Rare travel books in Asia: mission accounts, explorations, colonial Indochina, oriental studies and illustrated works on China, Japan, Korea, Laos, Burma, Vietnam, Cambodia

French first edition illustrated with 3 repeated frontispieces, one portrait, 6 folding maps and 26 folding plates, being 36 figures in total. The complete set of illustrations is present whereas most copies lack one or several plates. The Spanish original dates from 1609. "This translation is more complete than the original: the third volume is entirely composed of the history of conquests made by the Dutch in this country". Chadenat, 739p.
Armorial copy with arms stamped on the upper covers and cipher on the lower covers. Unidentified.
Contemporary full brown speckled sheep binding. Spine with raised bands decorated with central fleuronné lozenges and roulettes on the bands. Brown...

First edition of the French translation. First published in English in 1712 under the title A cruising voyage round the world. Illustrated with 2 engraved titles, 14 engraved plates and 7 maps including 2 large format (Paraguay and Chile - mainland Peru and Brazil and the Land of the Amazons) and a world map.
Bound in full brown sprinkled calf, spine elaborately gilt, gilt roulettes on the edges, all red speckled edges. Expertly restored (corners, upper and lower part of joints). Two small restored tears on the world map, not affecting the image.
Ex-libris in ink "Sr Remy" to the upper left margin of the title-page.
A tear to the world map, not affecting the...

First edition, with 18 engraved maps et 5 folding engraved plates.
Contemporary tan calf, skillfully restored tear to the first folding map, some marginal restorations to the map “Troisième division - Archipel des navigateurs”. Falkland Islands map expertly rebacked on the outer margin as well as the Magellan Strait map. Map of the Buton Strait with a small marginal tear and a second restored with a strip of paper.
Bougainville undertook the first official French circumnavigation and scientific expedition. Starting from Nantes in November 1766, he sailed to the Falklands, made a stopover in Buenos Aires and then crossed the Magellan Strait and the...

First edition strictly hors-commerce, one of 200 copies printed on glassine vellum or European paper, only print after 81 imperial Korean paper.

Our copy is complete with its overlay cover (the colour and decorative motifs often vary) and the white glassine paper label bearing the title Stèles printed in Chinese on the first part of the cover, the latter being folded into three parts.

Our copy is presented in a blueish paper chemise and slipcase, navy blue morocco spine, name of the author, title and date in palladium, slipcase in blueish paper, all signed Devauchelle in palladium.

Rare suite of woodcuts by Itchô Hanabusa (英一蝶) on Japanese folk tales, printed in black ink. Only one volume of a three-volume set, possible 19th-century reprint.

Bound in Japanese style, pages bound by a seam, blue soft cover with title label, folds, small stains and lacks of blue paper to corners, ink stain in title piece not affecting the text.

Itchô Hanabusa was part of the Kanō school and studied under Kanō Yasunobu, however he rejected this training to become a renowned painter and calligrapher.

Illustrations of Japanese legends with genre scenes, animals and flowers. The technique of Ukiyo-e, or Japanese printmaking, is very close...

First edition.
Handsome copy.
Illustrated with 34 plates and 14 figures in the text.

First edition in French of the translation, corrections, additions and clarifications, established by Joseph Toussaint Reinaud in 1845, from the Arabic text printed in 1811 under the care of Louis Langlès.
Bradel binding in full marbled paper, original covers preserved, binding signed Thomas Boichot.
Very rare copy without foxing.

Rare original folding colored map of the city of Shanghai printed on heavy paper and including the street names in English, as well as an extensive grid to find locations. It was published under the authority of the Shanghai city council in 1933.
A skillfully repaired tear touching the index.
There is a variation of this map in existence – without the grid or the key – of which an example is preserved in the University of Chicago library. We have not otherwise been able to find any other example of this map.
This very detailed map still shows the old town under the name «Chinese City.» Each district or foreign concession (particularly the French one) is marked out and named in a...

The rare first edition, illustrated with a folding map.

Contemporary half green sheep binding. Smooth spine decorated with fillets. Gilt title. Tear to headcap with loss. One corner stripped of paper. Rubbing. Trace of pale dampstain on the map and from the first page of text to p. 69 in lower margin, and on the table. Stains on spine.
Physical and human geography of Egypt, Syria, Arabia and India, customs and manners. The volume was published when Bonaparte's Egyptian expedition had just been launched; it evokes the mythical route followed by Alexander the Great, from Egypt to India, a route coveted by the French.

NB: This work is available at...