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Catalogue
73
Voyages
& Travels
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First Edition of a Scarce Work on the Himalayas |
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106. SHERRING, CHARLES A[TMORE]. Western Tibet and the British
Borderland. The Sacred Country of Hindus and Buddhists. With an
Account of the Government, Religion, and Customs of its Peoples.
With a Chapter by T. G. Longstaff...describing an attempt to climb
Gurla Mandhata. London, Edward Arnold, 1906. First edition. $1,025
Tall thick 8vo; frontispiece gravure; pp. xv, [1], 376; 2 large
folding coloured maps; numerous ilustrations in the text, many of
which are full-page; original publisher's blue cloth with gilt image
to front cover; little shelfwear, but overall a very good, tight
and clean copy of a scarce and important work.
Yakushi S203; Neate S53. This work by two noted mountaineers is
both a topographical and a anthropological account of exploration
in Garhwal and Ladakh. Sherring and Longstaff, members of the Alpine
Club, and two guides, attempted an ascent of Gurla Mandhata, the
highest mountain in the region, but their attempt was frustrated
by cold and by the lack of supplies. This is the "most serious
book on that region." -(Yakushi).
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107. SOMMIER, STÉPHEN (STEFANO) Un' Estate in Siberia
fra Ostiacchi, Samoiedi, Siriéni, Tatári, Kirghísi
e Baskíri. Firenze, Ermann Loescher, 1885. First edition.
$2,500
Tall, thick 8vo; pp. viii, 634; extra xylographed title; title-page
in red and black; complete with half-title; over one hundred illustrations
and three coloured maps (2 folding); original blue cloth, decorated
in gilt on front cover, and lettered in gilt on front cover and
spine; faint remains of shelf label at heel of spine; small spot
on front cover; minimal shelfwear; number in blue pencil at heel
of final blank; a very good copy of an extremely scarce work.
Not in Arctic Biblio. (although his two later botanical reports
are noted as nos. (16483-84); we find no copies in the COPAC database;
not located at the Scott Polar Institute Library; three copies at
Harvard. Stéphen Sommier (1848-1922) was an internationally-renowned
botanist and one of the founders of the Italian Society of Anthropology
and Ethnology inn Florence. The author made several trips to Scandinavia,
most often to the northern parts, and in 1880 he travelled to Siberia.
He recorded in great detail the fauna and flora of the region, the
customs, mores, habitats, clothing apparel, eating habits, religious
symbols, use of animals, shamanism, etc. of the inhabitants. The
work is augmented by the photographic reproductions of the work
of E. Mazzanti. The work was published at the expense of the author,
and is extremely scarce.
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108.
THOMSON, JOSEPH. Mungo Park and the Niger. London, George
Philip & Son, 1890. $250
Small 8vo; pp. vi, [2], 338; frontispiece portrait and 19 plates
and coloured maps (2 maps folding); contemporary prize binding of
full green gilt-panelled calf, ornately-gilt spine, inner dentgelles
gilt, and gilt supra-libros (St. Paul's Preparatory School-Colet
Court); marbled endpapers and fore-edges; prize bookplate on front
paste-down; a fine copy, from the series "The World's Great
Explorers and Explorations".
Hess & Coger 7183. Mungo Park, the renowned Scottish explorer,
undertook his first expedition to Africa in the late eighteenth
century, under the auspices of the African Association. Travelling
northeast from the Gambia River to explore the source of the Niger,
he reached the latter at Segu and proceeded about three hundred
miles upstream to Bamako. It was a substantial achievement and one
of the earliest of the explorations to take place in Africa.
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Uncancelled First Issue of La Salle's Expedition
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109. [TONTI, HENRI]. Dernières Découvertes
dans l'Amérique septentrionale de M. de la Sale; Mises au
jour par M. le Chevalier Tonti, Gouverneur du Fort Saint Loûis,
aux Islinois. Paris, Chez Jean Guignard, 1697. First edition, first
issue.
12mo: 2 ff; pp. 333, [15], [6] (Publisher's adverts); contemporary
full sprinkled calf, minimally worn; spine gilt in compartments
and expertly restored.. A very good copy, with the uncancelled leaves
Q[i] and Qii, and complete with the Privilège leaf and with
the adverts. Extremely scarce.
TPL 6352; Howes T298; Streeter Sale I: 105; Harrisse NNF, 174; Sabin
96172; Graff 4164; not in Church; Wagner, Spanish Southwest, 67;
JCB, p. 346; Bell T123. Although Tonti repudiated this work and
claimed it not to be his, it is generally accepted, based on contemporary
records, that it was written by him or from his letters and notes.
It is widely viewed as the most reliable account of LaSalle's last
expedition, to the mouth of the Mississippi, during the period of
1678 to 1691, and describes the attempt to establish a colony in
present-day Texas, the explorations along the Gulf coast and the
murder of LaSalle. Tonti himself spent time among the natives of
the area, and his acute observations are included here as well.
This is the first issue of this scarce and important work. Shortly
after the work came off the press, the four pages (pp. 185-188)
describing pearl fishing in the Gulf of Mexico were suppressed by
the French government; most copies that come to market, and there
have been very few in recent years, contain the cancel leaf, which
has been printed in smaller type on one leaf and paginated 185/186
and 187/188. This copy has the two original uncancelled leaves.
A scarce and highly desirable work pertaining to the French exploration
of the Mississippi, and of Louisiana, Texas. and the Gulf coast.
The Siebert copy sold for US $29,900 seven years ago.
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Immensely Important for the History of Mexico
and the Pacific, Complete With Map
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110. TORQUEMADA, JUAN de. Primera [Segunda, Tercera] Parte
de los veinte i un Libros Rituales i Monarquia Indiana, con el origen
y guerras, de los Indios Ocidentales, de sus Poblaçones,
Descubrimiento, Conquista, Conuersion, y otras cosas marauillosas
de la mesma tierra. .. Madrid, Nicolás Rodriguez Franco,
1723. Three volumes. Second, and best, edition. $19,000
Small folio; engraved title, engraved folding map; pp. [38], 768,
[72] (Index); engraved title, pp. [12], 623, [56] (Index); engraved
title, pp. [10], 4, 634, [42] (Index); full contemporary Spanish
calf; the map is a "Descripción de las Indias Occidentales"
and is in fine condition; it is centred on the Pacific and depicts
Mexico and South America to the east, and the coasts of China, the
Philippine and Solomon Islands, New Guinea and the "Tierra
Austral" to the west; contemporary full speckled calf, spines
ornately gilt; little restoration to spine extremities; little wear
to corners; all three volumes have numerous charming and decorative
wood-engraved initials, tailpieces and chapter endings; vol. I is
signed in 4's and Index signed in 2's; vol. II is signed in 6's
and its Index signed in 2's; vol. III is signed in 4's, except for
signature V which is in 6's and Z and Index which are in 2's. A
very good, large, clean set with map in excellent condition; from
the library of Joseph H. Toulouse, Jr., highly-regarded expert on
Mexican-American culture, artefacts and anthropology. All volumes
preserved in morocco-backed drop-down boxes.
Wagner, Spanish Southwest 18a; European Americana 725/195; Palau
335033 (no mention of map); Sabin 96212; Hill, p. 291 (no collation);
Medina BHA IV: 2491; JCB 339 (no mention of map). This work was
first printed at Seville in 1615; "the present edition, which
is edited by BARCIA, is more highly prized than the first"
-(JCB). Besides which, in the Preface it is noted that most copies
of the first edition had been lost in a shipwreck, presumably on
the way to Mexico; Wagner, p. 100, notes that Barcia was able to
locate just three copies in Madrid. This is the most complete work
on Mexico, and nearly all subsequent writers have borrowed from
it; Medina devotes six and one-half pages to it. The first volume
is devoted to the history of Mexico before its discovery by the
Spaniards, to the Indians of New Spain and their origin, and to
the customs of the kingdoms of Mexico, Tezcuco, and other provinces
now included in the boundaries of Spain, together with the history
of the conquest by the Spaniards; the second volume is devoted to
the religion, laws, habits and customs of the Mexicans; the third
volume relates to the Church, its labours in Mexico and in great
part to the Franciscans, to whose order Torquemada belonged. This
work is also especially important in the literature of Pacific exploration,
because of the accounts of Quiros' attempt to find the fabled Southern
Continent; this was the earliest extensive description of the expedition
to be printed. An extremely important work.
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