Forum Rare Books

Very scarce, "secret" publication containing information regarding numerous influential Iranian people
by the British authorities

[PERSIA - BRITISH AUTHORITIES - NOTABLE PERSIAN TRIBES & PEOPLE]. Tribes and personalities of Western Persia.
Baghdad, printed at the Government Press, 1918. 8vo. With 2 folding genealogical charts, respectively showing the family trees of the royal Qajar house and the chiefs of the Qaraguzlu tribe, and a printed ornament on the front wrapper. Restored red printed paper wrappers, with a clear plastic protective wrapper. [1], [1 blank], 134, [2 blank] pp. Full description

€ 8,500

Anthropology & Ethnography Iran / Persia Law & Politics Military History (20th Century) UK - United Kingdom

19th-century Java described

PFYFFER ZU NEUECK, Joseph Jacob Xaver. Esquisses de l'ile de Java et de ses divers habitants, recueillies pendant un séjour de huit années fait dans cette île; ... traduit de l'Allemand par Girodz du Villard, revu et mis en ordre par G. Guénot Lecointe.
Brussels, P.J. Voglet for Société Belge de Librairie, Hauman, Cattoir and company, 1837. 12mo. Modern grained brown half calf preserving the original lithographed wrappers, partly uncut. [4], III, [1 blank], XV, [1 blank], 239, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 2,950

Anthropology & Ethnography Indonesia / Dutch East Indies Southeast Asia Travel & Voyages Asia Travel & Voyages Southeast Asia

Interesting and intimate photograph album showing buildings, views, people and life in Calcutta in the 1870s

[PHOTOGRAPHY - INDIA]. [Manuscript title on the front paste-down:] Views of Calcutta.
Calcutta, [ca. 1874/79]. Oblong 8vo. With 33 mounted sepia albumen prints (ca. 15/15.5 x 10.5/11 cm), all captioned. Manuscript title and captions of the pictures in English, written in brown ink in a neat 19th-century cursive hand. Contemporary gold-tooled half red morocco, brown cloth sides. [2 blank], [25], [1 blank], [8], [2 blank] pp. Full description

€ 6,500

Anthropology & Ethnography Architecture India & Sri Lanka Photography

Beautiful series of moving photographs

[PHOTOGRAPHY - SAUDI ARABIA - KUWAIT]. [Collection of twelve photographs, capturing daily life in Saudi Arabia in the 1950s].
[Saudi Arabia or Kuwait], 1954. Ca. 28.8 x 22.8 cm (sheet size: ca. 35.3 x 27.8 cm). Twelve photographic prints, all signed and dated. Housed in clear plastic folder. [12] photographs. Full description

€ 850

Anthropology & Ethnography Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Kuwait Photography Saudi Arabia

The land, indigenous peoples and colonists in Nova Scotia, by a French official spying for England

[PICHON, Thomas]. Lettres et memoires pour servir à l'histoire naturelle, civile et politique de Cap Breton, ...
The Hague, Pierre Gosse; London, Jean Nourse [printed in England], 1760. 12mo. Half brown morocco (ca. 1885?), by Frank J. Pfister in New York, gold-tooled spine, round gold stamp of Henry Gurdon Marquand on the front. XVI, 327, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 1,250

Anthropology & Ethnography Canada & Greenland

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

Anthropology & Ethnography Art & Art History Auction Catalogues & Bookselling Faunas & General Zoology Mineralogy & Gems Museums & Wunderkammer Travel & Voyages Asia Travel & Voyages Pacific

A French voyage to the Far East, presentation copy

RENOUARD DE SAINTE-CROIX, Felix. Voyage commercial et politique aux Indes Orientales, aux Iles Philippines, a la Chine, avec des notions sur la Cochinchine et le Tonquin, pendant les années 1803, 1804, 1805, 1806 et 1807.
Paris, Clament frères (printed by Crapelet), 1810. 3 volumes. 8vo. With 2 folding engraved maps (India and Southeast Asia, coloured in outline), and 4 folding letterpress tables. Contemporary gold-tooled tree calf. X, 301, [1]; [4], 390; [4], 291, [1] pp. Full description

€ 7,500

Anthropology & Ethnography China India & Sri Lanka Indonesia / Dutch East Indies Philippines Southeast Asia Travel & Voyages Asia Travel & Voyages East Asia Travel & Voyages Southeast Asia Travel & Voyages Southern Asia

Surprising respect for Australian Aboriginal languages, with 4 botanical wood engravings and colour-printed decorations

RIDLEY, William. Kamilaroi, Dippel, and Turrubul: languages spoken by Australian Aborigines.
Sydney, Thomas Richards (New South Wales government printer), 1866. 4to. With an armorial vignette printed in several colours and gold (the unofficial "Advance Australia" Australian coat of arms), 4 fine full-page wood engravings of plants and flowers. Original publisher's maroon textured cloth. VI, 88, [2] pp. Full description

€ 1,950

Anthropology & Ethnography Australia Colour Printing / Chromolithography Language & Linguistics Literature

The 1777 standard history of the discovery of the New World in the 1778 Dutch translation

ROBERTSON, William; [Petrus LOOSJES, transl.]. Geschiedenis van America. Uit het Engelsch vertaald [by P. Loosjes].
Amsterdam, Yntema & Tieboell, 1778. 4 volumes. 8vo. With woodcut title-vignettes; 4 folding maps by Thomas Kitchin (1718-1784), representing (1) the Gulf of Mexico with adjacent countries and islands; (2) Mexico or New Spain; (3) South America and (4) Central America and the South Sea; and a folding plate showing part of the 14th-century Mixtec Codex Vindobonensis. Uniform contemporary half calf. XXXII, 378; 307; XIV, 15-439; IV, 7-322, [65] pp. Full description

€ 1,250

Anthropology & Ethnography Latin America Middle America North America Peru South America

Important 17th-century illustrated description of the Antilles

[ROCHEFORT, Charles de]. Histoire naturelle et morale des Iles Antilles de l'Amérique ...
Rotterdam, Arnout Leers, 1658. 2 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With an engraved title-page, a woodcut printer's device on the typographical title-page, a full-page portrait of Amproux, 43 engraved plates in the text of all kinds of plants, trees, animals and costumes from the Antilles. Further with a divisional title-page for the second part, and woodcut decorated initials, head- and tailpieces throughout. Contemporary gold-tooled marbled calf, with a red morocco title-label lettered in gold, gold-tooled board edges, marbled edges, marbled endpapers, and a bright pink reading ribbon. [1], [1 blank], [12], 527, [12], [1 blank] pp. Full description