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.
Third and definitive version published during Raynal's lifetime of the Histoire philosophique et politique des établissemens et du commerce des Européens dans les deux Indes, issued in Geneva by Jean-Léonard Pellet. The text appeared in 1780 simultaneously in four quarto volumes and ten octavo volumes; the present copy belongs to the octavo issue reissued with cancel titles dated 1781. Substantially enlarged from the versions of 1770 and 1774, this is the fullest form of the text published during Raynal's lifetime.
10 volumes, octavo. The first volume opens with a portrait of Raynal designed by...
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...
First edition, one of 13 numbered copies on Or Turner paper, large paper copy, the fewest copies.
Rare and nice copy with double cover.
First edition, rare, of the only two volumes published of this ambitious Histoire générale des guerres, printed in Paris by the Imprimerie royale in 1756 and 1758. Conceived as a work in three great periods extending from the earliest times to 1748, the project was never continued beyond these two volumes devoted to Armenia and the peoples of Asia Minor. The first volume is illustrated with an allegorical frontispiece and a large folding genealogical table.
First edition.
Work complete with its 49 plates hors-texte including 6 in color.
Spine and boards of the chemise lightly and marginally discolored and sunned as usual.
First and only edition of this major scientific and commercial account devoted to the Ottoman Empire, Egypt and Persia, exceptionally rare complete with its atlas. The first two volumes are dated 1799, Volumes III and IV 1802, and Volumes V and VI 1807, reflecting the eight years required to complete publication of this monumental work. Issued in octavo, the work was also published in a large-paper quarto edition. The atlas, itself in first edition, comprises 50 plates issued in three instalments: the first devoted to the Ottoman Empire (17 plates), the second to Egypt and Persia (plates 18–33), and the third to the journey through Persia proper (plates 34–50). It...
First edition, with a frontispiece signed L.F.D.B. Title page in red and black.
Full marbled brown sheep binding. Smooth spine decorated with acorn tools framed by foliage. Red morocco title label. One lack at head. One tear with loss at tail. Corners slightly bumped. Lacking the 2 marbled endpapers at the beginning of the work.
A Turk is sent by his sovereign to the principal courts of Europe to bear witness. The narrator begins his journey through Russia, Moscow and Saint Petersburg, then passes through Poland, finally to Vienna... The letters deal with varied subjects, European affairs, the power of Austria, French affairs, opinions on eunuchs, Amsterdam and the East India...
New edition (third?) and first in 6 volumes. The first edition dates from 1746. Les Songes philosophiques are in first edition.
Contemporary full speckled brown calf bindings. Smooth spines decorated. Red morocco title and volume labels. Triple gilt fillet and star cornerpieces on boards. All edges red. Three head caps and three tail caps worn. A few corners very slightly bumped.
The Lettres chinoises, inaugurated by the same author as the Lettres juives have this typical Enlightenment design of comparing the customs and habits of several civilizations; the work takes up the scheme, always humorous, of the first work of this type: L'espion de la...
