BURTON, Richard Francis, and James MacQueen.

The Nile basin. Part I. Showing Tanganyika to be Ptolemy’s western lake reservoir....

London, Tinsley Brothers, 1864.

First edition, complete with the three maps. This work, ‘which absolutely exudes venom, was the heart of Burton’s frontal attack on Speke’s geographical theories. Burton dedicated it, with a marked degree of sarcasm, to “those kind friends, especially to those members of the Royal Geographical...

£2500

GERARD, Alexander.

Account of Koonawur in the Himalaya, etc. etc. etc. ... Edited by George Lloyd. With a large map.

London, James Madden, 1841.

First edition of this important work on the Kinnaur region in the western Himalayas, now in northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, comprising a detailed account of its geography, transport system, agriculture, flora and fauna, and native culture, religion and language, as encountered in the early...

£1500

LANGLEY, Edward Archer.

Narrative of a residence at the court of Meer Ali Moorad; with wild sports in the valley of the Indus ...

London, Hurst and Blackett, 1860.

First edition of this important work on Sindh by Langley, a captain in the Madras cavalry who served as secretary to Mir Ali Murad, ruler of Khairpur (a princely state of British India on the Indus River) from 1842 to 1894. Langley’s Narrative gives a detailed picture of the region around the time...

£1000

MARSHALL, John, Sir, editor.

Mohenjo-Daro and the Indus civilization being an official account of archaeological excavations at...

London, Arthur Probsthain, 1931.

Scarce first edition, a handsome set, of Marshall’s outstanding contribution to archaeology, documenting discoveries made in the Indus valley of the Punjab and Sind. ‘His announcement in 1924 that he had there found a new civilization of the third millennium marked an epoch in modern discovery; the...

£3500

PALAFOX Y MENDOZA, Juan de.

The history of the conquest of China by the Tartars. Together with an account of several remarkable...

London, W. Godbid for M. Pitt, 1671.

First edition in English of Palafox’s Historia de la conquista de la China (1670), an account of the Manchu conquest of Ming China based on reports sent to him from Macao and the Philippines. The work deals also with Chinese customs, manners, religion and costumes, and one chapter discusses Japanese...

£2000

POSTANS, Thomas.

Personal observations on Sindh; the manners and customs of its inhabitants; and its productive capabilities: with...

London, Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1843.

First edition of this important account of Sind, an advance copy that belonged to Postans’s wife. Published in the same year as the annexation of Sind by Sir Charles James Napier, Postans’s work gives an account of the region’s geography (including Karachi, Hyderabad, and the river Indus), ethnic...

£950

ROLLIN, Charles.

The ancient history of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes & Persians, Macedonians & Grecians.

Durham, G. Walker, [c. 1824].

Durham edition of Rollin’s history, accompanied by a series of large folding maps by d’Anville. The magnum opus of Charles Rollin (1661-1741), the Ancient History was among the most thorough publications on the ancient world. Appearing in English translation in 1730, very soon after the first publication...

£250

STEIN, Aurel.

Report of archaeological survey work in the North-West Frontier Province and Baluchistan for the period from January...

Peshawar, Government Press, 1905.

Scarce first edition of this significant report from Stein’s period as Inspector-General of Education and Archaeological Surveyor of the North-West Frontier Province and Baluchistan, to which combined post he had been appointed in July 1903. No copies are recorded at auction on Rare Book Hub.

£6000

STEIN, Aurel.

Archaeological reconnaissances in north-western India and south-eastern Iran carried out and recorded with the support...

London, Macmillan, 1937.

First edition, a handsome copy. Having won fame for his expeditions to the deserts of Chinese Turkestan, Stein turned his attention in the early 1930s ‘to Persia and, with the initial backing of his American friends at Harvard, began a series of four expeditions there, or “archaeological reconnaissances”,...

£2000

VINCENT, William, editor.

The voyage of Nearchus from the Indus to the Euphrates, collected from the original journal preserved...

Cadell junior and W. Davies, 1797.

First edition, the work of the classical scholar William Vincent (1739-1815). The Voyage of Nearchus ... is a commentary on an expedition recorded by Arrian of Nicomedia in his Indica that Vincent termed ‘the first event of general importance to mankind in the history of navigation’ ... The voyage...

£2000

ARNOLD, Edwin.

Enfin: A Poem, hitherto unpublished, by Sir Edwin Arnold.

New York, printed by Thomas Perry Stricker for Julian Buddolph Arnold, 1936.

First edition, one of only fifty copies hand-printed by T. Perry Sticker, presentation copy from the editor (the author’s son) and accompanied by his autograph note regarding the printing and planned circulation of the poem.

£350

LÉVI-STRAUSS, Claude.

The Tupí-Cawahíb.

Washington, United States Government Printing Office, 1948.

A set of offprints of four articles by Lévi-Strauss from the Smithsonian’s Handbook of South American Indians, inscribed by the author. In each article Claude Lévy-Strauss (1908–2009) provides an illustrated introduction to an Amazonian group, recording their history, social and political...

£300

PARKER, Thomas Netherton.

Leaves out of the Book of a Country Gentleman.

Oswestry, W. Price, London, Longman & co., and Shrewsbury, Eddowes & Leake, 1847.

First and only edition of this very rare compilation by Parker of his farm and estate experiments and inventions, one of one hundred copies privately published, and presented by the author to the Earl of Powis.

£1950

[SEVILLE.]

Mercantile contract between Sebastián de Baeza of Seville and Hernán López de Segovia, almost certainly relating...

Seville, 25 July 1576.

A commercial document from the heyday of Seville’s trade with the Indies. Drawn up for Sebastián de Baeza, a resident of the barrio of San Bartolomé in Seville, the document recapitulates a previous agreement of 25 June 1576 between, on the one hand, Hernán López de Segovia and, on...

£1200

QUARITCH.

BQ_139133.

£100

SINCLAIR, John, Sir, first baronet.

A sketch of the improvements, now carrying on by Sir John Sinclair, Bart. M.P. in the county...

London, W. Bulmer and Co., 1803.

First edition, presentation copy, with attractive engravings showing a ‘Plan of the new town of Thurso’, an ‘Improved elevation and plans of Janet Street in the new town of Thurso’, a ‘Plan of certain farms on the river Thurso ... intended partly to be let in small lots on improving leases...

£250

[LAPINI, Bernardo.]

Vita di Madonna Onorata scritta da Bernardo Ilicino publicata per la prima volta sopra un codice del secolo...

Milan, Giuseppe Bernardoni, 1843.

First appearance in print of this life of the Sienese noblewoman Onorata Saracini (née Orsini, 1435–1457), by her contemporary, the late fifteenth-century physician and writer Bernardo Lapini (or Ilicini), here edited by the Milanese print and old master dealer Giuseppe Vallardi (1784–1863)...

£350

PIERTZ, Leonhard, Praesidens; Johann Ernst SCHLERETH, Respondens.

De sacramentis in specie, Eucharistia et Poenitentia...

Würzburg, Johann Michael Kleyer, 1703.

A good copy of this rare Würzburg dissertation on the sacraments of the Eucharist and Penance, under the Jesuit professor Leonhard Piertz (1662–1741). The dissertation discusses when the Eucharist was instituted, what verbal formulae are necessary for consecration, whether the Eucharistic sacrifice...

£175

[PUSHKIN, Aleksandr Sergeevich (contributor).]

Сѣверные цвѣты на 1825 годъ [Severnye tsvety na 1825...

St Petersburg, Department of Public Education, 1825 [Moscow, Universitetskaia tip., 1881].

Rare nineteenth-century Moscow reprint of the exceptionally rare first issue of Northern flowers, one of the most celebrated Russian literary anthologies, edited by Pushkin’s great friend Delvig. The 1825 issue included the first appearance of four passages from part ii of Eugene...

£1750

[RICHARD, Charles-Louis.]

Lettres d’un archevêque, à l’auteur de la brochure intitulée: Du droit du souverain sur les biens-fonds...

A Cologne, 1770.

First edition, uncommon, of this response to an anticlerical essay by the Chevalier de Cerfvol by the Dominican theologian and anti-philosophe Charles-Louis Richard (1711–1794). De Cherfvol had argued against the wealth of the clergy, and in particular of the religious orders, and proposed a means...

£200