Highlights

AGUILAR, José de. El intérprete chino. Colección de frases sencillas y analizadas para aprender el idioma oficial de China.
Madrid, Manuel Anoz, 1861. 8vo. The text is printed in two columns. Contemporary gold-tooled quarter purple sheepskin. [2], IV, 242, [1 blank], [2] pp. Full description

BONTIUS, Jacobus (Jacob de BONDT), Willem PISO and Georg MARKGRAF. Oost- en West-Indische warande. Vervattende aldaar de leef- en genees-konst. Met een verhaal van de speceryen, boom- en aard-gewassen, dieren &c. in Oost- en West Indien voorvallende.
Amsterdam, Jan ten Hoorn, 1694.
With: (2) Johannes VERBRUGGE. De nieuwe verbeterde chirurgyns scheeps-kist, sijnde een catalogus ofte lijste der medicamenten die yder chirurgijn naer Oost- of West Indiën gemeenlyk mede-voert.
Amsterdam, Jan ten Hoorn, 1693.2 works in 1 volume. 8vo (14.4 x 9.1 cm). Ad 1 with an engraved title page, erroneously mentioning the year 1693, a small fleur-de-lis woodcut vignette on the title page, a woodcut decorated initial and a woodcut tail-piece. Ad 2 with a large woodcut vignette on the title page, and three woodcut decorated initials. Contemporary blind-tooled vellum. [8], 304, [7], [1 blank], 96 pp. Full description

CERVANTES SAAVEDRA, Miguel de (Jacob Campo WEYERMAN translator; Antoine COYPEL illustrator). De voornaamste gevallen van den wonderlyken Don Quichot, door den beroemden Picart den Romein ... in XXXI kunstplaaten, na de uitmuntende schilderyen van Coypel in't koper gebragt ...
The Hague, Pieter de Hondt, 1746. Large folio (42 x 27 cm). Title in red and black with an engraved vignette (Quixote and the windmill), and 31 engraved illustration plates, all coloured by a contemporary hand, heightened with gold and set in in a gilt frame. Further with large woodcut initials and tailpieces, and each text page in an ornamental frame built up from typographic ornaments (the frames not in the 4to issue). Contemporary, richly gold-tooled dark red morocco by the so-called Van Damme bindery in Amsterdam, sewn on 7 supports, each board with Van Dammes typical hourglass- or vase- or flask-shaped central cartouche with a starry sky on a black ground, here showing a short-stemmed chalice or goblet with fire or flame-like leaves (like a snake plant, Dracaena trifasciata) in the cartouche and a basket of flowers topping the cartouche, the whole in an elaborate frame built up from hundreds of impressions of numerous small tools, the spine-title in gold on a black ground in the 2nd of 8 compartments, each of the other 7 with flowers, other decorations and a small flower in a pot, gilt edges. With a tissue guard-leaf before each plate. [2], XXVI, 420 pp. Full description

[CHINESE SCHOOL PAINTING] [Interior tea drinking scene].
[China, ca. 1820]. 47 x 61 cm. (picture); 61 x 74.5 cm. (frame). Oil painting on canvas, in a black lacquered Chinese export frame. Full description

[COELHO, Gaspar? and others]. Lettere del Giapone, et della Cina de gl'anni M.D.LXXXIX & M.D.XC. Scritte al R.P. Generale della Compagnia di Giesu.
Rome, [Giacomo Tornieri for?] Luigi Zannetti, 1591. 8vo. 17th-century limp vellum. “114” [= 214] pp. Full description

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

CUSTOS, Raphael. Patriciarum stirpium in S. Rom. Imp. Urbe Augusta Vindelicor ... | Der herren Gschlechter deß Hail. Röm. Reichs Statt Augspurg ...
Augsburg, Christoph Mang, 1613. 4to. With an engraved title, and 122 numbered engraved full-page illustrations of knights. Contemporary gold-tooled vellum, with a floral ornament within an oval frame in the centre of both boards, set within a double fillet frame with floral corner pieces, remnants of closing ties, gilt edges. [24], "123" [= 124] ll., 124-136, [1 blank] pp. Full description

EDKINS, Joseph. A grammar of the Chinese colloquial language commonly called the Mandarin dialect. ... Second edition.
Shanghai, Presbyterian Mission Press, 1864. 4to. Contemporary red half roan (sheepskin). [2 blank], [2], VIII, 297, [1] blank pp. Full description

EKATHOTSAROT, King of Ayutthaya (Siam/Thailand). Translaet van eenen brieff geschreven in gout ende bij den Coninck van Syam gesonden aen Sijn Excellentie Mauritio de Nassau.
[The Hague?, ca. 1608]. Folio (34 x 21 cm). Dutch manuscript translation, written in brown ink on paper in a slightly sloped Dutch gothic cursive hand (35 lines with text area 21 x 17.5 cm, plus 2-line drop-title), very neatly written, of a 1607 letter from Ekathatsarot, King of Ayutthaya (Siam/Thailand) to Maurits of Nassau, Prince of Orange (received in 1608), distributed as a manuscript tidings. [1] leaf. Full description

FÉNELON, François. Les aventures de Télémaque.
Paris, [Pierre François Didot le jeune], 1785. 2 volumes. Super royal 4to. With 98 hand-coloured plates, namely two engraved title pages in volume 1, 72 illustration plates engraved by Jean-Baptiste Tilliard after drawings by Charles Monnet, and 24 engraved plates with summaries of the "books" in decorative frames. Further with an elaborate armorial device on the title page of each volume. Contemporary gold-tooled dark greenish-brown morocco, a red morocco title and volume label on the spine, lettered in gold, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins, gilt edges, marbled endpapers. [3], [1 blank], [4], 309, [3 blank]; [3], [1 blank], 297, [1 blank], [2] pp. Full description

[GUANGZHOU SCHOOL]. [A bird's-eye view of Macao].
[Macao, ca. 1849-1865]. Painting 350 x 150 cm. Watercolour on paper on contemporary wooden roll. Full description

INTORCETTA, Prospero. R.P. Prosperi Intorcetta societatis Jesu missionarii sinensis testimonium de cultu sinensi, datum anno 1668.
Paris, Nicolas Pepié, 1700. 8vo. With a small woodcut ornamental vignette on the title page and some head- and tail-pieces built up from typographical ornaments. Contemporary vellum with the manuscript title on the spine, blue sprinkled edges. [2], 318, [10] pp. Full description

JAGOR, Fedor. Singapore - Malacca - Java. Reiseskizzen.
Berlin, Julius Springer, 1866. Ca. 23.5 x 17.5 cm. With 24 full-page illustrations. Original half (faded) burgundy sheepskin and decorated paper sides. [6], 252 pp. Full description

KIRCHER, Athanasius. Tooneel van China.
Amsterdam, Johannes Janssonius van Waesberge and the widow of Elizaeus Weyerstraten, 1668. Folio. With engraved frontispiece, engraved author's portrait, 24 engraved plates (including 2 double-page maps and 1 folding plate) and 60 engraved illustrations in text (plus another copy on a separate leaf, without letterpress text, of the engraving on 2F3v). Including maps of China and Asia, traditional Chinese costumes, illustrations of the Chinese and the Mughal rulers in abundantly decorated rooms, linguistic illustrations, zoological illustrations, etc. Contemporary gold-tooled sprinkled calf, with a red morocco title label on the spine lettered in gold, gold-tooled board edges, later endpapers (re-cased). [12], 286, [10] pp. Full description

LOPEZ, Gregorio. Lettera annua della Provincia delle Filippine dell' anno M.DC.VIII.
Rome, Bartolomeo Zanetti, 1611. Small 8vo (16 x 11.5 cm). 18th-century limp sheepskin parchment. 124, [2 blank] pp. Full description

[MANUSCRIPT - CHINESE RITES CONTROVERY - Lourenço de SANTA MARIA E MELO et al]. [Collection of manuscript anti-Rites oaths, from the years 1746-1767].
[Goa?, 1746-1767]. Folio. With 19 manuscript documents (18 in Latin, 1 in Italian) in different sizes, some with a papered seal.
19th-century brown paper boards from Thomas Phillipps' Middle Hill Press, with the manuscript title on the spine. The work is housed in a clamshell box of gold-tooled quarter brown calf, with a red morocco title label on the spine, yellow cloth sides, and a brown paper lining. [51] ll. Full description

MARSDEN, William and Cornelis Pieter Jacob ELOUT. Nederduitsch en Maleisch woordenboek, gevolgd van een Fransch en Maleisch woordenboek ... naar het Engelsch en Maleisch woordenboek van den Hr. W. Marsden. | Dictionnaire Hollandais et Malai, suivi dun dictionnaire Français et Malai ... daprès le dictionnaire Anglais et Malai de Mr. W. Marsden.
Haarlem, Johannes Enschedé and sons, 1826. 4to. With several wood engraving ornaments throughout. Later half black sheepskin. [8], 432 pp. Full description

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

MATTHAEUS, Christiaan Sigismund. Kort gevat jaar-boek van de edele geoctroyeerde Oost-Indische Compagnie der Vereenigde Nederlanden, ter Kamer van Zeeland. Beginnende met de erectie derzelver Compagnie.
Middelburg, Jan Dane, 1759. 8vo. Contemporary half brown calf, sprinkled paper sides, red sprinkled edges. [7], [1 blank], [5], [1 blank], 151, [1 blank] pp. Full description

MCFARLAND, Samuel Gamble (editor). Siamese hymnal.
Phetchaburi (Thailand), Samuel Gamble McFarland, 1876. 8vo. With Western round-head letterpress music notation. Set in Thai type with incidental roman. This copy with the letterpress presentation slip on blue paper tipped in (from McFarland and his wife), for people who contributed to the project. Contemporary half tanned sheepskin, probably bound for presentation. 148 pp. Full description

MICHELENA Y ROJAS, Francisco. Viajes científicos en todo el mundo, desde 1822 hasta 1842; durante los cuales fueron visitadas ... Dedicados a la nacion Venezolana.
Madrid, I. Boix, 1843. 4to. With full-page author's portrait by Leopoldo Lopez, woodcut coat of arms on dedication, 12 full-page lithographed illustrations by J. Aragon after J. Abrial, and 2 large lithographed folding maps (showing Sydney and the route of the voyage). Contemporary gold-tooled half sheepskin. 408, [4] pp. Full description

PALLEGOIX, Denis-Jean-Baptiste. Grammatica liguae Thai, auctore D.J. Bapt. Pallegoix, episcopo mallensi vicario apostolico Siamensi.
Bangkok, ex typographia collegii assumptionis B.M.V., 1850. 4to. Title in a frame built up from of typographic ornaments, the texts is set in Thai and Latin script and with one page (p. 36) of music notation. Contemporary half gold-tooled mottled sheepskin, decorated paper over boards, marbled endpapers. [2], 241, [3] pp. Full description

POCOCK, Nicholas. East India views islands headlands &c.
[London, ca. 1790?- ca. 1805]. Ten watercolour coastal profiles in grey and blue, of widely varying sizes (30 to 119 cm long), with contemporary captions and other notes in pencil or black ink. 20th-century brown cloth with the artist's original laid-paper wrappers bound at the end. [10] drawings. Full description

[PORTOLAN CHART - Luis TEXEIRA]. [Portolan chart of the Mediterranean basin].
[Iberian peninsula, second half of the 16th century, before 1574?]. 96 x 61 cm. Manuscript nautical chart on a single sheet of vellum, centred on the Mediterranean basin. Full description

ROLEWINCK, Werner. Formula vivendi canonico[rum] sive vicario[rum] seculariu[m] aut etiam alio[rum] devoto[rum] presbiterorum.
(Colophon: Delft, [Christiaen Snellaert], April 1496). 4to (19.5×13.5). With the main text in a rotunda type (64G), quire signatures in a slightly larger rotunda (82G), title and text opening in a larger textura (145G) and a few small printed "Lombardic" uncial initials. Rubricated throughout, with 1 4-line and a few smaller red "lombardic" uncial initials written or drawn in the blank spaces provided, red paragraph marks; type area 14.5×9 cm. Half vellum (ca. 1900?). [11] ll. Full description

[RUSSIA - CUSTOMS ADMINISTRATION]. Tarif général ou table alphabétique des droits que payeront les marchandises dans tous les ports et aux douanes des frontières de l'Empire de Russie, excepté à celles d'Astracan, du gouvernement d'Oufa et de Sibérie. Composé dans la Comission de Commerce l'année 1782.
St. Petersburg, J.J. Weitbrecht, 1783. 8vo. Contemporary half calf, marbled sides, sprinkled edges. 155, [1 blank] pp. Full description

SAUNDERS, William Thomas (photographer). [Portfolio of sketches of Chinese life and character].
[Shanghai, China, 1871]. Oblong album (ca. 41 x 56 cm). With 51 hand-coloured photographs mounted on the recto of 50 leaves. Contemporary gold- and black-tooled red sheepskin, with a hand-carved wooden panel mounted into the front board, showing a Asian house with 4 people around a round table, a cat or similar pet in the foreground next to a person smoking a pipe (an opium pipe?) being approached by a servant with two plates food, gold-tooled turn-ins, gilt edges, white watered silk endpapers. [50] ll. Full description

[SOEIRO, João]. [T'ien chu sheng chiao yüeh yen].
With (bound before ad 1):
[INTORCETTA, Prospero (translator)]. Sinarum scientia politico-moralis.
[China, early 17th century]. 2 works in 1 volume. Ca. 25.5 x 16.5 cm. The text has been xylographically printed on double leaves of Chinese rice paper. Ad 1 has been printed in Chinese, and ad 2 in Latin and Chinese. Later sturdy paper wrappers, housed in a modern black morocco solander box by Ateliers Laurenchet, with the title, author, and year of publication lettered in gold on the spine. [2], [13] ll. Full description

[SOUTH EAST ASIA - SMS AURORA - CHINA - SINGAPORE - PHILIPPINES]. Views of South-East Asia, China and Japan drawn on the voyage of SMS Aurora.
[China, Singapore, the Philippines, SMS Aurora (at sea)], 1886-1888. Oblong folio (17.9 x 40 cm). With 37 sheets of sketches in pencil, black ink, and grey wash, mounted on cards, most captioned and dated. Modern quarter black morocco over blue cloth boards, gold-tooled spine, and a gold-tooled morocco label on the front board. Full description

[SUNQUA (attributed)]. [Album with twelve Chinese pith paintings of court officials].
[Guangzhou (Canton), before 1850]. Folio (ca. 34.5 x 24.5 cm). Gouache and gold on pith paper (ca. 26.5 x 17.5 cm), each drawing is mounted by its corners in an album of mulberry-bark(?) paper (ca. 34 x 24 cm) and framed with a light blue silk ribbon. Contemporary green silk brocade with a floral pattern, pink closing ties. [12] ll. Full description

THIBAULT, Gerard. Academie de l'espée ... ou se demonstrent par reigles mathematiques sur le fondement d'un cercle mysterieux la theorie et pratique des vrais et jusqu'a present incognus secrets du maniement des armes a pied et a cheval.
[Amsterdam?, Thibault heirs?, printed in Leiden by Bonaventura and Abraham Elzevier, sold in Frankfurt by Lucas Jennis], "1628" [= 1629]. 2 parts in 1 volume. Royal 1mo (53.5 x 41 cm). With an elaborate engraved title page with; engraved portrait of the author (drawn by David Bailly after his own painting); 9 full-page engraved armorial plates, 1 full-page and 45 double-page numbered illustration plates, and hundreds of large woodcut arabesque initial letters, headpieces, tailpieces and factotums, at least most of them specially made for this book. With 2 text leaves in a meticulously pen-drawn, 18th-century(?) facsimile. With all plates beautifully coloured by the painter David Bailly with highlights in gold and silver. Contemporary(?) vellum over boards (modified in the 18th century), with the velvet covering and metal bosses and fastenings removed, dark blue edges. With tissues guards loosely inserted before the coloured plates. With a dedicatory inscription on the front free endleaf to Henri de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, by the colourist David Bailly, signed from Antwerp, 17 March 1629. Also with a carefully hand-lettered contemporary note to the reader at the foot of the dedication page. [4], [222]; [54], pp. + engraved title page and other plates. Full description

[VARENNE, François-Pierre de la (attributed)]. Le pastissier[!] François. Où est enseigné la maniere de faire toute sorte de patisserie, tres-utile à toute sorte de personnes. Ensemble le moyen dáprester toutes sortes d'oeufs pour les jours maigres, & autres, en plus de soixante façons.
Amsterdam, Lodewijk & Daniel Elzevier, 1655. 12mo. With an engraved title page, Elzeviers woodcut device on the title page, and several woodcut decorated initials and headpieces. 19th-century gold-tooled red morocco, bound by Georges Trautz ("Trautz-Bauzonnet"). The book is kept in a protective red paper slipcase, the whole kept in a custom-made beige cloth box, lined with red cloth. [12], 252 pp. Full description

VECELLIO, Cesare. De gli habiti antichi, et moderni di diverse parti del mondo, libri due, ..., & con discorsi da lui dichiarati.
Venice, Damiano Zenaro, 1590. 8vo (19 x 12 x 4.5 cm). With an elaborately decorated woodcut scrollwork border on the title page (incorporating 4 costume figures for the 4 continents, Zenaros salamander device and the coat of arms of the dedicatee, Count Pietro Montalbano), a divisional title with a 4-piece woodcut border, an emblematic woodcut medallion, 5 full-page woodcut views of Venice, 413 full-page woodcut costume figures from around the world (each in a 4-piece woodcut border), ca. 35 woodcut decorated initials plus hundreds of repeats (3 series, the main one covering nearly the complete alphabet with a few letters in more than one version). 19th-century gold-tooled red morocco (Paris, ca. 1865), signed in the front turn-in "HARDY-MENNIL", each board with the crowned and supported arms of the Prince dEssling above crossed branches (oak and palm) in the centre and a stylised flower (thistle? Queen Annes lace?), the monogram "AM" (for André Masséna, Prince dEssling). [24], 499, [1 blank] ll. Full description

[VIETNAMESE OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS]. [Official documents from the Vietnamese government on the eve of French colonisation.].
[Vietnam, ca. 1860]. 21 documents. Various sizes, most ca. 33 x 20 cm. Written in Classical Chinese on single and double leaves of rice paper. The collection is housed in a light blue paper folder. [41] ll. Full description

[VOC - WIC - SHARES FRAUD]. Relaes en contradictie op de motiven, om het koopen en verkoopen van Oost- en West-Indische actien, die niet getransporteert werden, ende optie partyen te beswaeren met eeen impost by de Heer Nicolaes Muys van Holy, advocaet tot Amsterdam, onwetende voorgestelt, en daer en boven getoont waer in waerlyyk Hollants intrest en welvaren bestaende is.
[Amsterdam or Rotterdam?, 1687]. 4to. Later decorated paper wrappers. 16 pp. Full description

WELCKER VON GONTERHAUSEN, Heinrich. Neu eröffnetes Magazin musikalischer Tonwerkzeuge, dargestellt in technischen Zeichnungen alle Saiten-, Blas-, Schlag-, & Friktions- Intrumente unter Aufnahme der neusten Verbesserungen und darauf bezüglichen statistischen Notizen, nebst geschichtlicher Uebersicht der Musik und Instrumente vom ersten Ursprung bis in die jetztzeit, mit specieller Beschreibung ihres Baues, Tonumfangs und fasslicher Angabe ihrer Behandlung und Erhaltung.
Frankfurt, im Selbst-Verlag des Verfassers (printed by Reinhold Baist), 1855. Large 8vo. With a lithographed frontispiece, 140 lithographed illustrations in the text, and 3 folding lithographed plates. Contemporary gold foil stamped burgundy velvet, with the author and title in gold on the spine, an elaborate decorative frame on both boards, surrounded by a wide single fillet frame, gilt edges, white watered silk endpapers. The work is housed in a red cloth solander box. 439, [3] pp. Full description

WERNDLY, George Henrik. Maleische spraakkunst, uit de eigen schriften der Maleiers opgemaakt; met eene voorreden, behelzende eene inleiding tot dit werk, en een dubbeld aanhangsel van twee Boekzalen van boeken, in deze tale zo van Europeërs, als van Maleiers geschreven.
Amsterdam, printed for the VOC (Dutch East Indian Company) by R. & G. Wetstein, 1736. 8vo. With the VOC's ship device on title page, several woodcut initials and tailpieces. Contemporary vellum. [2], LXVIII, 357, [23] pp. Full description

WILLIAMS, Samuel Wells. A tonic dictionary of the Chinese language in the Canton dialect.
Canton, Printed at the Office of the Chinese Repository, 1856. 8vo. With a lithographic Chinese title page, and a letterpress English title page. The text is printed in two columns. Contemporary half brown calf. XXXVI, 832 pp. Full description

YOSHITORA UTAGAWA. [Oranda-jin. Dutchmen. Japanese colour woodcut].
Yokohoma, Yamashiroya Jimbei, 1863. 36,6 x 24,5 cm. Japanese colour woodcut in red, black, blue, and yellow with a Dutch couple and a banderol with Japanese text of phonetic Dutch words. Mounded on decorated paper, framed. Full description

[ZACUTO, Abraham Ben Samuel]. Ephemerides sive Almanach perpetuu[m].
(Colophon:) Venice, Petrus Liechtenstein, for Johannes Lucilius Santritter, October 1498. 4to. With a woodcut title page and numerous tables. 20th-century limp vellum, sewn on 2 thin vellum straps laced through the joints, with the manuscript name of the (wrong) author and year of publication on the spine. [122] ll. Full description