Forum Rare Books

First edition of the account of the experiences of American anthropologist
Carleton S. Coon in Ethiopia and Arabia

COON, Carleton S. Measuring Ethiopia and flight into Arabia.
Boston, Little, Brown, and Company, 1935. 8vo. With 8 plates. Yellow cloth with title information in blue on front cover and spine, with a dust jacket designed by Paul Wenck, map of Ethiopia and Arabia on the endpapers. IX, [5], 333, [1] pp. Full description

€ 850

Anthropology & Ethnography Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States

Portuguese shipwreck off the coast of Africa, a classic of Portuguese literature

CORTE REAL, Jeronimo. Naufragio, e lastimoso successo da perdiçaõ de Manoel de Sousa de Sepulveda, e Dona Lianor de Sá, sua mulher, e filhos, vindo da India para este reyno Náo chamada o Galiaõ grande S. João,...
Lisbon, Francisco Rolland, 1783. Small 8vo (15 x 11 cm). Contemporary limp vellum. XIV, [1], [1 blank], 351, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 550

Literature Mutiny, Piracy & Shipwrecks Portugal Southern Africa Travel & Voyages Africa

French translation of William Dampier's travels in the south seas,
including the first successful English landing in Australia

DAMPIER, William. Nouveau voyage autour du monde, où l'on décrit en particulier l'Isthme de l'Amerique, plusieurs côtes & isles des Indes Occidentales, les Isles du Cap Verd, le passage par la Terre del Fuego, les côtes meridionales du Chili, du Perou, & du Mexique; l'Isle de Guam, Mindanao, & des autres Philippines, les isles orientales qui sont prés de Cambodie; de la Chine; Formosa, Luçon, Celebes, &c. la Nouvelle Hollande, les isles de Sumatra, de Nicobar, & de Sainte Helene & le Cap de Bonne Esperance.
Amsterdam, Paul Marret, 1698. 2 volumes. 12mo. With the same engraved frontispiece in both volumes, 6 engraved maps (including 4 folding), and 7 engraved plates (including 3 folding). Contemporary sprinkled calf, gold-tooled spine and board edges. [10], 315; [1 blank]; [2], "316", [1], 317-616, [4] pp. Full description

€ 14,500

Australia China Circumnavigation Indonesia / Dutch East Indies Latin America Mexico Mutiny, Piracy & Shipwrecks Peru Philippines South America Southeast Asia Travel & Voyages Africa Travel & Voyages Asia Travel & Voyages Australia Travel & Voyages East Asia Travel & Voyages Pacific Travel & Voyages South America Travel & Voyages Southeast Asia

Unique hand-coloured copy of Dapper's famous description of Africa

DAPPER, Olfert. Naukeurige beschrijvinge der Afrikaensche gewesten van Egypten, Barbaryen, Lybien, Biledulgerid, Negroslant, Guinea, Ethiopiën, Abyssinie: vertoont in de benamingen, grenspalen, revieren, steden, gewassen, dieren, zeeden, drachten, talen, rijkdommen, godsdiensten en heerschappyen. ...
Including: Naukeurige beschrijvinge der Afrikaensche eylanden ...
Amsterdam, Jacob van Meurs, 1676. 3 works in 1 volume. Folio (33 x 22 cm). With a richly engraved allegorical frontispiece, a large folding engraved map of Africa (44.5 x 56 cm), 14 double-page engraved maps of parts of Africa and the adjacent islands, 27 double-page and 1 larger folding engraved plates and views, and 55 half-page engraved views, plans, illustrations of costumes, animals, plants, etc. in the text. All illustrations coloured by a contemporary hand. Contemporary vellum at a later date with elaborate blind-tooled decorations, including oriental portraits. With 2 decorated brass clasps, signed B-I. [6], 428, 349, [16]; [1], 121, [4] pp. Full description

€ 85,000

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Charts & Maps City Plans, Topography & Views Geography Iran / Persia Malta North Africa & Egypt

Interesting account of an exploration journey to India and Southeast Asia

DELESSERT, Adolphe. Souvenirs dun voyage dans lInde execute de 1834 a 1839. Ouvrage enrichi de trente-cinq planches.
Paris, Fortin, Masson et Cie & Langlois et Leclercq (facing title-page: printed by Béthune et Plon), 1843. 2 parts in 1 volume. Large 8vo. With engraved title-vignette signed by A. Vien, 8 lithographed plates in the first part by V. Dolet showing Ile Bourbon, Pondichéry, Malacca, Chase au tigre, Madras, a bivouac and Chûte de la Rivière de Gutpurba; 27 numbered full-page engraved plates in the natural history part by Forget, Annedouche, Sebin, Mme. Douliot, Bourgeois, Giraud, Davesne and Dumesnil after Jean Gabriel Prêtre, Delahaye, Mme Bury and Vaillant of mammals, birds, insects and butterflies, 24 of which are exquisitely coloured by hand by "Gérard". Also with one folded map (43 x 44 cm) of the world (except for the Americas) with Delessets journey marked, coloured in outline and printed by Kaeppelin, Paris. Half calf, decorated paper sides. [6], III, 134; [4], 107 pp. Full description

€ 4,950

India & Sri Lanka Southeast Asia Travel & Voyages Asia Travel & Voyages Southeast Asia Travel & Voyages Southern Asia

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

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Slavery Travel & Voyages Africa Travel & Voyages Middle East

Solving the mysterious disappearance of the famous explorer La Pérouse in the South Sea Islands

DILLON, Peter. Reis naar de eilanden der Zuidzee, gedurende de jaren 1827 en 1828, behelzende het verslag der ontdekking van het lot van De la Pérouse.
Amsterdam, G.J.A. Beijerinck, 1830. 2 volumes. 8vo. With 2 folding lithographed frontispieces and a folding engraved map of Vanikoro. The plates are new for this edition, lithographed by Jean Augustin Daiwaille after designs by (Pieter van der?) Meulen and based on the plates in the English edition. Contemporary stiff sprinkled paper wrappers. X, 336; VI, 350 pp. Full description

€ 2,500

Australia India & Sri Lanka New Zealand Pacific Islands Southeast Asia Travel & Voyages Asia Travel & Voyages Australia Travel & Voyages Pacific Travel & Voyages Southeast Asia Travel & Voyages Southern Asia

The classic history of the Dutch East Indies

DU BOIS, Johann Peter Isaak. Vies des gouverneurs généraux, avec l'abrégé de l'histoire des etablissements hollandois aux Indes Orientales; ...
Including: IMHOFF, G.W. van. Considerations sur l'etat present de la compagnie hollandoise des Indes Orientales.
The Hague, Pieter de Hondt, 1763. Royal 4to (27.5 x 22.5 cm). With 34 engraved plates, 1 engraved allegorical headpiece and 28 numbered headpieces with portraits of the Gouvernors-General of the Dutch East Indies. All plates were drawn and presumably engraved by the artist and engraver Jacob van Schley (1715-1729). 19th-century half cloth. VI, 351, [1], 48 pp. Full description

€ 4,500

Ceylon Economic History & Trade Formosa / Taiwan India & Sri Lanka Indonesia / Dutch East Indies Southern Africa VOC

First printing of a rare 18th-century map of Portuguese Angola

FEO CARDOZO DE CASTELLOBRANCO E TORRES, João Carlos. Memorias contendo a biographia do vice almirante Luiz da Motta Feo e Torres. A historia dos governadores e capitaens generaes de Angola, desde 1575 até 1825, e a descripção geographica e politica dos reinos de Angola e de Benguella.
Paris, Fantin, 1825. 3 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With one large folding map at the start of the first volume, showing the coast of Angola, and a small vignette on the title page. Contemporary gold-tooled tree-marbled calf. [14], 375, [6] pp. Full description

€ 2,950

Bibliography & Biography Portugal Southern Africa

Excellent, annotated excerpt on James Cook's second Pacific voyage

FORSTER, Johann Reinhold. Descriptiones animalium quae in itinere ad Maris Australis Terras per annos 1772, 1773 et 1774 1774 suscepto.
Berlin, Officina Academica, 1844. 8vo. With some tables in text. 20th-century half cloth, with the original printed wrappers bound in. XIII, [1 blank], [1 errata], [1 blank], 424 pp. Full description