Search results
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DU HALDE, Jean-Baptiste.
A Description of the Empire of China and Chinese-Tartary, together with the Kingdoms of Korea, and Tibet,...
London, T. Gardner for Edward Cave, 1738 [– 1741].
The first complete English translation of Jean-Baptiste Du Halde’s Description géographique … de l’Empire de la Chine (1735), the ‘Bible of European sinophilia’ (Löwendahl). Based on the reports of major Jesuit missionaries, and shaped by the earlier Historia of Martini and Mémoires of Le...
£15000
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EARL, George Samuel Windsor.
The eastern seas, or voyages and adventures in the Indian archipelago, in 1832-33-34, comprising a...
London, Wm H. Allen and Co., 1837.
First edition. Earl (1813–1865) spent two years voyaging in the Indonesian archipelago before being given his own command of the small schooner Stamford on a trading voyage to Borneo. He was an intelligent observer, and his account contains much important information on Singapore, Java, Bangkok, and...
£650
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GOLOVNIN, Vasilii Mikhailovich.
Recollections of Japan, comprising a particular account of the religion, language, government,...
London, Henry Colburn, 1819.
First edition in English of Golovnin’s account of Japan and the Japanese, derived from his Russian original of 1816, with a preface on British relations with Japan and an appendix detailing Khvostov and Davydov’s fur-trading voyages to the northwest coast of America. Recollections followed Colburn’s...
£1000
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GUIGNES, Chrétien-Louis-Joseph de.
Voyages à Peking, Manille et l’Île de France, faits dans l’intervalle des années 1784...
Paris, l’Imprimerie Impériale, 1808.
First edition, the complete four-volume set, containing a survey of Chinese history and customs, a narrative of the author’s journey to Beijing as part of the Dutch East India embassy in 1794–5, and a magnificent folio atlas featuring 97 beautiful illustrations and intricate maps.
£6500
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HALL, Basil.
Account of a voyage of discovery to the west coast of Corea, and the great Loo-Choo Island; with an appendix, containing...
London, John Murray, 1818.
First edition of this important work on Korea and the Ryukyu Islands by Basil Hall (1788-1844), narrating his 1816–17 voyage aboard the Lyra in the company of Murray Maxwell in the Alceste. The first chapter is devoted to the west coast of Korea – ‘until then unknown except by hearsay, and drawn...
£1250
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JESUS, Carlos Augusto Montalto de.
Historic Macao …
Hong Kong, Kelly & Walsh, 1902.
First edition of an important history of Macao by the Macanese scholar Montalto de Jesus (1863–1927), a fellow of the Geographical Society of Lisbon and a member of the China branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.
£950
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KRASHENINNIKOV, Stepan Petrovich; James GRIEVE, translator.
The history of Kamtschatka, and the Kurilski Islands, with the countries...
Gloucester, R. Raikes for T. Jefferys, 1764.
First edition of this English abridgement of Stepan Krasheninnikov’s account of the Kamchatka Peninsula and Kuril Islands, ‘the first scientific account of those regions’ (Hill), illustrated with two maps by Thomas Jefferys and five engraved plates.
£1850
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M’LEOD, John.
Voyage of His Majesty’s Ship Alceste, along the coast of Corea, to the Island of Lewchew; with an account of...
London, John Murray, 1818.
Second edition (first 1817), with five handsome aquatints, of this account of the voyage of the Alceste to China with Lord Amherst’s embassy, by the ship’s surgeon M’Leod.
£275
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MENDES PINTO, Fernão.
The Voyages and Adventures of Fernand Mendez Pinto, a Portugal: during his travels for the space of one...
London, Printed by J. Macock, for Henry Cripps, and Lodowick Lloyd … 1653.
First edition in English, translated by Henry Cogan, of a travel best-seller, first published posthumously in 1614; there were nineteen editions in six languages by the end of the century, ‘rivalling the popularity of Cervantes’ Don Quixote. It is, in fact, an exotic and imaginative...
£6500
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MESNY, William.
Mesny’s Chinese miscellany. A text book of notes on China and the Chinese, in two volumes … Vol. I.
Shanghai, printed at the “China Gazette Office”, 1896.
The first of an eventual four volumes of a remarkable miscellany of all things Chinese compiled by the Jersey born adventurer William Mesny (1842–1919). This volume collects twenty-six weekly parts issued between 26 September 1895 and 19 March 1896; the series would eventually run until June 1905.
£1500
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[MONTANUS, Arnoldus.]
Ambassades mémorables de la Compagnie des Indes Orientales des Provinces Unies, vers les empereurs du Japon....
Amsterdam, Jacob van Meurs, 1680.
First edition in French of an important and influential study of Japan by the Dutch theologian and historian Arnoldus Montanus, based on eyewitness accounts from two Dutch East India Company (VOC) missions to Japan in 1649 and 1661.
£3500
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NAVARRETE, Domingo Fernández.
Tratados historicos, politicos, ethicos, y religiosos de la monarchia de China. Descripcion...
Madrid, Juan Garcia Infançon for Florian Anisson, 1676.
Scarce first edition, one of the most important early studies of Chinese history, religion, philosophy, and culture, by the Spanish Dominican Domingo Navarrete (d. 1689).
£3750
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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.
£1750
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PERRY, Matthew Calbraith.
Narrative of the expedition of an American squadron to the China Seas and Japan, performed in the years...
Washington, A.O.P. Nicholson, Printer, 1856.
First edition of the official account of the naval expedition that established diplomatic and commercial relations between the United States and Japan and forced the end of Japan’s self-imposed policy of seclusion from the outside world.
£3500
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ROUGEMONT, François de.
Relacam do estado politico e espiritual do imperio da China, pellos annos de 1659 atè o de 1666. Escrita...
Lisbon, Joao da Costa, 1672.
Portuguese translation, the first appearance of the text, of the Dutch Jesuit François de Rougemont’s history of mid seventeenth-century China, published a year before the Latin original. Inspired to join the Chinese missions after meeting the famed Jesuit sinologist Martino Martini in Louvain, Rougemont...
£2500
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SICARDO, José.
Christiandad del Japon, y dilatada persecucion que padecio. Memorias sacras, de los martyres de las ilustres religiones...
Madrid, Francisco Sanz, 1698.
Rare first edition of this important and comprehensive account of Christian missions to Japan by the Spanish Augustinian José Sicardo (1643–1715).
£12000
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SMITH, George.
Lewchew and the Lewchewans; being a narrative of a visit to Lewchew, or Loo Choo, in October, 1850 ...
London, T. Hatchard, 1853.
Three scarce works on the Ryukyu Islands, a chain of Japanese islands between Kyushu and Taiwan.
£950
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ST JOHN, Spenser Buckingham.
Life in the forests of the far east … With numerous illustrations …
London, Smith, Elder and Co., 1862.
First edition, a nice copy in the publisher’s binding and with their advertisements, of this richly illustrated account of pioneering expeditions on the island of Borneo by St John (1825-1910), who had been introduced to Sir James Brooke (the ‘White Raja’) in 1847, when Brooke was visiting England.
£1600
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TIMKOVSKII, Egor Fedorovich.
Travels of the Russian mission through Mongolia to China, and residence in Peking, in the years 1820-1821...
London, Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1827.
First edition in English (first Russian 1824) of this important description of Mongolia and China by the Russian traveller and diplomat Egor Timkovskii (1790–1875), translated by Hannibal Evans Lloyd (1771–1847).
£1100
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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