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

[OXFORD UNIVERSITY.]

Parecbolae sive excerpta e corpore statutorum Universitatis Oxoniensis. Accedunt articuli religionis XXXIX...

Oxford, e theatro Sheldoniano, 1740.

Later edition of this essential student guide to the University of Oxford’s statutes, this copy formerly in the possession of the charismatic Cornish dissenting preacher Thomas Wills (1740–1802) when a student at Magdalen Hall.

£175

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

REID, Thomas.

Essays on the powers of the human mind; to which are prefixed, an Essay on quantity, and an Analysis of Aristotle’s...

[Edinburgh, W. Aitchison for] London, Ogle, Duncan & Co., and Edinburgh, J. Dick & Co. and W. Hunter, and Glasgow, M. Ogle, 1822.

A beautiful set of this small format edition of the principal philosophical works of the Scottish enlightenment philosopher Thomas Reid (1710–1796).

£750

[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

IRVING, Washington, and Felix DARLEY (illustrator).

Rip van Winkle; a posthumous Writing of Diedrich Knickerbocker...

London: Joseph Cundall … 1850.

First English edition, rare, first published as Illustrations of Rip Van Winkle (New York, 1848) in oblong folio. For this more compact English edition the publisher and early photographic entrepreneur Joseph Cundall made an early use of photography: ‘The present illustrations have been reduced...

£350

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

[COOKERY.]

Twentieth Century Cook Book … published by the Ladies Mite Society, St. Pauls Church, Lincoln.

Lincoln (NE), Franklin Press, 1902.

First and only edition of a very scarce Nebraska recipe book, printed for the Ladies Mite Society in Lincoln, Nebraska, with additional recipes added in manuscript by a local resident. The broad range of recipes is gathered from many contributors who, other than Mrs J.E. Baum of Omaha and Mrs...

£350

ERLENBACH, Jean Jacques.

Compliment de Congé en rimes francaises, a monsieur Ziegert, sur son depart pour Halle à l’université...

Breslau, Charles Guillaume Grass, [1754].

Charming and apparently unrecorded poem written on the occasion of the departure for the University of Halle of an unidentified Mr Ziegert by his disgruntled friend Johan Jakob Erlenbach (who, according to a footnote, did not expect his poem to be printed).

£150

[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 (Praes.) and Johann Ernst SCHLERETH (Resp.).

De sacramentis in specie, Eucharistia et Poenitentia quaestiones...

Würzburg, Johann Michael Kleyer, 1703.

A good copy of this rare Würzburg dissertation on the sacraments of the Euchasist 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