Forum Rare Books

Rare folio edition with accounts of the most important voyages
undertaken by Western Europeans in the early modern period

AA, Pieter van der. De aanmerkenswaardigste en alomberoemde zee- en landreizen der Portugeezen, Spanjaarden, Engelsen en allerhande natiën: zoo van Fransen, Italiaanen, Deenen, Hoogh- en Nederduitsen, Als van veele andere volkeren. Voornaamenlyk ondernomen tot ontdekking van de Oost- en West-Indiën, mitsgaders andere verafgelegene gewesten des aardryks.
The Hague and Leiden, widow of Engelbrecht Boucquet and sons, Jan van der Deyster, and Boudewijn and Pieter van der Aa, 1727. 8 volumes. Folio. With a general title-page printed in red and black, 8 engraved allegorical frontispieces, 4 engraved dedications, 116 engraved maps, 7 full-page engraved plates, and 502 engravings in the text. Further with 8 title-pages with a vignette, and another 128 separate divisional title-pages with a vignette. Contemporary elaborately gold-tooled marbled calf, with a red morocco title-label lettered in gold on each of the spines. Full description

€ 75,000

Travel & Voyages Africa Travel & Voyages Asia Travel & Voyages East Asia Travel & Voyages Middle East Travel & Voyages North America Travel & Voyages South America Travel & Voyages Southeast Asia Travel & Voyages Southern Asia

8 large illustrated volumes of the most important voyages from the 15th to the end of the 17th century

AA, Pieter van der (editor) and Johann Ludwig GOTTFRIED. De aanmerkenswaardigste en alomberoemde zee- en landreizen der Portugeezen, Spanjaarden, Engelsen en allerhande natiën: zoo van Fransen, Italiaanen, Deenen, Hoogh- en Nederduitsen als van veele andere volkeren. Voornaamenlyk ondernomen tot ontdekking van de Oost- en Westindiën, midsgaders andere verafgelegene gewesten des aardryks.
The Hague, widow of Engelbrecht Boucquet and sons; Leiden, Jan van der Deyster, and Boudewijn and Pieter van der Aa, 1727. 8 volumes. 1mo and folio. With 7 (of 8) engraved frontispieces (lacking that of volume 4), 4 engraved dedications, 117 engraved maps on 61 leaves, 7 engraved plates and 502 engravings in text. Further with 127 (of 128) title-pages (including a general title-page, a title-page to 7 (of 8) volumes, lacking that of volume 4, and 118 for the separate works). Volume 1-3 & 5-8: contemporary mottled calf, gold-tooled spine and board edges; volume 4: modern calf. Full description

€ 65,000

Charts & Maps China India & Sri Lanka Indonesia / Dutch East Indies Japan & Far East Latin America Middle America Navigation North America South America Southeast Asia Travel & Voyages Asia Travel & Voyages East Asia Travel & Voyages North America Travel & Voyages South America Travel & Voyages Southeast Asia Travel & Voyages Southern Asia West Indies

Ethnography of the Xhosa people of South Africa, with the very rare album with four attractive hand-coloured aquatints

ALBERTI, Lodewyk and Ludwig Gottlieb PORTMAN. [Drop-title:] Zuid-Afrikaansche gezichten.
Amsterdam, Evert Maaskamp, [1810]. Oblong 1mo (45 x 60 cm). Letterpress text leaf and 4 large aquatint plates coloured by a contemporary hand, engraved by Ludwig Gottlieb Portman after drawings by Jacob Smies and Christopher Howen. Contemporary stiff, marbled paper wrappers, kept in a modern green half morocco clamshell box.
With:
(2) ALBERTI, Lodewyk. De Kaffers aan de zuidkust van Afrika, natuur en geschiedkundig beschreven.
Amsterdam, Evert Maaskamp, 1810. 8vo. With engraved title-page, aquatint folding plan, with coastal view, of Algoa Bay, and 2 stipple-engraved plates, all but the title-page coloured by a contemporary hand. Contemporary gold-tooled calf; rebacked, with new endpapers.
(3) ALBERTI, Lodewyk. Description physique et historique des Cafres, sur la côte méridionale de l'Afrique ...
Amsterdam, Evert Maaskamp, 1811. 8vo. With the same plan and 2 plates as ad. 2, also coloured by a contemporary hand. Contemporary gold-tooled calf, richly gold-tooled spine. [1] l. text + 4 plates; [8], VIII, [4], 260, [1], [1 blank] pp.; XII, [4], 255, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 25,000

Anthropology & Ethnography City Plans, Topography & Views Southern Africa

Graphically stunning 3-volume historical manuscript atlas

[ATLAS - HISTORICAL]. Atlas historique. - Souvenirs historiques. - Tableaux et cartes.
[Montpellier?], [date on spine of vol. 1:] 1851. 3 volumes. Folio (vol. 1) and large 4to (vols. 2-3). Neatly written manuscripts on paper with 23 graphically vibrant maps, coloured in outline with subtly shaded washes in grey (for the coasts) and numerous bright colours (for political boundaries), and with calligraphic headings. Contemporary bindings: vol. 1 red half goatskin; vol. 2 black half goatskin; vol. 3 black sheepskin. [1], [26 double]; [1], [22 double]; [1], 30 double, [1] ll. Full description

€ 1,750

Charts & Maps France Genealogy, Heraldry & Flags Germany Manuscripts & Documents North Africa & Egypt Scandinavia Spain Switzerland Turkey & Ottoman Empire UK - United Kingdom

Rare account of a journey to the Leti Islands with beautiful descriptions of the local people and nature

BARCHEWITZ, Ernst Christoph. Neu-vermehrte Ost-Indianische Reise-Beschreibung, darinnen I. Seine durch Deutsch- und Holland nach Indien gethane Reise; II. Sein elfjähriger Aufenthalt auf Java ...; III. Seine Rückreise ...
Erfurt, Johann Friedrich Hartung, 1762. 8vo. With an engraved frontispiece, a full-page map, and 6 engraved plates (5 folding, 1 full-page). Later gold-tooled brown half calf. [20], 687, [16] pp. Full description

€ 2,500

Indonesia / Dutch East Indies Southeast Asia Southern Africa Travel & Voyages Africa Travel & Voyages Asia Travel & Voyages Southeast Asia VOC

60 photographs by Bechard of Egyptians and Nubians

BÉCHARD, Henri Égypte et Nubie.
[ca. 1880]. 60 photographs on albumen paper, measuring 28 x 22 cm each, signed and captioned in the plate, numbered 1 through 68. Contemporary green half calf with gilt spine and title "Égypte & Nubie", initialed "B.C.D." on first plate. Full description

€ 45,000

Anthropology & Ethnography North Africa & Egypt Photography

Rare and extensive work on Algeria, spectacularly illustrated with 133 large plates, some in colour

BERBRUGGER, Louis Adrien. Algerie historique, pittoresque et monumentale, ou Recueil de vues, costumes et portraits faits d'après nature dans les provinces d'Alger, Bone, Constantine et Oran.
Paris, Delahaye (part-titles: printed by Dondey-Dupré), 1843. 5 parts in 3 volumes. Royal 1mo (57 x 42.5 cm). With chromo-lithographed general title-page, tinted lithographed frontispiece, 2 lithographed maps hand-coloured in outline, and 133 lithographed plates (image size up to 44.5 x 30.5 cm, nearly all non-botanical ones tinted and one with 2 chromolithographed and hand-coloured costume prints) by and after artists including Charles Bour, Eugène Flandin, Félix Emmanuel Henri Philippoteaux and Denis Auguste Marie Raffet. Also with lithographed views (and a few lithographed maps) printed in the tail margins at the ends of many chapters, and 45 white-on-black wood-engravings of coins (each with obverse and reverse) in the text. The 72 botanical illustrations on the last 10 lithographed plates are coloured by hand and highlighted with gum arabic. The non-botanical plates have the publisher's embossed stamp in the foot margin. Contemporary, uniform dark green half goatskin morocco with a gold-tooled spine. XIV, [3], [1 blank], 80; [3], [1 blank], 68; [3], [1 blank], 42; [3], [1 blank], 21, [1 blank], 18, 16, [1], [1 blank] pp. including the chromolithographed title-page. Full description

€ 28,500

Architecture City Plans, Topography & Views North Africa & Egypt

"The greatest and finest atlas ever published", with 610 maps, plans and views,
coloured by a contemporary hand

BLAEU, Joan. Grooten atlas, oft werelt-beschryving, in welcke t aerdryck, de zee, en hemel, wort vertoont en beschreven.
Amsterdam, Joan Blaeu, 1664-1665. 9 volumes. Imperial folio (55.5 × 36.5 cm). With 9 engraved title-pages, an engraved frontispiece and 610 engraved maps, views, plans, etc., mostly double-page (53.5 × 64 cm, plate size ca. 42 × 53 cm), 7 larger folding, a few single-page and a few smaller, many including additional inset maps, plans and views, and decorated with coats of arms, human & mythological figures, animals, produce, etc. With the engraved title-pages, frontispiece, other engravings (except for the compass rose and 2 inscriptions), woodcut devices on 4 title-pages and 1 woodcut initial coloured by a contemporary hand (the maps mostly in outline but with their decorations fully coloured) and some (mostly the engraved title-pages) with extensive use of gold. Contemporary gold-tooled vellum. Full description

€ 675,000

Atlases & Globes Charts & Maps VOC

First edition of the first printed ethnographic comparison of the world's people, typographically stunning

BOEMUS (BÖHM), Johannes. Omnium gentium mores leges et ritus ex multis clarrissimis rerum scriptoribus ... nuper collecti: & in libros tris distinctos Aphricam, Asiam, Europam, optime lector lege. [Half-title:] Repertorium librorum trium Ioannis Boemi de omnium gentium ritibus. Item index rerum scitu digniorum in eosdem. Cum privilegio Papali ac Imperiali M.D.XX.
[Colophon: Augsburg, Sigismund Grimm & Marcus Wirsung, July 1520]. Folio. With the letterpress half-title in an elaborate woodcut border with a trophy of arms, putti and mermen. 17th century vellum with 3 raised spine-bands. [6], LXXXI, [1] ll. Full description

€ 5,750

Anthropology & Ethnography Church History & Missions India & Sri Lanka Iran / Persia Religion (16th Century)

"The first authoritative and detailed account of the West Coast of Africa"

BOSMAN, Willem. Voyage de Guinée, contenant une description nouvelle & très-exacte de cette côte où l'on trouve & où l'on trafique l'or, les dents d'elephant, & les esclaves: ...
Utrecht, Antoine Schouten, 1705. Large 12mo (17 x 10 cm). With an engraved author's portrait, an engraved frontispiece and 27 folding engraved plates. Contemporary marbled boards. [16], 520 pp. Full description