antiquarian bookseller - Peter Harrington

Peter Harrington Antiquarian Bookseller
169.FRESHFIELD,
Douglas W.
90
Travels in the Central Caucasus and
Bashan including Visits to Ararat
and Tabreez and Ascents of Kazbek
and Elbruz.
London, Longmans, Green, and Co., 1869 [39380] £650
8vo (212 × 140mm). Near contemporary full calf prize binding
for Repton School by Bickers & Son, black morocco label, spine
gilt in compartments, marbled edges. Chromolithographic
frontispiece and 4 plates, 3 folding maps, woodcut illustrations
to the text. Prize bookplate to the front pastedown, subsequent
library bookplate to the front free endpaper, small inked stamp
to the title page, but overall a very nice copy, the binding just
a little rubbed at the extremities.
FIRST EDITION. Freshfield played a major role in the
advancement of geography, especially through the
RGS, of which he was a fellow from 1869, honorary
secretary, jointly with Clements Markham, from 1881
to 1894, and president from 1914 to 1917. He also had
a passion for mountain travel as an aspect of serious
exploration. While still a schoolboy he had ascended
Mont Blanc, and in the 1860s and 1870s made at
least twenty first ascents, chiefly in the lesser-known
Italian Alps. From 1893 to 1895 he was president of the
Alpine Club, having been elected a member in 1864.
“Second only to his love of mountains was his interest
in classical life and lore (exemplified by his service
as treasurer of the Hellenic and Roman Societies), in
consequence of which he also travelled widely over the
regions of classical civilizations in the Near East. In 1868
he explored, together with Charles Tucker, Adolphus Moor,
and his lifelong friend François Devouassoud, the central
Caucasus, which, except for the lower heights, were then
unknown. He made the first ascent of Kazbek (16,546 ft),
Elbrus (18,470 ft), and several other peaks, and recorded
the existence of large glaciers in the regions between
them” (ODNB).
170.GARDNER, Mrs. Alan
Rifle and Spear with the Rajpoots:
Being the Narrative of a Winter’s
Travel and Sport in Northern India.
London, Chatto and Windus, 1895 [13048] £350
4to (278 × 203mm). Original buff half linen on plum
buckram boards, worn and stained, slightly clumsily
rebacked in sheep with maroon label, top edge gilt, others
uncut. Portrait frontispiece and numerous other illustrations,
many of them full-page. Endpapers browned, scattered
foxing, a good copy only.
FIRST EDITION. “… an almost verbatim reprint of
letters written hurriedly at the roadside … a plain and
unvarnished account of our rough but very pleasant
experience of Indian Camp Life.” Much shikar, “bagging
a bear,” “after antelope,” “tackling a panther,” “shooting
with the Maharaja [of Kotah],” “pig-sticking with Major
Beatson”, etc.
171.GEORGI, Johan Gottlieb.
Rußland. Beschreibung aller
Nationen des Russischen Reiches,
ihrer Lebensart, Religion,
Gebräuche, Wohnungen, Kleidungen
und übrigen Merkwürdigkeiten. In
zween Bänden.
Leipzig, Im Verlage der Dykischen Buchhandlung, 1783 [39536]
£2750
4to (273 × 190mm). Contemporary half calf on dark brown
sprinkled boards, pale green lettering piece matching
roundel numbering piece, lyre and urn devices gilt in the
compartments, bright pink silk page-marker, edges sprinkled.
Superbly hand-coloured frontispieces of costume to each
volume and 7 finely engraved head- and tail-pieces, one
engraved extract of Cossack music. Contemporary armorial
bookplate to the front pastedown and paper accession label
at the head of the upper board. Light browning, corner of one
leaf missing, no loss of text, ?paper flaw, but overall a very
good copy, just a little rubbed.
FIRST EDITION thus. “German Scholar and explorer of
Russia (1729–1802). After studying pharmacy in Germany,
he became an Academician of the St. Petersburg Academy
of Sciences, where he was professor of natural history and
chemistry. Georgi conducted the first geological exploration
of the Volga, Urals, Altai and the regions beyond Lake
Baikal, and in 1771–73 completed a voyage around the
lake. His geological specimens formed the foundation of
the Natural History Cabinet of the St. Petersburg Teachers
Seminary, founded in 1783 and now in the Mineralogical
Museum of St. Petersburg State University” (Howgego).
Settling in Russia as one of the savants drawn to
Catherine’s Russian Enlightenment, Georgi undertook
the first scientific ethnographic study of Greater Russia,
enquiring into the cultures on the fringes, the Finns,
Tatars, Samoyeds, Manchurians, Mongols and Cossacks.
Publishing, for example, the earliest scholarly account of
Siberian shamanism and Mongol Buddhism. The approval
of and interest stirred by his findings are indicated by
Catherine’s commissioning of the much-admired “The
People’s of Russia” series of figures, modelled by Jean-
Dominique Rachette after Georgi’s illustrations, from the
Imperial Porcelain Factory. A French language edition was
published simultaneously with the St. Petersburg German
edition, and an English edition was published 1780–83.
This a re-issue of the first St. Petersburg German edition,
1776–80, with the plates combined into the two
frontispieces. All editions of Georgi’s study are uncommon.
Howgego G36; Colas 1225.
172.GHIRSHMAN, R. & T.
Bégram. Recherches Archéologiques
et Historiques sur les Kouchans.
Cairo, Imprimerie de l’Institut Français, 1946 [39621] £400
Folio. Contemporary Indian quarter sheep on patterned paper
boards, original wraps bound in. 54 photogravure plates,
plans and diagrams. Some browning, wraps, endpapers and
margins, spine scuffed, boards a little soiled, but overall a very
good copy.
FIRST EDITION. Issued in the Mémoires de l’Institut
Français d’Archéologie Orientale de Caire and
Mémoires de la Délégation Archéologique Française en
Afghanistan series. One of the pioneers of archaeology
in Persia, Ghirshman was successively head of the French
Archaeological Mission in Persia and Director of the French
Archaeological Delegation in Afghanistan. As a Jew and a
passionate believer in Free France he clashed with the
Vichy representatives at Kabul, but continued work on the
important Graeco-Bactrian Kushan site at Begram, a Silk
Road way station.
173.GHIRSHMAN, R. & T.
Les Chionites-Hephtalites.
Cairo, Imprimerie de l’Institut Français, 1948 [39620] £300
Folio. Contemporary Italian quarter sheep on patterned
paper boards, original wraps bound in. 8 photogravure
plates, illustrations to the text. Upper wrap differentially
browned, spine scuffed, boards a little soiled, but overall a
very good copy.
FIRST EDITION. Issued in the Mémoires de l’Institut
Français d’Archéologie Orientale de Caire and Mémoires
de la Délégation Archéologique Française en Afghanistan
series, this monograph records his excavation of a
Hephtalite tomb at Setqabad.
174.GODARD, A., Y. Godard,
& J. Hackin.
Les Antiquités Bouddhiques
de Bamiyan. Avec des Notes
Additionelles de M. Paul Pelliot.
Paris & Brussels, Les Éditions G. van Oest, 1928 [40054] £450
4to. Later Italian sheep-backed patterned paper boards,
original wraps bound in. 44 photogravure plates, one folding,
one with key over-lay, 4 coloured plates, illustrations to the
text. Some browning, particularly to the coloured plates,
Catalogue 57: Travel Section 4: Asia including Russia
externally rubbed, spine lifting and repaired, but very good.
FIRST EDITION. France having been granted a 30 year
concession on archaeological excavations in Afghanistan,
work was begun at Bamiyan in 1923. Published as volume
II in the Mémoires de la Délégation Archéologique
Française en Afghanistan, this was the first full-scale study
of the sites and of the now destroyed colossal Buddhas. A
contemporary review in The Burlington Magazine remarks
that “as usually with Van Oest’s publications, this volume
is beautifully produced.” Uncommon.
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