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[Falconry]. - Jardine, William.
Sparrow Hawk. Male & Female. [London, 1838].
Hand-coloured steel engraving. 158 x 96 mm. Matted. Plate from "The Naturalist’s Library Vol. IX Part I. Birds of Prey" by William Jardine published in 1838.
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Fleming, John Arnold.
Falconry and Falcons. The Sport of Flight [...]. London, Country Life Limited, (1934).
4to. XV, (1), 114, (2) pp. With photographic frontispiece and 48 photographic illustrations on 19 plates. Contemporary full green cloth with giltstamped hawk to front cover and giltstamped spine-title. First edition, one of 350 copies signed by the author (this is number 277). - A practical guide to falconry by the industrial chemist, journalist, author, politician, and keen amateur falconer and golfer Fleming (1871-1966), including a glossary of falconry terms as well as observations on the relationship between hawk and falconer. It features "some excellent photographs of the birds in natural settings" (US Air Force Academy), including a hooded merlin, the author with his kestrel, falcons, hawks, merlins, and buzzards attending to their young, as well as birds in flight, and falconers with their animals, including a group of men from Tiwana in Pakistan. - Somewhat brownstained throughout. Handwritten ownership by Charles Henry Stanley Garton (b. 1920), dated Eton 1934, to front pastedown. Clipped publisher's advertising is loosely enclosed. US Air Force Academy Library Catalogue 27, 4. Barber 22. OCLC 561016854.
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Freytag, Carl.
Die Pferde-Racen des Orients und der südeuropäischen Staaten. Halle (Saale), Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses, 1880.
Folio (260 x 330 mm). 156 pp. With 40 lithographed plates by H. Schenck. Original giltstamped green cloth. Marbled endpapers. Extensive, fully illustrated study of the horse breeds of the Orient and southern Europe. Separate chapters are dedicated to the Barb and the Arabian horse, praising the latter as "the noblest and most beautiful, possibly also the cleverest of all animals of its species". - Some foxing throughout; hinges repaired. OCLC 245766508. Cf. Huth 280 (series "Die Haustierracen"). Not in Boyd/P.
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Glasier, Phillip.
As the Falcon Her Bells. London, Heinemann, (1963).
Small 4to. 223 pp., final blank page. With coloured photographic frontispiece and numerous black and white photographic illustrations in the text. Original full cloth with giltstamped spine-title. Printed pastedowns. First edition, rare. "Excellent memoir" (Gallagher) of one of Britain's leading experts on hawking and falconry, Glasier (1915-2000), who spent much of his life involved with the conservation and breeding of raptors and bringing them to public attention through the foundation of the Falconry Centre, Newent, Gloucestershire. - In his autobiography he recalls his early life and his influential uncle, the falconer and photographer Charles Knight, who introduced him to the sport. The photographs show key moments in the author's life, including his first attempts at falconry with his uncle, introducing his own children to hawking later on, activities of the Hawking Club, and the training of an eagle in the Scottish winter, as well as impressive photographs showing birds in mid-flight or landing. Includes observations on his encounter with the American actor Robert Taylor (1911-69) on the set of the 1953 British-American historical film "Knights of the Round Table", where he was responsible for the flying of falcons. - Autograph inscription to "dear Uncle Charles" by Tara, dated "Christmas 1963". Lower boards slightly stained; occasional light foxing. A good copy of this intriguing account never seen at auction. Gallagher, Falcon Fever 324. OCLC 561197538.
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Hammer-Purgstall, Joseph von.
Falknerklee, bestehend in drey ungedruckten Werken über die Falknerey [...] aus dem Türkischen und Griechischen verdeutscht. Pest, C. A. Hartleben, 1840.
8vo. With lithogr. frontispiece, (8), XXXII, (2), 115 pp.; 49 ff. (Turkish text). Original pictorial wrappers bound in, 20th century speckled calf, gilt. First and only edition, one of 300 copies. - "A book particularly important to lovers of falconry, its origin and history" (Schwerdt). Includes a list of books and manuscripts in many languages on falconry. - Foxed (as often), cloth rubbed. Harting 112. Schwerdt I, p. 228.
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Harting, James Edmund.
Hints on the Management of Hawks. London, Horace Cox, 1898.
8vo. With 11 full-page black and white plates and 42 numbered black and white illustrations in text. VII, 268 pp. Including errata-slip tipped-in at end. Original pictorial cloth, gilt. The second, best edition of Harting's manual on the management of hawks and a historical and descriptive explanation on practical falconry. For this edition, the author has not merely revised the original text, but has made considerable additions to it, as well as to the illustrations. With plates and illustrations showing a hooded falcon on block, heron hawking, kite hawking with jerfalcons, the falconer's knot, a falcon in flight, etc. The first edition of this work appeared in 1884 with the same publisher. "Not recommended for the beginner [...] Much interesting material collected from various sources, particularly the instructions for hawk catching" (Barber). - Binding rubbed. Barber 7. OCLC 23929448. Cf. Harting 80 (first edition). Schwerdt I, 233 (first edition).
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[Holy Carpet].
Original photograph. No place or date (but c. 1920s).
132 x 102 mm. Captioned on the reverse: "Holy Carpet + Tailors Who made it". - Traces of former mounting, but well preserved altogether.
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Illingworth, Frank.
Falcons and Falconry. London, Blandford Press, [1946].
8vo. 111 pp., final blank page. With 31 photographic illustrations in the text. Original full cloth with stamped title to cover and spine. First edition of this brief introduction to falconry, re-issued in 1964 and 1978. It features impressive photographs of trained falcons with their prey, as well as hawks on perches or falconers' hands, some hooded. In addition, the illustrations display wild animals, including a sparrow-hawk at its nest, young hawks about to leave the nest, a lemming in Lapland, and an eagle owl. - Handwritten ownership of Charles Henry Stanley Garton (b. 1920), who received this book as a gift from John Osmaston, dated "Christmas 1946". - In near mint condition. Not seen at auction since 1960. Oelgart 25A. U.S. Air Force Academy Library, Special Bibliography Series 81, 289. OCLC 774638616.
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Le Couteulx de Canteleu, [Emmanuel Jean Hector].
Étude sur l'histoire du cheval arabe. Son origine, les lieux où l'on peut le trouver, son emploi en Europe, son rôle dans la formation de la race de pur sang, son influence sur d'autres races. Paris, Librairie Pairault, 1885.
Small 8vo. 51, (1) pp. With a frontispiece. Publisher's yellow printed and illustrated wrappers. Only early edition of this very rare study of the history of the Arabian horse, its origins, use in Europe, its role in thoroughbred breeding, and its influence on other breeds. A facsimile reprint was issued in 2010. "Travail interessant et bien étudié" (Menessier de La Lance). Hector Le Couteulx de Canteleu (1827-1910) was an officer of the French cavalry and a specialist in par force hunting. - Light foxing, but still a very well preserved specimen. Only six copies in libraries internationally. Mennessier de La Lance II, 80f. OCLC 561269526. Not in Huth or Boyd/Paul.
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Letellier, L.-Victor.
Vocabulaire Oriental. Français-Italien, Arabe, Turc et Grec. Composé pour la conversation usuelle, et dans lequel se trouve figurée la prononciation a l'aide des lettres françaises. Paris, chez l’auteur, 1838.
Oblong 8vo. LVI, 236 pp. Full brown calf, richly giltstamped on both covers. All edges gilt. White moirée endpapers. Splendidly bound dictionary of French and Italian words with their counterparts in Arabic, Turkish, and Modern Greek, all in Roman transliteration. Contains brief introductions to the grammar of the various languages. Written for the use of the French army in Northern Africa and the Levant as well as for travellers and tradesmen throughout the eastern Mediterranean. - Pencil note "Relie au Caire" to flyleaf. Some browning throughout, title page and preface as well as final leaves show more pronounced foxing. Bookplate of Gaetano Querci on pastedown; old collection stamps on half-title and title page. Not in Zaunmüller or Vater/Jülg.
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Mascis, Antonio.
Vocabolario Toscano, e Turchesco. Arricchito di molte voci Arabe, Persane, Tartare, e Greche, necessarie alla perfetta cognizione della stessa lingua Turchesca. Florence, Niccolò Navesi, 1677.
8vo. (32), "290" (but: 288; omitting 257f.), 38 pp. With engraved frontispiece (portrait of Cosimo Medici III) and woodcut Medici coat of arms on title page. Contemporary limp vellum with handwritten spine title. Only edition of this uncommon Italian-Turkish dictionary by the Neapolitan linguist Mascis, interpreter to the Grand Duke of Tuscany (to whom his effort is dedicated). In Roman type throughout, even the table of Arabic letters consists only of the letters' transliterated names. The alphabetical word list is followed by quick-reference sections on the parts of the human body as well as on numbers and the names of the Islamic months, and lists of the languagues spoken throughout the Ottoman Empire (no fewer than 33), of the kingdoms and principalities ruled by the Ottomans, and of the names of all the Ottoman sultans to Mehmed IV, reigning at the date of publication. A final part with separate page numbering contains a basic grammar of Turkish to facilitate translation from Italian into the Turkish language. - Occasional brownstaining. Wants endpapers; contemporary ownership on front pastedown. A little loosened, but complete. A rare little vocabulary. The Macclesfield copy, which wanted the portrait frontispiece, commanded £1060. Zaunmüller 389. Vater/Jülg 414. BM-STC Italian XVII, 554.
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Mavrogordato, John George "Jack".
A Hawk for the Bush. A Treatise on the Training of the Sparrow-Hawk and Other Short-Winged Hawks. London, H. F. & G. Witherby, 1960.
4to. XVI, 144 pp. With 7 numbered plates (4 of which coloured) and several black and white illustrations in the text. Original full cloth with stamped falcon to front cover and stamped spine-title. First edition. - A standard work of modern falconry literature by one of the most renowned falconers of the 20th century, the British lawyer Mavrogordato (1905-87). This "excellent book" (Gallagher) is directed at a new generation of falconers choosing to work with the previously frowned-upon sparrowhawks instead of falcons, but also addresses experienced hawkers. It includes observations on the choice of a suitable bird, the treatment of eyasses, the falconer's equipment, and the calling-off of a bird, as well as the animals' diet and health. - The charming illustrations were carried out by the British artist George Edward Lodge (1860-1954), himself an authority on falconry. The plates show muskets and goshawks sitting or in flight; the text illustrations mainly display tools used by the falconer, including hoods, knots, and perches. - Title-page slightly foxed, otherwise in excellent condition. Gallagher, Falcon Fever 85. Oelgart 29B. OCLC 6399849.
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Mellor, James Eric Moulsdale.
Notes on Falconry [...]. (Cambridge, University Press), 1949.
8vo. XII, 83 pp., final blank page. With one photographic plate and 6 numbered illustrations in the text. Contemporary full cloth. The first and only edition of this "extremely interesting little book" (Jameson) on falconry by the British entomologist and member of the British Falconer's Club, J. E. M. Mellor (1890-1984). Enriched "with many historical comments not to be found in other works" (Jameson), it includes information on all relevant aspects of falconry, such as training, feeding, ailments, and parasites, as well as a glossary of falconry terms. The plate shows a neo-Hittite bas-relief in the Louvre displaying a child standing on his mothers knees holding the leash of a falcon. The text illustrations exhibit a falcon block, hoods, bells, jesses and swivels, how to prepare a dead bird to be fed to hawks, a bow-perch for a goshawk, and instructions for fixing damaged feathers. - Occasional light foxing. A very good copy of this rare work never seen at auction. Jameson, American Hawking 138. Chamerlat, La fauconnerie et l'art 251. OCLC 12438224. Not in Harting.
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Messmer, Joseph Anton.
Das Heilige Land und die heiligen Stätten. Ein Pilgerbuch in ausgewählten Bildern mit erläuterndem Text [...]. Munich, Vogel'sche Verlagshandlung, 1860.
4to. IX, (1), 356 pp. With steel-engraved title-page, 79 engraved plates (of which 24 are coloured steel-engravings, 54 tinted woodcuts, and one a tinted lithograph), and one steel-engraved folding map of Palestine in original hand colour. Contemporary giltstamped and blindstamped full cloth with title to cover and spine. All edges gilt. First edition. - Lavishly illustrated work on the Holy Land by the professor of archaeology and later conservator at the Bavarian National Museum, Messmer (1829-79), featuring the same illustrations as Friedrich Adolph Strauss in his 1861 work "Die Länder und Stätten der heiligen Schrift". However, Messmer's work greatly differs in the text, which is "preferable [to that of Strauss] as it discusses the element of architecture much more thoroughly" (cf. Tobler). It is sometimes inaccurately described as an extract or abbridgement of another publication by Strauss, entitled "Sinai und Golgatha", first published in 1847. The steel-engraved illustrations include views of Jaffa, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Damascus, the interior and exterior of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, views of Mount Olivet, the Temple Mount, the Jericho desert, and Mount Sinai, as well as archaeological sites like Abu Simbel, and a violent scene showing the assassination of a Maronite priest and the kidnapping of women by Druzes and Bedouins. The woodcut plates include views of Beirut, Gaza, Hebron, Jericho and Sidon. - Hinges somewhat chafed. Several pages show traces of one or two horizontal folds starting from right margin (most prominent in pp. 151-175); occasional light brownstaining; small flaw to lower corner of p. 221f., no loss to text. Otherwise very well preserved. Tobler 171f. (note). Röhricht 2093 (note). OCLC 174874595.
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Nelson, William.
The Laws Concerning Game. Of Hunting, Hawking, Fishing and Fowling [...]. London, F. Richardson and C. Lintot, 1762.
8vo. XVII, (1 blank), 255, (27), VIII pp. Contemporary blindstamped full calf. Sixth and final edition of this manual of English hunting law, first published in 1727, deemed "still more useful and satisfactory" (p. 3 of the preface) than its predecessors. Opening with an introduction describing the history of English game law from the time Britain was under Saxon rule, when there "was such plenty of game, that there was no occasion for restraining laws to preserve them" (p. IX), until the reissue of the 1217 "Charter of the Forest" in 1225, the treatise explains key terms of hunting law in alphabetical order, describes exemplary law cases, and discusses when, where and by whom which animals can be chased, and in what manner offenders are proceeded against. The present copy includes the 8-page appendix, giving two acts relating to doves and fish that were passed shortly after the book was printed, which is lacking in some copies of this edition. - Extremities slightly rubbed; hinges cracked. Paper evenly browned throughout. Contemporary ownership of J. Kilsby, dated 1775, to title-page; later in the collection of Charles Henry Stanley Garton (b. 1920), his ownership, dated Kingswood, May 1946, to front pastedown. This edition not seen at auction since 1962. Westwood/Satchell 155. Cf. Schwerdt II, 40 (1732 ed.). ESTC T82611. OCLC 837605604. Not in Souhart, Harting.
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Powys, Thomas Littleton, 4th Baron Lilford / Trevor-Battye, Aubyn (ed.).
Lord Lilford on birds. Being a collection of informal and unpublished writings by the late President of the British Ornithologists' Union [...]. London, Hutchinson & Co., 1903.
4to. XVII, (1), 312 pp. Title-page printed in red and black. With engraved frontispiece and 12 plates. Contemporary full cloth with gilt hawk on front cover, giltstamped title to cover and spine. First edition. - Posthumously published work of natural history by the distinguished British ornithologist Lord Lilford (1833-96), whose aviaries at Lilford Hall, installed in the 1890s, aroused the envy of field ornithologists of the day and were especially noted for the collection of birds of prey. Edited by his friend, the traveller, naturalist and writer Aubyn Bernard Rochfort Trevor-Battye (1855-1922), it includes descriptions of the Lilford Hall premises, its ponds, paddocks, and aviaries, as well as notes on otter hunting, and an introduction to falconry written by Reverend Gage Earle Freeman, which, in matters of introducing the sport, is regarded "the best short essay ever written" (Barber). It features quotations from Lilford's earlier publications, as well as private letters, and a speech he gave in his role as President of the British Ornithologists' Union in February 1894, as well as some sections from the journal Lilford kept during his travels in the Mediterranean in 1874, 1878-79, and 1882. In addition, the work comprises an appendix drawing from Lilford's notes on everyday events in his aviaries, stating for example that his "English raven rolls and enjoys himself in the snow" (p. 272), as well as a complete list of his publications. The illustrations, carried out by the Scottish painter Archibald Thorburn (1860-1935), are studies of individual birds in the Lilford aviaries, showing, inter alia, Lämmergeier, cranes, a golden eagle in its nest, a trained goshawk sitting on a falconer's hand, two ruffs fighting, flamingoes, and a Greenland falcon. The frontispiece depicts Lilford in his study with a dead falcon lying on his desk as well as a live song bird sitting on his backrest. - Small tears to spine; two small holes in the hinges; corners slightly bumped. Interior with occasional light brownstaining. Handwritten ownership of Charles Henry Stanley Garton (b. 1920), dated Kingswood, 16 January 1942, to front pastedown. Barber 10. Ballance, Birds in Counties 233. OCLC 314718094. Not in Harting, Schwerdt.
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Ruttledge, William.
Falconry for Beginners. [London, British Falconers' Club], 1949.
4to. (4), 22, (2), V pp. With 3 plates of drawings. Original printed wrappers, stapled. First edition, rare. - Practical beginner's guide to falconry by a member of the British Falconers' Club, reissued in the 1950s and 1960s. It recommends the kestrel as a suitable hawk for beginners due to the "ease with which young kestrels may be obtained, their amenability to training and their relative hardiness" (p. 3), and describes the preparations required before taking up an eyass, including the acquisition of suitable perches, blocks, jesses, swivels, leashes and gloves. Includes notes on the kestrel's feeding an training, as well as on the bird's health and common diseases, including damaged feathers, and gives instructions on how to hood a falcon. Originally hand-drawn, then printed, the illustrations show the main tools used by a falconer, including a block, perch, and jess, as well as a step-by-step guide to tying the falconer's knot. - A sheet of advertisements by the Bate and Slice Society for their 1976 reprint of Joseph Wolf's famous portrait of a hooded white gyrfalcon from Schlegel and Wulverhorst's 1844 "Traité de Fauconnerie", as well as a handwritten note ("Is this your permanent address?") signed "G. A.", are loosely enclosed. - Covers slightly creased. Interior with light brownstaining; traces of a fold to top right corner of first page. Two small annotations with ballpoint pen on pp. 19 and 22. Only three institutions holding copies of this treatise are traceable internationally (the British Library, the University of Oxford, and the US Air Force Academy). Never seen at auction. Oelgart 27A. OCLC 19755003.
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[Sporting magazine].
Field Sports. Idle, Bradford, Yorkshire, Watmoughs, (1947).
8vo. 104 pp. With several black and white photographic illustrations in the text. Original printed wrappers. First edition. - The first 1947 issue of the "Field Sports" magazine, including essays on hawking, salmon fishing, hunting, rabbiting, and the study of footprints. Stunning wildlife photography shows eagles, mallards, seagulls, badgers, hounds, and salmons. The essay on falconry was prepared by the British author and broadcaster James Wentworth Day (1899-1983), who gives an atmospheric description of the tradition of hawking in England: "To see a party of falconers, some mounted and some on foot, hawks on fist [...] silhouetted against the sky-line of a Wilshire down, with all the green and noble emptiness of stubble, chalk down and misty hollow falling away at their feet in seemingly limitless immensity, is to see a page of English history reborn, to recapture something of the romance and colour of an earlier England [...]" (p. 33f.). - Advertisement on pastedowns. Extremities lightly bumped.
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[Stereo views].
A unique collection of 350 glass stereoviews recording private travels around the Mediterranean and the West Indies. Various places, 1930s.
350 glass diapositive stereoviews (58 x 129 mm each), the majority with a metal strip along the top edge, preserved in 18 wooden cradles (each cradle with 20 slots); housed in a wooden [mahogany?] box. Includes a wooden stereoviewer. A unique collection of 350 glass stereo views by an unidentified photographer, showing the West Indies, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Morocco, Algeria, Greece, Turkey, Madeira, and Italy.
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Stevens, Ronald.
Observations on Modern Falconry. No place, Pilot Publishing, 1987.
Small 4to. (2), 112 pp., final blank leaf. Slightly later full cloth with giltstamped title to cover and spine. Re-issue of this important guide to falconry by the "grand old man of British falconry" (Gallagher), Ronald Stevens (d. 1994), first published in 1956. The book questions several age-old concepts of the sport, such as the attempt of teaching falcons to wait on through flying to the lure, and introduces methods of teaching the birds to home to the falconer's house, which "caused a great deal of rethinking among falconers" (Gallagher). - Stevens settled in the remote Fermoyle Lodge in Connemara in Ireland in the early 1960s, the place quickly turning into something of a Mecca for falconers from all across the world, his treatises inspiring generations of aspired falconers. - Handwritten ownership of Charles Garton, dated Wadeford House, December 1987, to front pastedown. A typescript letter signed by John Cox from The Clock House bookshop to Garton is loosely enclosed, regarding his order of "A Falcon in the Field" by Jack Mavrogordato (London, Knightly Vernon Ltd., 1966), which could not be fulfilled as the work was not to be reprinted due to the author's recent death, offering to send him Stevens's work instead. With Garton's autograph reply on the same sheet, accepting the offer, and asking Cox to refund him the difference. The Clock House's advertisement for "A Falcon in the Field", with handwritten notes by Garton, is stapled to the letter. - Occasional light foxing. A very good copy of this influential work. Gallagher, Falcon Fever 74. OCLC 974238561.
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Upton, Roger D.
Newmarket & Arabia. An Examination of the Descent of Racers and Coursers. London, Henry S. King & Co., 1873.
8vo. XI, (1), 211, (1) pp. With a hand-coloured wood-engraved frontispiece and 4 large folding lithographed pedigree tables. Original burnt red cloth binding with giltstamped title to spine and upper cover. First edition. - Upton was one of the early experts on the bloodlines of British thoroughbreds. His book describes both the influence of the Arabian horse on the development of the English thoroughbred as well as many interesting aspects of the Arabian horse. Shortly after the publication of this work - intended to "point out errors that have been committed in the breeding of our horse" (p. iii) - he travelled in Arabia to obtain purebred horses and so improve the quality of British cavalry remounts. Upton served with the 9th Lancers. - Binding somewhat bumped and rubbed with traces of moisture to covers. Lightly browned throughout, paper brittle with occasional edge or corner flaws, frontispiece and title-page rather foxed. Rare. Boyd/P. 130. Huth 273. OCLC 12795478.
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Volney, C[onstantin] F[rançois Chasseboeuf, Comte de].
Simplification des langues orientales, ou méthode nouvelle et facile d'apprendre les langues arabe, persane et turque, avec des caractères européens [...]. Paris, Imprimerie de la République, an III [= 1794/95].
8vo. (4), 135, (3) pp. With 3 folding tables and 1 engraved plate. Later blue wrappers. Only edition of this introduction to Arabic, written by the Comte de Volney (1757-1820) as history professor at the newly-founded École normale, immediately after the end of the Terreur and his release from prison following the fall of Robespierre. In spite of its wide-ranging title, the book comprises essentially an Arabic grammar and a collection of Arabic proverbs; the long introductory chapter has been hailed a model of style. Volney had learned Arabic in 1782 in preparation of a long journey through Egypt and Syria. The work displays his ingenious method of simplifying the study of Arabic, Persian and Turkish by transliterating the alphabets into European characters. The tables give the Arabic alphabet, the conjugation of regular verbs, and instructions on how to write Arabic letters by hand, as well as the Arabic alphabet in European characters intended for merchants travelling to Asia and Africa. With a section of Arabian proverbs included as samples. - Pages 30-31 unopened. A good copy of this important work, untrimmed as issued. Gay 3429. Brunet V, 1351. Cioranescu 663767. Monglond III, 481. OCLC 21978700.
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Willyams, Cooper.
[A Voyage up the Mediterranean in His Majesty's Ship the Swiftsure. With a description of the Battle of the Nile on the first of August 1798]. [London, J. White, 1802].
Folio (ca. 350 x 493 mm). 17 aquatint plates in original hand colour and one double-page-sized aquatint map of the Mediterranean in original hand colour, all with captions in English. Contemporary half calf over marbled boards with giltstamped title and 2 floral ornaments to spine. Marbled endpapers. Collection of 18 of the 43 illustrations from the account of the voyage of HMS Swiftsure and the Battle of the Nile by the British clergyman and artist Willyams (1762-1816), who served as chaplain aboard the ship, a vessel of Admiral Nelson's squadron captained by Benjamin Hallowell Carew. The 17 plates in the present volume show views of the caves of Gibraltar and the Spanish Church in the city, the Bay of Fournelles, Ischia, a street in Caiffe at the foot of Mount Carmel featuring two dromedars, Aboukir castle, caverns near Syracuse and the Temple of Minerva, the Palermo Capuchin catacombs, and a view of Scylla on the coast of Calabria, as well as an attack on the French camp near Aboukir, an attack of Turkish gun boats on the castle of Aboukir, and a group of three Arabs aboard the Swiftsure. The aquatint map shows the Mediterranean Sea with the courses of the British and French fleets up to their encounter in the Bay of Aboukir in August 1798. Designed by Willyams, the illustrations were engraved by Joseph Constantine Stadler. - Binding somewhat rubbed near extremities. Right margins of several plates brownstained or a little worn (not touching image); map brownstained on left and right margins and near the gutter (hardly touching image); the plate with the entrance into the Ear of Dionysius with traces of 2 folds near lower right corner (not touching image). An appealing compilation of decorative images documenting the route of the British fleet leading up to the Battle of the Nile. For the original publication cf. Abbey 196. Blackmer 1813. Atabey (2nd ed.) 1339. Graesse VII, 456.
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Wood, Casey Albert / Fyfe, Florence Marjorie.
The art of falconry being the De arte venandi cum avibus of Frederick II of Hohenstaufen [...]. Boston, C. T. Branford, 1955.
4to. (2), CX, 637, (1) pp. With 2 coloured plates (including a portrait frontispiece) and 184 black and white plates (1 of which not included in pagination). Original full cloth with giltstamped spine and spine-title. Second edition of this important English translation of the famous Latin treatise on ornithology and falconry written in the 1240s by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II. It was prepared by the Canadian ophthalmologist and comparative zoologist C. A. Wood (1856-1942), who studied animal vision, especially that of birds, and was first published in 1943 by Stanford University Press. The plentiful illustrations include a portrait frontispiece of Frederick II, photographs of various decorative manuscript pages from "De arte venandi cum avibus", falconer's equipment, and landmarks associated with the Emperor, including Castel del Monte and his tomb in Palermo, as well as drawings and photographs of various species of falcons and hawks, and a map of southern Italy and Sicily showing the Emperor's castles and hunting lodges. - Giltstamping somewhat faded; edges very slightly foxed. A very good copy of this second edition, never seen at auction. Oelgart 24B. U.S. Air Force Academy Library, Special Bibliography Series 81, 192. OCLC 459570612.
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Woodford, Michael.
A Manual of Falconry [...]. London, Adam & Charles Black, (1960).
Small 4to. XVI, 192 pp. With photographic frontispiece, 11 photographic plates, and 9 illustrations in the text. Original full cloth with giltstamped falcon to cover and giltstamped spine-title. First edition. An authoritative textbook, one of two classics on falconry to appear in 1960 (the other being Jack Mavrogordato's "A Hawk for the Bush"). It discusses the choice of hawk for training with the necessary furniture and appliances, individual species used in falconry, their particular challenges in training and management, their handling when flown at quarry in the field, falcons' home life, their health and disease, as well as how to deal with lost hawks, and the moult. - With contributions by S. E. Allen and Jack Mavrogordato on game hawking and rook hawking. The impressive illustrations display various birds of prey, including lanners, sakers and peregrines, as well as merlins, kestrels, and goshawks, sometimes hooded or on perches. One photograph shows a young boy working with a kestrel. The other illustrations show the equipment typically used in the sport, including the falconers' knot, hoods, jesses, and bells. - Edges and endpapers slightly foxed. A single copy in auction records. Oelgart 31A. Cf. U.S. Air Force Academy Library, Special Bibliography Series 81, 590 (U.S. edition). OCLC 1079355522.
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[French Algeria].
Tales of a Razzia. 1842. (Barbazan), 1845-1846.
4to. English manuscript on paper. (4), 306 pp. With mounted engraved frontispiece in original hand colour and 21 mounted engraved plates, 13 of which in original hand colour. Contemporary half calf over patterned boards with giltstamped spine and spine-title. Marbled endpapers. All edges red. Intriguing manuscript comprising five Arabian tales allegedly recounted by officers at a Spahi camp in Algeria in the context of an imminent raid against the Haschemu tribe loyal to Emir Abdelkader in 1842, commanded by the French general Louis Juchault de Lamoricière (1806-65). The compiler, who gives his initals as "E. H. S. de R." on the title-page, states that he transcribed the tales from another book, but gives no clear indication whether or not the account is purely fictitious. He does, however, criticize the "cruel system of warfare which the French have hitherto employed in Africa" (p. 1). - Prefaced to the tales is an introduction describing the events leading up to the frame narrative, involving the rescue of a Douair chieftain by a member of the Spahi regiment, and the officers spending the evening together at the campfire. Five of them are prompted to tell stories, some autobiographical, which the editor has titled "The Unfortunate", "The Dervish of Anatolia", "The Renegade", "The Arab's Faith", "Love and Hate", and "The Fugitive of Armenya". The last tale is followed by an account of the fate of the two Douair and Spahi officers, who became close friends after the latter saved the life of the former. - The hand-coloured engravings which illustrate the volume depict characters and scenes from the tales; the frontispiece shows a lavishly decorated room in a palace with an Arab leader smoking a long pipe, surrounded by servants and followers. Continuously paginated, but with additional pagination for each tale. The additional heading "First series" on the title-page suggests that the present manuscript was conceived as part of a larger set. - Extremities slightly rubbed; interior very clean. A very well preserved volume providing an unusual look at French rule in Algeria during its early years.
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[Hippology manuscript]. - (Decullant, ...).
Comptément d'Extérieur. No place, [ca. 1800].
8vo. French manuscript on paper. 216 pp. Text in brown ink with some word highlighted in red, enclosed within red and brown borders. With 5 hand-drawn plates, one of which folding, one in original hand colour. Contemporary full calf with gilt spine and green morocco label; name "Mr Decullant" gilt to upper cover within florally gilt borders; leading edges gilt. Marbled endpapers. All edges lightly sprinkled red. Unpublished hippological manuscript in neat French calligraphy, discussing horse breeds, proportions, balance, paces, coats, horseshoes, and warranty issues. A separate section on Arabian horses discusses the breeders' practice of issuing certificates of authenticity for each individual animal, as well as that of branding: "L'origine des individus [...] est attestée par des Certificats à l'authenticité des quels ils tiennent avec une Extrème Rigeur, ils les marquent de plus au feu sur nombre d'endroits du Corps" (p. 109f.). The Arabian horse is singled out for its speed and praised for its boldness, as are the riders' impressive skills, envied by many a European army: "Nos armées ont admiré [...] et deploré souvent, cette petulance des chevaux, aussi bien que la Bravour de leurs Cavaliers pour qu'il soit Bésoin d'en faire un éloge plus pompeux" (p. 111). Furthermore, the author collects useful advice for buying horses and on distinguishing features to appreciate, including various deformities to be considered. The drawings illustrate the horse's proportions, displaying the animal in profile, from front and from behind; they also show the effects of leverage and equilibrium, and illustrate basic concepts of geometry. Throughout the text, the author repeatedly refers to hippiatric authorities such as the veterinarians Charles Bourgelat (1712-79), François Alexandre de Garsault (1691-1778), and Philippe-Étienne Lafosse (1738-1820). The wording "cette troisième section du cours" (p. 1) suggests that the present manuscript was conceived as part of a series of hippological textbooks, but no publication could be traced, nor could the author be identified. - Early 20th century handwritten notes on the treatment of a riding horse, probably transcribed from another work, loosely inserted. Extremities slightly rubbed, interior crisp and clean. A unique survival.
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Ibn Abi Zar` al-Fasi, `Ali ibn `Abd Allah / Tornberg, Carl Johan.
Annales regum Mauritaniae a condito Idrisidarum imperio ad annum fugae 726. Uppsala, Litteris Academicis, 1843-1846.
Large 4to (230 x 280 mm). 2 parts in 4 volumes. (2), 144, (2) pp. (2), 145-281 pp. 360 pp. (8), XIV, 361-446 pp. Original printed blue wrappers. Arabic text with Latin translation and commentary of this chronicle of mediaeval Moroccan dynasties, including the Idrisids, Zanata, Almoravids, Almohads, and Merinids, by Zar al-Fasi (d. after 726/1326). - Somewhat wrinkled and dust-stained; untrimmed. GAL II, 240f. OCLC 682184610.
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[Bahrain].
Original photographs of Manama, Bahrain. Manama, [ca. 1952-1954].
17 original gelatin silver photographs (14 small format and three postcard sized). All but three captioned on the versos in pencil. An excellent group of snapshots of Bahrain, chiefly focusing on the Bahrain International Airport and the capital, Manama. - The photographer is unidentified but was probably a serviceman based at RAF Bahrain, a military installation attached to the Bahrain International Airport from 1943 to 1971. Several photographs show the airfield, training base and the inside of some billets. Only one is aerial, a vertiginous bird’s-eye view of Muharraq Island, where the airfield was located. - In addition to the expected images of military life are glimpses of Manama, where the servicemen spent their time off. There are interesting views of commercial streets, the Al-Fadhel Mosque and the Bab Al-Bahrain. Some provide lively period detail, such as the film poster for Nau Bahar (an Indian drama released in 1952), a dealership advertising Ford cars, and a street lined with flags in preparation for the state visit of King Saud Ibn Abdulaziz in April 1954. That visit, undertaken shorty after Saud became King, was witness to the first suggestion of a bridge linking Eastern Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, an idea that eventually came into being with the construction of the King Fahd Causeway in the 1980s. - Some staining and spotting to the versos, a few printed from damaged negatives, otherwise very clean and clear with little fading.
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[Dow, Alexander / Bergier, Claude François (transl.)].
Dissertation sur les moeurs, les usages, le langage, la religion et la philosophie des Hindous, suivie d'une exposition generale et succincte du Gouvernement & de l'etat actuel de l'Hindostan. Paris, Noel-Jacques Pissot, 1769.
8vo. XXIV, 213, (1) pp. With 2 folding engraved plates. Contemporary full mottled calf with giltstamped red morocco label to prettily gilt spine. Marbled endpapers. All edges red. First edition thus. Very rare French translation of two essays by the Scottish-born East India Company officer and orientalist Alexander Dow (1735-79), first published within his "History of Hindostan, translated from the Persian of Ferishta" (1768). The present edition omits the text of the world history of Firishta that Dow had presented in his book, giving only his "dissertation concerning the religion and philosophy of the Brahmins" as well as an outline of the then-current state of India, partly taken from Dow's preface. Contains two folding plates, engraved by P. L. Charpentier, showing the Sanskrit alphabet and the metre employed in the Vedas. Re-issued in 1780. - Early 19th century bookseller label of A. Claudin, Paris, pasted head-over-heels to lower pastedown. Binding very attractively preserved. Excepting the Sir Thomas Phillipps copy, sold at Sotheby's in 1977, this is the second copy known in trade records. Lanson III, 8161. OCLC 34570575.
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Ibn Tufail, Muhammad Ibn-'Abd-al-Malik / Eichhorn, Johann Gottfried (transl.).
[Risalat Hayy Ibn-Yaqzan - German]. Der Naturmensch oder Geschichte des Hai Ebn Joktan. Ein morgenländischer Roman des Abu Dschafar Ebn Tofailby. Berlin & Stettin, Friedrich Nicolai, 1783.
8vo. (3)-245, (3) pp. Contemporary sprinkled boards. Second German translation of "Hayy ibn Yaqzan" by the 12th-century physician Ibn Tufail, widely considered the first philosophical novel and tremendously influential on Eastern and Western intellectual traditions alike. The Arabic tale (not to be confused with Avicenna's earlier like-named romance) was known in Europe as early as the 15th century through Pico della Mirandola's 1493 unpublished Latin translation, and scholars have since asserted its influence on Francis Bacon, Baruch Spinoza, Robert Boyle, the modern novel, Enlightenment thought, and even Robinson Crusoe. A bilingual Arabic and Latin edition appeared at Oxford in 1671, marking its first publication in Europe, and this was soon followed by English and Dutch translations. "A medieval philosophical treatise in literary form, written by the Andalusian philosopher Abu Bakr Ibn-Tufayl in the 1160s, it relates the story of human knowledge as it rises from a blank slate, through practical exploration of nature, to a mystical or direct experience of God. Its central argument is that human reason can independently access scientific knowledge unaided by religion or society and its conventions, leading not only to the tenets of natural philosophy but also to the attainment of mystical insight, the highest form of human knowledge" (Ben-Zaken, p. 2). Following the life of a young man stranded on an otherwise uninhabited island, it is easy to appreciate comparisons to Robinson Crusoe; given the protagonist's flair as an autodidact and faith in empiricism, it is similarly not difficult to understand the story's appeal to Enlightenment thinkers, whom this German edition would have served well. The work's Western influence is hardly to obscure its importance within the Arabic and Persian literary traditions, nor its influence on Islamic philosophy. The author was well placed to leave an enduring legacy. "He was the caliph's friend and confidant as well as his physician. The two could talk freely about the burning issues of the day, even including creation and whether the world had always been as we know it" (Goodman). - Unchanged re-issue of Eichhorn's new translation, styled "The Natural Man", which had first appeared the previous year. An earlier German translation, by J. G. Pritsius, had been published in 1726. - Ownership signature of the theologian Martin Hößler (b. 1877), dated 2 November 1919, written in indelible pencil on front flyleaf. Light dampstain to lower pastedown and moderate wear to the binding extremities. Complete, pagination notwithstanding, matching all digitized copies available for comparison. An appealing copy. VD 18, 11177462. OCLC 247720469. Avner Ben-Zaken, Reading Hayy Ibn-Yaqzan: A Cross-Cultural History of Autodidacticism (Baltimore, 2011), p. 10. Cf. GAL S I, p. 831 f. Schnurrer p. 472.
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Kara Çelebi-zade Abdülaziz Efendi.
Ravzatü'l-ebrar. Bulaq, Matba`at Bulaq, [1832 CE] = 1248 H.
Folio. 6 pp., 1 bl. f., 637, (1) pp. Contemp. calf binding with fore-edge flap, blindstamped cover ornament and cloth spine. First edition of this Islamic chronicle by the Ottoman religious scholar and historian Kara Çelebi-zâde Abdul Aziz Efendi (1591-1658). The Bulaq press, established in 1235 (1819/20), "'wrote' printing history. This is the first Muslim printing press in the Arab world" (Middle Eastern Languages and the Print Revolution. A Cross-Cultural Encounter, Westhofen 2002, p. 183). - Professionally restored. OCLC 462409245 (only the BnF copy).
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Robinson, Arthur E.
The Mahmal of the Moslem Pilgrimage. [London], Royal Asiatic Society, 1931.
8vo. (117)-127, (1) pp. Original printed wrappers. Offprint from the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. About the Mahmal, the closed rectangular pyramidal canopy taken along on camelback on Egyptian and Syrian pilgrimages to Mecca before Ibn Saud's conquest of the Hejaz in 1925 - a "very curious custom in Islam", the origin and purport of which the present essay undertakes to investigate. "It is very improbable that the Mahmal [...] will be seen in the Hejaz again [...] The Mahmal is heretical to Islam, and the Wahhabis [...] have declined to admit the Mahmal into the Hejaz" (p. 117). - Wrapper shows insignificant ruststains from staples, otherwise in perfect condition. OCLC 47931240. Not in Macro.
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[Syria and Lebanon - French military cartography].
[Levant. 1:200,000]. Paris, Service Geographique de l'Armee & Bureau Topographique des Troupes Francaises du Levant, 1920-1937.
5 colour-printed topographic maps, sheets ca. 77 x 63 cm each or smaller. Constant ratio linear horizontal scale 1:200,000. A rare set of 5 maps from the French military's cartography of the Levant, produced from the mid-1920s until the Second World War. The maps comprise: Antioche (Antakya and Iskenderun), Palmyre (Tadmur, Palmyra), Haiffa (Haifa, Acre, and Tyre), and Homs (2 different sheets). Considered products of military intelligence by the French government, the maps fell into German hands when Germany invaded France in 1940. The present maps were subsequently accessioned by the Geographical Institute of the University of Berlin and bear the Institute's stamps and pencil shelfmarks. - Two maps folded. Occasional edge and corner flaws, some wrinkling, duststaining and minor chips and tears to margins, but altogether well preserved. OCLC 904341885.
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Zetterstéen, Karl Vilhelm.
Beiträge zur Geschichte der Mamlukensultane in den Jahren 690-741 der Higra nach arabischen Handschriften [...]. Leiden, vormals E. J. Brill, 1919.
4to. XVI, 120, 330 pp. Near-contemporary library binding by the Lund "Semitiska Seminariet": half calf over marbled boards with giltstamped spine-title. Bound with the original printed wrappers. Important critical edition of a 14th century Arabic manuscript held at the Königliche Hof- und Staatsbibliothek in Munich, the "Cod[ex] arab[icus] Quatremère 37", produced by the Swedish orientalist Zetterstéen in Arabic type. The edited text is preceded by a German foreword and a philological introduction by the editor. The Codex Quatremère 37 contains a compilation of two chronicles of the Mamluk Sultanate, the first anonymous, the second by Badr al-Din Baktash al-Fakhiri (d. 1334). The first part begins with the Mamluk conquest of Acre, wrested from the Crusaders in 1291, and ends with the beginning of the third reign of Sultan An-Nasir Muhamad, who returned to Egypt from Al Kark in 1309; the second part picks up at the Sultan's return and describes events up to his death in 1341. The German orientalist Gustav Weil considered the manuscript to be part of a larger series, as there is a reference of a subsequent 8th volume of the chronicle at the end of the codex. - Pink label on the inside of the front wrapper, indicating that the book was presented by the author ("Ueberreicht vom Verfasser"). - Contemporary ownership to front wrapper. Stamp of the Lund Semitiska Seminariet to front pastedown and to verso of title-page; their bookplate overpasted by that of the Lund University Library. Later in the collection of the Swedish numismatist Bengt E. Hovén (his handwritten ownership, dated 23 Sept. 2014), to flyleaf. Extremities very slightly rubbed; interior crisp and clean. Never seen at auction. Weil, Geschichte der Chalifen IV, XIff.
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[Abu Dhabi - Royal Family].
Photograph archive of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan's private life. Pakistan, 1968-1984.
An archive of 807 loose photographs, 541 in colour (including several duplicates, some printed in a different format), including 65 photos depicting falcons (3 duplicates, 36 in colour) and 14 photographs of camels (1 in colour). A large collection of 807 photographs, providing a unique view into the private life of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan (1918-2004), ruler of Abu Dhabi and founding father of the United Arab Emirates. The photographs depict Sheikh Zayed and his family, including Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan (b. 1948), relatives and friends partaking in various leisure activities. Also included are some photographs of children, probably including Sheikh Zayed's sons, possibly Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (b. 1961). The pictures date from a significant period in the history of Abu Dhabi, the years leading up to the foundation of the United Arab Emirates in 1971, and from the earliest years of the new federation. - A group of pictures is possibly taken in Pakistan, many depicting a large manor where a party arrives by helicopter. Sheikh Zayed enjoyed visiting the country to go horse riding and hunting with his falcons. Many photographs depict casual dinner parties, gatherings, and meetings in the open air. Other photographs show a large party setting off on horseback, falcons, camel races, cars, etc. - Some photos slightly curled along the edges, some slightly discoloured. Overall in very good condition.
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[Air France]. - Middle East.
Air France. Naher Osten. Paris, Bedos & Cie., circa 1959.
Vintage lithographed poster. 1000 x 620 mm. A vividly coloured travel poster with the image of a hookah and a vignette of a Middle Eastern city shown inside the base, designed by Raoul Éric Castel (1915-97). - Right and left edge with minor defects. Affiches Air-France (2006), p. 149.
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[Alf layla wa-layla - Qissat as-Sindbad al-bahri]. Langlès, L[ouis] (ed.).
[Qissat al-Sindibad al-Bahri fi sab` safaratihi fi al-barr wa-al-bahr al-Hindi-Kayd al-nisa]. Les voyages de Sind-Bâd Le Marin, et la ruse des femmes. Contes arabes. Traduction litterale, accompagnée du texte et de notes. Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1814.
12mo. XXX, 161, 113 pp. Contemporary half calf with title to giltstamped spine and marbled boards. Endpapers and edges marbled. First edition of "Sind-Bâd" and the first independent printing of any part of the Arabian Nights in Arabic. Although traditionally included in the corpus of the Thousand and One Nights (Alf Layla wa Layla) as told by Scheherazade, it is thought that the series of stories that make up the voyages of Sindbad have older and separate origins, incorporating elements of Homer, Panchatantra, other Persian, Arab and Indian literary material as well as historical material relating to trade and navigation. Set traditionally during the reign of Haroun al-Rashid, Sindbad undertakes seven voyages from Basra, each leading one to the other, encounters fabulous creatures, faces exhaustive ordeals and amasses fabulous wealth. The publisher of the present edition, Louis-Mathieu Langlès (1763-1824), an important figure in the study of Middle-Eastern and Oriental languages and literature, was a correspondent of William Jones in Calcutta, co-founder of the École des Langues Orientales Vivantes in Paris, and the keeper of the Indian manuscript department in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. "Un ouvrage classique, et d'une certaine importance sous le point de vue scientifique, historique ou littéraire" (preface). Chauvin VII, p. 2. Brunet III, 820. OCLC 4433261.
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Ali-Garadi, Ahmed Ibn Muhammad / Mittwoch, Eugen (transl.)
Aus dem Jemen. Hermann Burchardts letzte Reise durch Südarabien. Bearbeitet von Eugen Mittwoch [...]. Leipzig, Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft in Kommission bei F.A. Brockhaus, [1926].
4to. (4), 74 pp. With 28 plates with 55 black-and-white photographic prints, as well as 1 plan of Burchhardt's itinerary on page 9. Original printed wrappers. First edition. Rare travelogue of Yemen, enriched with striking photographs. In Arabic and German parallel text. Prepared by Ahmed ibn Muhammad al-Garadi, the secretary, Arabic teacher and companion of the German explorer Hermann Burchardt (1857-1909), the book describes Burchardt's travels in the south of the Arabian Peninsula, where he was ambushed and killed by gunmen in December 1909. Containing "important ethnographical information on crafts and the Jewish population", the account also boasts a wealth of photographs "of great documentary value" (Speake), including city views and landmarks of Sanaa, Taizz, and Mocha, such as tower houses in Sanaa's old town, the Ashrafiya Mosque, the Grand Mosque in Mocha, and the ruined palace of Sultan Hasan, as well as pictures of local children, a group of Jews studying scripture in the synagogue, several men sitting around a water pipe, bedouins, farmers, and workers. The images impressively portray the destitution of the Yemenite population in the early 20th century. - In addition, the work includes annotations to the text of the travelogue, a list of examples of the Sanaa idiom, and an index prepared by the German orientalist Eugen Mittwoch, who also translated the Arabic text. Published as a festschrift for the Vierter Deutscher Orientalistentag in Hamburg. - A few edge flaws to wrappers professionally repaired. Lower right corner of first two leaves chipped, but interior very well preserved in general. Never seen at auction. Speake, Literature of Travel and Exploration III, 1305. OCLC 907363736.
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American Women's League of Kuwait.
Kuwait Yellow Pages Directory. [Kuwait], National Printing Press, 1976.
Small 8vo. III, 53 pp., printed on rectos only. With 3 plans of Kuwait in the text and one folding plan of Kuwait and its suburbs. Original printed wrappers. Exceedingly rare yellow pages for Kuwait, compiled for English speakers by the American Women's League in Kuwait, founded in 1963, presumably in its first edition. - Includes references for air conditioning repair, art galleries, car rental and sales, barbers and hairdressers, embassies and consulates, exterminators, oil companies, tennis schools, and "oriental handicrafts". The plans show the commercial center of Kuwait, Fahd Al-Salem Street, and the Salmiyah quarter. The folding plan indicates the location of hospitals, English, American and French schools, Kuwait University, the National Evangelical Church and the Holy Family Cathedral, as well as important hotels and hunting, sporting and sea clubs. - Binding a little brownstained; lower cover showing some waterstaining. A small spot to the folding plan. In all a very well preserved copy of an otherwise unobtainable publication.
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[Beckford, William].
[Vathek.] An Arabian Tale, From an Unpublished Manuscript: With Notes Critical and Explanatory. London, for J. Johnson, 1786.
8vo. VII, (1), 334 pp., final blank leaf (p. 48 misnumbered "84"). With woodcut illustrations on p. 316 (X6v, showing ostrich and peacock-feather fans). Sumptuous 19th century red grained morocco binding, spine gilt, gilt cover rules and inner dentelle, leading edges gilt. All edges gilt. The unauthorized first edition, first issue (with misnumbered page 48). This original edition, claiming to be translated directly from Arabic, appeared without the name of the author, also omitting from the title the name under which the work would later be known internationally. - Although often classified as an early Gothic novel, "Vathek" is more truly an oriental tale, describing the experience and rewards of succumbing to temptation, and closely reflecting the "foolish, fantastic, egotistical life" of the author who began writing the story in French in January 1782. Despite the fact that Samuel Henley's translation, and the elaborate notes which he provided for the book, were undertaken with his friend Beckford's approval, its publication was contrary to the author's express wishes: Beckford had clearly intended to bring out the French edition first, but his wife had died in Switzerland on 18 May 1786, and though the book was published by Joseph Johnson on 7 June, he was still unaware of its existence by late August. Copies were priced at 4 shillings or 7s. 6d. on large paper, and have the running title of "The History of the Caliph Vathek". Even though Beckford published French editions in Lausanne (December 1786, dated "1787") and Paris (1787), the novel only became well known some thirty years later when Byron declared it to be his Bible. - Provenance: From the library of John Bigham, 1st Viscount Mersey (1840-1929), at Bignor Park, Sussex (his bookplate to front pastedown and ink ownership to flyleaf). Subsequently in the library of the American publisher and collector A(lfred) Edward Newton (1864-1940), whose collection was auctioned by Parke-Bernet in 1941 (bookplate). Later acquired by the American lawyer and collector Robert S. Pirie (1934-2015), a prominent member of the Grolier Club, whose library was dispersed by Sotheby's in December 2015 (his bookplate to front flyleaf). - With the final blank Y8, which is often absent. Occasional light brownstains, but in all an excellent copy, beautifully bound and with fine provenance. ESTC T62055. Rothschild 352. G. Chapman, Bibliography of William Beckford, pp. 22f, i. Summers 543. Garside/Raven/Schöwerling 1786:15. OCLC 1636740.
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Bellin, Jacques Nicolas.
Plan de la ville de Moka située sur la Mer Rouge. [Paris, 1764].
Engraved map, hand coloured. 330 x 253 mm. Finely engraved map of Mocha, Yemen, from Jacques Nicolas Bellin's "Le Petit Atlas Maritime Recueil de Cartes et Plans des Quatre Parlies du Monde en Cinq Volumes", first published in Paris in 1764. - Jacques-Nicolas Bellin (1703-72) was among the most important mapmakers of the 18th century. In 1721, at age 18, he was appointed hydrographer (chief cartographer) to the French Navy. In August 1741, he became the first Ingénieur de la Marine of the Depot des cartes et plans de la Marine (the French Hydrographic Office) and was named Official Hydrographer of the French King. - During his term as Official Hydrographer, the Depot was the single most active center for the production of sea charts and maps, including a large folio format sea-chart of France, the Neptune Francois. He also produced a number of sea-atlases of the world, e.g., the Atlas Maritime and the Hydrographie Francaise. These gained fame, distinction, and respect all over Europe and were republished throughout the 18th and even in the succeeding century. - Bellin also came out with smaller format maps such as the 1764 Petit Atlas Maritime, containing 580 finely detailed charts. He also contributed many of the maps for Bellin and contributed a number of maps to the 15-volume Histoire Generale des Voyages of Antoine François Prévost, or simply known l'Abbe Prevost. - Bellin set a very high standard of workmanship and accuracy, thus gaining for France a leading role in European cartography and geography. Many of his maps were copied by other mapmakers of Europe.
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Bertrand, Henri-Gatien.
Guerre d'Orient. Campagnes d'Egypte et de Syrie 1798-1799. Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire de Napoléon [...]. Paris, au Comptoir des Imprimeurs-unis, 1847.
Large 8vo and folio (290 x 442 mm). 3 volumes. (4), LV, 406, (2) pp. (4), 355, (1) pp. Vol. 3 (atlas): title-page, index, and 18 double-sided engraved maps (ca. 45 x 31,5 cm neatline). Contemporary half calf with gilt title to spine and giltstamped morocco label to upper cover of the atlas, identifying the volumes as a gift from Bertrand's son. Original wrappers bound within. Marbled endpapers. First and only edition of Napoleon's memoirs of his French campaign in Egypt and Syria as dictated to his general and grand maréchal du palais, Henri-Gatien Bertrand (1773-1844), during his exile in St. Helena (1815-21). Bertrand was the only one of Napoleon's loyal companions in exile to have participated in the Egyptian campaign, which explains his choice of subject. - The two volumes of text present an ample, if subjective account of the famous military campaigns, enriched with transcripts of numerous official documents and letters relating to the events described. The beautiful atlas, engraved by Alexandre Moisy (1763-1827), presents 18 partly hand-coloured maps that are mostly in direct connection with the campaign. Including a general map of the south-eastern Mediterranean and the Red Sea, a map of the Mediterranean with the movements of the French and British fleets, a map of Egypt, a map of Syria and the Middle East, maps of the invasion of Malta, the Battle of the Nile, the Battle of the Pyramids, the Siege of Acre (with an engraved veduta of the city), the Battle of Mount Tabor, and the Battle of Aboukir. Four maps of parts of Italy, Switzerland and the Netherlands represent additional theatres of the War of the Second Coalition in 1799. - Bertrand's "Guerre d'Orient" was published 26 years after Napoleon's death in exile and three years after Bertrand's own passing, on the initiative of his son, general Henri-Alexandre-Arthur Bertrand, who gifted the copy at hand to its first owner, as indicated by the morocco cover label on the atlas. - Lower right corner of the atlas slightly bumped, occasional minor foxing and browning in all volumes. Atlas with several minor tears (not affecting the maps) and occasional marks and scribbles in ink, ballpoint, and crayon.
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Birgili, Muhammad Ben Pir-Ali / Garcin de Tassy, Joseph Héliodore (ed.).
[Vasiyetname - French]. Exposition de la foi musulmane [...]. Paris, G. Dufour & E. d'Ocagne, 1822.
8vo. (6), X, 166 pp. Contemporary full calf with giltstamped spine and giltstamped spine-label. All edges marbled. Marbled endpapers. First edition. French translation of the "Vasiyetname", the Turkish catechism by the Hanafi Maturidi scholar and moralist Imam Birgivi (1522-73), who lived during the height of the Ottoman Empire. Edited by the French orientalist Garcin de Tassy (1794-1878). Invoking honesty, devotion, unity and fraternity, the "Vasiyetname" was directed at the common people, and was therefore written in Kaba Türkçe, a simpler, vulgar version of Ottoman Turkish used by unskilled workers and farmers. - Apart from the Muslim catechism, the present volume includes a translation of the "Pend-Namèh" by Saadi Shiraazi by the same editor, and a translation of the poem "Al-Burda" by Antoine-Isaac Silvestre de Sacy (1758-1838), as well as two fairy tales from the "Anwari Soheili", the famous collection of folk tales by Bidpai ("The Falconer" and "The Bear and the Gardener"). - Binding somewhat rubbed; lightly bumped at extremities; hinges starting. A few pencil underlinings. Small portion of lower right corner of title-page torn off; tiny marginal tear to p. 33f. Traces of two removed paperclips and some ink dashes to half-title. Decorative contemporary bookplate in Arabic to front pastedown. Shelfmark stamped to half-title. Two red square stamps to title-page, another to first page of the preface and first page of the "Exposition". OCLC 165361693.
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[Camels].
Uncle Joseph's Pretty Stories About the Camel. New York, J. Q. Preble, [ca. 1840s].
Large 8vo. 8 ff. (including original illustrated wrappers; 6 leaves printed on one side only). With 8 hand-coloured woodcut illustrations and a woodcut cover illustration. Sewn with cloth spine. Scarce children's book about the various types of camels, their habits and uses, issued within the series of "Uncle Joseph's Pretty Stories". Includes pictures of a Bedouin camp, a desert caravan, the Holy Camel bearing the Qur'an on the pilgrimage to Mecca, a camel fight, and a two-humped camel exhibited on the streets of London. - Numerous repaired tears, some chipping to wrappers with slight loss to title. Rare; OCLC lists a single holding library (University of Chicago). OCLC 41203190.
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Galland, Antoine (ed.).
Les paroles remarquables, les bons mots et les maximes des Orientaux. Traduction de leurs ouvrages en Arabe, en Persan & en Turc, avec des remarques. Paris, Simon Benard & Michel Brunet, 1694.
8vo (98 x 160 mm). (18), 356, (28) pp. - (Bound after) II: Theophrastus / La Bruyère, Jean de (transl.). Les caracteres de Theophraste traduits du grec: avec les caracteres ou les moeurs de ce siecle. Sixième edition. Paris, Estienne Michallet, 1691. (32), 587, (5) pp. 18th century full calf with gilt supralibros of Louis-Robert-Hippolyte Bréhant de Plélo on both covers. Spine on five raised bands; compartments show gilt armorial crest. Marbled endpapers. Leading edges gilt. All edges red. Original edition of the first book published by the French orientalist Antoine Galland (1646-1715), soon to be famous for his influential translation of Alf Layla wa-Layla. "Galland, professor of Arabic at the Collège de France since 1709, had made three journeys to Turkey, the Levant and Palestine, and approached the Orient without prejudice and with an open mind. Following the example of Plutarch's Apophthegmata and the anecdote collections of Valerius Maximus, he set about collecting from Arabic, Persian, and Turkish works, such as the chronicles of Makin, of Bar Hebraeus, of Mirchond, from the Matla' us-sa'dain of Abdarrazzaq, from the Tag ut-tavarikh of Hodsha Effendi, from Sa'adi's Gulistan, from Latifi and other sources, remarkable sayings to show his readers that the orientals did not rank behind the West for wit, powers of observation, and pithiness of expression. To these he appended maxims taken from the collections of sayings published by Erpenius and Golius" (cf. Fück). Although a reissue appeared at Den Haag the same year, the work is very rare; Fück reports that he knows it only from the reprinted text in the supplement to d'Herbelot's Bibliothèque orientale (1780). - Bound first is the sixth edition of La Bruyère's Theophrastus translation, containing 77 new characters, including Le distrait, Onuphre, the portraits of La Fontaine, Jean de Santeul, and others. - Provenance: from the library of the French diplomat and military officer Louis-Robert-Hippolyte Brehant de Plélo (1699-1734), bound for him with his arms stamped in gilt to both covers (OHR, 1715, fer no. 1). Brehant de Plélo married Louise-Françoise Phélipeaux de la Vrilliere, daughter of a secretary of state of Louis XV. He fell during the siege of Danzig on 27 May 1734. Latterly in the collection of the French industrialist and patron Pierre Bergé (1930-2017); acquired from the sale of his estate. I: Chauvin I, 81A. Tchemerzine-Scheler III, 802. Brunet III, 720. Fück 101. OCLC 14147406. - II: OCLC 32361379.
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Heynes, Edward.
Scheeps-togt van Mr. Edward Heynes, van Surate na Mocha, gedaan in het jaar 1618. Verhalende, op wat wijse de Engelsse de Koopmanschap, met de inwoonders, aldaar hebben opgerigt, en door schriftelijke verseekeringen (van den Bassa gegeeven) vast-gestelt. Als mede een beschrijving van de stad Mocha, des selfs huysingen, bolwerken en haven-plaats. Nu alder-eerst uyt het Engels vertaald. Met noodig Register verrijkt. Leiden, Pieter van der Aa, [ca. 1707].
Folio (254 x 400 mm). (1) f., 14 cols., (1) p. (= 5 ff. in all). Modern blue-grey paper covers. First Dutch edition. Edward Heynes' account of the first successful attempt of the British (the third altogether) at establishing trading privileges with Mocha and a commercial presence there, previously published in English within the first volume of Samuel Purchas' collection "Hakluytus Posthumus, or Purchas his Pilgrimes" (1625). - The ship "Anne Royall", captained by Andrew Shilling, sailed in April 1618 up the Red Sea and visited Mocha from April 11 till August 20. Heynes, secretary to Sir Thomas Roe, gives an extensive account of the reception by the governor of Mocha, customs of the population, and prospects of commerce. "[The] British delegation lands, and presents the governor with six yards of broadcloth stammell, six yards of green material, a shotgun and mirror. It is striking that the British respond to their hosts' food gifts with gifts of technology. This form of reciprocity sends a message of power, for not only does it reflect the greater sophistication of their economy, it also implies that the Yemenites are no match militarily" (Malkiel, p. 10). Includes a short account of a trip made by Heynes' fellow-merchant Joseph Salbank to Sinan. - Published as part 18 of the series "Wijd-beroemde Voyagien na Oost- en West-Indiën, gedaan door de Engelschen", with a detailed index. Slight foxing throughout, but on the whole well preserved. Tiele 8. Cf. David Malkiel, Strangers in Yemen (Berlin/Boston 2021), p. 9-11. Not in Henze, Howgego, Cox etc.
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Ibn al-Haytham, Abu 'Ali al-Hasan (Alhazen).
[Kitab al-Manazir, latine]. Opticae thesaurus. Alhazeni Arabis libri septem, nunc primum editi. Eiusdem liber de crepusculis & Nubium ascensionibus. Item Vitellonis Thuringopoloni libri X [...]. (Ed. F. Risner). Basel, Eusebius Episcopius & haeredes Nicolai Episcopii, (August) 1572.
Folio (235 x 338 mm). 2 parts in 1 vol. (6) pp., 1 blank leaf, 288 pp. (8), 474, (2) pp. With 2 different woodcut printer's devices on title-page and colophon, half-page woodcut on reverse of title-page (repeated on half-title of pt. 2), and numerous diagrams in the text. Contemporary full limp vellum binding with later ink spine label (wants ties). First edition of "the most important work of its kind in Arabic literature" (cf. Poggendorf), this copy inscribed by the German humanist Wilhelm Xylander (1532-76), sometime rector of Heidelberg University. - Ibn al-Haytham (965-c. 1040), known as Alhazen in the Western tradition, has been hailed as "the greatest Muslim physicist and one of the greatest students of optics of all times [...] The Latin translation [...] exerted a great influence upon Western science. It showed a great progress in experimental method. [Alhazen's book contains] research in catoptrics, [a] study of atmospheric refraction, [a] better description of the eye, and better understanding of vision [as well as an] attempt to explain binocular vision [and the] earliest use of the camera obscura" (Sarton). "This combined edition served as the standard reference work on optics well into the 17th century, influencing scientists such as Brahe, Kepler, Galileo, and Descartes" (Norman). - "The Arab physicist Alhazen preserved for us all that was known by the ancients in the field of optics and added some contributions of his own. His book remained a standard authority thru the 1600s. He understood that light emanated spherically from a point and greatly improved on Ptolemy's uncertain rule for refraction which, he showed, held true only for small angles. He covered many cases of reflection and refraction and his explanation of the structure and function of the eye was followed for 600 years" (Dibner). - The 'Liber de crepusculis', the work on dawn and twilight included in Risner's 'Opticae thesaurus' and attributed to Alhazen, is actually the work of his contemporary Abu 'Abdallah Muhammad ibn Mu'adh al-Jayyani (cf. Norman; DSB, p. 208). The optical study by the Polish scholar Witelo, likewise here included, is "a massive work that relies extensively on Alhazen [and] offers an analysis of reflection that was not surpassed until the 17th century" (Norman). - Binding stained; edges worn. Interior browned with some waterstaining throughout the margins; occasional edge defects. Inscribed on the title-page by Wilhelm Xylander, professor of Greek and Logic at Heidelberg and editor of numerous translations from Greek (cf. ADB XLIV, 582-593): "Xylandri dono Antonius Roverius Nemausensis possidet" (followed by a Greek dedication and Xylander's signature). The recipient Antonius Roverius (Antoine Rouvier) from Nîmes had matriculated at Heidelberg on 1 July 1572. - Later in the library of the famed microscope builder and collector Alfred Nachet (1831-1908) and his son Albert. - An appealing copy of a principal work of Arabic science as received in the West with important provenance. VD 16, H 693 (H 692, V 1761). Adams A 745. BM-STC 383. Dibner 138. Norman 1027. Honeyman I, 73. DSB VI, 205 & XIV, 461. GAL I, 470. Poggendorf I, 31. Duncan 113. Sarton I, 721. Carmody p. 140. Thorndike/Kibre 803, 1208. Vagnetti D62. BNHCat A 241. IA 103.705. Brunet I, 180. Arabick Roots Doha AR79. Collection Nachet (1929), 50 (this copy).
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Jawhari, Isma'il ibn Hammad / Muhammad al-Wani (ed.).
[Sihah al-Jawhari - Turkish: Kitab-i Lughat-i Vanqulu]. Constantinople (Istanbul), Dar üt-tibaat ül-cedidat ül-mamure (New Government Printing House), [1802-1803 CE =] 1217-1218 H.
Folio (210 x 310 mm). 2 vols. (5), 650 pp. (2), 764 pp. Text printed within rules, typographic headpieces. Contemporary Islamic brown goatskin with fore-edge flap, boards stamped in silver ornamental borders and central arabesque, flap with ornamental rule. Uncommon second edition of this classic Arabic dictionary, al-Jawhari's "Tag al-luga was-sihah al-'arabiya" (The Crown of Language and the Correctness of Arabic), translated into Turkish by Muhammad al-Wani (d. 1592), deriving its title from the Turkish genitive form of the author’s name, Wangulu or Vankulu. - Jawhari himself reached only the letter Dad before he died in an unsuccessful attempt at human flight from the roof of a mosque in 1003 AD (the work was subsequently completed by his student Ishaq Ibrahim bin Salih al-Warraq). To this day the dictionary remains an indispensable companion of Arabic philologists in both the East and the West; "manuscripts are to be found in almost every library" (Brockelmann). "In this great dictionary [the author] codified pure Arabic as based on the criticism of his predecessors' preparatory studies as well as his own experiences and collections. The 'As-sihâh’ is arranged in an alphabetical order, according to the final, and not the first, rooter of the words [...] This system, which was later adopted by other large Arabic dictionaries, attempts to supply those in search of rhyming words with a handbook" (Goldziher, A Short History of Classical Arabic Literature, 1966, p. 70). - Dampstains at end of vol. I and intermittently to vol. II, minor staining to fore-edge. A few scuffs and rubs to binding, but a sound and imposing set, generally clean internally. - Provenance: from the library of the British diplomat and linguist Sir Gore Ouseley (1770-1844), first baronet, with his contemporary signature to the front flyleaf of each volume. Ousely travelled to India in 1787 and established a cloth factory. He lived a relatively solitary existence and spent his leisure time studying Persian, Bengalese Hindi, Arabic, and Sanskrit, becoming an elegant speaker and writer of Persian. An acquaintance of the oriental scholar Sir William Jones, Ouseley was named ambassador extraordinary to the court of Fath Ali Shah in Persia in 1810, negotiated several treaties, and returned to England. He was one of those responsible for the founding of the Royal Asiatic Society in London in 1823 and was associated with the formation of the oriental translation committee, of which he was elected chairman. He became president of the Society for the Publication of Oriental Texts, formed in 1842. Özege 22504. OCLC 773846601 (a single copy, BnF). Cf. GAL I, 128.
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Literary Society of Bombay.
Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay. London, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, 1819-1823.
4to. 3 vols. XXXVIII, 319 (but: 337), (1) pp. VIII, 379, (1) pp. XII, 556 pp. With 50 (instead of 51) engraved plates and maps (9 [instead of 10] of which folding), 2 in original hand colour. Contemporary giltstamped full calf with giltstamped spine-labels. First edition: a scarce series of research papers of one of the leading learned societies of the 19th century, focusing on India and Persia. Among the most prominent authors are James Mackintosh, George Staunton, Henry Salt and Vans Kennedy. The "Transactions" include an English translation of the fifth sermon of Saadi, a discussion of the Akhlaq-i Nasiri, the account of a journey from al-Qatif to Yanbu, a description of the character of Muhammad, and an account on the deciphering of cuneiform, as well as papers on antiquities and archaeology, literature, religion, linguistics, geology, history, current affairs, and anthropology. The illustrations depict mainly archaeological finds and excavation sites, including the caves in Salsette and the excavations at Elephantana, as well as architectural ornamentation, showing the Temple of Boro-Budor, cuneiform writing, and "a curious case in Arabian surgery" involving a wounded arm. - Provenance: "Ochterlony" bookplate to front pastedown of volume II, most likely that of David Ochterlony (1758-1825), commander of the British East India Company and British Resident at the Mughal Court in Delhi. Later obtained by the Schlagintweit brothers, eminent German 19th century scientists and explorers (their library blindstamps "Ex Bibliotheca Schlagintweit" to title-pages). Last in the collection of Prince Konrad of Bavaria (1883-1963), a member of the Bavarian Royal House of Wittelsbach (his bookplate to pastedowns of two volumes and front free endpaper of the other, his library stamp to half-titles). - Bindings professionally restored; vols. I and II lacking title-labels. Tears in gutter of one folding plate repaired with old adhesive tape (not touching image). Some minor spotting, offsetting of plates and text; light marginal dampstaining to a portion of volume two. A scarce work with fine provenance. OCLC 977182244.
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