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Cheesman, Major R. E.
Arabia. Routes between ‘Oqair and Jabrin Oasis in Eastern Nejd. London, 1925.
Colour-printed map (51 x 48 cm). Al-Qasimi 285.
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D'Anville, [Jean Baptiste Bourguignon].
Persian Gulf. From the original by D'Anville. [London], John Harrison, 1788.
Engraved map, hand coloured in outline. 535 x 371 mm. An English version of D'Anville's famous nautical chart of the Gulf from 1776. Although Bahrain is depicted, the large peninsula of Qatar is notably absent, and the coast between Bahrain and Abu Dhabi is marked "This Coast is not known". Al-Qasimi (2nd ed.), p. 236.
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Guignes, Joseph de, French orientalist and sinologist (1721-1800).
"Extraits du Man[uscript] ar[abe] no. 689". Autograph manuscript. [Paris?, c. 1790?].
4to. 22¼ pp. on 12 ff. Extracts from the Arabic historical manuscript "no. 689" by Joseph de Guignes, the famous French sinologist and orientalist, with notes on the history of Egypt during the years 1517-1522 and the Ottoman conquest by Sultan Selim. Guignes's notes start at f. 111 and end at f. 334 of the Arabic manuscript, which is a part of a historical work on Egypt entitled "Bada'I al-Zuhur fi Waqa'I al-Duhur". The "Bada" was written by the famous chronicler of the late Mamluk and early Ottoman period in Egypt, Muhammad Ibn Iyas (1448-after November 1522) and today is kept in the manuscript section of the French Royal library (no. 1825, ancien fonds no. 689). Guignes's extract contains numerous of transcripts in Arabic script. - Today, Joseph de Guignes is best known for his "Histoire générale des Huns, des Turcs, des Mogols, et des autres Tartares occidentaux" (Paris, 1756-1758), for his unsuccessful attempts to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics (before the 1799 discovery of the Rosetta Stone and Champollion's breakthrough), and for his theory that China was an outpost of Ancient Egypt.
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[Hammer-Purgstall, Baron Carl Joseph Camillo, member of the Styrian parliament (1817-1879)?].
Two Arabic letters to Baron Hamm[er?]. Cairo and Alexandria, 26 March and 10 July 1870.
Large 4to. A total of 2 pp. (one leaf and one bifolium), each with French translation (one on a separate leaf, the other on the verso of the bifolium). By a "Girgès" (Jirjis) to "Monsieur Le Baron de Hamm" who had invited him to Vienna during a visit to Upper Egypt. The recipient is likely Carl von Hammer, the eldest son of the important Austrian oriental scholar Joseph Baron Hammer-Purgstall: "Vous avez bien voulu à votre voyage à Lougsor [= Luxor] vous interessé a moi en m'offrant de me faire venir à Vienne. Je suis en ce moment au Caire à votre disposition. Voici l'été et le changement de climat me sera très favorable. Persuadé, Monsieur le Baron, que vous voudrez bien vous souvenir d'un pauvre orphelin et me faire l'honneur d'une réponse, je suis [...]" (Cairo, 26 March 1870, from the French translation). - "Monsieur le Baron Ham / Je viens vous dire que vous n'avez fait aucune reponse à mes lettres par lesquelles je vous priais de m'envoyer ses reponses. Ce procédé m'etonne d'autant plus qu'il n'est pas en rapport avec la promesse que vous m'avez fait a Loqsur, aussi je suis arrivé a Alexandrie depuis deux mois en attendant vos nouvelles. Pour tout cela je vous prie d'avoir la bonté de m'envoyer une lettre en y vous me fairais apprendre si vous voulez me faire apporter chez vous en Vienne ou non [...]" (Alexandria, 10 July 1870, from the French translation). - Slight edge tears and wrinkles, otherwise fine. - Carl von Hammer-Purgstall, born in Vienna on 20 January 1817, inherited Hainfeld Castle in Styria from his father. He retired from the Imperial army holding the rank of captain and served as member of the Styrian Landtag. He died in Trieste on 12 February 1879. - The great orientalist's youngest brother, the Graz-based lawyer Dr. Wilhelm von Hammer (1784-1872), was also still alive in 1870, but his advanced age at the time makes him appear an unlikely tourist of Egypt.
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Herring, John Frederick, Sr.
Portraits of the Winning Horses of the Great St. Leger Stakes. From the year 1815 to the present year inclusive. London, L. Harrison for S. and J. Fuller, 1829.
Large folio (60 x 42 cm). Letterpress title with engraved vignette, list of subscribers, winners of the St. Leger 1776-1814, 14 hand-coloured aquatint plates by T. Sutherland and R. G. Reeve after Herring, each with letterpress description of riders and winners of other races and the St Leger stakes for each year. Bound in recent half burgundy morocco with contemporary drab boards with large printed label on upper cover. "Extremely rare" (Tooley). Second edition of Herring's finest work, the outcome of his fascination with horse racing and the St. Leger in particular. "In the writer's estimation, the first series of the St. Leger winners contains the very best of Herring prints [...] they were engraved by Sutherland, a more competent aquatinter and colourist than his successors who handled these race-horses" (Siltzer). Herring spent the first 18 years of his life in London, where his father, an American, was a fringe-maker in Newgate Street. Having married against his father's wishes, he went to Doncaster, where he arrived during the races in September 1814, and saw the Duke of Hamilton's horse, William, win the St. Leger. The sight inspired him to attempt the art of animal-painting, in which he subsequently excelled. He painted Filho da Puta, the winner of the St. Leger in 1815, and for the following thirty-two years painted each winner in succession. "Herring's series of Portraits [...] were painted annually and quickly reproduced in large showy aquatints, the horses made literally glossy by the application of varnish to the paper" (Diana Donald, Picturing Animals in Britain 1750-1850, New Haven, CT [2007], p. 215). This is the second edition of this series of wonderful racehorse portraits. It was first published as a suite of 10 plates in 1824 by Sheardown and Son of Doncaster; S. and J. Fuller of London purchased these in 1827 and continued to publish, periodically, the St. Leger winner series up to 1845. The earlier plates were all re-captioned with Fuller's imprint. Plates watermarked 1825-28; the first plate in the present work, "Filho da Puta", is on paper watermarked 1827. - Very slight offsetting to text. Extremities rubbed; otherwise a superb example of this rare work. Siltzer 139-146. Mellon Horsemanship, 128.
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[OSPAAAL]. Martinez, Olivio.
Unity of the Arab peoples - Nationalization of oil. [Cuba, 1972].
Poster (ca. 52.5 × 32.5 cm) printed in black and red, with an image of four armed Arabian horsemen, with Arabic text above and below, and with the title in Spanish, French and English at the foot of the poster, together with the logo of the OSPAAAL. Rare propaganda poster of the OSPAAAL, the Organization of Solidarity with the People of Asia, Africa and Latin America, designed by Olivio Martinez. The poster depicts four Arabian (Bedouin?) men on horseback, holding guns and galloping towards the viewer, with the text "Unity of the Arab peoples - Nationalization of oil" in Arabic above and below the image. At the foot of the poster is the logo of the OSPAAAL, flanked by the same text, given English, Spanish and French. OSPAAAL is a socialist Cuban political movement against imperialism and to defend human rights. The organization was founded in 1966 and was especially active in less developed countries. The posters were often stapled into copies of Tricontinental, the organization's magazine. - With only a small fold in the lower right corner, otherwise in very good condition. R. Frick, The Tricontinental Solidarity Poster (2003).
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Pirscher, [Karl Dietrich].
Abbildungen Herzoglich-Braunschweigischer Gestüt-Pferde [...]. Braunschweig, 1827-1828.
Oblong 1º (475 × 630 mm). 6 lithographed plates of horses, plus 1 additional lithographed view of the stud, all coloured by Pirscher himself with highlights in gum arabic. The first plate of the series with Pirscher's autograph signature and dated "1828". Unique set of Pirscher's famous series picturing the Duke's horses, coloured by Pirscher himself and obviously prepared for the owner of stud. The first horse depicted is Mirza, a "Silver grey national Arabian with red spots on his left shoulder, presented to the King of England by the Shah of Persia in 1819. As the Persian envoy assured the King, this was the noblest and most excellent Arabian ever to have stood in his master's stables". The other illustrations show mainly descendants of Mirza, who was transferred to the Ducal stables in 1821. The series was later expanded by another instalment to a total of 16 plates, with three of the seven plates redrawn and showing different backgrounds. Thieme/Becker lists the series as complete with 6 plates as present, as does Steinacker (cf. below). Apart from the present copy, neither the first series (as thus) nor the second, expanded edition is known in a coloured version. The use of body colours in this set underlines the fact that Pirscher's lithographs, issued in black and white only, were never intended for colouring, and that this set was eleborately redone and modified (with numerous details - such as the trees and bushes in Mirza's portrait - added by hand) by the artist himself to form a unique dedication copy for his sponsor. Karl Dietrich Pirscher (1791-1857) is one of the pioneers of lithography in Braunschweig. His horse plates are considered his best work and were praised as "probably the most splendid specimens of their kind created in the entire 19th century" (Steinacker). Provenance: 1. The Duke of Braunschweig's collection. 2. I. H. Anderhub library, dispersed by auction in 1963 (in which it constituted the second most expensive item, with an estimate of DM 2600). Slightly browned; some minor fraying to the extremities of the leaves and a few specks, otherwise in very good condition. Bibliotheca Hippologica I. H. Anderhub 238 (this set). Steinacker, Die graphischen Künste in Braunschweig, 114. Thieme/Becker XXVII, 90. Not in Bibl. hippologica Johan Dejager; Huth; Mennessier de la Lance; Podeschi.
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Weir, James.
Collection of 28 topographical and naval views. N. p., [1790s-1810s].
Watercolour on paper, some on 2 sheets, mounted (sizes approximately from 155 x 230 to 300 x 480 mm), some with inscription or sketches on verso, most with captions either mounted, laid down or written directly on image. James Weir (d. 1820) was Captain of Marines on HMS Audacious from 1795 to 1800, and was also an accomplished watercolourist. Some of the earliest watercolours in this group were produced when the Audacious was on patrol off the Portuguese coast in 1796. Others were painted in the months leading up to the Battle of the Nile, when the Audacious was part of Nelson's squadron searching for the French fleet off the Italian coast after it had escaped from Toulon. Others were painted in the months leading up to the Battle of the Nile, when the Audacious was part of Nelson's squadron searching for the French fleet off the Italian coast after it had escaped from Toulon. He also depicted Nelson's flagship, HMS Vanguard, anchored at Naples Bay for repairs in October 1798, when he first met Emma Hamilton. Also shown are views of Syracuse and surrounding area, the Valley of Temples at Agrigento, Catania and Mount Etna, the Temple of Venus at Baia, the ruins of the Temple of Jupiter Olympus, the interior of the Temple of Concord, Mount Nuovo and Pozzuoli near Naples, the Temple of Ceres at Segesta, Convent of St. Nicolo Argentum, the Iron Mine of Elba. The fleet at Palermo is also depicted, where Nelson had accompanied the royal court of the Two Sicilies after they fled Naples. - Very minor scattered tears or repairs, a few restored or trimmed, light staining or spotting.
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[Alf layla wa-layla - German].
Tausend und Eine Nacht. Arabische Erzählungen. Vienna, A. Dorfmeister, 1854.
Small 8vo. 6 vols., uniformly bound in contemporary brown half cloth with giltstamped spine titles. Still early printing of this revised edition of Habicht's German translation, based on a complete French translation prepared by Antoine Galland (1646-1715) and expanded by Gauttier. The manuscript which Galland had bought in 1701 is the oldest Arabic text extant (dating from 1450 or later). The German editor Maximilian Habicht (1775-1839) lived in Paris for a decade as a member of the Prussian delegation. He knew vernacular Arabic well and separately published an edition of the Arabic text of the "Nights" (cf. Fück). - Slight browning. Volumes 1 and 2 have old colour vignettes applied to the half-titles; pencil ownership of Marianne Alschech to second volume, otherwise fine. Hayn/Gotendorf V, 276. Chauvin IV, 249 (note). Cf. Fück 157.
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[Algeria - Female costume]. Geiser, Jean.
Photographs showing women's traditional dress of Algeria. Algiers, ca. 1890s.
Albumen prints: 3 cabinet cards (ca. 14 x 10 cm) and 3 cartes-de-visite (ca. 9 x 5 cm, including 1 repeat), all mounted on cardboard, two with Geiser's studio imprint. A collection of rare portraits by the Algiers-based photographer Jean Geiser (1848-1923) showing Algerian women in traditional dress, both veiled and with uncovered faces. - Occasional light staining, but well preserved.
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[Arabic manuscript].
Arabic manuscript on polished paper. Arzu'r-Rum (Erzurum), [1650 CE] = first days of Muharram 1060 H.
Tall 4to (183 x 305 mm). 61 unnumbered ff. Complete Arabic manuscript with two intercalated sections (ff. 18v-23r, 53r-57r) in Ottoman Turkish. Page layout carefully organized; writing luxuriantly penned in an elegant hybrid style mixing tulut and tawqi, associated with manuscripts of highly dignified content or commissioned by a wealthy patron. Black ink, 9 lines per extensum within a gilt "gadwal" border. With a brightly coloured "sarlawh" headpiece (f. 3v) of illuminated bulb-shaped forms in gold, pink and light green, with vegetal twists unfolding on a bright blue background veined with green stems and dotted by reddish and golden buds. Contemporary giltstamped calf binding with fore-edge flap (repaired). A finely preserved manuscript comprising "'arqam" (official notes) related to the Great Mosque (Ulu Camii) of Erzurum in Eastern Turkey, occasioned by the successful completion of major restoration work on the building begun in AD 1639 under the appointed local governor Hüseyn Pasha. The manuscript's opening pages contain a summary of "the estates depending on the complex of the mosque", followed by a catalogue of places, buildings or factories belonging to or administrated by it, such as a "masbaga" (dye-works), a "mamlaha" (saltern), a "madbaga" (tannery, here given with the Turkish translation of the term, "bi't-Turki debag-hana"), etc. Leaf 2r lists both the Great Mosque's officials and contractors or stipendiaries, along with their respective wages ("li'l-mudarris asarat darahim fi kull yawm" - "to the principal of the madrasa: ten dirhams a day"; "li-'l waiz saba darahim fi kull yawm" - "to the (official) preacher of the Mosque: six dirhams a day"; to the first Imam of the Mosque four dirhams a day, etc.). The remainder of the text sets out detailed accounts for the summarized information, but also includes liturgical exaltations of Allah and the Prophet Muhammad, praised in Koran- and Sunan-derived eulogies. - Dated separately twice: first in Arabic, in the final three text lines of the Turkish section of f. 23r ("the first days [i.e. 1st/10th] of the month of Du'l-Higga of the Islamic year 1058", i.e., between 17 and 26 December 1648 AD); then at the end, last four lines of f. 60r, stating that the manuscript was completed on "the first days of the sacred month of Muharram of the year 1060"AH (i.e., between 4 and 13 January 1650 AD). - A well-preserved, complete 17th-century manuscript drawn up for the recently restored Erzurum Mosque and its extensive appurtenances, likely also in recognition of their status of inalienability, i.e. the establishment of an Islamic waqf, or mortmain regime. Thus, the manuscript records the mosque's administration in both legal and religious terms, in accordance with the Sunni law of the Ottoman Empire.
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[Beirut Port].
Compagnie Impériale Ottomane du Port, des Quais et Entrepôts de Beyrouth. Assemblée Générale Ordinaire et Extraordinaire [...]. Rapport du Conseil d'Administration. Rapport des Commissaires des Comptes. Résolutions de l'Assemblée. Paris, Imprimerie et librairie centrales des chemins de fer, 1889-1922.
Large 4to. All 31 issues, comprising a total of 774 pp. (some lithographic, others published as a typescript, but mostly letterpress), preserving the original printed wrappers. With 2 folding plans. Bound in 1920s green half calf over marbled boards. Rare collection of the annual reports published by the administrative board of the Beirut Port holding company: the complete stretch from 1889 (when work on the harbour began) to 1922. - Even since the 1860s, the old harbour of Beirut, 150 by 100 metres in length and a mere two metres deep, was rapidly becoming too small for the ever-expanding volume of traffic. In 1887 a consortium was formed of the Compagnie Impériale Ottomane de la Route Beyrouth à Damas, the Ottoman Bank, the Comptoir d'Escompte de Paris, the Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas, and the Compagnie des Messageries Maritimes. Reincorporated as the Paris-based "Compagnie Impériale Ottomane du Port, des Quais et Entrepôts de Beyrouth", they obtained a concession from the Porte in 1888, and construction was completed in 1895. "The new harbor, located further to the east, provided deeper anchorage (two to six meters) next to an 800-meter-long pier running almost parallel to the coast and protected by a breakwater 350 meters long. The dock area covered twenty-one hectares, with vast warehouses whose metal cladding had been designed by Gustave Eiffel" (Kassir, p. 119). Located at the intersection of Europe, Asia and Africa, Beirut quickly became one of the principal ports between Europe and the Near East. Trade was hampered during the years of the First World War, but Beirut still received "more ships than any other port along the Syrian coast" (ibid., p. 122). - The first seven reports, covering the building phase, from 1889 to 1894, are printed as lithographs; from 1895 onwards they are letterpress, providing a full account of assets and liabilities, profits and losses, and resolutions adopted by the board, accompanied by extensive sets of tables. The publication was interrupted only in the war years, when the company was temporarily dispossessed, for which time the present volume instead contains a "Historique" and a "Memorandum", both published as typescripts. The series was resumed in 1921. - This collection bound for the "Banque de Syrie et du Liban" with their bookplate on the pastedown. Binding rubbed and chafed, but internally a very well-preserved set. Cf. Samir Kaffir, Beirut (UCA, 2010).
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Burgess, James.
On the Muhammadan Architecture of Bharoch, Cambay, Dholka, Champanir, and Mahmudabad in Gujarat. London, Wm. Griggs & Sons et al., 1896.
Folio (265 x 340 mm). (6), II, 47, (1) pp.; 6 pp. (ads). With 77 plates and plans (some collotype, 4 double-page). Original cloth (rebacked preserving original spine). First and only edition of this superbly illustrated description on the Muslim architecture of the more provincial towns of the state of Gujarat on the western coast of India. "Among the many varieties in the style of the Muhammadan architecture prevailing in different provinces of India, that which arose in Gujarât in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries is one of the most instructive and deserving of study, as it is also the most beautiful" (preface). - The Scottish archaeologist James Burgess (1832-1916), founder of "The Indian Antiquary", did educational work in Calcutta, 1856 and Bombay, 1861, and was Secretary of the Bombay Geographical Society 1868-73. He was Head of the Archaeological Survey, Western India, 1873, and of South India, 1881. From 1886 to 1889 he was Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India. - Binding rubbed; original spine rebacked. Modern endpapers. Still a fine copy.
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Cebes (Pseudo-) / Ibn Miskawayh.
Parafrasis arabe de la tabla de Cebes, traducida en Castellano é illustrada con notas por D. Pablo Lozano y Casela. - Texto arabe de la parafrasis de la Tabla de Cebes, sin mociones ni version, para exercicio de los principantes. Madrid, Imprenta Real, 1793.
Large 4to (158 x 240 mm). (6), 219, XL, (29) pp. With different engraved vignette on each title-page and folding engraved plate. Contemporary Spanish marbled calf, flat spine with red morocco lettering-piece. Marbled endpapers. Edges sprinkled red. First joint edition in Arabic and Spanish. - The Neoplatonist Persian philosopher Ibn Miskawayh (932-1030) worked as a chancery official and librarian for various viziers of the Abbasid empire; many of his works show and document the influence of Greek philosophy on his thought. His Arabic paraphrase occasionally contains additional passages not recorded in the original Greek text. - The "Pinax" ("Table" or "Painting") is an allegorical moral sketch of human life commonly attributed to the Greek philosopher Cebes, a student of Socrates, though the book's real author likely flourished in the first century AD. The Neoplatonist and Pythagorean perspective of late Hellenistic Stocism earned the text great popularity among later readers: "To us, all this appears sterile and trite; yet its impact was such that even the visual arts attempted to recreate a fiction whose author in fact shows little graphic flair" (Wilamowitz). One such attempt to transfer the titular "painting" into an engraving is found in the present edition. - Extremities quite insignificantly rubbed; a very appealingly preserved copy. Hoffmann I, 447. Palau 50822 ("Bella edición"). Not in Engelmann/Preuss.
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Chesney, [Francis Rawdon] / Plate, W[illiam] H[enry].
A Map of Arabia and Syria Laid Down Chiefly From Original Surveys [...]. London, engraved by J. & C. Walker for Longman, Brown & Co., 1849.
Hand-coloured engraved map (scale: 70 miles to 1 inch). 692 x 668 mm, including fold-out section at right edge showing Ras al-Hadd. Matted. Exceedingly rare, large map of the Arabian Peninsula, based on surveys conducted under General F. R. Chesney (1789-1872), the explorer of the Euphrates and founder of the overland route to India. Drawn by W. H. F. Plate. This is a second, improved edition of a map that had previously appeared in 1847 under the simple title "Arabia" (kept at the British Library, referenced as IOR/X/3205 within the Qatar Digital Library). "Mesopotamia and its rivers are laid down from Surveys made during the Euphrates Expedition. The Red Sea, the Persian Gulf and the Southern Coast of Arabia are from those made by the Officers or the Indian Navy. The interior of the peninsula is from various sources, particularly materials furnished for the accompanying work by Aloys Sprenger M.D. and from documents obtained by Dr. Plate" (note). Finely preserved. No copy known outside the British Library. OCLC 556388606. Not in the Al-Qasimi Collection.
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[Fables].
Le fabuliste du jeune age, ou choix de fables avec le sens moral, précédé d'alphabets de différens caractères, et des premières leçons de lecture. Troisième édition. Augmentée de jolies historiettes, et ornée de six gravures enluminées. Lille, Blocquel for J. B. Castiaux, [ca. 1830].
8vo. 108 pp. With an engraved frontispiece and 5 engraved plates, all in original hand colour. Remains of wrappers. Third edition of this early 19th century French primer. The reading matter with its lively illustrations is chiefly drawn from Aesop's Fables. - Brownstained throughout. Untrimmed, partly uncut copy with marked edge flaws; wants binding. Rare. OCLC 460509998.
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[Falconry].
La Fauconnerie. 1-6. No place, [1954].
6 cards, 110:70 mm each. A complete set of six so-called "Liebigbilder" issued by the German producer of beef extracts, the Liebig Extract of Meat Co., showing falconry practises throughout the world and history: by Kublai Khan in the 13th century, in mediaeval Flanders, in 16th century Belgium, in 19th century Persia and 17th century Japan. - Very well preserved.
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Ibn al-`Awwam, Abu Zakariya Yahyá ibn Muhammad.
Le livre de l'agriculture d'Ibn-al-Awam (Kitab al-Felahah). Traduit de l'Arabe par J.-J. Clément-Mullet. Paris, A. Franck (Albert L. Herold succ.), 1864-1866.
8vo. 2 vols. (instead of 3). Contemporary purple half calf with marbled boards and endpapers. First French edition of Ibn al-‘Awwam's famous "Book of Agriculture", probably written towards the end of the 12th century and regarded as the most comprehensive agricultural treatise in Arabic. The author "gathers all the knowledge of his time concerning agriculture, horticulture and animal husbandry into a huge compendium of excerpts from all the previous agronomical traditions and treatises [...] To these he often adds his own observations and experiences [...] He records, for example, his experiments in grafting the wild olive of the mountains with the domesticated olive of the plain, and his successful cultivation of saffron, under irrigation, in the mountains [...] Ibn al-‘Awwam’s treatise comprises 34 chapters dealing with all aspects of husbandry - it mentions 585 different plants, explains the cultivation of more than 50 fruit trees, and includes many valuable observations on soils, manures, grafting, and plant diseases (Sarton 1927-48, II, pp. 424-25). Ibn al-‘Awwam also includes an agricultural calendar, one of the few Andalusi agronomists to do so. The last section of his work is devoted to animal husbandry, with chapters on cattle, sheep, goats, camels, horses, mules and donkeys, geese, ducks, chickens, pigeons, peacocks and beekeeping. As well as being of great value and interest for the study of agricultural history, the Kitab al-filaha has enabled scholars to reconstruct the original texts of some previous authors whose work has only survived in abridged or fragmented form. In addition, the profusion of references, even though sometimes entangled and difficult to unravel, provides the historian with a wealth of information on the transmission of knowledge" (Filaha). - Lacks the second part of vol. 2, not published until 1867; the set thus comprises chapters 1-30 (out of 34). Well preserved. Fück 204. Mennessier de la Lance I, 667. NYPL 184. OCLC 6985613.
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Languet [de Gergy, Jean Joseph].
Le trésor caché dans la dévotion au sacré-coeur de Jésus ou vie de la B. Marguerite M. Alacoque [...]. Traduite par un père de la Compagnie de Jésus, missionaire à Saida en 1735, et imprimee aux frais des Religieuses Syriennes des SS. CC. de Jésus et de Marie. Beirut, Imprimerie Catholique, 1886.
8vo. (4), 3, (1), 9-24, 374 pp. With 2 steel-engraved portrait plates (one bound as a frontispiece). Contemporary marbled half calf with giltstamped Arabic title to spine. First and only Arabic edition of this Life of St Marguerite-Marie Alacoque (1647-90), the French mystic who promoted devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in its modern form. First published in French in 1729. The author Jean Joseph Languet de la Villeneuve de Gergy (1677-1753) was the archbishop of Sens (Auxerre). - With separate title in Arabic. Printed entirely in Arabic save for the French title and dedicatory preface. Binding somewhat rubbed and chafed in places, paper lightly browned, but well preserved. Extremely rare; no copy in library catalogues internationally.
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Mahmoud Ra'if.
Tableau des nouveaux reglemens de l'Empire Ottoman. Constantinople, Imprimerie du Genie, sous la direction de Abdurrahman Efendi, 1798.
Folio (210 x 308 mm). 60 pp. With 27 engraved and etched plates (some double-page). Contemporary speckled sheep. Marbled pastedowns. First and only edition, printed at the second printing press established in Istanbul. "A rare and very interesting work outlining the military reforms and the regulations for the New Troops established by Selim III in 1796/97" (Blackmer). The author, Mahmoud Ra'if, was a member of the reform movement instigated in Turkey by Sultan Selim III, who tried to change the traditional political structures of the Ottoman Empire and replace them with a political state that owed much to his youthful contact with Europe, and more particularly, the influence of the French Revolution. After his succession in 1789, Selim took steps to establish a new state under the Nizam-Jedid ("new order") regulations - from which the present work derives - underpinning his state with the formation of a new army and military infrastructure. Among the moves towards "Europeanisation" were the installation of printing presses at the military engineering school (where the present work, the first from the press in roman types, was printed), and the establishment of Ottoman embassies in the capitals of Europe, including London, where Mahmoud Ra'if served as secretary to the Ottoman Ambassador in the mid 1790s. As outsiders feared, the very reforms which are the subject of his work led to Selim's murder in 1808, while the author himself was "cut to pieces" by the enraged Janissaries whose elite position had been threatened. "The establishment of these troops - the Nizam-Jedid - and the jealousy which this aroused was one of the main factors leading to the revolt of the Janissaries in 1808 which cost Selim, and later the author of this work, their lives" (Blackmer). - Binding very slightly worn, interior clean and flawless throughout. Provenance: armorial bookplate of the Swedish diplomat Johan Henrik Tawast (1763-1841), who was seconded to Constantinople in 1812-13 to help negotiate the Russian-Turkish peace treaty of Bucharest; his autograph note "Scutari, 9 janvier 1813. 16 piastres, 20 pares" inscribed to front pastedown. Latterly in the collection of Thomas Fremantle, 3rd Baron Cottesloe (1862-1956), commander of the Territorial Army and president of the Society for Army History Research. Atabey 752. Blackmer 1060.
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Marigny, [François Augier], Abbé de.
Histoire des Arabes sous le gouvernement des Califes. Paris, Estienne & fils; Desaint & Saillant; Jean-Thomas Herissant, 1750.
4 vols. 8vo. (4), LIV, (8), 460 pp. (4), 535, (1) pp., final blank. (4), 504, (20) pp. (4), 479, (5) pp. Contemporary French mottled calf with gilt spine. All edges red. Marbled endpapers. First edition of this history of Arabia, at its time a standard work of reference, covering the years 629 through 1288 AD. German and English translations followed within a few years of publication (the German version was prepared by none other than the great playwright of Enlightenment, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing). - Rubbed and bumped at extremeties; occasional light browning and insignificant wrinkling to a few pages. A good copy. Gay 3586. Macro 1538 ("1758" in error). Brunet VI, 28011. Graesse IV, 399. Jöcher/Adelung IV, 724.
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Piri Reis / Kahle, Paul (ed.).
Bahrije. Das türkische Segelhandbuch für das Mittelländische Meer vom Jahre 1521. Berlin & Leipzig, Walter de Gruyter & Co., 1926-1927.
Large 8vo (18 × 26 cm). 3 vols. Volume 1 with 137 reproductions of manuscript pages of Ottoman Turkish text and maps and volume 2 with 4 plates. Publisher’s original printed wrappers. Only published edition of the original version of the "Kitâb-I Bahriyye" (Book of the Sea) by the great Ottoman navigator and cartographer Piri Reis (1465/79-1553). After assembling two important maps using numerous sources (in 1513 and in 1528), including a map drawn by Columbus, Piri Reis decided to collect "all his own observations and all previous information that he could not fit onto the maps" in a book. "It is basically a naval guidebook with essential data on the most important coastal routes and large maps and detailed charts [...] The main portion of the book is devoted to the Mediterranean coasts and islands [...] Piri first gives historical and geographical information and then discusses the necessary practical navigational data. The accuracy of many of his statements is indisputable" (DSB). The final chapter of the book describes the newly discovered continent Antilia "the mountains of which contain rich gold ores and in the seas, pearls [...] The chapter on the Western Sea contains all that was known about the discovery of America at the time" (DSB). First written in 1521, the manuscript was reworked in 1526 for presentation to Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. This later manuscript was published twice, in 1935 and 1998, but Piri's original version is still only available in the current edition by the German scholar Paul Kahle (1875-1961). The first volume (in two bindings) is a facsimile of a manuscript in Bologna containing Piri Reis's 1521 text, with a few pages from a manuscript in Dresden in between. The second volume is an annotated German translation of the text, based on these manuscripts as well as on a manuscript in Vienna. This is still considered the best translation of the Bahriyye. - Bindings slightly soiled with the spines discoloured and slightly damaged; covers of the second part of vol. 1 almost completely loose but the book itself still structurally sound. In good condition, with vol. 2 still unopened. DSB X, pp. 616-619. Howgego, to 1800, P104. Lepore, Piccardi, Rombai, “Looking at the Kitab-i Bahriye of Piri Reis”, in: e-Perimetron VIII, no. 2 (2013), pp. 85-94. Lowry, “Pîrî Reis Revisited”, in: Journal of Ottoman Studies XXXV (2010), pp. 7-31.
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Salvin, Francis Henry / Brodrick, William.
Falconry in the British Isles. London, John van Voorst, 1855.
4to (29 x 19.5 cm). VII, (1 blank), 147, (1 blank) pp. With 24 hand-coloured lithographed plates by William Brodrick. Publisher's blind- and gold-blocked cloth, front board with title and large illustration of a falcon. First edition of a complete and important treatise on the art of falconry by F. H. Salvin (1817-1904), in which he describes the various species of birds used in England, both hawks and falcons. ''The best English book on falconry and a very attractive publication'' (Schwerdt). - The treatise is illustrated with lithographs by William Brodrick (1814-1888); they show 21 falcons and 5 hawks; plates 22-24 depict equipment used for falconry. The stones for the first edition were destroyed after publication so the plates for the second edition (London, 1873) had to be redrawn. - With bookplate of Leon Colin Somervell on front paste-down. Some pages and plates reinforced, two plates loose, some spotting, but still in good condition. Binding discoloured and slightly worn. Nissen, IVB 147. Souhart 419. Schwerdt II, p. 145. Wood p. 541. Not in Thiebaud.
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[Saudi Arabia - Ministry of Agriculture].
Annual report 1382-1383. Jeddah, Asfahany, [1964 CE = 1383 H].
8vo. With portraits of His Majesty King Saud Ben Abdulaziz and Prince Faisal Ben Abdulaziz, and 10 maps, including 2 folding. Original publisher’s decorated wrappers. The annual report of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the fiscal year 1382–1383 AH, with text in Arabic and English. The most important topic is hydrology, including the Abha Dam project, the related Wadi Jizan and Irrigation project and the Al-Qatif water drainage project. Other topics covered include locust control, fertilizers, soil quality etc. The results of many tests are displayed on 10 maps. - With library stamps. Some minor stains and a small tear to the wrappers, but internally in very good condition.
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Strass, Friedrich.
Allgemeine Uebersicht der Weltgeschichte von den aeltesten Zeiten bis auf gegenwärtige in Strömen und Flüßen dargestellt von Friedrich Strass. Augsburg, V. Zanna et Comp., [1830].
Copper engraving with full original colour, in 3 unjoined sheets. Each sheet 47 × 71 cm. Very good condition, lovely original colour, mild toning, small nicks in blank margins and light stains in lower area. A very rare edition of Strass's large and resplendently coloured time chart depicting the inter-connecting streams of the histories of different World civilizations and nations from 3984 BC up to 1830. This large and colourful time chart employs ingenious visual methods to graphically illustrate historical events. The history of the world is presented as interwoven streams featuring the stories of its great civilizations/nations weave their way down the time chart like the paths of streams. History is shown to commence with Genesis, which is shown here to have occurred in 3984 BC, a date close to that asserted by the Ussher Chronology. This theory as to the timing of Genesis (which was said to have occurred in 4004 BC) was devised by James Ussher (1581-1656), the Archbishop of Armagh and the Primate of All Ireland (in office 1625-56), and is based on his "literal reading" of the Bible. The Ussher Chronology gained widespread popularity in certain Protestant circles during the 19th century. The time line starts at the top of the composition with the great ancient civilizations, namely, the Italians; Greeks; Asia Minor; Assyrians; Syrians; Phoenicians; Jews; Egyptians and the Chinese. Down the various streams are plotted the names and dates of different eras and rulers. The stream on the furthest right details major world events. Part way down, the civilizations in the Western and Mediterranean world converge into the 'Roman Empire' before splintering again into various new entities. The streams then continue to weave, combine and separate, mitigated by the interconnecting streams of major events and characters, towards the bottom of the time line, where the individual streams are represented by the nations and regions of Denmark; Sweden; Russia; the German States; Austria; Holland; Switzerland; France; the Italian States; States of the Church (Papal States); Spain; Great Britain; Greece; Persia; and China. William Bell, who issued his own version of the time chart in London in 1849, described the merits of Strass's conception to the study of history: "However natural it may be to assist the perspective faculty, in its assumption of abstract time, by the idea of a line [...] it is astonishing that [...] the image of a Stream should not have presented itself to any one [...] The expressions of gliding, and rolling on; or of a rapid current, applied to time, are equally familiar to us with those of long and short. Neither does it require any great discernment to trace [...] in the rise and fall of empire, an allusion to the source of a river, and to the increasing rapidity of a current, in proportion with the declivity of their channels towards the engulfing ocean. Nay, the metaphor [...] gives greater liveliness to the ideas, and impresses events more forcibly upon the mind, than the stiff regularity of the straight line. Its diversified power likewise of separating the various currents into subordinate branches, or of uniting them into one vast ocean of power [...] tends to render the idea by its beauty more attractive, by its simplicity more perspicuous, and by its resemblance more consistent" (Rosenberg & Grafton, pp.143 & 147). The present time chart is derived from Strass's exceedingly rare "Strom der Zeiten" ("Stream of Time", 1804). Strass's work proved to be highly influential and was widely copied in both Europe and America, and translated into several languages, including Russian. All of the large German editions are very rare, and the present example, in unjoined sheets with resplendent original colour, is an especially fine example. Cf. OCLC (Re: 1818 Zanna ed.) 165398011. (derivative 1849 London ed.). Daniel Rosenberg & Anthony Grafton, Cartographies of Time, pp. 143f. & 147, fig. 4:45.
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[Suez Canal].
Photos of the Suez Canal Area and British Soldiers at the end of WWII. Egypt, 1944/1945.
65 photos. 170 x 240 mm to 106 x 60 mm. No captions or others identifying marks on the photos or in the album. Several photographs removed. Black oblong album. Later twine tie. Egyptian motif on covers (camel, pyramid, palm trees). 4to. With a menu for the 1944 Christmas Dinner of the 111 Maintenance Unit of the Royal Air Force. Several photos show military personnel, probably from this unit, including one photo of what appears to be a whole unit standing at attention in front of one-story military buildings. There are also a number of photos of Egyptians. There is a photo of the top portion of the front page of the August 1945 issue of the "Egyptian Mail" which reported the Japanese Surrender to end World War II.
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Burmann, Johannes.
Rariorum Africanarum plantarum, ad vivum delineatum, iconibus ac descriptionibus illustraturum, decas prima (-decima). Amsterdam, Boussiere, 1738-1739.
10 parts in 1 volume. Large 4to. viii, 106, (2 blank), (4), 109-142, (4), 145-167, (5), 169-193, (5), 195-268, (2) pp. With 100 finely engraved plates probably after Hendrik Claudius (1655-1697), depicting South African plants. With identical engraved vignettes on each of the ten part-titles, by Jan Caspar Philips (1700-1775), showing Cape Town and Table Mountain seen from the water. First title in red & black. Without the frontispiece portrait of Burmann, as usual. Full contemporary mottled calf with gold tooled spine. Rare first and only edition of a primary source on South African flora, especially the Cape of Good Hope area, by Johannes Burmann (1707-79), Dutch physician and botanist at Amsterdam. "The nomenclature is here often in agreement with that of the Hortus Cliffortianus [of Linneaus]; Burmann accepts the Linnaean generic reform as brought about by the Genera plantarum and attempts, though not yet consistently, to coin his phrase names in a purely diagnostic way in the Linnaean manner" (Stafleu, Linnaeus and the Linnaeans, p. 166). The illustrations are drawn from the Codex Simon van der Stel, the Herbarium Witsenianum, and the Codex Witsenii. The artist was most likely the physician Hendrik Claudius of Breslau, who had arrived in Cape Town in 1682 to make watercolours of the local plants, with a medical interest. Simon van der Stel ventured on an expedition to Namaqualand in 1685-86 and had drawings of plants made for him, it is possible that Claudius accompanied him and made the drawings. In Cape town copies of these drawings were made for the burgomaster of Amsterdam, Nikolaas Witsen and via that route they served as the source for the engravings in the Rariorum Africanarum Plantarum. An important work with the first illustrations of many Cape of Good Hope plants. - Bookplate on first end paper of Guy Tinant and ink ownership on the second endpaper by the same, dated 1975. Great Flower Books 53. Hunt 508. Nissen 302. Plesch 165. Stafleu, 929. Stafleu, Linnaeus and the Linnaeans, p. 166. For the watercolours see: Codex Witsenii.
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Burmann, Johannes [and Carl Linnaeus].
Thesaurus Zeylanicus, exhibens plantas in insula Zeylana nascentes. Inter quas plurimae novae species, & genera inveniuntur. Omnia iconibus illustrate, ac descripta [...]. Amsterdam, Janssonius van Waesbegren and Salomon Schouten, 1737.
4to. 2 parts in 1 volume. (16), 235, (1), (14), (4), 33, (1). With 111 finely etched anonymous plates, an engraved allegorical title-vignette by Adolf van der Laan (1680/1700-42) dated 1736, a number of woodcut head and tail pieces and without the portrait of Burmann, as usual. Full contemporary gold tooled mottled calf, with mottled edges. First edition of the first illustrated description of the plants of Sri Lanka, based on the famous botanical collections of Paul Hermann and Jan Hartog in The Netherlands. The plants were taken from Sri Lanka, however most of these did not exclusively exist there but grew throughout the entire South Indian Ocean region, making this book relevant for more than just the island of Ceylon. Described and illustrated plants include the Malabar nut, amaranth, cinnamon, different types of jasmin etc. Johannes Burmann (1707-79), Dutch physician and botanist at Amsterdam, was well acquainted with Carl Linnaeus. While Burmann was working on the Thesaurus Zeylanicus he was helped by Linnaeus, who was staying at Burmann's house at the time. In the same period the monumental works of Linnaeus were published that would change science. The plates are referred to as engravings, but they are most likely finely etched. Plate 18 is numbered double, causing much confusion about the number of plates with it often being described as having 110 instead of 111 plates. The dedication on *2 has 2 different states: this one opens with Nicolao Sautyn. - Some annotations in pencil. Hinges worn and some wear to the boards. Plates a bit browned as usual. In very good condition. Hunt 501. Nissen BBI 303. Stafleu & Cowan 928.
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Fisher, A. K. / C. Hart Merriam (dir.).
The Hawks and Owls of the United States in their Relation to Agriculture. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1893.
8vo. 210 pp. Illustrated with 26 colour plates. Brown cloth with gilt lettering on spine. First edition of a survey of the influence of birds of prey on the agriculture in the United States, published as bulletin no. 3 of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Division of Ornithology and Mammalogy. Understanding the feeding pattern of these birds was crucial to gauge their role in the ecosystem. Therefore the birds were caught and dissected and their stomach contents studied. This explains why the plates show the birds with their typical food. The 26 full-page chromolithographed plates are signed JLR (J. L. Ridgway and R. Ridgway) and show most birds in their natural habitat with a kill at their paws. Number 26 is placed between 23 and 24. - Bottom of spine damaged and repaired. Nissen IVB 316.
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Hermann, Paul.
Paradisus Batavus continens plus centum plantas affabrè aere incisas & descriptionibus illustratas. Amsterdam, Abraham Elzevier, 1698.
4to. (16), 247, (1), 15, (1) pp. With 111 etched plates depicting plants, an elaborate woodcut tailpiece with an eagle feeding her young, caterpillars, dogs, and flowers, as well as a woodcut printer's vignette on the title-page. Early 18th century (?) richly gold-tooled mottled calf, in a panel design with a large centre-piece of curlicues, gold-tooled board edges, marbled end papers and gilt edges. First edition of an overview of exotic plants were recently discovered by the Dutch. The foreign plants were brought back to the Netherlands by ship from around the world and planted in various botanical gardens to be studied. With the help of new botanical technology such as greenhouses it became possible for the first time to cultivate exotic plants such as orchids in the colder European climates. Paul Hermann (1646-95) had excellent contacts and based his work on various Dutch botanical collections that held plants from the Americas, from Africa (Egypt), the South Indian Ocean regions, and Asia. Mentioned plants include passion fruit, cacti, and papaver. Hermann himself served as director of the Hortus Botanicus at the University of Leiden and contributed to this work specimens from India, Africa, and Sri Lanka. He died in 1695 while at work on a number of important publications, this one of them. His widow was able to complete the "Paradisus Batavus" and got influential English botanist William Sherard (1659-1728) to edit her husband's work. The publication raised the bar for floral publications and set the standard so high that it inspired Linnaeus to write his "Flora Zeylanica" (about the plants of Sri Lanka). - Some copies include a four-page laudatory poem to the author, not present here. Most copies of this first edition have 110 plates, while the present volume contains 111. Some of the depicted plants are the first ever to be documented in European cultivation. Although the plates are referred to as engravings it appears more likely that they are etchings. The anonymous illustrations seem to be aimed at showing the whole plant, including the roots, leaves and twigs, rather than just the blossom or fruit that the plant produces. The woodcut tailpiece is signed "C" (possibly Nagler Monogrammisten 2151). - Boards slightly warped, but still a very good copy. From the library of William Cavendish-Bentinck, the 6th Duke of Portland, with his engraved armorial bookplate on the upper pastedown. Kuijlen 115. Nissen BBI 860. The Anglo-Dutch Garden 143.
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Koenig, Alexander.
Die Vögel am Nil von seiner Mündung bis in das Gebiet seiner Quellflüsse (Weisser Nil) auf Grund eigener Reisen und Beobachtungen in Wort und Bild dargestellt […] Zweiter Band. Die Raubvögel. [Bernburg, Kunze, 1936].
4to. 188 pp. Illustrated with 52 colour plates and 2 black and white plates depicting birds of prey, a plate with 4 photographs of nests, and 2 lithographed illustrations in the text of ancient Egyptian statues of falcons. Rebound in blue half morocco with title label. The very rare only published volume of "Die Vögel am Nil" by Alexander Koenig (1858-1940): a monograph on the birds of prey of the entire Nile region, with many beautiful plates. Koenig traveled to the Nile six times to study the local fauna and concentrated his findings in this second volume, completed near the end of his life. Koenig was a scholar and a man of wealth as well an an avid collector. In 1912 he founded the renowned Museum Koenig in Bonn. In 1964 the 'first' volume was published posthumously in Bonn by the Alexander Koenig Stiftung under the title "Alexander Koenigs Reisen am Nil". Koenig had first published his studies on Egyptian birds of prey in the "Journal für Ornithologie" over the course of many years (1907-32) under the title "Avifauna Aegyptiaca", with some plates. All of these contributions were assembled and expanded, with new plates added, in "Die Vögel am Nil". (The plates already published in the journals are marked "Avif. Aeg."). The birds are divided into three types: vultures, falcons, and owls. The chromolithographed plates of vultures are done by F. Naubaur after E. de Maes (the eggs only by De Maes). Most falcon plates are signed "FR" (A. Frisch) in the plate and executed by Otto Kleinschmidt, printed at the Kunstanstalt Köhler at Gera (Germany), others are by F. Neubaur and E. de Maes. Another plate of eggs (XLIX) is by Paul Preiss. Most of the owls are done by F. Neubaur, with the exception of plate LIV, which is signed "JCK" (Keulmans). The ornithological artist Otto Kleinschmidt was also a collector of bird specimens. His collections of over 10,000 specimens was sold to the Museum Koenig in 1935. - In fine condition. Anker 266. Nissen IVB 524.
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Mesopotamia Commission.
Report of the Commission Appointed by Act of Parliament to Enquire Into the Operations of War in Mesopotamia, Together with a Separate Report by Commander J. Wedgwood [...]. London, His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1917.
188 pp. With 2 (out of 3) lithographed plates ("annexures"), of which 1 folding table showing the movements of all army units from the landing in Suez "up to the present state". Original blue printed wrappers. Official report of the Mesopotamia Commission appointed in August 1916 to investigate the events connected with the Siege of Kut Al-Amara, the worst Allied defeat of the Great War. The Commission's remit was to enquire "into the origin, inception, and conduct of operations of war in Mesopotamia, including the supply of drafts, reinforcements, ammunition, and equipment of the troops and fleet, the provision for the sick and wounded, and the responsibility of those departments of Government whose duty it has been to minister to the wants of the forces employed in that theatre of war" (p. 3). In the spring of 1916, T. E. Lawrence had been dispatched to Mesopotamia to assist in relieving Kut by either starting an Arab uprising or negotiating a secret deal with Enver Pasha, offering £2 million for the free retreat of the troops; the mission produced no useful result, and General Townshend surrendered on 29 April after a siege of 147 days. Some 13,000 Allied soldiers survived to be made prisoners. - Contents include: Origin of Mesopotamia expedition; Advance from Basra to Kurna; The advance from Amara and Kut; Correspondence and telegrams as to advance on Baghdad; The advance from Kut to Ctesiphon; Operations for relief of Kut; Armament, equipment, reinforcements; Transport; Medical breakdown; Causes contributing to the errors of judgment and shortcomings of responsible authorities; Findings and conclusions; Separate report by Commander J. Wedgwood; Vincent-Bingley report; Memorandum by Sir Beauchamp Duff; Colonel Hekir's account of the siege of Kut-el-Amara. - Waterstained throughout; edges and corners severely wrinkled, bumped and frayed; traces of dod-earing. Binding soiled; spine chipped. OCLC 3303415. Cd. 8610.
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[American Committee for Relief in the Near East].
"The Child at Your Door" 400,000 Orphans Starving No State Aid Available Campaign for $30,000,000. American Committee [for] Relief in The Near East, Armenia. Greece. Syria. Persia. 1 Madison Ave, New York - Cleveland H. Dodge Treas. [New York, American Committee for Relief in the Near East], American Lithographic Co., [1918-1919].
Original poster. 51.5 x 34.7 cm, one illustration in a box with titles in grey, signed 'DP' or 'PD' in a monogram in the stone, titles in black on grey, offset lithography. Old horizontal and vertical folds, a small tear on top edge (not affecting image), some trivial browning, worn through on one of the folds. A good, clean copy. A captivating poster from a campaign that redefined the strategy of relief efforts in the 20th century. - When news of the atrocities committed by the Ottoman government against Armenians reached America in 1915, a group of salubrious New Yorkers banded together to form the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief (named American Committee for Relief in the Near East from 1918-1919). After raising $60,000 for direct relief at their first meeting, the committee set about taking their cause to the public. The effort to do so centred around a media campaign of unprecedented ambition and modernity: one that utilised famous speakers, first-hand accounts from the Near East, and an array of visual media. - This poster was part of the imagery that inspired the American people to give over $116 million for direct relief between 1915 and 1930. The work of the committee also saved the lives of over a million refugees. It still exists today as the Near East Foundation and continues to provide support to over 40 countries in the Near East, sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East.
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Barth, Johann August.
Universitati litterariae Viadrinae post tria saecula gloriose peracta Francofurti Wratislaviam translatae et cum Leopoldina [...] feliciter junctae die novae sedis ineundae solemni XIV calend. novemb. MDCCCXI [...] documentum extet [...]. (Breslau), Typis Universitatis, 1811.
Folio (220 x 355 mm). Title page, 21 sheets numbered A-X with letterpress rectos only, partly hand-coloured. Original wrappers with mounted armorial engraving in original colour on the upper cover. An unusual, typographically ambitious publication commemorating the merger between the University of Breslau and the Protestant Viadrina University, previously located in Frankfurt an der Oder, re-established at Breslau on 3 August 1811 as the "Königliche Universität zu Breslau - Universitas litterarum Vratislaviensis" after the defeat of Prussia by Napoleon and the subsequent reorganisation of the Prussian state. The 21 celebratory poems in different types and languages (including Arabic, Yiddish, Hebrew, Russian, Dutch, Latin, German, French, Spanish, English, and various Slavic languages) all praise the university. The specimens in Arabic type boast coloured borders and 'unwan headpieces; an example inspired by mediaeval manuscripts has a coloured initial with pretty tendril designs. - The printer, typographer and publisher Johannes Augustus Barth (1765-1818) was based at Breslau; after the defeat of Napoleon he would publish another work with multiple languages and types, "Pacis annis MDCCCXIV et MDCCCXV foederatis", issued in 1818 with 63 poems in 99 languages. - Margins show small tears (partly restored). Wrappers stained and with soft folds; interior slightly age-toned and dusty in the margins, but text clean and in good condition. Rare. Erman/Horn II, 2027. OCLC 14198089.
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[Pahlavi, Mohammad Reza, Shah of Iran (1919-1980)].
2 original photographs. No place or date
205:253 mm and 180:130 mm. One picture shows Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (1919-1980) with Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa I, ruler of Bahrain from 1942 until his death in 1961; the other is a portrait of the latter.
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Galvão, Antonio.
Tratado dos descobrimentos antigos, e modernos. Feitos até a Era de 1550, com os nomes particulares das pessoas que os fizerao. Lisbon, Officina Ferreiriana, 1731.
Folio (202 x 294 mm). (16), 100 pp. Title printed in red and black. With woodcut title vignette and full-page woodcut of the author at the end of the preliminaries. 19th century half cloth. Second edition of Galvao's great history of exploration and voyages, including the Portuguese conquests on the Arabian coast, in the Gulf, and in the Kingdom of Ormus. The first edition, published in 1563, is considered virtually unobtainable, as only some five or six copies are known to exist. "This second edition, says Innocencio, 'has been equally rare for many years, since almost all copies were lost, in the house of a bookdealer, during the Lisbon earthquake'" (Borba de Moraes). Galvao's text was translated in 1601 by Hakluyt, who complained about the rarity of the first edition even then, and had to rely on a copy sent from Lisbon. - Born in 1503, Galvao was sent to India in 1527, and after distinguishing himself there, he was appointed governor of the Moluccas. He maintained a keen interest in military and religious affairs throughout his career, and spent the latter part of his life assembling accounts of the voyages that comprise this collection. He provides a relatively succinct chronological list of ancient and modern discoveries to the year 1550, including those by Columbus, Cabral, Cortés, and Pizarro. "Ce livre est divisé en deux parties: la première traite des premières navigations, y compris celles faites par les Espagnols et les Portugais dans l'océan Atlantique et aux côtes d'Afrique. La seconde partie contient toutes les découvertes faites par les Espagnols et les Portugais en Amérique et aux Indes jusqu'en l'année 1550" (Leclerc). "The author has been styled 'the founder of historical geography'. The book gives a good summary of the geographical explorations of the Portuguese and other important voyagers, including the English" (Hill). - Spine worn. Slight spotting and thumbing throughout, slight worming to lower blank margin of first 6 leaves, minor hole to blank margin of fol. M3. Sabin 26468. Borba de Moraes 289. Bosch 180. Rodrigues 1059. Palau 182.290. Leclerc 225. Innocencio I, 147, 720. Hill 670. Bibliotheca Americana 642. European Americana 731/89.
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Hariri, al-Qasim Ibn 'Ali al-.
Kitab Maqamat al-Hariri. Beirut, Matba`at al-Ma`arif, 1873.
8vo. 564 pp. Contemporary half cloth over marbled boards with giltstamped spine. Rare Lebanese printing of the famous "Maqamat" ("Assemblies" or "Sessions") of al-Hariri of Basra (1054-1122): a virtuoso display of Arabic poetry, consisting of fifty anecdotes written in stylized prose which used to be memorized by scholars. "Al-Hariri's Maqamat tie in with the tradition of al-Hamadani. Like he, al-Hariri tells us of the experiences of an educated vagrant, Abu Zaid from Sarug. But his aim is not so much to render vividly this creature of his imagination or even his environment, but rather to invest his accounts with every syntactical and lexical finesse imaginable, and it is these, rather than the content of the narrative, that are to captivate and preoccupy the reader. This is the final flaring of the national Arab spirit: dazzling and, for the moment, pretty as fireworks, but similarly barren, ultimately fizzling out without effect" (Brockelmann). Hariri's masterpiece continued to captivate European Arabists since the 17th century (cf. Fück, 148). - Spine title reads "Fihris / pers.", misidentifying both the language and the title (copied from the pencil transliteration under the heading of the table of contents). A good copy from the library of Horst Wilfrid Brands (1992-98), professor of Turkish Studies and Islamic scholarship in Frankfurt am Main, with his ownership stamp to pastedowns. OCLC 63545591. Cf. GAL I, 276. (S I, 487, cites an 1873 Lucknow edition).
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Tarafah ibn al-`Abd / Reiske, Johann Jacob (ed.).
Tharaphae Moallakah cum scholiis Nahas e mss. Leidensibus. Leiden, (Isaac van der Mijn for) Jean Luzac, 1742.
4to. (2), LIV, 130, (2) pp. Title printed in red and black with engraved title vignette. 1 folding genealogical table. Contemporary half calf with gilt spine and spine label (chipped). First edition; "a groundbreaking achievement" (Fück, p. 111). Reiske's unvocalised edition of Tarafah's text, with a Latin translation on opposite pages and the commentary of Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Nahhas. "The appended notes trace the poet's chain of thought and elucidate the various themes with their poetic phraeseology by comparison with parallels in other works [...] A geneaological plate visualizes the kinship between Tarafah and other northern Arabian ports, facilitating the reader's checking the chronological approaches suggested in the prologue" (ibid.). In sharp contrast to his teacher Schultens, the brilliant scholar Reiske (1716-74) was one of the first Arabists whose work was fully independent of the constraints of Biblical exegesis. - The sixth century Arab poet Tarafah was the author of the longest of the seven odes in the celebrated collection of pre-Islamic poetry "al-Mu'allaqat" (Moallakah). Some critics judge him to be the greatest of the pre-Islamic poets, if not the greatest Arab poet. - Very rare. Schnurrer 202. Fück 110. Graesse IV, 554. Van der Aa VI, 69ff. Encyc. Britt. 26, 415. OCLC 22661575.
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Burgess, James / Cousens, Henry.
The Architectural Antiquities of Northern Gujarat, More Especially of the Districts Included in the Baroda State. London, Bernard Quaritch et al., 1903.
Colour map and 111 plates and plans, some collotype, one double-page, 4 pp. advertisements at end. Original cloth. First and only edition of this study of mainly Hindu and Jaina architecture in the state of Gujarat on the western coast of India, superbly illustrated with collotypes. Published as volume IX of the Archaeological Survey of Western India. - The Scottish archaeologist James Burgess (1832-1916), founder of "The Indian Antiquary", did educational work in Calcutta, 1856 and Bombay, 1861, and was Secretary of the Bombay Geographical Society 1868-73. He was Head of the Archaeological Survey, Western India, 1873, and of South India, 1881. From 1886 to 1889 he was Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India. - With light foxing to first few leaves, binding slightly rubbed.
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Fleischer, Heinrich Leberecht.
(Über Textverbesserungen in al-Makkari's Geschichtswerke). Berichte der Kön. Sächs. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, Philologisch-Historische Classe). (Leipzig, Breitkopf & Härtel), 1867-1869.
8vo. 3 parts in 1 volume. 151-220 pp. (1867); 236-309 pp. (1868); 39-118 pp. (1869). (With) II: The same. Abdruck aus den Berichten der philol.-histor. Classe der Königl. Sächs. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften 1870. Dritte Fortsetzung der Beiträge zur arabischen Sprachkunde. 227-295, (1) pp. Contemporary vellum-backed red marbled boards with handwritten spine-title. Treatise on textual emendations to the history of Muslim Iberia by Ahmed Mohammed al-Maqqari. Offprints from three volumes of reports of the Scientific Society of Saxony. - Bound with this is the sequel to another essay on Arabic linguistics by Fleischer, "Beiträge zur arabischen Sprachkunde". - From the collection of the German librarian and oriental scholar Julius Euting (1839-1913) with his ownership in black ink to the flyleaf and with an inscription on the following blue wrapper, summarising the content and with a small stamp of ownership at top right ("J. Euting, Strassburg").
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Hamza al-Isfahani, Ibn-al-Hasan / Rasmussen, Jens Lassen (ed.).
Historia praecipuorum Arabum Regnorum rerumque ab iis gestarum ante Islamismum [...]. E codicibus manuscriptis Arabicis Bibliothecae Regiae Hauniensis [...]. Kopenhagen, Johannes Friedrich Schultz, 1817.
Large 4to. VI, 146, (2) pp. With a folding table. Contemporary half calf over marbled boards with giltstamped spine title. Marbled endpapers. First edition. - Arabic text, with Latin translation, of chapters 6-7, 9-10, part 1-2, of Hamzah al-Isafahani's "Tarikh al-umam"; and extracts from al-Nuwairi's "Nihayat al-arab" (in Latin only). The folded table presents the "Series regum Hirensium, una cum synchronismo regum Persarum, prouti Hamza Isfahanensis eos exhibuit". - Binding rubbed; some browning to interior, old shelfmark label to pastedown. Provenance: handwritten ownership of the Göttingen-based oriental scholar Mark (Mordechai) Lidzbarski (1868-1928) to flyleaf, with additional Canadian library stamps of the Ottawa Commissariatus, Terrae Sanctae. Rare. OCLC 13131770. For the Danish oriental scholar Jan Larson Rasmussen cf. Fück 156.
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[India - Army, General Staff Branch].
Operations in Waziristan 1919-1920. Confidential. Compiled by the General Staff, Army Headquarters, India, 1921. Calcutta, Superintendent Government Printing, 1921.
8vo. X, 187, (1) pp. With frontispiece, 31 plates, 7 maps (3 in lower cover pocket), and 8 panoramas, mostly folding. Contemporary quarter calf over green cloth covers with giltstamped red spine labels. First edition. - The British-Indian Army's official account of the 1919-20 Waziristan campaign, marked "Confidential" on the title-page. The operations followed unrest that arose in the aftermath of the Third Anglo-Afghan War; they were conducted in the mountainous region of Waziristan (now in Pakistan) by British and Indian forces against the fiercely independent Waziri and Mahsud tribesmen that inhabited it. Since the 1870s, the British government agencies were assiduous in compiling internally published histories of their military frontier operations, with the intention of providing a "valuable guide" to such British commanders and policymakers as "might have future dealings with these turbulent neighbours" (as the Punjab Government phrased it in 1866). - Serial No. 1235 stamped to title-page. Occasional light marginal staining. A few edge flaws consistent with army use, repaired by a contemporary owner. In all a well-preserved, complete copy. OCLC 11497145. Catalogue No. C.W. 4 - Case No. 8987 N.S.
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Intelligence Office [Arab Bureau], Cairo.
Chanak. Cairo, Survey Department, Egypt, 1915.
Colour lithograph, 790 x 625 mm. Mounted on original cloth with maps series key printed on verso. Folded. The finest contemporary map of the Çanakkale sector of the Gallipoli Campaign, the site of the dreaded "Narrows" of the Dardanelles where Allied naval forces made their ill-fated attempt to "force the straits" towards taking Istanbul. Drafted in Cairo under the direction of T. E. Lawrence at the Arab Bureau's Intelligence Office, based on a recently captured Ottoman map. - In the early days of World War I, the Entente sought to knock the Ottoman Empire out of the conflict by taking Constantinople, by way of the Dardanelles. The Gallipoli Campaign (17 February 1915 to 9 January 1916) involved a force of 490,000 British, Indian, Australian, New Zealander and French troops making various landings upon the Gallipoli Peninsula that strategically guarded the mouth of the Dardanelles. The 325,000 Ottoman defenders, backed by German forces, successfully repelled these raids in what was one of the most bloody military contests in world history. - From the outset, the Allies were hampered by a lack of accurate maps of the Gallipoli Peninsula and the adjacent Asian shore of the Dardanelles. They eventually succeeded in capturing a complete six-part set of excellent, newly published Ottoman surveys showing the battle theatre in its entirety. These maps were rushed to the map department of the Intelligence Office (later the famed "Arab Bureau") in Cairo, where they were translated, enlarged and improved by a team headed by Lieutenant T. E. Lawrence, later known as "Lawrence of Arabia". These maps were printed by the Survey Department, Egypt, as a series of six interconnecting maps, although each map was designed to act as a stand-alone work complete in and of itself (a geographic key to all six maps is present on the verso of the present map). - Overall clean and bright, with some very light staining to upper-left quadrant and some light wear at some fold vertices.
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Israeli Defence Forces, West Bank Command.
Minsharim, tsavim u-minuyim [Proclamations, Orders and Appointments] shel Mifkedet kohot Tsahal be-ezor ha-Gadah ha-ma`aravit. Mahashir, awamir wa-Ta`yinat sadirah `an Qiyadat Quwat Jaysh al-Difa` al-Israili fi mantaqat al-Diffah al-Gharbiyah. (Jerusalem, Merkaz press), August-December 1967.
Small folio (207 x 311 mm). 295, (1) pp. 26 ff., numbered 1-27. Issues 1 through 7 (of 8) bound together, with an additional booklet is bound at the end of the volume (addendum file no 1., 29 Oct. 1967). Contemporary blue full cloth binding with gilt-printed title label in Hebrew and Arabic to upper cover. The first orders issued by the IDF military authorities in the West Bank after the Six-Day War (Milhemet Sheshet Ha-Yamim, or Harb 1967). Printed in Hebrew and Arabic, the pamphlets include more than a hundred and fifty orders, proclamations and lists of position-holders. - Binding somewhat stained, but generally well preserved. OCLC 20345168.
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[Khunsari, Agha Jamal] / Atkinson, James A. (transl.).
[Kitab-e Kulsum Nani]. Customs and Manners of the Women of Persia, and Their Domestic Superstitions. Translated from the original Persian manuscript. London, John Murray et al. for the Oriental Translation Fund, 1832.
8vo. XVIII, (2), 93, (3), 8 pp. (ads). With lithographic frontispiece of "A Persian Girl" sketched on stone by the translator, printed by C. Hullmandel. With an inserted slip. Original boards, rebacked with new spine label. First English edition: a prose version by the British oriental scholar James A. Atkinson (1780-1852). "This is a specimen of Persian humour, a jeu d'esprit, founded upon female customs and superstitions. It pretends to be a grave work, and is in fact a circle of domestic observances, treated with the solemnity of a code of laws" (preface). With a fine lithographic frontispiece drawn by Atkinson, faithfully depicting a "Persian Girl" in traditional dress, with a lute and hookah by her side, her hair adorned. - Provenance: 1) Wilberforce Eames, (1855-1937), U.S. bibliographer and librarian, known as the "Dean of American bibliographers" (his ink ownership to flyleaf); 2) pencil ownership "Wm. Berrian" (?) to flyleaf; 3) bookplate of the Wisconsin Consistory Library to pastedown; 4) Quaritch notation to pastedown (sold by them). A fine copy; scarce. Wilson 10 & 123. Cat. of the Library of Wilberforce Eames (NY, Anderson Auction, 1905), no. 6247 (this copy).
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Lagus, Jacob Johan Wilhelm.
Icmal-i ahval-i Al-i Selcuk ber mucib-i nakl-i Oguzname. Seïd Locmani ex libro Turcico qui Oghuzname inscribitur excerpta [...]. Helsingfors (Helsinki), Johann Christoph Frenckell, 1854.
8vo. 2 parts in one volume. (2), 52; 15, (1) pp. With colour-lithographed title to the Ottoman text. Stitched as issued. Lagus's dissertation for the professorship in Helsinki (which he lost to Kellgren). Includes the Ottoman Turkish text. - Some browning. Uncut, untrimmed copy. Henriksson-Puuponen 78. Marklin 34. OCLC 66728813.
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[Qur'an studies]. Happel, Justus Helfrich / May, Johann Heinrich (praes.).
Brevis institutio linguae Arabicae. D. Joh. Henr. Maji Hebraicae, Chaldaicae, Syriacae, Samaritanae ac Aethiopicae harmonica. Accedit glossarium arabicum cum reliquis orientis linguis harmonicum, in IV Geneseos capita priora et tres praecipuas Alcorani suratas. Frankfurt, Johann Philipp Andreae, 1707.
4to. (2), (8), (3)-75, (1) pp. With 1 folding table. Contemporary marbled brown boards, spine reinforced with later brown cloth. An orientalist dissertation by the Hessian scholar Happel, incorporating a grammar of the Arabic language and a glossary harmonising Hebrew terms from the first four books of Genesis with Arabic words from three Qur'an suras, namely sura 1 (Al-Fatiha), 12 (Yusuf), and 64 (At-Taghabun), previously edited by Erpenius. - Some browning throughout due to paper. Lacks free endpapers; front hinge reinforced. 19th and 20th century ownerships to pastedown. Schnurrer 87. GV (1700) 56, 6. OCLC 31311242. Not in Fück.
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Rasmussen, Jens Lassen.
Annales islamismi, sive Tabulae synchronistico-chronologicae chalifarum et regum orientis et occidentis, accedente historia Turcarum, Karamanorum, Selgiukidarum Asiae Minoris [...]. E codicibus manuscriptis Arabicis Bibliothecae Regiae Hauniensis [...]. Kopenhagen, Jens Hostrup Schultz, 1825.
Large 4to. X, (2), 134 pp. Contemporary green half calf over marbled boards with giltstamped spine title. Marbled endpapers. First edition. - History of the Muslim world and its rulers from Muhammad's flight (AD 622) to the year 1020 AH (AD 1611). The Danish oriental scholar Jan Larson (Jens Lassen) Rasmussen (1792-1826) had studied in Paris with de Sacy (cf. Fück 156). - Binding rubbed and bumped. Some browning and light dampstaining to interior, old shelfmark label to pastedown. Provenance: stamp of the oriental scholar Charles Barbier de Ménard (president of the École des Langues orientales from 1898 to 1908) on title, with additional Canadian library stamps of the Ottawa Commissariatus, Terrae Sanctae. Rare. OCLC 953808200.
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Reinaud, [Joseph Toussaint].
Description des monumens musulmans du cabinet de M. le duc de Blacas. Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1828.
8vo. 2 vols. (4), XV, (1), 400 pp. (4), 488 pp. With 10 engr. plates (2 folding). Contemporary quarter calf over mottled boards on four raised bands. Gilt lettering and decoration to spines. Marbled endpapers and edges. First edition of J. T. Reinaud's (1795-1867) rare catalogue of the famous collection of Islamic Art amassed by the French statesman Blacas. Most copies have title changed to "Monumens arabes, persans et turcs". This copy is inscribed by Reinaud to the Duc de Luynes, another famous French antiquarian. - The French antiquarian and diplomat Pierre Louis Jean Casimir, prince de Blacas d'Aulps (1770-1839) acted as prime minister to Louis XVIII when he succeeded Napoleon in 1814 and later served as French ambassador to the Holy See. Remaining in Rome for many years, he provided Ingres with a commission and became a patron to the German classicist Theodor Panofka. He worked closely with Italian archaeologist Carlo Fea in the excavation of the Roman Forum, supported the orientalist Jean-François Champollion and created the "Musée Egyptien" within the Louvre. In 1866, his descendants sold most of his collection to the British Museum, where it remains to this day. - The plates show beautiful specimens of Arabic calligraphical art (including many seals). Some browning and staining throughout. From the library of the Ducs de Luynes from the Château of Dampierre with bookplate to pastedowns. Ibrahim-Hilmy II, 159. Gay 3592 bis (variant title). Brunet IV, 1198. Graesse VI, 72. Quérard VII, 513. OCLC 39974885. Not in Arntzen/Rainwater.
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Romieux, Osmond.
[Watercolour views of sea-coasts in New Caledonia and Peru]. [New Caledonia & Peru, 1855/60?].
21 album leaves with 1 drawing mounted on each recto. Album: full-sheet leaves (oblong folio, 395 x 525 mm); drawings: oblong folio and oblong 4to. An album with 21 watercolour drawings on paper with views of sea coasts from the shore (240 x 310 mm to 295 x 465 mm), one with a 22nd watercolour drawing on the back with a similar view, and one with about 15 human figure drawings in graphite pencil on the back. All bear the artist's stamp on the front (Lugt 3703) and 4 are signed or initialled by the artist. Richly gold- and blind-tooled green goatskin morocco, sewn on 3 recessed cords (not aligned with the six flat raised bands on the spine), each board with a blind-tooled inner oval frame of interlaced abstracted leaves and vines, surrounded by a gold-tooled frame of similar decoration (oval inside and rectangular outside), surrounded by 2 frames of thick-thin fillets, the front board with the owner's initials in textura capitals in the centre: "A.L.", signed at the foot of the spine, "A. Giroux & C:" (last recorded in 1856), white watered silk endleaves (the paste-down in the form of a doublure). The whole in a protective folder lined with thick leather, with green goatskin morocco where it wraps around the 2 short ends, and chemical-marbled paper sides (black papier croise d'Annonay: cf. Wolfe XXI, 1-3: France, 1830s-50s), with remains of a green cloth tie on the flap. A richly gold- and blind-tooled album (ca. 1850/56) containing 22 excellent and detailed watercolour views of rocky sea coasts, all or nearly all in New Caledonia and Peru (plus 1 graphite pencil drawing of about 15 human figures), the coastal views made from the shore. All were executed by Osmond Romieux (1826-1908), a leading amateur artist who made them during his tours of duty as a French naval officer. At least 18 have a pencil note on the back identifying the location: 15 "Nouvelle Caledonie", 2 "Pérou" (drawings 18, 20) and 2 "Callao" in Peru (drawings 17, 18). We have found no location indicated on drawings 3 (with views on both sides), 8 and 19 (with figure drawings on the back). Most of the drawings were made from the sea shore, looking out over both the sea and the nearby coasts, nearly all with rocky cliffs or outcroppings and some with trees or other plants. Many were made along bays or inlets where one can see the coast on both sides and the water in one view. Some show fortifications or other buildings, a few show boats in the water or on the shore and several show people on the shore, all or nearly all in European dress. Drawings 2, 8, 15 and 17 are signed or initialled by the artist. - No drawing in the album bears a date, but the album shows no signs of other items having been removed, so the drawings probably date from before or soon after the album was manufactured. The album leaves are made of wove paper with no watermark, but A. Giroux & Cie is not recorded after 1856 and the binding style suggests the album is not much older. Most of the drawings are made on thick wove paper with no visible watermarks and with a rough surface texture much like many of today's watercolour papers. Drawing 4 is on thinner and smoother wove paper with no watermark visible and drawings 9 and 11 are on laid paper watermarked (in the centre of a half-sheet): grapes on a crowned shield (20 grapes plus stem, rendered naturalistically, with grapes arranged in an irregular pattern rather than a honeycomb and sometimes overlapping), about 118 x 70 mm (chainlines 26 mm apart). Unfortunately, the watermark literature does not cover this period well, but the crown is in the general style of those used much earlier for a fleur-de-lis on a crowned shield, such as Heawood 1822. Drawings 20 and 21 may be on the same stock as 9 and 11 but show no watermark, though 20 was made in Peru and the others in New Caledonia. Drawings 9, 20, 21 and probably 3 and 19 are executed on oblong 4to leaves; at least most of the others are on oblong folio leaves. Drawing 13 may be backed with smoother wove paper. - Prosper Halvor Henri Oscar Romieux, who used the first name Osmond, joined the French navy at Rochefort (less the 30 km from his native La Rochelle) in 1841 and passed his exams at the École Navale in 1843. He made his first tour of duty in Polynesia during the Franco-Tahitian War (1844-47), at least from 1845 aboard the ship "La Virginie". We find no record of Romieux or the ship visiting New Caledonia during this period, although it is "only" 4500 km from Tahiti. Romieux must have shown artistic skill from early childhood, for already on this first tour he made excellent watercolour drawings, and he continued to make watercolour views around the world until he retired from duty in 1891. He was made a chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur in 1863 and later an officier. Other undated drawings also record him in New Caledonia and Peru (including Lima and Callao). He is documented in New Caledonia in 1880 and 1882, but the present drawings are unlikely to be that late, and we have found no date for his visit(s) to Peru. We have little record of Romieux's movements from 1848 to 1850, but if he left the South Pacific he soon returned, for he is recorded in Hong Kong in 1851 and the Philippines in 1852 (in 1851 he was an Enseigne on the ship "l'Algérie"). He must have left in 1852, however, for he is recorded in the Seychelles (in the Indian Ocean) in 1852 and Italy in 1853 and 1854. In this last year he was promoted to Lieutenant, but we have another gap in the records of his movements from that time to 1860. He may have made the present drawings during this period, for he set off for the Levant on the ship "Redoutable", apparently in or shortly before 1860, since he is regularly recorded in Syria, Lebanon, Greece, Algeria and Jerusalem from 1860 to 1864. He was promoted to Capitaine in 1867 and continued his travels, but since the present album was probably bound in or before 1856 we think it unlikely that he made the drawings after 1864. - Although the binding is signed by Giroux, the firm operated primarily as suppliers of artists' materials and Ramsden plausibly suggests that they "commissioned bindings by the best executants of the day". Alphonse Giroux established the firm by 1799, but his son Alphonse Gustave Giroux (1809-86) managed it from at least 1838 and the father died in 1848. - We have not identified the "A.L." who apparently acquired these watercolours and had the album made in the 1850s: Lugt lists several French collectors with those initials active at the time. One watercolour has a small corner torn off at the lower right, another is slightly frayed along the right edge and the one on thin wove paper is very slightly browned, but the watercolours are otherwise in very good condition. The binding may have been expertly rebacked, preserving the original backstrip, but so unobtrusively that one must wonder if the binding was originally made that way. It is further in very good condition and even the folder is olny slightly rubbed.A lovely and finely executed series of large watercolour drawings of the coasts of New Caledonia and Peru, probably made in the 1850s and mounted in a stunning gold- and blind-tooled contemporary album. For Romieux: Lugt 3703. For Giroux: Flety, Dictionnaire des relieurs francais p. 82; Ramsden, p. 94.
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