Highlights

RALEIGH, Walter and Lawrence KEYMIS. Grondige ende waerachtige beschryvinge van het groot end gout-rijck koninckrijck van Guiana, geleghen in America, by- noorden de groote rivier Orelliana, vanden vyfden graet by Zuyden totten vyfden graet by- noorden de middel-linie; in welcke beschrijvinge de rechte gelegentheyt vande groote ende rijcke hooft-stadt Manca, Macureguarai ende andere steden derselvigen koninckrijcks ende van het groot Souten Meyr Parime (zynde omtrent 200 Spaensche mijlen lang) verclaert wort: insgelijcks wat voor rijcke waaren daer te lande ende daer omtrent vallen.
Mitsgaders vande omlegghende rijcke landschappen Emeria, Arromaja ende Topago: in welck laetste krijgs-vrouwen (Amzones genoemt) hare wooninge hebben: as oock van 53 groote rivieren onder welcken Oronoque de voornaemste is, welcke spruyt omtrent 500 Duystche mijlen landwaerts in, niet verre van Quitio een vermaerde hooft-stadt in Peru. Alles ontdeckt beschreven in de jaren 1595-1596.
[Amsterdam, Johannes Janssonius], 1644. Oblong 4to. With a vignette built up from typographical ornaments on the title page, and a decorated woodcut initial. Later half mottled calf. [49] ll. 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