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Pope Clement XI's copies of three important works concerning the Armenian language

AGOP, Joannes (Yovhannès KONSTANDNOWPOLSECÍ). Puritas Haygica seu grammatica Armenica ...
Rome, Sacrae Congretationis de Propaganda Fide, 1675.
With:
(2) AGOP, Joannes. Grammatica Latina Armenice' explicata: ...
Rome, Propaganda Fide, 1675.
(3) AGOP, Joannes. Puritas lingue Armenicae ...
Rome, Propaganda Fide, 1674.
3 works in 1 volume. 4to. Contemporary sheepskin parchment. [6], 246, [4]; 215, [1 blank]; 215, [1] pp. Full description
€ 24,000
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Highly detailed wall map of Asia and the Arabian peninsula, from the collection of the Governor of Ceylon

ARROWSMITH, Aaron. Asia.
London, Aaron Arrowsmith, 1 January 1801. Engraved wall map, hand coloured in outline, on 4 sheets joined as 2 (measuring 124 x 147 cm in total) on a scale of ca. 1:6,490,880, with an elaborately decorated cartouche at the head left, a dedication below ("To major James Rennell, Esqr. F.R.S. &c. &c.") and the name of the engraver at the foot right (George Allen). Mounted on cloth and divided into 32 sections. Contemporary slipcase, covered with marbled paper and a manuscript title-label on front. Full description
€ 7,500
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Second part of the first ever series of children's books

BAÏF, Lazare de and [Charles ESTIENNE (editor)]. De vasculis libellus, adulescentulorum causa ex Bayfio decerptus, addita vulgari Latinarum vocum interpretatione.
Paris, Roberti Stephani [Robert Estienne], (colophon: 13 October) 1543. 8vo. With a woodcut printer's device on the title-page. Later blueish-grey paper over boards with the title printed in black on the spine. 52, [3], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 1,750
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Rare first edition of the biography of the national hero of Albania

BARLETI, Marin. Historia de vita et gestis Scanderbegi Epirotarum principis.
[Colophon:] Rome, B[ernardino] V[eneta de' Vitali], [ca. 1520/22?]. Folio. With a full-page woodcut portrait of Skanderbeg (25.5 x 16.5 cm), a 4-piece woodcut frame on the title-page and 11 woodcut decorated initials from 5 series, many pictorial and the largest with a portrait. 17th-century Italian? sheepskin parchment. [4], CLIX, [1] ll. Full description
€ 25,000
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Azevedo-Samodães copy of the rare first Portuguese edition of a classic biography of Thomas à Becket

[BECKET, Thomas à (subject)]. [Diego Afonso de MIRANDA, translator]. Historea da vida e martyrio do glorioso Sancto Thomas Arcebispo, Senhor de Cantuaria, Primas de Inglaterra, legado perpetuo da sancta see apostolica, trelada da novamente de Latim em lingoagé Portugues.
(Colophon: Coimbra, João Alvarez, printer to the University, 12 November) 1554. 4to. With several woodcut decorated initials. With the 4 preliminary leaves in facsimile. 20th-century Portuguese tree calf, gold-tooled spine, red spine label, brown sprinkled edges, marbled endpapers. [8], “CCCI” [= 303], [1 blank], [20] pp. Full description
€ 7,500
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Wonderful and very rare nautical atlas for the Mediterranean

BERTHELOT, François. [Nautical atlas of the Mediterranean Sea].
Marseille, "se vend chez Benoît", 1720-1730. Large folio (40 x 55 cm). With 4 double-page engraved maps, with the first half of the first map as the front paste-down and the second half of the last map as the back paste-down. Contemporary vellum-backed boards, reinforced with light brown leather at the head and foot of the spine. 4 nautical maps on [8] pp. Full description
€ 8,500
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Monumental and seminal critical edition of the Greek New Testament (1550) with all woodcut devices, headpieces and initials coloured, including much gold and silver and extensive additional colour decorations in a rococo style

[BIBLE - NEW TESTAMENT - GREEK]. ESTIENNE, Robert, editor. Tῆò Káéíῆò ÄéáèÞêçò ἅπáíôá [Tes Kaines Diathekes Apanta] = Novum Jesu Christi D.N. Testamentum Ex Bibliotheca Regia.
Paris, Robert Estienne, King's printer, 1550. Folio (35 x 24 cm). With a Greek and Latin title-page including Estiennes woodcut basilisk device as Kings printer (and 1 repeat), his woodcut olive tree device on the otherwise blank last page (N6v), 3 single-piece decorated architectural frames with putti, etc. (plus 3 repeats) for the tables of the Eusebian canons for the Gospels, 9 woodcut headpieces and 21 decorated woodcut initial letters (plus numerous repeats). Set almost entirely in the three sizes of Claude Garamonts famous Greek printing types, known as the Grecs du Roi, and the first use of the largest size. The present copy has been richly decorated, probably around the time it was bound, not just by colouring Estiennes woodcut devices (the basilisk in gold), decorative frames, headpieces and initials, but also by adding extensive decorations in rococo style, the whole using a large number of mostly bright colours plus gold and silver. Gold-tooled black sheepskin, the gold-tooled spine with the title, publisher and date in the 2nd and 6th of 7 compartments in roman capitals, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins, gilt and richly gauffered edges, Dutch combed and curled endpapers. [32], “272” [= 268], 202, [2] pp. Full description
€ 95,000
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Unrecorded work for pregnant women in a beautifully embroidered silk binding

[BINDING - EMBROIDERED]. Esercizio da premettersi dalle donne in stato di gravidanza per conseguire da dio per l'intercessione del glorioso San Torello protettore insigne l'essenzione da tutti i pericoli e felicità nel prossimo parto.
Florence, Stamperià Arcivescovile alla Croce Rossa, 1822. 8vo. Beautifully embroidered contemporary pink silk over paperboards, with flowers and a border along the edges of both sides, and the initials "CM" in centre of front cover, preserved in a modern marbled slipcase. 39 pp. Full description
€ 12,500
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Printed memento of a noble wedding, bound in red velvet with emblematic gold and silver embroidery

[BINDING]. [GHELARDI SCOLOPI, Orazio Antonio]. La pace tra la virtu', la gloria, ed amore. Componimento drammatico da cantarsi in occasione delle faustissime nozze del nobil uomo signor Silvestro Michele Arnolfini con la nobil donzella signora Beatrice Luisa Bernardini dedicato alla medesima.
Lucca, Giuseppe Rocchi, 1767. Small 4to (17 x 14 cm). Contemporary red velvet, embroidered with silver and gold thread and white and yellow silk (each board with an emblematic image: a crowned mirror[?] showing a hand planting a flag, perhaps intended as the groom's hand on the front and the bride's hand on the back), sewn without supports through 3 holes, brocade paper endpapers (grape vines and large flowers, white on a copper background), green silk ribbon marker. 24 pp. Full description
€ 15,000
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Large and richly decorated early 18th-century Dutch silver binding with crucifixion & resurrection

[BINDING - SILVER]. [Pair of embossed silver book covers, with two engraved silver clasps].
[Netherlands?, ca. 1725?]. Pair of embossed silver book covers (34 x 25 x 3 cm); each cover with a large scrollwork cartouche surrounded by extensive vine and flower decorations and with medallion portraits in each of the four corners, the front showing the crucifixion flanked by Mary and St. John (with an "INRI" scroll above, flanked by a crescent moon and a sun, and a skull and crossbones below), with portraits of four saints, each with a blank scroll (above left bearded with a regal crown; above right clean-shaven with a round-topped mitre; below left and right bare-headed and bearded), the back showing the resurrection with an angel and two astonished guards, with portraits of the four Evangelists. Full description
€ 11,500
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India, Burma and Switzerland drawn and described by an English lieutenant in 67 sketches

BLACKWELL, Thomas Eden. [Sketchbook containing several sketches of India, Burma and Switzerland, with an emphasis on their cultures].
[Various places, ca. 1826-1830]. Oblong 4to. With 66 sketches in pen & ink and pencil, mostly signed by Blackwell, mounted and bound in, with manuscript captions. There is also 1 print (ca. 1795/1800?) drawn by Singey Bey and engraved by Thomas Medland. Half black morocco, black decorated paper sides, gold-tooled ornaments on spine. [70] gray, white and blue album ll., containing 67 sketches and their accompanying manuscript captions and descriptions. Full description
€ 18,000
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First edition of Blaeu's atlas of Scotland and Ireland, beautifully coloured and highlighted with gold

BLAEU, Joan. Vyfde stuck der aerdrycksbeschryving, welck vervat Schotlandt en Yrlandt.
Amsterdam, Joan Blaeu, 1654. Atlas folio (57.5 x 39.5 cm). With engraved architectural title-page with the arms of Scotland filling the top half, elaborately crested, supported by unicorns with flags and still with the old Stuart royalist mottos, and 55 engraved maps (54 double-page and 1 of the Irish County Caterlogh, full-page), often richly adorned with additional cartouches with regional scenes, but most often with coats of arms from the region. Numerous woodcut tailpieces and decorated initial letters. The title-page and all maps, including the cartouches, scenes and coats of arms, beautifully coloured by hand and highlighted with gold. All maps in their first states, without added ships or compass roses. 17th-century Dutch gold-tooled vellum. [8], 189, [1 blank], 70, [1, 1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 24,000
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Fountains by the city architect of Nuremberg

BOECKLER, George Andreas. Architectura Curiosa Nova, Exponens 1. Fundamenta hydragogica. 2. Varios aquarum ac salientium fontium. 3. Magnum amoenissimorum fontium. 4. Specus artificiales sumtuosissimas. 5. Cum auctario figuram elegantissimarum. In Latinam linguam translata per J.Chr. Sturm.
Nuremberg, Paulus Fürst, [1664]. 4 parts in 1 volume. Folio. With richly engraved frontispiece, 4 titles within typographical woodcut borders, the first printed in red and black, and 200 full-page engraved plates of fountain architecture and hydraulic engineering in fountains. Contemporary vellum with the manuscript title on the spine. [10], 30; [2], 13, [1 blank]; [2], 22; [2], 26 pp. Full description
€ 15,000
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Queen Anne's exquisite tortoise shell and gold book box

[BOOK-SHAPED BOX - QUEEN ANNE]. [Gold and tortoise shell book-shaped box made for Queen Anne of Great Britain].
[Portugal?], [ca. 1702?]. Ca. 15.5 x 12 x 5.5 cm.
Early 18th-century, possibly Portuguese, tortoise shell box, with elaborate gold filigree rococo decorations: birds and foliage within a floral frame on the front and back "boards" with gold filigree decorated fastenings around the "fore edge", complete with: 2 catch plates, 2 anchor plates and 2 clasps. The "spine" is divided into 4 compartments, separated by gold filigree decorative horizontal strips, with a gold engraved plaque in the 2nd compartment reading in a banner "BY ME KINGS REIGNE" and below "ANNE [a crown] REGINA" and a filigree basket of flowers in the 1st, 3rd and 4th compartments. The edges are embossed and covered in fine gold foil. The inside of the box is covered in red velvet and the front "board" is, once the box is open, connected to the outer corners of the "fore edge" by fine gold chains. Full description
€ 35,000
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Beautifully illustrated manuscript showing the displays in the Royal Armouries
in the Tower of London in the early 19th century

[BRITISH ARMOUR - TOWER OF LONDON - DUTCH MANUSCRIPT]. Beschrijving van de paarden wapenzaal in de Tower te London.
[The Netherlands, second quarter of the 19th century]. Ca. 21.5 x 17 cm. With 12 large, colourful ink drawings of knights on horseback, depicting various British kings and nobles, and a smaller ink drawing of knights in battle on the title-page. Contemporary green paper, over brown cloth, with a calligraphed title on the front in a baroque style floral frame, and a drawing of a knight on horseback on the back board within the same floral frame, blue speckled edges. [1], [1 blank], 105 pp. Full description
€ 3,500
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The classic book of Biblical travels: the first edition to be accompanied
by the complementary Lower Saxon chronicle in contemporary, richly blind-tooled Saxon pigskin

BÜNTING, Heinrich and Matthias HASAERT. Itinerarium Sacrae Scripturae, das ist Ein Reisebuch uber die gantze Heilige Schrifft ...
Including:
[BÜNTING, Heinrich]. Itinerarium Novi Testamenti. Das ist: Ein Reisebuch over das Newe Testament.
BÜNTING, Heinrich. De monetis et mensuris sacrae scripturae. Dass ist: Ein eigentliche ausrechnung und beschreibung aller Müntz und Masse in heiliger Schrift. ...
Magdeburg, Paul Donat for Ambrosius Kirchner, 1585. With 3 title-pages, 7 double-page and 2 full-page woodcut maps
With: (2) BÜNTING, Heinrich. Braunschweigische und Luneburgische Chronica.
Including:
Das ander Theil Braunschweigischen Chronica, gehet auff das Land Lüneburg
Das dritte Theil, der Braunschweigischen und Lüneburgischen Chronica, ...
Das vierte Theil dieses Buches, gehet insonderheit auff das Fürstenthumb Grubenhagen, füret ... den geburts Stam des fürstlichen Hauses Braunschweig und Lüneburg.
Magdeburg, Paul Donat for Ambrosius Kirchner, 1584-1585. General title-page in red and black with the woodcut coat of arms of Julius of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, further with numerous finely detailed woodcut illustrations
2 works in 3 and 4 volumes, bound as 1. Folio. Contemporary, richly blind-tooled pigskin, possibly by Nikolaus Müller in Wittenberg. With a matching pair of panel stamps in the central fields: portraits of Martin Luther (front board, 83 x 44 mm) and Phillip Melanchthon (back board, 81 x 45 mm), each with the date 1556 and text below. Ad 1: [16], “141” [= 242], [18]; [6], 110, [9] [3 blank]; [6], “34” [= 33], [1 blank] pp.; ad 2: [14], “150” [= 151], [1 blank]; “46” [= 47]. [1 blank]; [1], 47-82, [1 blank]; [1], “82”-“113” [= 83-109] ll. Full description
€ 27,500
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8 Italian sonnets praising Napoléon Bonaparte: printed on vellum by Pierre Didot
and finely bound in long-grained, gold-tooled morocco for presentation to Napoléon

BUTTURA, Antonio. Sonetti a Bonaparte.
Paris, Pierre Didot laîné, An VIII [after Floréal, so 1800]. 8vo. Finely printed on vellum. Contemporary long-grained and gold-tooled red goatskin morocco, each board with a frame made from a decorated roll with palm leaves between 2 fine-line fillets, the smooth spine with the title in the 2nd of 6 fields, an acorn with leaves in each of the others, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins, light green watered silk endleaves. [2 blank], [1], [1 blank], [8], [4 blank] pp. Full description
€ 35,000
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First German/Latin edition of Catesbys influential "Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands", richly illustrated and hand-coloured

CATESBY, Mark, Nicolaus Friederich EISENBERGER and Georg LICHTENSTEGER. Piscium serpentum insectorum aliorumque nonnullorum animalium nec non plantarum quarundam imagines ... | Die Abbildungen verschiedener Fische, Schlangen, Insecten, einiger andern Thiere, und Pflanzen...
Nürnberg, Johann Joseph Fleischmann, 1750. Folio. With 42 hand-coloured copperplate engravings (34.5 x 25 cm). Early nineteenth-century period-style half leather binding with marbled boards, title in gold-tooling to board in gilt lettering. [2], 42, [84] pp. Full description
€ 29,500
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First edition of a rare work about the Orient and the crusades

CENTENO, Amaro. Historia de cosas del oriente primera y segunda parte...
Cordoba, Diego Galván, 1595. 2 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With a woodcut coat of arms on the title-page and the divisional title-page for part 2, an elaborate Jesuit woodcut IHS vignette on the verso of the last leaf above the colophon and woodcut initials throughout, with a few typographical or woodcut tail-pieces, al text is set within a simple woodcut frame. Later tree marbled sheepskin. [8], 138, [4] ll. Full description
€ 28,000
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Navigation and astronomical research in present-day Canada

CHABERT, Joseph Bernard. Voyage fait par ordre du Roi en 1750 et 1751, dans l'Amérique septentrionale...
Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1753. 4to. With an engraved printer's vignette on the title-page, an engraved headpiece at the beginning of the first chapter, 6 folding engraved maps, a folding engraved plate showing geometrical figures, and a large folding table with calculations for the position of the sun and the moon. Contemporary gold-tooled red morocco, with the title lettered in gold on the spine, gold-tooled tun-ins, gilt edges. [2], VIII, 288, [10] pp. Full description
€ 12,500
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Very rare and little known collection of Italian Renaissance merchant voyages to India

CIGNANO, Ludovico. Quieta solitudine di varii ragionamenti, discorsi, et concetti, ove si narra quattro navigationi ...
Bologna, Alessandro Benacci, 1587. Small 4to. With the woodcut coat of arms of the dedicatee Giovanni Luigi Scappi, elaborately helmed, crested and mantled, on the title-page, a woodcut tailpiece (plus 1 repeat), woodcut decorated initials (at least 4 series), decorations built up from cast typographic ornaments.
Goatskin morocco (ca. 1870/80?), richly gold-tooled spine and turn-ins, signed in foot of front turn-in by the Paris bookbinders "DARLAUD FRÈRES", gold fillets on sides and board edges, combed curl-marbled endpapers, edges gilt over marbling, headbands worked in white and beige, and a yellow, red and green ribbon marker. 166 pp. Full description
€ 45,000
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On the wealth of the British Empire, focussing on its overseas possessions

COLQUHOUN, Patrick. A treatise on the wealth, power, and resources, of the British Empire, in every quarter of the world, including the East Indies: the rise and progress of the funding system explained; ...
London, 1814. 4to. With many letterpress tables in text. Contemporary tree calf, gold-tooled spine; rebacked, with the original backstrip laid down. XII, 451, [1 blank], 91, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 3,500
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Very rare first account of the death of Captain Cook

[COOK, James (subject)]. Nachrichten von dem Leben und den Seereisen des berühmten Capitain Cook.
Reval [= Tallinn, Estonia] & Leipzig, Albrecht und Compagnie, 1780.
With: (2) Briefe aus England historisch-statistisch und artistischen Inhalts. 1s Heft.
Reval [= Tallinn, Estonia] & Leipzig, Albrecht und Compagnie, 1780.
2 works in 1 volume. 8vo. With a woodcut ship on the title-page of ad 2 and woodcut headpieces in both works. Contemporary half calf, brown sprinkled paper sides, brown morocco spine label with title in gold. 48; [14], [2 blank] pp. Full description
€ 148,500
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First edition of an important historical work on Macaronesia, especially the Azores

CORDEIRO, Antonio. Historia insulana das ilhas a Portugal sugeytas no oceano occidental.
Lisboa occidental, Na officina de Antonio Pedrozo Galram, 1717. Small folio (ca. 28 x 21 cm). With a woodcut printer's device on the title-page, woodcut decorated initials, and woodcut head- and tailpieces. Gold-tooled brown calf from the first half of the 19th century. [1], [1 blank], [14], 528 pp. Full description
€ 7,500
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Key work by one of the best cosmographers of his time,
also describing the famous pair of globes he made for Louis XIV

CORONELLI, Vincenzo, and Carlo MALAVISTA. Epitome cosmografica, o compendiosa introduttione all' astronomia, geografia, & idografia, per l'uso, dilucidatione, e fabbrica delle sfere, globi, planisferi, astrolabi e tavole geografiche.
Cologne, for Andrea Poletti in Venice, MDCLXXXXIII [=1693]. 8vo. With an engraved allegorical frontispiece with the coat of arms of the Accademia Cosmografica degli Argonauti, several tables in the text and 37 engraved cosmographical and geographical plates: 31 double-page plates (including one with 2 movable volvelles, each with 3 moving parts) and 6 circular folding terrestrial and celestial charts. Later vellum, new endpapers and paste-downs, red edges. [1], [1 blank], [44], 420 pp. plus 37 plates. Full description
€ 17,500
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Detailed account of Goa, printed and published in Madras

COTTINEAU DE KLOGUEN, Denis Louis. An historical sketch of Goa, the metropolis of the Portuguese settlements in India: with an account of the present state of that celebrated city, and of the surrounding territories under its immediate jurisdiction, collected from the most authentic sources...
Madras (now Chennai), India, "printed for the Proprietor, by William Twigg, at the Gazette Press", 1831. 4to (ca. 20 x 13 cm). With a detailed folding engraved map of the city of Goa. Modern reddish-brown leather. [6], 177, [1 blank], [10] pp. Full description
€ 4,000
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A great source for Russian history and foreign relations in the 17th century

[COYETT, Balthasar]. Historisch verhael, of beschryving van de voyagie, gedaen onder de suite van den heere Koenraad van Klenk, extraordinaris ambassadeur ... aan zijne zaarsche majesteyt van Moscovien.
Amsterdam, Jan Claesz ten Hoorn, 1677. 4to. With etched frontispiece and 6 etched folding plates by Romeyn de Hooghe. 19th-century boards. [8], 214 [= 220] pp. Full description
€ 9,500
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Memoirs of an important Portuguese diplomat at the court of Louis XIV

CUNHA BROCHADO, José da. Memorias particulares, ou anecdotes dal'orte de França apontadas por Joze da Cunha Brochádo, notempo em que foi Enviado quela mesma Córte.
[Madrid, ca. 1725]. Folio. Contemporary gold-tooled marbled calf, with the title lettered in gold on the spine, marbled endpapers, red edges with brown speckles. [1], [1 blank], 396, [4 blank] pp. Full description
€ 7,500
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Profusely illustrated description of the Peloponnese, the Adriatic Sea and Dalmatian coast, copy from the British Military depot

DAPPER, Olfert. Naukeurige beschryving van Morea, eertijts Peloponnesus ...
Amsterdam, Abraham Wolfgang, firm Janssonius van Waesbergen, Dirk and Hendrik Boom, Joannes van Someren and Rembertus Goethals, 1688. 2 parts in 1 volume. Folio. With an engraved title-page, 2 folding maps, 9 double-page plates and maps, 6 single-page plates and 29 half-page engravings in the text. Further with a woodcut ornament on the typographical title-page (printed in red and black) and 4 woodcut initials. Contemporary gold-tooled speckled brown calf, a red morocco title lable lettered in gold and a black morocco label lettered in gold on the spine. Both boards show a gold-tooled ornamental frame, with gold-tooled royal coat-of-arms of the United Kingdom beneath a gold-tooled banner lettered in gold "military depot" as a centre piece on the front board. Further with gold-tooled board edges, red edges, marbled end papers. [8], "168" [= 264]; [12], "164" [= 181], [6], [2 blank] pp. Full description
€ 7,500
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First edition of an account of the qualities required of a ruler, written by a Franciscan in Goa

DEOS (DEUS), Jacinto de. Brachilogia de princepes, ...
Lisbon, António Craesbeeck de Mello, printer to "Sua Alteza" [= Prince Regent and future King Dom Pedro II], 1671. Small 8vo (15 x 9.5 cm). With 2 woodcut decorated initials (2 series). Contemporary sheepskin parchment without boards. [16], 299, [1 blank], [3], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 12,500
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Copiously illustrated, important botanical work on flowering plants from North-Africa

DESFONTAINES, René Louiche. Flora Atlantica, sive Historia plantarum, quae in Atlante, agro Tunetano et Algeriensi crescunt.
Paris, L. G. Desgranges, Imprimerie Panckoucke, 1798-1799 (anno sexto). 3 parts in 2 volumes. 4to. With "261" [=263] numbered, full-page, engraved plates. Late 19th-century black morocco. [6], XX, 444; 458 pp. Full description
€ 6,950
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A British diarist on the Arab-African slave trade

DEVEREUX, William Cope. A cruise in the "Gorgon"; or, eighteen months on H.M.S. "Gorgon", engaged in the suppression of the slave trade on the east coast of Africa.
London, Bell and Daldy, 1869. 8vo. With a hand-coloured folding map as a frontispiece. Original publisher's blue cloth. XV, [1], 421, [3] pp. including 2 pp. of adverts. Full description
€ 4,500
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Eyewitness account of a 1570 diplomatic mission to the Ottoman court,
with 28 fine original colour drawings and samples of Turkish decorated paper

[DIPLOMATIC MISSION]. BRAECKLE, Jacques de. Memoires du voiage de Constantinople de Jacques de Bracle seigneur de Bassecourt.
[Various places, [1570 or very soon after]. 4to (main text & decorated paper) & 8vo (transcription & drawings) (21.5 x 14.5 cm). Manuscript in French, written in brown ink on paper in a Flemish bastarda gothic hand, with about 26 lines per page. With 8 contemporary half-sheet specimens of Turkish decorated "silhouette" paper (folded to make 16 leaves in 2 quires), a series of 28 drawings in brown ink and coloured gouaches, highlighted in gold (mostly costume figures, some showing the Sultan and other leading figures, others showing anonymous types from various ethnic and religious groups), plus a ca. 1800, transcript of the complete text and biography of the author (with his arms in colour). Modern sheepskin parchment. [2 blank], [34]; [5 blank], [62 incl. a few blank], [1 blank] pp. plus 8 double leaves of decorated paper and [36], [4 blank]; [2], [2 blank] pp. of 18th-century additions. Full description
€ 180,000
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First European biography of Timur derived from an Arabic source

DU BEC-CRESPIN, Jean. The historie of the great emperour Tamerlan wherein are expressed, encounters, skirmishes, battels, sieges, assaults, skalings, taking of cities and strong places, defended, and assaulted, with diverse stratagems of warre, the which this great and renowned warriour hath conducted and accomplished, during his raigne of fortie or fiftie yeares: with other instructions for the warre, which should not be unknowen of them that would attaine unto the knowledge of armes. Drawen from the auncient monuments of the Arabians, by messire Jean du Bec, abbot of Mortimer. Newly translated out of French into English, for their benefite which are ignorant in that language. by H.M.
London, R. Field for Willam Ponsonby, 1597. 4to. With a woodcut device on the title-page, woodcut initials, head- and tail-pieces.17th-century calf, 19th century gold-tooled spine. [4], 265, [1] pp. Full description
€ 35,000
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Rare second Latin edition of Galen's De sanitate tuenda, his first work translated directly from the original Greek

GALENUS (GALEN), Claudius (Thomas LINACRE, translator). Libri sex prefulge[n]tissimi ac medicine principis Galeni de sanitate tue[n]da: Thoma Linacro medico Anglico interprete: summa cum diligentia impressi omnibusq[ue] erroribus purgati.
[colophon:] Venice, heirs of Alessandro Bindoni for Giovanni Battista Pederzano, 6 July 1523. 4to. Title-page with a nearly full-page woodcut, woodcut initials in the text. Contemporary vellum over flexible boards, a manuscript title and a later paper label with "1522" on the spine and a manuscript title at the foot edge. [4], XCIX, [1] ll. Full description
€ 7,500
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The first ethnographic survey of the Russian Empire

GEORGI, Johann Gottlieb. Russland. Beschreibung aller Nationen des russischen Reiches, ihrer Lebensart, Religion, Gebräuche, Wohnungen, Kleidungen und übrigen Merkwürdigkeiten.
Leipzig, Dyk, 1783. 2 volumes. 4to. With 2 etched hand-coloured frontispieces by Schoenberg (coloured by Capieux), and several delicate engraved head- and tailpieces in the text by C.M. Roth. Contemporary half calf, sprinkled boards. [4], XII, [5], [1 blank], 271, [1 blank]; [2], 273-530, [10] pp. Full description
€ 4,500
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Convolute with rare Dutch works on the art of navigation, richly illustrated with many mathematical
and geometrical figures and two circle figures with moving volvelles

GIETERMAKER, Klaas Hendriksz. 't Vergulde licht der zee-vaard, ofte konst der stuurlieden. Zynde een volkomen en klare onderwyzinge der navigatie, bestaande in 't geen een stuurman hoognodig behoorde te weten.
Amsterdam, Joannes van Keulen & sons, [not before 1774]. With an engraved frontispiece, 2 engraved circle figures with moving volvelles, 1 engraved mathematical and geometrical folding plate, many tables (some folding) and many mathematical and geometrical woodcut illustrations and figures in the text.
With:
(2) DOUWES, Bernardus Joannes. Tafelen, bevattende 1°. De sinussen, tangenten en secanten, van minuut tot minuut voor ieder boog van het quadrant, in hunne natuurlyke getallen, op een radius van 10.000.000. 2°. Derzelver logarithmen. 3°. De logarithmen der gewoone getallen, in hunne natuurlyke orde van opvolging, van 1 tot 10.000. 4°. De vergrootende breedten, in tiende-deelen van minuuten. 5°. De streektafelen, naar het plat en het rond, voor ieder geheele compasstreek van een vierde-rond. Nieuwe, naauwkeurige en veel verbeterde uitgaave.
Amsterdam, Gerard Hulst van Keulen, 1779. Completely filled with mathematical tables.
(3) [drop title:] Tafel van de lengte en breedte der meest bekende zee-plaatzen.
[Amsterdam?, Gerard Hulst van Keulen?, ca. 1779?].
3 works in 1 volume, the first in 4 parts. 4to. Contemporary blind-tooled vellum. Ad 1: [8], 106; 152, 8; 97; 98-120 pp. Ad 2: [233], [1 blank] pp. Ad 3: 39, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 6,500
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First edition of the first English translation of the poems by the Persian Sufi poet Hafez

HAFEZ (HAFIZ) [Khwaaja Shams-ud-Din Muhammad Hafez-e Shirazi]. The Dîvân, written in the fourteenth century by Khwâja Shamsu-d-Dîn Muhammad-i-Hâfiz-i-Shîrâzî otherwise known as Lisânu-l-Ghaib and Tarjumânu-l-Asrâr. Translated for the first time out of the Persian into English prose, with critical and explanatory remarks, with an introductory preface, with a note on Sûfîism, and with a life of the author, by: Lieut.-Col. H. Wilberforce Clarke.
Calcutta, Government of India Central Printing Office, 1891. 2 volumes. Large 4to. Titles and mottos printed in red and black. Original publisher's vellum. [2], XLIV, 494; [4], 495-1011 pp. Full description
€ 6,500
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Everything you could possibly want to know about the Grenadier guards

HAMILTON, Frederick William. The origin and history of the first or Grenadier guards. From documents in the state paper office, war office, horse guards, contemporary history, regimental records, etc.
London, John Murray, 1874. 3 volumes. 8vo. With 17 portraits (3 serving as frontispieces), 60 maps and plans (3 folding), 7 chromolithographed plates and 1 view in total. Original publisher's red cloth. Each volume with a ticket of "Metchim & son...". XXXIV, [6], 458; XXXIV, 548; XVIII, 496 pp. Full description
€ 1,500
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Bound for King Louis XV

HAMILTON, Hugh. De sectionibus conicis. Tractatus geometricus. In quo, ex natura ipsius coni, sectionum affectioens [!] facillime deducuntur. Methodo nova.
London, William Johnston, 1758. 4to. With numerous illustrations on 17 folding engraved plates. Contemporary French gold-tooled red goatskin morocco, with the arms of the French King Louis XV in the centre of each board and his crowned monogram in each compartment (except that with the title) of the spine. [4], VIII, 211, [1] pp. Full description
€ 13,000
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12 fine portraits of horses from the stables of Queen Victoria

HARVEY, William. Selections from the Royal stud, being portraits taken in October 1837, at Hampton Court, from life by William Harvey. Drawn on stone by and under the direction of R.J. Lane A.R.A. lithographer to Her Majesty.
London, Thomas McLean (printed by Alfred Ducôte and J. Graf), 1838. 1mo (55.5 x 38 cm). With lithographed title-page, lithographed list of plates, and 12 tinted lithographed plates by Richard James Lane and W.J. Giles after William Harvey. Contemporary cloth, gold title on front board ("The royal stud at Hampton Court"); rebacked in modern, brown half sheepskin. Full description
€ 35,000
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Exceptionally rare first edition of an unrivalled plate collection containing plans of antique cities

[HASE, Johann Matthias]. Plans des villes que passent pour les plus grandes de l'antiquité, et de nos jours ...
Nuremberg, Homann heirs, 1745. Folio. With 15 hand coloured, numbered, engraved plates. Modern folder, marbled paper over boards. Each leaf (ca. 56 x 66 cm) is separately mounted in a passe-partout (ca. 60 x 78 cm). [8] ll. Full description
€ 2,500
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First issue of second and best edition of a milestone in Dutch literature,
in armorial morocco by Henri-Joseph Pierson for Victor Masséna (1836-1910), Prince d'Essling

HEINSIUS, Daniel. Nederduytsche poemata.
Amsterdam, Willem Jansz. Blaeu, 1616. 4to. With engraved allegorical title-page and 66 engraved illustrations, all on integral leaves and mostly emblematic, by Crispijn de Passe, his two sons Crispijn Jr. and Simon, Michel le Blon after Jacob de Gheyn, and Jacob Matham after David Vinckboons. Late 19th-century gold-tooled dark brown morocco by Henri-Joseph Pierson, each board with the crowned and supported arms of Victor Masséna (1836-1910) in Paris , Prince d'Essling and Duc de Rivoli. 20, 132, 29-67, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 7,950
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Fine work illustrating the cities, ports, and factories of the Dutch East India Company in Asia and Africa

HEYDT, Johann Wolffgang. Allerneuester Geographisch und Topographischer Schau-Platz, von Africa und Ost-Indien.
Nuremberg, C. Tetschner, 1744. Oblong folio (31 x 36.5 cm). With 115 numbered engraved maps and plates, an engraved frontispiece, and an engraved title-page. Contemporary vellum, with the author and title lettered in gold on the spine, red edges. [24], 345, [4] pp. Full description
€ 17,500
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Important guide to navigating the seas to the far reaches of Asia

HUDDART, Joseph. The oriental navigator; or, new directions for sailing to and from the East Indies, China, New Holland, &c. &c. &c. Also for the use of the country ships, trading in the Indian and China seas, Pacific Ocean, &c. &c. &c...
London, printed and published by Robert Laurie and James Whittle, map, chart, and printsellers, 1801. 4to. With an engraved frontispiece portrait of Huddart by James Stow after John Hoppner and small woodcut coastal views in the text. Contemporary tree calf. [2], XII, 656 pp. Full description
€ 7,500
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Rare account of an important Russian diplomatic visit to China, with one of the first Western descriptions of Siberia

IDES, Evert Ysbrants. Driejaarige reize naar China, te lande gedaan door den Moskovicen afgezant, E. Ysbrandts Ides...
Including: KAO, Dionyzius. Korte beschrijving van t magtig keizerryk China ...
Amsterdam, Pieter de Coup, 1710. 4to. With an engraved title-page bound as a frontispiece before the typographical title-page, which is printed in red and black, a large folding map of Russia and parts of Asia, 8 folding engraved plates of cities and other views, 1 full-page engraving, and 21 half-page engravings in the text. Further with woodcut and engraved decorated initials, a large engraved head-piece at the start of the main text, 2 woodcut floral tail-pieces, and a small woodcut floral vignette on the typographical title-page. 19th-century gold-tooled light brown splattered paper with a red title-label on the spine. [30], 243, [4], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 3,950
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Beautiful work on Austrian plants and fungi, with a pioneering article on Stapelieae

[JACQUIN, Nikolaus Joseph von; Joachim Friedrich Plappart; Joseph Sonnauer]. Miscellanea Austriaca ad botanicam, chemiam, et historiam naturalem spectantia, cum figuris partim coloratis.
Vienna, ex officina Krausiana, 1778-1781. 2 volumes bound as 1. 4to. With 44 contemporary hand coloured, full-page copper-engraved plates of flowering plants, fungi and lichen. All plates are numbered and a few are signed ("J. Adam sculp."). Later gold-tooled quarter mottled calf. [4], 212; 423, [1] pp. Full description
€ 2,750
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Spectacular 17th-century jewelled binding with a noble provenance

[JEWELLED BINDING - FRENCH PRAYER BOOK]. L'abbé de la HOGUE. La journée du chrétien, sanctifiée par la prière et la méditation.
Lyon and Paris, Librairie Catolique de Perisse frères, 1844. 16mo. Binding: ca. 11 x 7 x 2.5 cm. With a small printer's device on the title page. 17th-century elaborately jewelled and decorated gilt silver binding with a gilt silver imperial double-headed eagle and two hands holding a heart centre piece, below Jesus on the cross (with an added skull and bones at the foot of the cross) and ornamental gilt silver corner pieces connected to the gilt silver board edge fittings on both boards. The whole is set with numerous jewels (amethysts, garnets, turquoise, and (simulated) sapphires). With two jewelled clasps closing on pegs in the fore edge of the front board, gilt edges, red velvet paste-downs and blue silk flyleaves backed with paper. VIII, 524, [5], [3 blank] pp. Full description
€ 65,000
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Sumptuously bound for the author for presentation to G.P. Oliva, Superior General of the Jesuit Society, on Royal paper.

KIRCHER, Athanasius. Ars magna sciendi, in XII libros digesta, qua nova & universali methodo ... [vol. 2 half-title:] Artis magnae seu combinatoriae sciendi, ... [titles on the frontispieces:] Ars magna sciendi sive combinatoria [vol. 1] Artis magnae combinatoriae [vol. 2].
Amsterdam, Johannes Janssonius van Waesberge and the widow of Elizaeus Weyerstraten, 1669. 2 volumes bound as 1. Royal folio (46 x 30 x 5.5 cm). With 2 richly engraved allegorical frontispieces, an engraved plate with a full-page portrait of the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, an engraved plate showing all knowledge of the universe organised as a tree, 2 engraved volvelles (with 4 rotating dials), 20 further engravings on integral leaves and a couple dozen woodcut figures in the text. Contemporary richly gold-tooled red goatskin morocco decorated a petit fers, gold-tooled turn-ins, board edges and raised bands, giving a total of more than 1500 impressions of about 14 stamps and 3 rolls, edges gilt over red and blue squiggles. Janssonius van Waesberge, who published Kircher's books in Amsterdam from 1664/65 to 1682, arranged to have copies of several luxuriously bound for Kircher to present to leading figures and this is almost certainly one of them, presented to Giovanni Paolo Oliva, Superior General of the Jesuit Society. [18], 482, [10] pp. (including 2 integral frontispieces), plus 4 inserted tables & 2 plates. Full description
€ 50,000
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How to carve a calf's head: exceptionally rare work on the art of carving and presenting meat

KLETTEN, Andraeas [and/or Georg Philipp HARSDÖRFFER]. Neues Trenchir-Büchlein...
Jena, Casparus Freyschmied, 1657. 2 parts in 1 volume. Oblong (ca. 10.5 x 16 cm). With an engraved frontispiece and 24 engraved illustrations, including 23 engravings of the proper ways to carve meat, and one large, folding engraving of the tools of the trade. Further with 4 tables showcasing how to present food on the table, and head- and tailpieces made up of typographical ornaments at the beginning and end of each part. Contemporary vellum. [12], 26; 27-106 [=79] pp. Full description
€ 15,000
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De Lairesse's Opus Elegantissimum, containing his remarkable engravings in their first state

LAIRESSE, Gerard de. Gerardi de Lairesse, Leodiensis pictoris, opus elegantissimum, Amstelaedami ipsa manu tam aeri incisum, quam inventum.
Including: [LAIRESSE, Gerard de, and Nicolaas VISSCHER II]. Appendix. Diversae de signationes, Lairessaea quidem manu inventae et pictae, at aliorum sculptorum manibus artificiosissime aeri incisae et sumptibus Nicolai Visscher editae.
[Amsterdam], [Nicolaas Visscher II], [ca. 1690?]. 1mo (52 x 39 cm). With a double-page engraved title-page, an engraved title-page of the appendix and more than 100 engraved illustrations on 56 large double leaves, including 31 double-page engravings. 18th-century half gold-tooled, sprinkled calf, decorated paper over boards, with a gold-tooled red morocco title-label on the spine. [50]; [8] double ll. Full description
€ 27,500
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Unpublished legal work

LAMPUGNANI, Girolamo. In [quatuor] libros institutionu[m] imperialiu[m] disputationes.
[Rome?, first half of the 17th century]. 2 parts in 1 volume. 12mo. With floral decorations in ink at the start of some of the chapters. Contemporary limp vellum, gilt edges. [2 blank], 128, [2 blank]; 129-260 [= 132 leaves] ll. Full description
€ 7,500
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First edition of Le Maires journal and first Dutch edition of Herreras description of the New World,
with 19 newly engraved maps, including the first two to show California as an island

LE MAIRE, Jacob. Spieghel der Australische navigatie, ...
Amsterdam, Michiel Colijn, 1622. With an engraved world map on the title-page, engraved portrait of the author on the back of the title-page, 3 double-page engraved maps, 5 nearly full-page numbered engraved views on integral leaves.
With:
(2) HERRERA Y TORDESILLAS, Antonio de. Nieuwe werelt, anders ghenaempt West-Indien. [engraved title-page:] Descriptio Indiae Occidentlis.
Amsterdam, Michiel Colijn, 1622. With engraved Latin title-page and 14 numbered double-page engraved maps.
(3) ORDONEZ DE CEBALLOS, Pedro. Eyghentlijcke beschryvinghe van West-Indien: ...
Amsterdam, Michiel Colijn, 1621. With a woodcut view on the title-page. 3 volumes bound as 1. Small folio (28.5 x 20 cm). 19th-century vellum. [16], 72 pp., 73-85 ll.; 8, 111, [1 blank]; 29, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 28,000
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Beautiful prints of early Christian hermits living in the desert

LEU, Thomas de (or de LEEUW) [drawn by Marten de VOS]. [engraved title:] Solitudo sive vitae patrum eremicolarum per antiquissimu[m] Patrem D. Hieronimu[m] eorundem primarium olim conscripta iam vero primum aeneis laminis. 1606. Thomas de Leu. excudit.
[Paris], Thomas de Leu, 1606. Small oblong folio (19 x 25.5 cm). With an engraved allegorical title-page including a 2-line quotation from Hebrews 11:37-38, and 29 engraved prints (plate size ca. 15 x 19 cm: mostly numbered, but a few unnumbered or irregularly numbered) illustrating the lives of the early Christian hermits living in the desert, 7 signed by Thomas de Leu as printer-publisher, in 2 cases accompanied by the monogram "NB" (the engraver Nicolaes de Bruyn). Gold-tooled blue goatskin morocco (ca. 1890?) by Bernard David (or his son Salvador David) in Paris (signed with a stamp - in sans-serif capitals - in the corner of the first free endleaf "DAVID"). [1], 29 engraved ll. Full description
€ 2,500
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Rare flower art book which describes some exotics for the first and only time

L'HÉRITIER DE BRUTELLE, Charles-Louis. Sertum Anglicum, seu plantae rariores quae in hortis juxta Londinum, imprimis in horto regio Kewensi excoluntur, ab anno 1786 ad annum 1787 observatae.
Paris, Pierre-François Didot, 1788 [= after 1800]. 1mo (full-sheet leaves, ca. 34 x 53,5 cm). With 35 engraved botanical plates (8 folding), including 20 drawn by Pierre-Joseph Redouté and 10 by James Sowerby. Contemporary half red roan (sheepskin). Preserved in a professionaly handmade box, made for this book. [4], 20 pp. Full description
€ 18,000
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Luxurious silver cigar box with engravings of Oman, made by a British master silversmith

MACDONALD, George Grant (silversmith). [Engraved silver cigar box commissioned by the Assarain Group of Companies].
London, Assarain Group of Companies, Oman, 1990. With the map of Oman and 2 views engraved on the polished top. The cigar box (15 x 23 x 5 cm) is made of sterling (925) silver, with an engraved map and illustrations of Oman on the polished top, surrounded by a gilded frame, decorative engraving on the sides, a lined hardwood (mahogany?) inside, hallmarks on the underside. The cigar box is in a protective gold-tooled green morocco box (20 x 27 x 8 cm) with gold clasps, lined with green velvet and a white silk-like fabric. Full description
€ 7,500
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Nice collection of 131 flags, banners, standards, and crests, made in Japan

[MANUSCRIPT - FLAGS - JAPAN]. "All the flags from 1893".
Japan, 1893. Collection of drawings of 131 flags, banners etc. on separate leaves of varying sizes, most of them coloured.
With: (2) [MANUSCRIPT]. [Decorated Japanese rice-paper].
Japan, [1893?]. Ten sample leaves 928 x 38 cm) of so-called rice paper (actually cut in small sheets from the pith of the rice-paper plant, Tetrapanax papyrifer), decorated with varying designs, like flowers, fans and traditional Japanese dolls.
19th-century wrappers of thick handmade Japanese paper, reinforced with straps of paper containing Japanese characters and blue and red stamps; with the title of ad 1 in Japanese characters on the front wrapper. [131]; [10] ll. Full description
€ 5,000
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Attractive 15th-century prayer book, showing influences of the Cult of Saint Joseph

[MANUSCRIPT - PRAYER AND HYMN BOOK - LATIN]. [Devotionarium].[Incipit leaf 2r:] Or[ati]o deuota q[ue] debet dici[t] i[n] ficem diei ante dormitione[m].
[Northern Germany(?), 15th century]. 8vo. Written in Latin on relatively thin parchment (leaf 11.5 x 8.5 cm, text block 7.8 x 5.2 cm), in a gothic hand in one column of 17 lines per page using black/dark brown ink. The manuscript is rubricated throughout, with a 3-line red and blue initial at the start of each part, and 2- or 1-line lombards, alternating in red and blue, at the start of each smaller section, ruled in pencil. Early 19th-century(?) gold-tooled vellum showing a gold-tooled floral frame on both boards, with a leather closing tie on the front, gold-tooled board eges, gilt edges. [131] ll. Full description
€ 18,000
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Henry Ecroyd Smith's journal of a trip to see Mediaeval architecture in North Yorkshire and Durham

[SMITH, Henry Ecroyd]. Notes of a three weeks ramble in North Yorkshire and South Durham.
[England], [18]61. Folio (28.5 x 23 cm). With numerous lithographs, copper- and steel-engravings, and newspaper clippings mounted on the leaves, a folding map of Russia added between pages 63 and 64, and a blank leaf from the guest book of the Hotel des Boulangers in Bern added between pages 75 and 76. All leaves are blind-ruled. Contemporary gold- and blind-tooled blue sheepskin. [1], "118" [= 116, final 61 pages blank], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 4,000
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The most important 18th-century work on the plants in the Alsace region

MAPPUS, Marcus and Johan Christian EHRMANN (editor). Historia plantarum alsaticarum.
Strasbourg and Amsterdam, Johann Daniel Dulsecker and Pieter Mortier, 1742. 4to. With 7 folding copper-engraved plates of plants, an engraved printer's device on the title-page, an engraved coat-of-arms of François-Joseph de Klinglin, baron de Hattstatt etc. as a headpiece above the dedication, 3 woodcut initials, a headpiece made up of typographical ornaments at the start of the main text and the index, a woodcut tailpiece at the end of the main text, and the title-page is printed in red and black. Contemporary gold-tooled, mottled, polished calf. [8], 335, [32] pp. Full description
€ 2,750
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Important study on the Irish language and typography

MARCEL, Jean Joseph. Alphabet Irlandais, précédé d'une notice historique, littéraire et typographique.
Paris, Imprimerie de la République, Nivose An XII [= December 1803/January 1804]. Royal 8vo (23.5 x 16 cm). With Marcels JJM monogram on the title-page and extensive letterpress tables (many in frames of thick-thin rules) showing upper and lowercase alphabets of the larger Irish type, abbreviations, etc. Contemporary blue paste-paper wrappers. 104 pp. Full description
€ 3,500
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First edition of one of the earliest grammars featuring a Romanisation of Chinese characters

MARSHMAN, Joshua. Elements of Chinese grammar, with a preliminary dissertation on the characters, and the colloquial medium of the Chinese, and an appendix containing the Ta-Hyoh of Confucius with a translation.
Serampore, printed at the mission press, 1814. Large 4to. With one woodcut illustration of a suanpan (abacus of Chinese origin) on p. 318. Text is set in roman type (Latin alphabet) and Chinese characters and occasionally in Bengali characters. Contemporary half red calf and black cloth sides with the title in gold on the spine. [1], [1 blank], [1], [1 blank], XVI, VII, [1 blank], 2, 566, 56 pp. Full description
€ 5,500
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Beautifully hand coloured copy of an abundantly illustrated work
detailing the genealogy of the Counts of Flanders

MARTIN, Cornelis and Pieter Balten (illustrator and publisher). Les genealogies et anciennes descentes des Forestiers et Comtes de Flandre, avec brieves descriptions de leurs vies et gestes le tout recueilly des plus veritables, approvees et anciennes croniques et annales qui se trouvent...
Antwerp, (colophon: Andre Bax for) Pierre Balthasar (also known as Pieter Balten), [1580]. Folio. With an engraved title-page, a full-page engraved plate with the dedication, a full-page engraved plate showing the coats-of-arms of the Foresters of Flanders and the counts of Flanders and a map of Flanders, a full-page engraving showing verse below an allegorical scene of death, 40 full-page engraved portraits of the Foresters and Counts of Flanders, 30 small coats-of-arms in the text, and numerous woodcut decorated initials. All illustrations (except for the initials) are expertly coloured by hand. Contemporary parchment, sewn on 4 supports laced through the joints, with remnants of green closing ties. [6], 119, [2], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 12,500
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First edition of a report - with the rare folding map - from Commodore Perrys expedition containing directions for U.S. merchant ships navigating the coasts of China and Japan

MAURY, William Lewis & Silas BENT. Sailing directions and nautical remarks; by officers of the late U.S. naval expedition to Japan, under the command of Commodore M.C. Perry.
Including (with a divisional title): Fac-simile of the original treaty with Japan, with the English version.
Washington, A.O.P. Nicholson, public printer, 1857. Large 4to (ca. 29.5 x 23 cm). With a large folding map of the coast of China and of the Japanese and other islands, including the Marianas and the Philippines; and the facsimile of the 14-page treaty in Japanese printed on both sides of 7 integral leaves, with the English text printed letterpress on both sides of the following leaf. Original publishers half purple cloth, Spanish-marbled paper sides (grey with red, blue, black, yellow and white veins), letterpress paper label with the title in a built-up decorative border on the front board: "Sailing directions for the coasts of Japan and China". 22, [2], 14, [2] pp. Full description
€ 5,000
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Only known copy of a ca. 1629 Dominican print series of the life of Saint Dominic
with an engraved title-page & 12 scenes with captions, coloured and highlighted in gold
by a 17th-century hand and in a richly gold-tooled armorial binding

MECHELEN, Hans van. Perill[ust]ri. ac reverend[issimo]. d[omi]no D. Michaeli Ophovio ex. ord. praedic. Episcopo Buscoducensi S. Dominicum Gusmannum eiusdem ordinis fundatorem D.D.
[Antwerp], Hans van Mechelen, [ca. 1629]. 24mo (11 x 7 x 0.6 cm). Wholly engraved print series printed on vellum, comprising an engraved title-page and 12 engraved scenes from the life of Saint Dominic. The title-page cartouche and all 12 scenes coloured by a 17th-century hand and highlighted in gold. 17th-century richly gold-tooled armorial black morocco, each board with a Lante della Rovere coat of arms, with a marquis's crown, in an elaborate frame built up from fillets and rolls, with further decorative stamps between the frame and arms, the smooth spine with 2 crowned eagles (centred in the lower and the upper half) and various abstract decorations, gold-tooled board edges: in total hundreds of impressions of dozens of stamps, rolls and fillets. [I], [12] ll. Full description
€ 48,500
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Queen Charlotte Sophia's copy, with 104 coloured proof plates, 104 uncoloured plates in final form, 4 additional coloured plates and an original dedicatory watercolour drawing

MILLER, John. Illustratio systematis sexualis Linnaei, ... | An illustration of the sexual system of Linnaeus, ...
London, published and sold by the author at his house ..., [1770-]1777. 3 volumes. Imperial folio (54 x 38 cm). Richly engraved frontispiece with medallion portraits of Miller and Linnaeus at the head, 3 identical engraved title-pages, 2 series of engraved botanical plates, each series printed from the same 104 plates, but that in volume 1 in proof-states and beautifully hand-coloured, that in volumes 2 & 3 in black and white with titles and imprints, and 4 further plates, numbered I-IV, showing 178 varieties of leaves, finely hand-coloured. With a full-page allegorical dedicatory pen and watercolour drawing for Queen Charlotte of England on the end-leaf before the frontispiece of the first volume, and a professionally lettered index covering all 3 volumes, specially made for this dedication copy, at the end of volume 3. Contemporary uniform gold-tooled mottled calf, richly gold-tooled spine. Full description
€ 60,000
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Beautiful first edition of De Groots miniature Bible summary, illustrated with 7 tiny woodcuts

[MINIATURE BOOK - BIBLE]. Kern des Bybels.
The Hague, Anthoni de Groot and sons, 1750. 128mo (or possibly 96mo) in 4s (4.5 x 3 x 1 cm). Title-page in red and black with a woodcut title-vignette (an open book on a shell, with decorations), 7 full-page (3.3 x 1.6 cm!) woodcuts depicting important scenes from the Bible (1 as frontispiece and 1 opening each of the 5 "books" and the appendix). Contemporary gold-tooled calf. 80 pp. Full description
€ 1,250
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The first ever study on cocaine

MORÉNO Y MAÏZ, Thomas. Recherches chimiques et physiologiques sur l'erythoxylum coca du Perou et la cocaïne.
Paris, A. Parent, imprimeur de la faculté de médecine, 1868. 4to. With a lithographic plate of coca leaves and 7 figures in the text showing the tension on the arteries after ingesting coca in various ways. Side stitched through 2 holes. [8], 90, [2] pp. Full description
€ 3,500
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Magnificent 18th-century mosaic binding showing a beautiful floral motif

[MOSAIC BINDING - BIBLE]. LEEMPUTTE, Henricus van den (editor). Het nieuwe testament ons salighmaeckers Jesu Christi, mitsgaders: d'epistelen uit het oude testament, soo die door 't jaer in den dienst der H. Kercke gelesen worden.
Antwerp, Hieronymus Verdussen (for Niclaes Braau in Haarlem), 1696. 8vo. With 39 detailed woodcut illustrations in the text, and woodcut decorated initials and small printed manicules. The text is set in a Gothic letter, with incidental use of Roman type. Exquisite 18th-century gold-tooled multi-colour morocco mosaic binding. Gilt edges and green silk covered end papers. [1], [1 blank], [14], 837, [27] pp. Full description
€ 12,000
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Rare 17th-century work, explaining how heliocentrism is in line with the teachings of the Catholic Church

NIEROP, Dirck Rembrantz. van. Des aertryks beweging en de zonne stilstant, bewijsende dat dit geensins met de Christelijke religie is strijdende.
Amsterdam, Gerrit van Goedesbergh [colophon: printed by Tymon Houthaak], 1661. 4to. With an engraved frontispiece, showing how the earth revolves around the sun, 29 mathematical and astronomical woodcut illustrations in the text, 3 decorated woodcut initials, 2 woodcut tailpieces, and a woodcut printer's device of a turtle on the title-page. Contemporary marbled paper wrapppers, stitched on 3 vellum tapes. [8], 151, [5 blank] pp. Full description
€ 4,500
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Magnificent engraving of the 17th-century warship the “Sovereign of the Seas”, surpassing all her contemporaries in size and gun power

PAYNE, John. The true portraicture of His Ma[jes]ties. royall ship the Soveraigne of the Seas built in the yeare 1637.
[London, Peter Pett, 1637/38]. Large engraving (66.5 x 91 cm), printed from two plates on two sheets, assembled to make a single print. With title in English across the head, a slightly different Latin title across the foot (both outside the image area), Payne's name and privilege to the right of the Latin title, and two decorated cartouches with laudatory verses in the upper corners. In passepartout (not mounted) and easily detachable framed (90 x 114 cm). Full description
€ 48,500
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The first Chinese drama and other intriguing Chinese customs in 18th-century Europe

PERCY, Thomas (editor). Miscellaneous pieces relating to the Chinese.
London, printed for R. and J. Dodsley, 1762. 2 volumes. Small 8vo. With an engraved frontispiece with Chinese characters in volume 1 and a quote from Confucius in Chinese characters and a Latin transliteration and translation serving as a vignette on both title-pages. Contemporary sprinkled calf. [1], [1 blank], [1], [1 blank], [15], [1 blank], [2], 232; [1], [1 blank], [1], [1 blank], 248 pp. Full description
€ 3,750
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A crucial moment in the history of the Russian expansion in Central Asia

[PEROVSKY, Vasily Aleksyeevic]. A narrative of the Russian military expedition to Khiva, under General Perofski in 1839.
Calcutta, Office of superintendent government printing, 1867. 8°. With 1 folding plate (plan of the camp, with the positions of the troops) and 1 folding map of the region Orenburg, Kazachstan. Original publishers green cloth; re-backed with original backstrip laid down. [2], ii, 182 pp. Full description
€ 4,750
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Persian almanac

[PERSIAN ALMANAC]. [Persian manuscript almanac].
[Qajar, Iran, 1869 CE =] 1285 AH. 8vo (11.5 x 18.5 cm). Persian and Arabic manuscript on laid paper. Black and red nastaliq script in rubricated rows and columns with Arabic headings in fine riqah script and gilt floral ornaments to each page. Contemporary blind-tooled brown leather, pink paste-downs. 11 ll. Full description
€ 3,500
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Two very rare peace treaties between Russia and the Safavid Empire

PETER II, Tsar and Shah ASHRAF. [Title in Russian followed on the same page by:] Tractat, zwischen dem russischen Reich und dem Sultan Eschref, jetzigem Besitzer des persischen Thrones zu Ispahan. Von russischer Seite ertheilet.
St. Petersburg, Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1729.
With: (2) ANNA, Tsarina and Shah TAHMASP II. [Title in Russian followed on the same page by:] Tractat, so zwischen Ihro Kayserl. Majest. von allen Reussen und des persischen Schachs Majest. in der Provintz Gilan zu Rätsche durch die von beyden Seiten bevollmächtigte Ministros am 21. Jan. 1732 geschlossen worden.St. Petersburg, Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1732. Two treaties between Russia and the Safavid Empire in Russian and German in 2 parallel columns. Small folio (27.5 x 19.5 cm). Disbound. 10; 12 pp. Full description
€ 6,500
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Catalogue of the famous Portland Museum, with many objects collected during Cook's Pacific voyages,
with manuscript prices and purchasers

[PORTLAND MUSEUM]. [LIGHTFOOT, John]. A catalogue of the Portland Museum lately the property of the Duchess Dowager of Portland, deceased: which will be sold by auction ...
With: (2) A catalogue of a very valuable collection of cameos, intaglios, and precious stones, and other curiosities; being part of a late much celebrated cabinet, many out of the Arundel collection; which will be sold by auction ...
[London, Skinner and Co., 1786]. 2 works in 1 volume. 4to. With full-page engraved frontispiece showing the interior of the Portland Museum with numerous objects from its collection. Contemporary gold-tooled vellum. VIII, "194" [= 192]; 6 pp. Full description
€ 18,500
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Second located copy of prayerbook in magnificent roman baroque fanfare binding
attributed to the Soresini family

[PRAYER BOOK]. Piae precationes ad missas devote celebrandas, et sacrosanctam eucharistiam sumendam. Cum variis orationibus ex bonis & probatis authoribus collectis.
Rome, Aloysius Zannettus, 1604. 8vo. With woodcut title-page and some ornamented woodcut initials in the text. Contemporary richly gold-tooled brown morocco, with gauffered edges; both sided with 2 pairs of fillets along the edges with little flowers at the corners and a floral border in between; a pattern of loose gilt stamps of flowers in a spiral line, vases with flowers, lions, stars and so-called "foglia accartocciata" ("feuilles mortes") and a crucifixion in an oval border in the centre of the front cover and the Virgin with child in an oval border in the centre of the back board. 272 pp. Full description
€ 27,500
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A wholly engraved prayer book in fine pointillé binding from the library of Henry Perkins

[PRAYER BOOK - BINDING]. Le tableau de la croix representé dans les ceremonies de la Ste. Messe ensemble la tresor de la devotion aux soufrances de N[ot]re. S[eigneur]. I[esus]. C[hrist]. le tout enrichi de belles figures.
Paris, Francois Mazot, "1651" (privilege dated 20 September 1652). 8vo & small 4to (16.5 x 11.5 cm). With engraved title-page and 48 engraved leaves by Guillaume de Gheyn, J. Collin, and J. Durant. Later 17th-century French red morocco, elaborately gold-tooled with pointillé tools in a panel design with 2 roll borders and hundreds of impression of numerous tools, the 6 spine compartments gold-tooled, gilt edges. [2 blank], [6], "39" [= 75], [16], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 4,750
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First accurate printed Quran (both the Arabic text and the Latin translation), with extensive valuable notes
from Islamic commentaries and anti-Islamic "refutations" of every sura! plus a life of Muhammed

[QURAN - ARABIC & LATIN]. MARRACCI, Ludovico (editor). Alcorani textus universus ex correctioribus Arabum exemplaribus summa fide, ... Eadem fide, ... in Latinum translatus; appositis unicuique capiti notis, atque refutatione: ...
[vol. 2 title:] Refutatio Alcorani, in qua ad Mahumetanicae superstitionis radicem securis apponitur; ...
Padova, Typographia Seminaria, 1698. 2 volumes bound as 1. Folio (35.5 x 25 cm). Blind-tooled vellum (ca. 1800?), reusing and retooling vellum from a slightly earlier blind-tooled binding. [5], [1 blank], 45, [2], [1 blank], 46, [2], 81, [3], 94, [10], 126, [3] [1 blank] [13], [1 blank]; [8], 17, [3], “838” [= 836], [11], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 25,000
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With the embroidered arms of the marquis and marchioness de Verneuil on front board

ROQUES, Pierre. Le vray pietisme ou traité, dans lequel on explique la nature & les éffets de la piété; la juste étendue du renoncement au monde; où l'on remonte à la source générale du peu de vertu qu'il y a entre les Chrétiens, où l'on indique les moyens d'acquérir une piété solide; & où l'on fait connoître comment la piété nous dispose à l'égard de ceux qui ne pensent pas comme nous en matière de religion.
Basel, Jean Brandmuller, 1731. 4to. With engraved frontispiece portrait of the author by F.A. Störcklein. Contemporary vellum, with large embroidered coat of arms on front board (17.5 x 15.5 x 1 cm), with silver and gold thread. 7, [1 blank], [12], 596, 70, [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 7,500
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Famous collection of 25 very beautiful stipple engravings with plates printed in colour

[RUBENS, Petrus Paulus]. Galerie de Rubens, dite du Luxembourg; ouvrage composé de vingt-cincq estampes, soit en couleur, soit en noir, avec l'explication historique et allégorique de chaque sujet.
Paris, Crapelet for Deterville and Roret, [1809]. Large folio (52 x 35.5 cm). With 25 partly coloured stipple engravings. Contemporary black half calf. [6], 8 pp.; 25 ll.; [8] pp. Full description
€ 12,500
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Contemporary manuscript describing official diplomatic meetings at the court of King Louis XIV,
in a royal binding

[SAINCTOT, Nicolas II de]. [Memoires de Mr. de Sainctot].
[Paris?, ca. 1710]. 2 works, with the first in 2 parts, in 2 volumes. Folio (44 x 30 cm). With 3 drawings of layouts and seating plans of the king's audience room, and 24 copper-engravings of ambassadors and court scenes. With: (2) [AVICE, Henry]. La pompeuse et magnifique ceremonie du sacre du roy Louis XIV.
Paris, Imprimerie d'Edme Martin, 1655.
Contemporary gold-tooled red morocco, with the French royal coat-of-arms on the front and back, fleurs-de-lis in the corners and on the spine, the title lettered in gold on the spine, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins, gilt and marbled edges, marbled endpapers. 450, [1 blank]; [6], "344" [= 407], [5 blank]; [1], [1 blank], [8], [7], [5 blank] pp. Full description
€ 29,500
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A beautiful and important botanical work on plants from Greece, Turkey and Armenia

SCHREBER, Johann Christian Daniël von. Icones et descriptiones plantarum minus cognitarum. Decas I.
Halle (Saale), Germany, J.J. Curt, 1766. Folio (37.5 x 24.5 cm). With 10 full-page numbered engravings of plants, an engraved image on the title-page, and a woodcut initial on the first page of the preface. Never bound, housed in a modern folder with a printed design of 19th-century marbled paper. [8], 20 pp. Full description
€ 2,750
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Remarkable illustrated ship's signal manuscript, for use by members of the British Royal Navy

[SHIP'S SIGNALS - MANUSCRIPT - BRITISH]. Signal book.
[Great Britain], 1805. Oblong (ca. 10 x 16 cm). With numerous ink illustrations: 4 full-page illustrations with signals for each wind direction, a large illustration of the British flag, and 12 leaves with illustrations of signal flags. Contemporary blind-tooled brown goat leather, with remnants of a metal clasp. [107] ll. Full description
€ 6,500
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Robert Smith's influential theories on light and optics together in the first edition of an illustrated textbook for university students

[SMITH, Robert and others]. The elementary parts of Dr. Smith's compleat system of opticks, selected and arranged for the use of students at the universities: to which are added in the form of notes some explanatory propositions from other authors.
Cambridge, printed by J. Archdeacon, 1778. Large 4to (27 x 20.5 cm). With 17 numbered, folding engraved plates. Contemporary gold-tooled brown sprinkled calf, gold-tooled red morocco spine label, gold-tooled board edges. VI, [9], [1 blank], 119, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 6,000
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First printed Deccani grammar

[STEWART, Charles]. An introduction to the study of the Hindostany language as spoken in the Carnatic. Compiled for the use of the company of gentlemen cadets on the Madras Establishment at New Town Cuddalore.
[Cuddalore], Government Press, 1808. 4to. With a small woodcut tailpiece. Modern half calf, marbled sides, red spine label. New endpapers. [IV], 193, [1] pp. Full description
€ 11,500
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First Spanish edition of Strahlenberg’s work on the exploration of Russia and Northern Asia

STRAHLENBERG, Philipp Johann von and Josef Vicente TOMÁS Y CATALÁ (translator). Nueva descripcion geographica del imperio Ruso, en particular y en general de todas las provincias que componen aquel dilatado imperio, con muchas noticias historicas antiguas y modernas.
Valencia, Francisco Burguete, 1780. 2 parts in 1 vol. 4to. With a woodcut printers device on both title-pages (of part 1 and part 2) and two decorated initials (one at the start of each part). Contemporary vellum with ink-lettering to spine. [28], 188; [8], 237, [1] pp. Full description
€ 5,000
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63 delicate watercolour views of Switzerland and England

[SWITZERLAND - ENGLAND]. HVM. [Album with 63 watercolour views of Switzerland and England].
Switzerland and England, 1857-1868. Oblong folio (28 x 35 cm). With 63 watercolours on wove paper, inserted into an album via small slits in each corner. Some captioned in English below. With on paste-down and watercolours 8, 31 and 58 the unidentified monogram "HVM". Contemporary dark purple, tanned sheepskin. Full description
€ 4,500
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First edition of an important and one of the earliest works on colour, formerly attributed to Aristotle

[THEOPHRASTUS? (pseudo ARISTOTLE)] and Simone PORZIO. De coloribus libellus, à Simone Portio Neapolitano latinate donatus, & cometariis illustratus: una cum euisdem praefatione, qua coloris naturam declarat.
Florence, Lorenzo Torrentino, 1548. 4to. With 2 large woodcut historiated initials. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment, manuscript spine-title, with 4 fragments of a Latin manuscript in an upright humanistic hand on vellum used as spine lining. 197, [3] pp. Full description
€ 12,500
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The capturing of the royalist privateer “Mayflower”

THOMAS, William, Captain. Good newes from sea, being a true relation of the late sea-fight, betweene Captain William Thomas, captain of the 8th Whelp, now imployed for the service of the King and Parliament, against Captaine Polhill, captaine of the ship call'd the May flower Admirall of Falmouth, with the taking of the said ship.
London, Lawrence Blaiklock, 26 June 1643. Small 4to (19 x 14 cm). Dark blue half morocco (ca. 1870), gold-tooled spine, gilt edges, marbled boards with gold fillets, bound by Riviere, with the binder's stamp on flyleaf. [2], “7” [=5], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 3,500
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Unique source for the early 19th-century Utrecht ceramic tile art industry

[TILES - MODEL BOOK]. [Model book of Dutch tile designs].
[Utrecht?, ca. 1810?]. Small square 4to (20 x 19 cm). With 111 pen and wash model drawings for Dutch tiles on the rectos of 105 leaves, most in greys but many in brown or a beautiful Delft blue. Several combine more than one colour, all in the actual size of tiles. Contemporary half calf, gold-tooled spine. [2 blank], 105, [6 blank] ll. Full description
€ 35,000
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A scarce, incredibly important work on Hindu astronomy in both Tamil and English

ULLAMUDEIAN (translator), Visvanatha SASTRIYAR (compiler) and Henry Richard HOISINGTON (editor and translator). [Sothi Sastra]. The Oriental astronomer: being a complete system of Hindu astronomy, accompanied with a translation and numerous explanatory notes. With an appendix.
Jaffna, Ceylon [= now Sri Lanka], American Mission Press, 1848. 2 works in 1 volume. 8vo. Printed in both Tamil and English, with numerous scientific, astronomical tables in the text. Including: [IDEM]. A complete system of Hindu astronomy, being a translation of the foregoing work.
Jaffna, American Mission Press, 1848.
Contemporary half red morocco and marbled paper sides, with a gold-lettered black morocco title label on the spine and blue sprinkled edges. [1], [1 blank], [1], [1 blank], 177, [3 blank]; [1], [1 blank], 145, [1 blank], [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 5,000
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First edition of Vadianus’ important description of the world, including the very rare map

VADIANUS, Joachim (Joachim von WATT). Epitome trium terrae partium, Asiae, Africae et Europae compendiariam locorum descriptionem continens ...
Zürich, Christoph Froschauer, 1534. Folio. With woodcut printer's device on title-page, numerous decorated woodcut initials and a double page woodcut world map "Typus cosmographus universalis" after Sebastian Münster. Modern calf. [44], 273, [1] pp. Full description
€ 38,500
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Early 19th-century illustrated Dutch manuscript, based on a classic 18th-century work on navigation

VRIES, Klaas de and Sietse DAUWES. Konst der stierlieden[!] voor deezen beschreeven van den navigateur Klaas de Vries. Uijtgewerkt door Sietse Dauwes. Van de Lemmer. Begonnen, in den jaare 1814. Maand Januarij.
Lemmer, Friesland, The Netherlands, 1814. Folio (32 x 21 cm). With more than 350 instructive diagrams and drawings and several tables. The Dutch text is written in a clearly legible, 19th-century cursive hand in brown ink. Contemporary quarter red sheepskin and blue marbled paper sides. [1], [100], [115 blank] ll. Full description
€ 8,500
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First and only edition of the first English grammar of the Sindhi language rendered in 5 different scripts (3 lithographically)

[WATHEN, William Henry]. Grammar of the Sindhí language.
[Bombay/Mumbai], Government Gazette Press, F.D. Ramos printer, 1836. Small folio. With 9 lithographic pages showing alphabets in Multani, Khudabadi (with additional sample texts) and Devanagari scripts. The letterpress text is set in roman and italic types, with Sindhi words also transcribed in a nastaliq Arabic type. This copy has an (extra-added?) large folding lithographic map (34 x 43 cm; outer border 31.5 x 38 cm) covering most of what is now Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and parts of Azerbaijan, India and other surrounding regions. Contemporary black half sheepskin. [6], “70” [= 74 including or 64 excluding the lithographic leaves], [32] pp. Full description
€ 12,500
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Exceptionally rare 17th-century flower book with beautiful engravings

WIDT, Frederick de. Nieuwt[!] Bloem-Boeck.
[Amsterdam], Frederick de Widt[!], [third quarter of the 17th century]. Folio (31 x 20 cm). With 16 full-page, numbered engravings, comprising the title-page and 15 illustrations of flowers. Modern half-vellum with decorative paper sides (gold, sprinkled red, and with green leaf designs), manuscript title on the spine. [16] ll. Full description
€ 15,000
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Beautiful and imporant treatise on entomology, with 120 colour plates

WILKES, Benjamin. One hundred and twenty copper-plates of English moths and butterflies, representing their changes into the caterpillar, chrysalis, and fly-states, and the plants, flowers, and fruits, whereon they feed. Coloured with great exactness from the subjects themselves. With a natural history of the moths and butterflies, describing the method of managing, preserving, and feeding them.
London, R. N. Rose (printed by G. Verrall, Worthing), 1824. 4to. With 120 engraved plates (mainly 27.5 x 22.5 cm) hand-coloured for the author. Mid-19th-century half gold-tooled dark green morocco. VIII, [22], 63, [5] pp. Full description
€ 12,500
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Lovely rare Japanese sale catalogue of lilies with 40 chromolithographs plus another on the front wrapper

[YOKOHAMA NURSERY CO. - YOKOHAMA UEKI KABUSHIKI KAISHA]. Lilies of Japan.
Yokohama, Japan, The Yokohama Nursery Company, November 1907. 4to (26 x 18.5 cm). With XXXX numbered magnificent chromolithographed plates of lilies. Chromolithographed wrappers with an arrangement of lilies and the title "Lilies of Japan" on the front, side-stitched in Japanese manner with black yarn through 2 pair of holes. [3], XXXX [=40], [1] pp. Full description
€ 3,750
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