Search results
-
[BARNAUD, Nicolas].
Le Cabinet du Roy de France, dans lequel il y a trois perles precieuses d’inestimable valeur: par le moyen...
[No place or printer], 1581.
First edition, first issue, of this harsh criticism of the debauched church and rotten nobility and the resulting bad finances of France, anonymously published by a well-travelled Protestant physician, and writer on alchemy who was to become an associate of the reformer Fausto Paolo Sozzini, better known...
£850
-
LEIBNIZ, Gottfried Wilhelm.
Oeuvres philosophiques latines & françoises de feu. Tirées de ses manuscrits qui se conservent dans...
Amsterdam et Leipzig, J. Schreuder, 1765.
First edition of Leibniz’ fundamental Nouveaux essais sur l’entendement humain, here published as part of the first collected edition of his philosophical works in French and Latin. The Nouveaux essais take up 496 of the 540 pages and offers one of the most important refutations of Locke’s Essay...
£1750
-
AINSLIE, Whitelaw, Sir.
An historical sketch of the introduction of Christianity into India, and its progress and present state...
Edinburgh, printed by Oliver & Boyd, 1835.
First edition, author’s presentation copy. Ainslie (1767-1837) worked as a surgeon in the East India Company from 1788 until his retirement in 1815, becoming a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1829. His other notable works were Materia medica of Hindustan (1813) and Materia Indica (1826),...
£500
-
BURNES, Alexander.
Cabool: being a personal narrative of a journey to, and residence in that city, in the years 1836, 7, and 8....
London, John Murray, 1842.
First edition of Burnes’s important account of Kabul, published the year after his murder. Burnes (1805-41) was sent on a commercial mission to the Afghan capital in late 1836 by Lord Auckland, Governor-General of India. ‘Political concerns about Afghanistan’s position as a buffer between the British...
£1200
-
BUSBECQ, Ogier Ghislain de.
The four epistles ... concerning his embassy into Turkey. Being remarks upon the religion, customs,...
London, for J. Taylor and J. Wyat, 1694.
First edition in English of Busbecq’s Turkish letters. Busbecq (1522-92) served as emperor Ferdinand I’s ambassador at the Ottoman Porte between 1555 and 1562. ‘His letters contain perhaps the most interesting of all accounts of Turkish life, and his description and analysis of the Ottoman state...
£1200
-
GERARD, Alexander.
Account of Koonawur in the Himalaya, etc. etc. etc. ... Edited by George Lloyd. With a large map.
London, James Madden, 1841.
First edition of this important work on the Kinnaur region in the western Himalayas, now in northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, comprising a detailed account of its geography, transport system, agriculture, flora and fauna, and native culture, religion and language, as encountered in the early...
£1500
-
[HASTINGS, Warren.]
A narrative of the insurrection which happened in the Zemeedary of Banaris in the month of August 1781, and...
Calcutta, printed by order of the Governor General, 1782. Charles Wilkins superintendant of the Press.
First edition of the first substantial book to be printed in Calcutta (preceded by seven almanacs, two pamphlets of judicial regulations, a royal grant of land, a missionary tract, and a Persian primer); an important document in 18th-century colonial politics.
£1750
-
KHANYKOV, Nikolai Vladimirovich.
Bokhara: its amir and its people. Translated from the Russian of Khanikoff. By the baron Clement...
London, James Madden, 1845.
First edition in English of Khanykov’s important account of the emirate of Bukhara, a Central Asian state which existed between 1785 and 1920 in modern-day Uzbekistan and which played a significant role in the Great Game between the British and Russian empires. Khanykov’s work, which first appeared...
£1500
-
LANGLEY, Edward Archer.
Narrative of a residence at the court of Meer Ali Moorad; with wild sports in the valley of the Indus ...
London, Hurst and Blackett, 1860.
First edition of this important work on Sindh by Langley, a captain in the Madras cavalry who served as secretary to Mir Ali Murad, ruler of Khairpur (a princely state of British India on the Indus River) from 1842 to 1894. Langley’s Narrative gives a detailed picture of the region around the time...
£1000
-
MARSHALL, John, Sir, editor.
Mohenjo-Daro and the Indus civilization being an official account of archaeological excavations at...
London, Arthur Probsthain, 1931.
Scarce first edition, a handsome set, of Marshall’s outstanding contribution to archaeology, documenting discoveries made in the Indus valley of the Punjab and Sind. ‘His announcement in 1924 that he had there found a new civilization of the third millennium marked an epoch in modern discovery; the...
£3500
-
NORTH-WEST FRONTIER.
Press list of records of the N.-W. F. Agency.
[N.p., c. 1846].
An extraordinary snapshot of the North-West Frontier of British India between 1840 and 1845, comprising abstracts of correspondence written during the period, especially valuable for their insight into the First Anglo-Afghan War, the 1842 retreat from Kabul, and British relations with Dost Mohammed Khan.
£1750
-
OLUFSEN, Ole.
The second Danish Pamir-expedition. Old and new architecture in Khiva, Bokhara and Turkestan ...
Copenhagen, Gyldendalske Boghandel Nordisk Forlag, 1904.
[offered with:]
Idem. The emir of Bokhara and his country. Journeys and studies in Bokhara (with a chapter on my voyage on the Amu Darya to Khiva) ... with a map of Bokhara and numerous illustrations. Copenhagen, Gyldendalske Boghandel Nordisk Forlag; London, William Heinemann, 1911.£2750
-
PALAFOX Y MENDOZA, Juan de.
The history of the conquest of China by the Tartars. Together with an account of several remarkable...
London, W. Godbid for M. Pitt, 1671.
First edition in English of Palafox’s Historia de la conquista de la China (1670), an account of the Manchu conquest of Ming China based on reports sent to him from Macao and the Philippines. The work deals also with Chinese customs, manners, religion and costumes, and one chapter discusses Japanese...
£2000
-
PEROVSKY, Vasily.
A narrative of the Russian military expedition to Khiva, under General Perofski in 1839. Translated from the...
Calcutta, Office of Superintendent Government Printing, 1867.
First edition of this English translation of Perovsky’s account of the 1839 Khivan campaign. Perovsky (1794-1857) was appointed military governor of Orenburg in 1833. From here he set out in 1839 with a force of 5000 men and 10,000 camels in a failed attempt to conquer the Khanate of Khiva. Meeting...
£1250
-
POSTANS, Thomas.
Personal observations on Sindh; the manners and customs of its inhabitants; and its productive capabilities: with...
London, Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1843.
First edition of this important account of Sind, an advance copy that belonged to Postans’s wife. Published in the same year as the annexation of Sind by Sir Charles James Napier, Postans’s work gives an account of the region’s geography (including Karachi, Hyderabad, and the river Indus), ethnic...
£950
-
RISLEY, Herbert Hope, Sir et al.
The gazetteer of Sikhim. With an introduction by H. H. Risley ... Edited in the Bengal Government...
Calcutta, printed at the Bengal Secretariat Press, 1894.
First edition of this comprehensive survey of Sikkim, in northeast India (bordering Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal and West Bengal), which had become a princely state of British India in 1890. The chapters cover, inter alia, the region’s history, geography, laws, geology, agriculture, vegetation, butterflies,...
£2500
-
STEIN, Aurel.
Ancient Khotan. Detailed report of archaeological explorations in Chinese Turkestan carried out and described under...
Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1907.
First edition of Stein’s detailed and richly illustrated account of his first expedition to Central Asia in 1900-01, supported by Lord Curzon, viceroy of India, and financed by the government of India together with those of Bengal and the Punjab.
£6000
-
STEIN, Aurel.
Archaeological reconnaissances in north-western India and south-eastern Iran carried out and recorded with the support...
London, Macmillan, 1937.
First edition, a handsome copy. Having won fame for his expeditions to the deserts of Chinese Turkestan, Stein turned his attention in the early 1930s ‘to Persia and, with the initial backing of his American friends at Harvard, began a series of four expeditions there, or “archaeological reconnaissances”,...
£2000
-
STUMM, Hugo (J.W. Ozanne and H. Sachs, translators).
Russia in Central Asia. Historical sketch of Russia’s progress in the east...
London, Harrison and Sons, 1885.
First edition of the English translation of Stumm’s Der Russische Feldzug nach Chiwa (1875), an important account ‘of the circumstances attending the advance of Russia since the time of Peter the Great ... of the military preparations which preceded the expedition to Khiva, and ... of the countries...
£1750
-
THORNTON, Edward.
A gazetteer of the territories under the government of the East-India Company, and of the native states on the...
London, Wm. H. Allen, 1854.
A handsome set of the first edition of this extraordinarily detailed overview of India in the mid-19th century. Thornton (1799-1875) worked at East India House between 1814 and 1857, serving as head of the maritime department from 1847. His six-volume History of the British Empire in India appeared between...
£2000