antiquarian bookseller - Peter Harrington

Peter Harrington Antiquarian Bookseller Catalogue 57: Travel Section 4: Asia including Russia
158.DU HALDE, Jean
Baptiste.
Description Geographique,
Historique, Chronologique,
Politique, et Physique de l’Empire
de la Chine et de la Tartarie
Chinoise.
Paris, P. G. Le Mercier, 1735 [31680] £15,000
4 volumes, folio. Contemporary mottled sheep skilfully
rebacked with original decorative gilt spines laid down, corners
restored, red edges, marbled endpapers. Titles printed in red
and black and incorporating an engraved pictorial vignette by
Baquoy after Humblot. 43 fine engraved maps (many folding)
and 21 plates, text printed in double-columns, woodcut head-
and tailpieces and typographic ornaments. Early 20th-century
bookplates of Dr. O. Fischer. Some abrasions to bindings,
occasional spotting or paper toning but generally a very good,
tall copy.
Du Halde’s classic work
on China
FIRST EDITION of the most comprehensive survey of China
printed in the eighteenth century, drawn from the accounts
and surveys (both published and unpublished) of twentyseven
Jesuits. This encyclopaedic work not only provided
valuable information on Chinese political institutions,
education, language, medicine, science, customs and
artefacts, but also included the first appearance of 43
maps by d’Anville, the finest cartographer of his age.
Drawn from recent surveys made by the Jesuits in
China, these maps are considered by Tooley to be “the
principal cartographic authority on China during the
18th century”. The work also contains the first separate
map of Korea, together with a previously unpublished
account of that country by Jean-Baptiste Régis.
The book is also of American interest, for its highly
important material on Alaska: “Relation succincte du
voyage du Capitaine Beerings dans la Siberie,” in vol. IV
is the first printed report of Bering’s 1725–28 expedition.
The accompanying map (“Carte des Pays traverses parle
Capne Beerings”) contains the first printed configuration
of any part of Alaska, namely St. Lawrence Island. Both are
based on manuscripts that Bering had presented to the
King of Poland who, in turn, presented them to Du Halde
for inclusion in this work. Lada-Mocarski reports that in
many copies pp. 451–2 in vol. IV have been supplanted by
the map; in this copy, both are present.
Lust 12; Cordier, Sinica 46–47; Sommervogel iv 35.11; Lada-Mocarski,
Books on Alaska II, pp. 20–22; Cox I, p. 335; Wagner p. 156; Wroth: Early
Cartography of the Pacific, 91.
159.EDWARDES, Major
Herbert B.
A Year on the Punjab Frontier in
1848–49.
London, Richard Bentley, 1851 [39758] £850
2 volumes, 8vo. Original red cloth with decoration in gilt
and blind. Portrait frontispiece to Volume I together with
2 further plates, folding panorama, plan and a map in endpocket,
Volume II with a coloured double portrait frontispiece
and 2 similar plates, a folding plan and a facsimile. Armorial
bookplates of Evelyn J. Shirley of Eatington Park, Warwickshire.
Light browning, cloth a little rubbed and chipped, particularly
heads and tails of spines and joints of Volume II, but
nonetheless a very good set.
FIRST EDITION. “… narrated in a droll, low-key style a
memoir of his year … in the Punjab. As a young army
Lieutenant seconded to the civil administration, he
combined the best qualities of each experience in his
account of the establishment of a British administrative
presence at Bunnu, a tour of the province of Multan as a
Land Revenue Officer, and as the commander of the troops
used to crush the Sikh revolt at Multan … Edwardes’s
mixture of letters, reports, diary entries and narrative
forms a gripping account nearly epic in enormity of the
accomplishments it records.” Decidedly uncommon, a
second edition was issued in the same year.
Bruce 2221; Riddick 104.
160.ELWOOD, Katherine.
Narrative of a Journey Overland
from England, by the Continent of
Europe, Egypt, and the Red Sea, to
India; including a Residence there,
and Voyage Home, in the Years 1825,
26, 27, and 28.
London, Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, 1830 [40109]
£500
2 volumes, 8vo. Original scarlet linen, black leather labels to
the spine. Tinted lithographic frontispiece to Volume I and 5
other similar plates. Lightly browned, some scattered foxing,
lower joint of Volume I cracked, consequently slightly shaken,
about very good.
FIRST EDITION. The daughter of the classical scholar
Edward Curteis, Katherine married Colonel Charles William
Elwood, HEIC Army in 1824 and travelled put with him to
India the following year. “The Elwoods travelled slowly
south through Europe, viewing all the sights, landing in
Egypt in April 1826, and sailed up the Nile to Cairo and
Luxor. She wrote vivid, if somewhat romantic, descriptions
of the social life, the surroundings of Cairo and its people
… At Luxor they met Joseph Bonomi and Robert Hay …
Her observations on how she was treated as a European
woman are of particular interest. The Elwoods’ journey
from Luxor to Bombay by land and sea took over two
months. From the Nile they travelled across the desert,
with Mrs Elwood in a traditional litter slung between two
camels …They sailed down the Red Sea to Jiddah, where
they picked up a ship for Bombay. At al-Hudaydah she
visited an Arab harem. Mrs Elwood’s observations of life
in India are vivid and irreverent, particularly concerning
the lifestyle of the expatriates. She wrote also about
plant and animal life, and Indian religions and languages.
In 1826–7, when her husband was given command of
a regiment, they moved north to the province of Cutch.
Mrs Elwood was again in her element, writing about
everything around, including her visit to a zenana. In 1828
the Elwoods sailed for England by way of Ceylon, the Cape
of Good Hope, and St Helena” (ODNB).
Abbey Travel 521.