antiquarian bookseller - Peter Harrington

Peter Harrington Antiquarian Bookseller
200.ROCKHILL, W.
Woodville, trans.
100
The Life of the Buddha and the
Early History of his Order. Derived
from Tibetan Works in the Bkah-
Hgyur and Bstan-Hgyur. Followed
by Notices on the Early History of
Tibet and Khoten.
London, Trübner & Co., 1884 [40028] £295
8vo. Original yellow ochre cloth, title gilt to spine, gilt roundel
to the upper board. Light browning, some foxing largely
isolated to the fore-edge, overall very good, the cloth very
slightly rubbed and dulled at the spine.
FIRST EDITION. Born in Philadelphia, Rockhill graduated
from the French Military Academy at St. Cyr and served for
three years as a lieutenant in the French army in Algeria.
He then entered the US diplomatic service, holding
postings in Greece, Romania, Serbia, China, Russia and
Turkey. Whilst in China he developed a profound interest
in Tibetan studies which he pursued throughout his life.
Between 1888–1892 he made two important expeditions
into Mongolia and Tibet under the auspices of the
Smithsonian Institute, producing “a variety of valuable
reports and works on the then secluded and little-known
country … His interest in East Asiatic bibliography was
expressed in gifts of over 6,000 volumes of rare Chinese
works to the Chinese Division of the Library of Congress”
(DAB). In the appreciation of Rockhill in the Annals of the
Association of American Geographers, his culture is assessed
as “the sort to be measured rather than described; he was
full dimensional”.
201.ROSE, Edward B.
A Handbook of Siberia and Arctic
Russia. I.D. 1207 [1207A & B].
London, Naval Staff, Intelligence Division, [The Admiralty], October
1918 [37368] £1500
3 volumes, 8vo. Large folding coloured map in end-pocket to
Volume I, three similar, on four sheets, in end-pocket to Volume
II, together with eight folding maps and town-plans bound
into the text, Volume III with large folding end-pocket map,
folding coloured map of routes bound in at the rear and three
town-plans, one of them, folding. Volumes I and III have the
minuscule inked ownership inscriptions of Nicholas Polunin,
renowned Arctic Botanist and campaigning environmentalist,
founder and Editor in Chief of Environmental Conservation.
Endpapers a little browned, but overall a very good set indeed
in the original blue cloth, gilt, a little rubbed at the extremities,
lower board of Volume III slightly marked.
FIRST EDITION. Distinctly uncommon, COPAC
has Glasgow and LSE only, OCLC has 30 listings
for a 1920 re-issue of Vol. I (“Vols. 2 and 3 never
published?”) but adds just three full sets, Royal Botanic
Gardens, Kew, Syracuse and Miami Universities.
Designated “Confidential”, this handbook, produced in
response to the intelligence needs of British forces sent
out as part of the Anglo-American intervention in Russia,
is a typically well-compiled affair providing historical,
ethnographical, climatological, zoological and above all
topographical information on the region.
202.(RUSSO-JAPANESE
WAR)
The Russo-Japanese War. Compiled
by The General Staff, War Office,
[continued as;] The Official History
of the Russo-Japanese War. Prepared
by the Historical section of the
Committee of Imperial Defence.
London, HMSO, 1906–10 [39936] £2250
Five Parts in six, 8vo. Original tan cloth-backed printed
boards. Profusely illustrated with maps, plates and plans,
many folding. A somewhat worn set, various ownership
inscriptions to upper boards, Volume III a duplicate from the
Royal Air Force Staff College Library with their bookplate and
stamps to the front endpapers, hinges as usual a little loose,
externally rubbed, some chipping and splitting of the spines,
but sound.
FIRST EDITIONS, together with the Second Edition of
Volume I (1909) with additional material “with regard to
the opening phase of the campaign” and a fuller account
of “the advance of the Japanese First Army through Korea,
and details of the battle of the Ya-lu.” Each part was issued
in varying print-runs between 2000 and 4000, but this is a
scarce set, as here, complete in parts.
203.RUTTLEDGE, Hugh.
Everest 1933. Notes and Thoughts,
Practical and Critical, of a Working
Amateur.
Hodder and Stoughton, Limited, London, 1934 [29893] £375
Crown 8vo. Original blue cloth, titles to spine gilt. With the
pictorial dustjacket. With fifty photographic illustrations,
three diagrams in the text, and four maps, three of which are
fold out. Contemporary ownership inscription to the front free
endpaper, light string mark to lower board but an excellent
copy in the very lightly tanned dustjacket.
FIRST EDITION of Ruttledge’s account of the 1933 British
attempt to climb Mount Everest, which he led. Nine years
had passed since the last expedition, on which Mallory
and Irvine had disappeared. Ruttledge put together a
highly talented group, but the attempt to establish Camp
V on a rare fair day was a crucial failure. In the ensuing
acrimony two vital days were lost and the expedition
missed its chance of improving significantly on the height
gained by the expedition of 1924. Ruttledge was to make
a second attempt in 1936, which was better-spirited but
defeated by an exceptionally early monsoon.
204.RYCHKOV, Peter.
Orenburgische Topographie, oder
umständliche Beschreibung des
Orenburgischen Gouvernements.
Verfasset von … Aus dem
Russischen von Jacob Rodde …
[Bound together with;] Versuch
einer Historie von Kasan alter und
mittler Zeiten.
Riga, Johann Friedrich Hartknoch, 1772 [39804] £3500
8vo., 3 volumes bound in one. Contemporary sprinkled calf,
spine gilt in compartments. 4 folding maps and plans. Small
library stamps to the title pages, some browning, spine
darkened and dry, a little rubbed, a very good copy.
FIRST EDITION IN GERMAN. Rychkov, first corresponding
member of St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences,
accompanied Pallas on the Orenburg Expedition, part
of the opening up of Russia’s terra incognita sponsored
by Catherine the Great. “In 1732 at the request of Khan
Abul’khai, the Lesser Kazakh Horde was brought under
Russian jurisdiction, and 1735 the town of Orenburg was
built at the mouth of the River Ori. In 1739 it was relocated
to a better site and in 1742 moved again to the situation
it presently occupies” (Howgego). The expedition was sent
with the intention of mapping the south-eastern regions
of the basin of the lower part of the Volga. Under Pallas’s
supervision Rychkov travelled to Kasan and explored the
areas east of the Volga as far as present day Kazakhstan.
Views from
Henry Salt’s
Eastern tour
Also featured on the covers of this catalogue
205.SALT, Henry.
Twenty-Four Views in St. Helena, the
Cape, India, Ceylon, the Red Sea,
Abyssinia and Egypt.
London, William Miller, 1 May 1809 [27769] £32,500
Plate volume only, large folio (751 × 530 mm). Original red
half morocco, skilfully rebacked and recornered to style,
original red morocco title label on front cover, marbled sides.
Uncoloured aquatint title incorporating dedication and 24
finely hand-coloured aquatint views by D. Havell, J. Hill
and J. Buck under the supervision of Robert Havell, on thick
paper watermarked J. Whatman 1818. Bookplate of Thomas
Swinnerton. Sides lightly rubbed, a few trivial marks chiefly in
fore-edge margins, a very good copy with fine hand-colouring
throughout.
Catalogue 57: Travel Section 4: Asia including Russia
FIRST EDITION, with plates watermarked 1818 as in
Abbey’s copy. Henry Salt (1780–1827) left England on 20
June 1802 on an eastern tour, as secretary and draughtsman
to Viscount Valentia (later the earl of Mountnorris). He
visited India, Ceylon, and the Red Sea, and in 1805 was
sent by Valentia on a mission into Abyssinia, to the ras of
Tigré, whose affection and respect he gained, and with
whom he left one of his party, Nathaniel Pearce. The
return to England in 1806 was made by way of Egypt,
where he first met the pasha, Mehmet Ali. Lord Valentia’s
Travels in India (1809) was partly written and completely
illustrated by Salt, who published the present work in the
same year “in the same size and style as Daniell’s Series
of Oriental Scenery”, according to an advertisement in
the text volumes occasionally found with this work (not
present here). Very often the two Egyptian plates (offering
fine views of Cairo and the Pyramids), being rather larger
in image size than the other subjects, are found trimmed
with slight loss of image. This is not the case here.
Abbey Travel 515.
101