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.-
BERGERET, [Guillaume].
Advertisement of M. Bergeret, Bookseller.
[Bordeaux, c. 1787.]
A very rare advertisement card of a provincial bookseller from Bordeaux, a scarce piece of trade ephemera.
£75
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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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[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
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TUCKER, Josiah.
Betydande frågor om handelen, wid tilfålle af de motsäjelser, som skedde emot den sista billen, om utlänningars...
[v. Oelreich], 1763.
First Swedish edition, scarce, of this history on the treatment of foreign residents in Britain, Reflections on the Expediency of a Law for the Naturalization of Foreign Protestants (1751–1752). This book comprises only the main body of Part II (1752), ‘Important Queries occasioned by The Rejection...
£200
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[LONDON ASSURANCE CORPORATION.]
By-laws, orders, and rules, for the good government of the corporation of the London assurance....
London, [n.p.], 1722.
First edition of the by-laws of the London Assurance Corporation, which, along with The Royal Exchange Assurance Corporation, was constituted and granted sole rights, excepting private individuals, to the granting of assurance and bottomry by ‘The Bubble Act’ of 1720. The right to self-govern, reflected...
£550
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[CLIFFORD, Jeronimy].
The case of Jeronimy Clifford, merchant and planter of Surinam. Paper, No. 160.
[London, n.p., 1711].
First extended account of Clifford’s long-running legal battle with the Dutch West India Company in Surinam over Corcabo, his sugar plantation. The earlier publications had been just four pages long; this work furnishes us with plantation account details and testimonies, chronologically arranged with...
£650
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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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[ALMANACK.]
The Daily Journal. Or, the Gentleman's and Tradesman's complete annual Accompt-Book for the Pocket, or Desk. For the...
London, R. Baldwin, 1761.
An interesting and extremely rare account book for 1761 used by a series of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century carpenters, joiners, and a tallow chandler in Denbighshire, North Wales to record appointments, time spent on ongoing projects, and accounts.
£850
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LIST, Friedrich.
Das nationale System der politischen Oekonomie … Erster Band: Der internationale Handel, die Handelspolitik...
Stuttgart, J.G. Cotta, 1841.
First edition, the first work to articulate developing economies’ need for protective regulation, one of the earliest and most severe critiques of Adam Smith and his followers.
£8000
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PAGNINI, Giovanni Francesco; Francesco BALDUCCI PEGOLOTTI; Giovanni da UZZANO.
Della decima e di varie altre gravezze imposte dal...
Lisbon and Lucca, (vols. 3–4: ‘e si vende da Giuseppe Bouchard librajo francese in Firenze’), 1765–66.
First edition, scarce on the market, of a highly important work in the history of economics and world trade. Pagnini (1714–89) worked in the financial department of the Tuscan government and published translations of several of Locke’s works. The Della decima is his most important work,...
£5500
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PAXTON, P[eter].
A Discourse concerning the Nature, Advantage, and Improvement of Trade: with some Considerations why the Charges...
London, printed by E. P. for R. Wilkin … 1704.
First edition of this important but little-studied work on free trade for the public good by the physician and political writer Peter Paxton.
£900
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[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
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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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CAPRA, Alessandro.
Geometria famigliare, et instruttione pratica d’Alessandro Capra architetto cremonese. Per gl’edificii nuovi,...
Cremona, Gio[vanni] Pietro Zanni, 1671.
An exceedingly rare extract from the first edition of the treatise of practical geometry by the architect and inventor Alessandro Capra (c. 1605–c. 1685), seemingly prepared and sold as a manual for surveyors and early estate agents.
£575
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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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GIOIA [or GIOJA], Melchiorre.
Indole, estensione, vantaggi della statistica. Confutazione dell’ opuscolo che ha per titolo:...
Risposta alle obbiezioni fatte alle Tavole statistiche. Milan, Pirotta and Maspero, March 1809.
First and only edition of this rare work on the nature and necessity of statistics by Melchiorre Gioia, presented by the author to the former Minister for the Interior, Daniele Felici.
£1250
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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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[MILDMAY, William, Sir.]
The Laws and Policy of England, relating to Trade, examined by the Maxims and Principles of Trade...
London, printed and sold by T. Harrison … and by J. Robson … 1765.
First edition, an unjustly neglected study of the politics and economics of international trade, inspired in part by comparison with France, where Mildmay spent five years in the 1750s.
£350
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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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[‘HYSON, Timothy’, pseud. Thomas LOWNDES].
A Letter to Mr. Richard Twining, Tea Dealer, and One of the Candidates for...
London, [C. Roworth] for the author, 1827.
Second edition of the Letter to Mr Richard Twining, a public denunciation of the candidacy of the tea merchant Richard Twining (1749-1824) for a directorship of the East India Company in 1810. Twining, who had already been instrumental in the development of tea prices and taxation for many...
£250