well as to a firework display. 

    £750

  13. [JOCKEY CLUB.] HERVEY, John.

    Racing in America, 1665-1865 … written for the Jockey Club.

    New York, Scribner Press for the Jockey Club, 1944.

    First edition, limited, numbered 323 of 800 copies. The first volume of the Jockey Club’s monumental history of racing in America, covering earliest period of American racing, from the foundation of the first track on Long Island until the end of the Civil War, some two centuries later.

    £720

  14. OSBALDISTON, William Augustus.

    The British Sportsman, or Nobleman, Gentleman, and Farmer’s Dictionary of Recreation and Amusement,...

    London, J. Stead for the Proprietor, and sold by Champante & Whitrow and at the British Directory Office, [c. 1792-6].

    First edition, issued in forty-two parts, of one of the first sporting dictionaries. ‘The pleasure and convenience of being well informed in the Recreations and Amusements of a Country Life, are objects of themselves sufficiently interesting, to justify the Author in presenting this Work to...

    £650

  15. [BUNBURY, Henry William.] ‘GAMBADO, Geoffrey’.

    Annals of Horsemanship, containing Accounts of accidental Experiments and experimental...

    London, W. Nicholson for W. Baynes, 1808.

    Third edition of Bunbury’s satirical work with humorous etchings. First published in 1791 and often presented as a continuation of Bunbury’s Academy for grown Horsemen (published in 1784 also under the name Gambado), the Annals of Horsemanship is a parody of Arthur Young’s...

    £475

  16. [LABOURS OF THE MONTHS &c.] 

    Januarius.  Februarius.  Merz.  April … 

    Nuremberg, Joh. Andreae Endterische Handlung, [second half of eighteenth century]. 

    A scarce popular print depicting the labours of the months and signs of the zodiac, four continents, the four classical elements, and the four seasons. 

    £475

  17. HERSHBERGER, H.R.

    The Horseman: A Work on Horsemanship, containing plain practical Rules for Riding, and Hints to the Reader on...

    New York, R. Craighead for Henry G. Langley, 1844.

    First edition of a rare military manual on horsemanship, with instructions on riding and illustrated cavalry exercises. An instructor at the United States Military Academy, Hershberger ‘endeavored to convey practical information on all equestrian exercises by an easy and progressive method’.

    £450

  18. [BROUN, Richard, Sir.] 

    Memorabilia curliana Mabenensia. 

    Dumfries, John Sinclair, 1830. 

    Uncommon first edition of this charming work on the sport of curling by the eccentric Scottish baronet Sir Richard Broun (1801–1858), with a focus on his native Lochmaben, being one of the earliest books on the sport. 

    £450

  19. ALLEN, John.

    Principles of modern Riding for Gentlemen, in which the late Improvements of the Manege and military Systems are applied...

    London, C. & C. Whittingham for Thomas Tegg, Glasgow, for R. Griffin & Co., and Dublin, for J. Cumming, 1825.

    First and only edition of an uncommon riding manual. A riding master teaching near Bryanstone Square, John Allen ‘flatters himself that, at a time when riding has become so fashionable an exercise, his work will more than any preceding one ensure the security, ease, and grace of the rider, both...

    £350

  20. [APPERLEY, Charles James.] ‘NIMROD’, and Henry ALKEN (illustrator).

    The Chace, the Turf, and the Road.

    London, A. Spottiswoode for John Murray, 1837.

    First edition of a series of articles first published in the Quarterly Review, illustrated by Henry Alken. A sporting writer who ‘may even be said to have created the role of gentleman hunting correspondent’ (ODNB), Charles James Apperley (1778–1843) published widely on hunting and...

    £350