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.-
MARSDEN, William, translator.
Memoirs of a Malayan family, written by themselves, and translated from the original by W....
London, printed for the Oriental Translation Fund, sold by J. Murray and Parbury, Allen & Co., 1830.
First edition, Sir Thomas Phillipps’s copy, of Marsden’s translation of an account of the travels and trials of a Malayan family trading pepper in Java and Sumatra in the 1750s and 1760s, including their encounters with the Dutch and British East India Companies.
£1250
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MARZAGLIA, Gaetano.
Fascetto di pratiche matematiche spiegate alle persone popolari per uso del comercio umano, e civile, in questa...
Verona, Dionisio Ramanzini, 1780.
A lovely copy of the second edition, considerably augmented from the first of 1754, of this book of applied mathematical problems by the Veronese mathematician Gaetano Marzaglia (or Marcegaglia, 1716–1787), heavily influenced by the work of Wolff, who provides the motto to the book, and whose works...
£650
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NIEHANS, Jürg.
Der Gedanke der Autarkie im Merkantilismus von einst und im Neomerkantilismus von gestern.
Zürich, H. Girsberger, 1945.
First edition of Niehan’s work on the idea of self-sufficiency in the age of Mercantilism, published as volume 37 of the series Zürcher Volkswirtschaftlicje Forschungen, under the editorship of M. Saitzew. Niehans (1920-2007), a distinguished economist, taught at the Universities of Zurich, Johns...
£40
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NIEUHOF, Jan; Athanasius KIRCHER; and John OGILBY, translator.
An Embassy from the East-India Company of the United...
London, John Macock for the author, 1669.
First English edition, beautifully illustrated, recounting the Dutch traveller Jan Nieuhof’s journey as part of Peter de Goyer and Jacob de Keizer’s embassy to Peking between 1655 and 1657. Having previously been employed by the Dutch West India Company in Brazil, Nieuhof joined the Dutch...
£4000
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NIEUHOF, Jan, and Georg HORN (translator).
Legatio Batavica ad magnum Tartariae chamum Sungteium, modernum Sinae...
Amsterdam, Jacob van Meurs, 1668.
First edition in Latin, beautifully illustrated, of Nieuhof’s account of his travels in China between 1655 and 1657, one of the most important early modern non-Jesuit studies.
£5000
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NIEUHOF, Jean, and Jean LE CARPENTIER (translator).
L’ambassade de la compagnie orientale des provinces unies...
Leiden, Jacob de Meurs, 1665.
Lavishly illustrated first French edition of Nieuhof’s travels through China from 1655 to 1657.
£3500
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[OSBORNE, Francis.]
Historical memoires on the reigns of Queen Elizabeth, and King James.
London: Printed by T. Grismond, and are to be sold by T. Robinson … in Oxon. 1658.
First edition of Osborne’s history of the reigns of Elizabeth I and James VI and I, two exemplary leaders of the Protestant English cause, with which Osborne was much taken in his works.
£475
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[PAPER TRADE.]
Arrest du conseil d’état du roi, portant modération et interprétation de plusieurs articles du tarif des...
[Besançon?, 1772?]
A seemingly unrecorded issue of this decree governing tariffs on paper and cardboard in Louis XV’s France, with no imprint but with the colophon ‘fait à Besançon le 18 avril 1772, signé, Lacoré’.
£175
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[POWNALL, Thomas.] POWNALL, Charles A. W.
Thomas Pownall M.P., F.R.S., Governor of Massachusetts Bay, Author of The Letters of...
London, Henry Stevens, Son & Stiles, 1908.
First edition. Thomas Pownall, English colonial administrator and Governor of Massachusetts, was one of the earliest critics of Adam Smith, publishing a critical Letter (1776) discussing the Wealth of Nations. Although he expressed admiration for Smith’s work in the Letter, he opposed his view of the...
£100
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[RALPH, James.]
The Case of Authors by Profession or Trade, stated: with regard to Booksellers, the Stage, and the Public. No matter...
London, R. Griffiths, 1758.
First edition, ‘the first protest raised in the eighteenth century against the treatment of authors and dramatists by booksellers and theatre managers’ (ODNB).
£850
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[ROYAL FISHERY COMPANY.]
A Collection of Advertisements, Advices, and Directions, relating to the Royal Fishery within the British...
London, printed for H.M. and sold by J. Whitlock, 1695.
First edition. The Royal Fishery Company, incorporated in 1662, had great trouble finding subscribers. Initially, Charles II offered £9000 as an incentive to investors but on these only raising £3680 he withdrew his undertaking, instead allowing a lottery to aid the Company’s fortunes. After attempts...
£200
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[ROYAL LUSTRING COMPANY.]
The Report of the Committee of the House of Commons, to whom the Petition of the Royal Lustring-Company...
London, E. Whitlock, 1698.
First edition; a French version appeared the same year. Since its foundation in 1688, the Royal Lustring Company (importers of ‘lustrings’ or ‘alamodes’ – a fine, light, glossy, black silk) had enjoyed special monopolistic privileges which it had exploited to the full. However, by the end...
£275
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[SAINTE-HILAIRE, Émile Marco de.]
Réclamation addressée à S. Ece. Mgr. Delavau, préfet de police, par Modeste Agnès, patentée...
Paris, chez les marchands de nouveautés, 1821.
Rare first edition of this work on Parisian prostitution, attributed to the writer and journalist Émile Marco de Sainte-Hilaire (1796–1887). The Réclamation is presented as a letter from the prostitute Modeste Agnès to the newly-appointed Paris chief of police, Guy Delavau (1787–1874),...
£850
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[SERRÉ, Jean-Baptiste-Adrien-Joseph.]
Livre utile aux négocians de l’Europe, contenant les réductions des argents dont ils...
Paris, chez Valade; Brussels, chez Emmanuel Flon, 1774.
£100
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[SEVILLE.]
Mercantile contract between Sebastián de Baeza of Seville and Hernán López de Segovia, almost certainly relating...
Seville, 25 July 1576.
A commercial document from the heyday of Seville’s trade with the Indies. Drawn up for Sebastián de Baeza, a resident of the barrio of San Bartolomé in Seville, the document recapitulates a previous agreement of 25 June 1576 between, on the one hand, Hernán López de Segovia and, on...
£1200
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SHIPLEY, Hannah.
Manuscript on trade, commerce, and accounting.
[England, c. 1800.]
An attractive manuscript, written by one Hannah Shipley, discussing trade and commerce with practical examples of commercial accounting.
£500
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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
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TATE, William.
The modern cambist; forming a manual of foreign exchanges, in the direct, indirect, and cross operations of bills...
London, Effingham Wilson, 1836.
Third edition, corrected and expanded to reflect changes in the monetary systems of Portugal and Geneva, a new coinage introduced by the East India Company and the opening of trade with China. There is also a new appendix which discusses the mintage regulations for the coins of the United States, reflecting...
£125
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TAYLOR, G. Oswald (photographer).
Promotional photographic brochure celebrating the coronation of Elizabeth II.
Nottingham, Fine Stocking Manufacturers Ltd., June 1953.
An unusual coronation souvenir. The details on the lower wrapper indicate that Oswald Taylor produced the booklet, as well as photographed the series.
£300
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THÜNEN, Johann Heinrich von.
Der isolirte Staat in Beziehung auf Landwirthschaft und Nationalökonomie …[Part I and part II/1].
Rostock, G. B. Leopold, 1842–50.
Scarce second edition of the first part, revised and enlarged, being the repository of Thünen’s major theories, and the edition used by Roscher in his Geschichte der National-Oekonomik, here bound with the first edition of part II/1, the last to be published during the author’s lifetime;...
£4500