LEGH, Thomas.

Narrative of a journey in Egypt and the country beyond the cataracts ... Second edition.

London, John Murray, 1817.

Second edition, illustrated with ten handsome plates absent from the first edition of 1816. ‘Legh travelled up the Nile in the winter of 1812/13 with the Rev. Charles Smelt, whose journal he uses in the narrative. They explored the country above Aswan, penetrating into Nubia, whose temples they were...

£500

LEONARD, Peter.

Records of a voyage to the western coast of Africa, in His Majesty’s ship Dryad and of the service on that station...

Edinburgh, Andrew Shortrede for William Tate, 1833.

First edition of this account by the naval surgeon Peter Leonard (1801-1888), a presentation copy from the author. ‘The principal objects in publishing the following records are, to make known the horrors which attend the slave trade on the western coast of Africa, and the condition and mental capacity...

£550

METHUEN, Henry Hoare.

Life in the wilderness; or wanderings in South Africa ...

London, Richard Bentley, 1846.

First edition. ‘A journal of an eight months’ sporting expedition through the Eastern Province to the Orange and Vaal Rivers, Waterboer’s country (Griqualand West), and thence in a north-easterly direction to the junction of the Mariqua and Limpopo Rivers as far as Moselekatse’s old capital,...

£275

PARK, Mungo.

Travels in the interior districts of Africa: performed under the direction and patronage of the African Association,...

London, printed by W. Bulmer and Co. and sold by G. and W. Nicol, 1800.

Fourth edition of Park’s account of his momentous expedition to the Niger River on behalf of the African Association. ‘His Travels, published in 1799, was a best-seller. Three editions were printed during the first year, and it was immediately translated into French and German, and eventually other...

£250

PEEL, Charles Victor Alexander.

Somaliland. Being an account of two expeditions into the far interior. Together with a complete...

London, F.E. Robinson & Co., 1900.

First edition, presentation copy from the author. ‘An excellent sporting title, this features all manner of big game hunting in the regions southwest of Hargeisa on Peel’s first expedition, then through the Haud and Ogaden on his second’ (Czech).

£350

RENNELL, James.

The geographical system of Herodotus, examined, and explained, by a comparison with those of other ancient authors,...

London, W. Bulmer and Co. for G. and W. Nicol, 1800.

First edition of this work on ancient geography by the eminent cartographer James Rennell (1742-1830), ‘a monument of laborious research and acute and lucid criticism’ (DNB). Best known for his pioneering mapping of India and Africa, Rennell was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1781, receiving...

£975

RENSHAW, Richard.

Voyage to the Cape of Good Hope, the Indian Ocean, and up the Red Sea, with travels into Egypt, through the desert,...

Manchester, M. Wilson, 1821.

First published in 1804. ‘This new edition will be found to contain not only most of the matter published in the first and second edition, but from eighty to one hundred pages of additional information, both historical and sentimental. The new historical matter is principally selected from the travels...

£250

SAINT-PIERRE, Bernardin de.

A voyage to the Isle of France, the Isle of Bourbon, and the Cape of Good Hope; with observations and...

London, J. Cundee for Vernor and Hood, J. Cuthell and J. Walker, 1800.

Second English edition (first 1775) of Saint-Pierre’s epistolary account of his voyage to Mauritius, Réunion and the Cape of Good Hope, penned between 1768 and 1771 and first published as Voyage à l’Isle de France in 1773.

£500

SPEKE, John Hanning.

What led to the discovery of the source of the Nile ...

Edinburgh and London, William Blackwood and Sons, 1864.

First edition of this work on Speke’s momentous explorations of Lakes Tanganyika and Victoria, collecting his ‘Journal of adventures in Somali land’ and ‘Journal of a cruise on the Tanganyika lake’.

£1750

SPRY, William James Joseph.

The cruise of her majesty’s ship “Challenger”. Voyages over many seas, scenes in many lands ......

London, Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, 1876.

First edition. A private account, by a lieutenant on board, of the Challenger expedition (1872-76), one of the most ambitious scientific voyages of the 19th century and often considered to mark the birth of oceanography. Among the places visited and described here are the various Atlantic islands, the...

£250

THOMPSON, George.

Travels and adventures in Southern Africa ... Comprising a view of the present state of the Cape Colony. With...

London, Henry Colburn, 1827.

Second edition, following the first single-volume quarto edition of the same year. ‘This valuable work was written by a Cape Town merchant who resided in South Africa for many years, and who had travelled throughout the greater part of the Cape Colony and a considerable part of Bechuanaland, “partly...

£750

THOMSON, Joseph.

Travels in the Atlas and southern Morocco. A narrative of exploration.

London, George Philip & Son, 1889.

First edition. Thomson had previously undertaken several African expeditions and in 1885 had been awarded the founder’s gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society. ‘On 17 March 1888 Thomson set foot again on his chosen continent. On this occasion he elected to explore, on his own account, the Atlas...

£250

TURNER, Samuel. 

An account of an embassy to the court of the Teshoo Lama, in Tibet; containing a narrative of a journey through...

London, W. Bulmer and Co. for G. and W. Nicol, 1800.

First edition of the ‘first eye-witness report on Tibet and Bhutan to be published in English.  The book remained the only account of those countries available to English readers until the publication in 1876 of the journals of George Bogle and Thomas Manning.  Through the editions that quickly...

£1750

NORMAND, Alfred Nicolas.

L’architecture des nations étrangères. Etude sur les principales constructions du parc à l’Exposition...

Paris, A. Morel, 1870.

First edition. This is a presentation copy, inscribed on the half-title to the author’s friend Charles Garnier, architect of the Paris opera house that bears his name: ‘A son ami Ch. Garnier. Souvenir affectueux A. Normand’. The two men had known each other since they were both ‘pensionnaires’...

£4000

[BERLIN - APPRENTICESHIP].

Apprenticeship Certificate for Joseph Friedrich Drewitz, issued by the Berlin merchant Carl Reinhold...

Berlin, 1 April, 1775.

A very good example of a late eighteenth century Berlin guild apprenticeship certificate, marking the successful completion by Joseph Friedrich Drewitz of a six-year apprenticeship in the special goods store of the merchant Carl Reinhold (here stated as Reinhard) Eckstein. Signed by the guild elders...

£1850

ECHARD, Laurence.

A general Ecclesiastical History from the Nativity of our Blessed Saviour to the first Establishment of Christianity...

London, W. Bowyer for Jacob Tonson, 1702.

First edition of Echard’s compendious history of the early Church, dedicated to Queen Anne. The work offers a concise and authoritative account compiled from a broad selection of authors, the preface noting: ‘that my Book might want nothing that cou’d be procur’d from others … I have...

£250

BLANCHARD, Edward Litt Leman.

A Pipe of Tobacco: with Whiffs and Clouds … With Illustrations.

London: H. Beal … [1840s?].

First edition, by the editor and play- and pantomime-writer E.L. Blanchard, comprising three ‘whiffs’ and two ‘clouds’ on the subject of tobacco, aimed ‘at a niche in the waistcoast pocket, rather than a more presuming station on the library shelf’. Blanchard knew Dickens and was in...

£125

[FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY WARS.]

Lo Stato Pontificio agli altri incliti co-stati d’Italia.

[S.l.,] 1797.

Anonymous anti-French pamphlet, which saw a number of printings in 1796 and 1797, and calls for a general insurrection against the French in Italy. The pamphlet draws very heavily, albeit without any acknowledgment of its debt, on Francesco Gusta’s 1794 Saggio critico sulle cruciate,...

£450

QUARITCH.

BQ_140283.

£450

XENOPHON.

De Cyri regis Persarum vita atque disciplina, libri VIII.

Paris, Andreas Wechel, 1572.

First edition of Joachim Camerarius’ Latin translation of Xenophon’s Cyropaedia, a partly fictional work on the life and education of Cyrus the Great which served as a model for medieval and renaissance mirrors of princes, including Machiavelli’s Il Principe. A beautiful...

£875