Forum Rare Books

The most important work in American western exploration, with the original folding map

LEWIS, Merriwether and William CLARK. History of the expedition under the command of Captains Lewis and Clark, to the Sources of the Missouri Thence across the Rocky Mountains and Down the River Columbia to the Pacific Ocean, Performed During the Years 1804-5-6 [with map:] Map of Lewis and Clark's Track, Across the Western Portion of North America from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean
Philadelphia, 1814. 2 volumes. 8vo. With a large folding engraved map, and 5 full-page engraved charts. Modern gold-tooled half calf over cloth-covered boards, faux raised bands to spine, with a red morocco title-label lettered in gold on either spine, further with the volume numbers and place and date of publication lettered in gold on the spine. XXVIII, 470, [2 blank]; IX, [1], 522 pp. Full description

€ 70,000

Charts & Maps North America Travel & Voyages North America USA - United States of America

Under sail and siege: a first-hand account of the Dutch war for Malacca

[L'HERMITE, Jacques]. Breeder verhael ende klare beschrijvinge van tghene den admirael Cornelis Matelief de Jonge inde Oost-Indien voor de stadt Malacca, ende int belegh der zelver wederbaren is: als ooc den vreesselijcken strijdt ter zee / tusschen den admirael voorschreven ende de portugijsen ende andere geschiedenissen meer. overgeschreven by eenen der commisen inde vlote.
Rotterdam, Jan Janssz., 1608. 4to. With a woodcut illustration on the title page representing a fleet arriving at the port of Malacca, one woodcut initial and a woodcut tailpiece. 19th-century gold-tooled red morocco. [9] ll. Full description

€ 18,000

Indonesia / Dutch East Indies Malaysia Military History (17th Century) Naval History Travel & Voyages Asia VOC

Opening the East for trade for the Dutch and the English

LINSCHOTEN, Jan Huygen van. Itinerario, voyage ofte schipvaert, ... naer Oost ofte Portugaels Indien ...
Amsterdam, Cornelis Claesz., [1595-] 1596.
With:
(2) IDEM. Reys-gheschrift van de navigatien der Portugaloysers in Orienten ...
Including: IDEM. Een seker extract ende sommier van alle de renten, domeynen, tollen, ... importen, trubuyten, thienden, derde-penninghen en[de] incomsten des coninghs van Spaengien ...
Amsterdam, Cornelis Claesz., 1596 [= 1595].
(3) IDEM. Beschijvinghe van de gantsche custe van Guinea, Manicongo, Angola, Monomotapa, ende teghen over de Cabo de S. Augustijn in Brasilien ...
Amsterdam, Cornelis Claesz., 1596. 4 parts in 1 volume. Small folio (ca. 31 x 21 cm). With 6 folding maps, 36 folding or double-page plates, a full-page author's portrait, and a large illustration on each of the 4 divisional title pages, all engraved. Contemporary blind-tooled vellum over modern boards (?), with the manuscript author, title, and year of publication on the spine, red and blue sprinkled edges. [8], 160; 134, [4], 135-147; [82], [2 blank], [8] pp. Full description

€ 95,000

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Brazil East Africa Indonesia / Dutch East Indies Navigation North America South America Travel & Voyages Africa Travel & Voyages Asia Travel & Voyages Middle East Travel & Voyages South America Travel & Voyages Southeast Asia West Africa West Indies

Influential guide to the East and West Indies, featuring 42 double-page and folding plates,
including 6 detailed maps.

LINSCHOTEN, Jan Huygen van. Histoire de la navigation... aux Indes Orientales. Contenant diverses descriptions des lieux jusques à present descouverts par les Portugais: observations de coustumes & singularitez de delà, & autres declarations. Deuxiesme edition augmentee.
Including: LINSCHOTEN, Jan Huyghen van. Le grand routier de mer, ...
[LINSCHOTEN, Jan Huygen van]. Description de lAmerique & des parties dicelle ...
Amsterdam, Evert Cloppenburg, 1619. 3 works in 1 volume, the first in 2 parts. Folio (31 x 21 cm) With an engraved title page for each work, 42 engraved plates (31 double-page and 11 folding), including 6 maps, and a full-page portrait of the author within collation. Near-contemporary gold-tooled calf. [1], [1 blank], [6], "205" [= 206]; [1], [1 blank], [2], 181, [1 blank]; [1], [1 blank], "86" [= 80]. Full description

€ 40,000

Brazil China Indonesia / Dutch East Indies Japan & Far East Navigation North America Travel & Voyages Asia Travel & Voyages North America Travel & Voyages Pacific Travel & Voyages South America

Famous work on the Middle East, illustrated with very early photogravures of the Holy Land

LUYNES, Honoré d'Albert de. Voyage d'exploration à la mer Morte, à Petra et sur la rive gauche du Jourdain. ... Oeuvre posthume publiée par ses petit-fils sous la direction de M. le Comte de Vogüé.
Paris, Arthus Bertrand (on back of half-title: printed by E. Martinet (vols. 1-2) and Arnous de Rivière (vol. 3)), [1874]. 3 volumes of text and 1 atlas of plates. Imperial 4to (35.2 x 26.5 cm). With 14 numbered lithographed plates in volume 3 (4 double-page chromolithographed maps, views and geological sections; 2 further geological plates and 8 plates showing archaeological specimens), 85 plates in the atlas volume (including 65 photogravures and double-page chromolithographed maps) and numerous wood-engravings in the text. Set in roman and italic types with occasional passages in Greek and especially Arabic. Text volumes in original publisher's letterpress-printed light blue wrappers, atlas in half cloth portfolio with the original publisher's letterpress-printed paper sides, matching the text volumes; the 4 volumes preserved in 2 modern black half calf clamshell boxes. [8], 388; [6], 226; [4], VI, 326; [4] pp. Full description

€ 35,000

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Archaeology Colour Printing / Chromolithography Photography Travel & Voyages Asia Travel & Voyages Middle East

Rare oration announcing the latest Portuguese conquests to the newly elected pope

[MANUEL I, king of Portugal, and Diego PACHEGO]. Emanuelis Lusitan. Algarbior. Africae Aethiopiae Arabiae Persiae Indiae reg. invictiss obedientia.
[Rome, Marcello Silber, 1514]. Small 4to (ca. 19.5 x 14 cm). With the woodcut coat of arms of King Manuel I on the title page, surrounded by a woodcut floral border. 19th-century decorative paper with a pattern of green flowers. [1], [1 blank], [14] pp. Full description

€ 75,000

Early Printing - 16th century East Africa Law & Politics North Africa Portugal Southern Africa

A notable narrative with detailed information on Northwest America, in splendid bindings

MARCHAND, Étienne and Charles Pierre Claret de FLEURIEU. Voyage autour du monde, pendant les anneés 1790, 1791 et 1792, par Étienne Marchand, précédé d'une introduction historique; auquel on a joint des recerches sur les terres Australes de Drake, et un examen critique du voyage de Roggeween.
Paris, De l'imprimerie de la République, [1798-1800]. 6 volumes: 5 text volumes and 1 atlas. Large 8vo (23 x 15 cm) and 4to atlas. With 3 folding tables with vocabulary in 3rd volume and 15 engraved maps and 1 engraved plate in atlas volume. Contemporary light brown calf, gold-tooled spine gilt with star and flower pattern and 2 red morocco title labels, gold-tooled ornamental borders on the boards, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins, gilt edges (COURTEVAL). [4], VIII, CCI, [3], 294, [2]; VII, [1], 529, [1]; [2], VIII, 474, [2]; VIII, 494, [2]; XII, 559, [5]; [2], VIII, 158, [2] pp. Full description

€ 27,500

Alaska Anthropology & Ethnography Bindings Canada & Greenland Charts & Maps Hawaii Navigation North America Pacific Islands Travel & Voyages North America Travel & Voyages Pacific

Very rare edition of an extremely popular history of the most famous
and daring Dutch pirate of the 17th century

[MARITIME HISTORY - PIRACY - CLAES COMPAEN]. 't Begin, midden en eynde der zee-rooveryen, van den alder-fameusten zee-roover, Claes G. Compaen, van Oostzanen in Kennemer-landt. Vervattende sijn wonderlijcke vreemde en lands schadelijcke drijf-tochten. Waer in vertoont wordt, hoe hy met weyningh schepen de zee onveyligh gemaeckt, een ongelooflijcke buyt, en groot getal van schepen van alle landen gerooft ende afgeloopen heeft
Amsterdam, widow of Gijsbert de Groot, 1697. 8vo. With a large woodcut illustration of a Dutch merchant ship on the title page, three woodcut illustrations in the text (including 1 repeat of the title page illustration), and one large decorated woodcut initial. Later greyish-brown wrappers. [1], [1 blank], [4], 42 pp. Full description

€ 6,500

Dutch Literature Mutiny, Piracy & Shipwrecks

The first edition of the spectacular Mercator-Hondius atlas, a milestone in cartographic history

MERCATOR, Gerardus and Jodocus HONDIUS (publisher). Atlas sive cosmographicae meditationes de fabrica mundi et fabrica figura. Iam tandem ad finem perductus, quamplurimis aeneis tabulis Hispaniae, Africae, Asiae & Americae auctus ac illustratus à Judoco Hondio. Quibus etiam additae (praeter Mercatoris) dilucidae & accuratae omnium tabularum descriptiones novae, studio et opera Pet. Montani.
Amsterdam, Jodocus Hondius, 1606. Folio. With an engraved title page and 144 mostly double-page maps, each with a signature (E-7T) and with explanatory texts on the recto of the first and on the verso of the second fol. (the text pages on the rectos and versos of the maps are paginated 33-354). Original gold- and blind-tooled calf, re-cased, the original leather pasted to the new boards. With a large blind-tooled centrepiece in a blind-tooled lozenge frame, within a blind-tooled rectangle frame, gold-tooled smaller and larger corner pieces and a gold-tooled floral frame along the edges of the boards, both boards show the same design. Further with the title lettered in gold on the spine, and red edges. [16], 354, [12] pp. [+ 8 + 4 + 4 + 8 = 24 pp. for the indexes]. Full description

€ 125,000

Atlases & Globes World Atlases & Maps

With the rare map of the North Pole

MOXON, Joseph. Ein kurtzer Discours von der Schiff-Fahrt bey dem Nord-Pol nach Japan, China, und so weiter. Durch drey Erfahrungen dargethan und erwiesen, nebenst Beantwortungen aller Einwürffe, welche wieder die Fahrt auff diesen Weg können eingewendet worden; Als 1. durch eine Schiffahrt von Amsterdam in den Nord-Pol. 2. durch eine Schiffahrt von Japan, nach den Nord-Pol. 3. durch einen Versuch den der Großfürst in der Moskau thun lassen, worduch erscheinet, daß gegen Norden von Nova Zembla eine frey und offene See ist biß nach Japan China und so weiter; Sampt einer Land-Charte so alle Länder nechst dem Polo anweiset; Aus dem Englischen ins Hochdeutsche übersetzet.
Hamburg, Johan Naumann and Georg Wolff, 1676. 4to. With the last leaf folding, and with a woodcut map of Nova Zembla and the Kara Sea at foot and a large map engraved by Jochim Wichmann on the verso, showing the North Pole and the lands around it including Newfoundland, Baffins Bay, Hudson Straits, Nova Francia, Nova Anglia, and Japan. Later gold-tooled crushed morocco, with a double fillet border with corner pieces on both boards, spine in compartments with gilt decoration, gold-tooled turn-ins. [4] ll. Full description