2014Best.-Nr. x-1107051509Cambridge Univ Pr 2014. Hardcover. New. 499 pages. 9.50x6.50x1.25 inches. Cambridge Univ Pr hardcover
2011Best.-Nr. x-1107017173Cambridge University Press 2011. Hardcover. New. 636 pages. 9.50x6.50x1.30 inches. Cambridge University Press hardcover
2020Best.-Nr. x-1108834620Cambridge University Press 2020. Hardcover. New. 883 pages. 9.50x6.50x1.75 inches. Cambridge University Press hardcover
2020Best.-Nr. x-1108834612Cambridge University Press 2020. Hardcover. New. 786 pages. 9.50x6.50x1.25 inches. Cambridge University Press hardcover
2020Best.-Nr. x-1108834647Cambridge University Press 2020. Hardcover. New. 4795 pages. 9.50x6.50x2.00 inches. Cambridge University Press hardcover
2020Best.-Nr. x-1108834655Cambridge University Press 2020. Hardcover. New. 5245 pages. 9.50x6.50x1.25 inches. Cambridge University Press hardcover
Best.-Nr. 45132994-nnew. unknown
Best.-Nr. 45127658-nnew. unknown
1778Best.-Nr. 180090London: Printed for and sold by G. Baxter 1778. Trading in Asia made easy First edition of a series of tables "compiled with the greatest exactness and which has been allowed to be the truest tables and countenanced and recommended by the Armenian and Portugal Merchants who are continually trading from port to port in the East-Indies." Places treated of include Madras Bengall Malacca Siam Goa Bombay Surat Muscat Manilla and Canton with details given of gold and silver weights coins and exchanges including Bengall Batty tables grain measures liquid and dry measures port charges and customs on exports and commodities. According to the anonymous author "The whole hath been found to be very useful to all persons trading to those parts and hath detected the many frequent frauds and impositions committed by the natives" title. Quarto 200 x 160 mm. pp. iv 96. Contemporary marbled paper boards new calf spine red morocco label. Ownership inscription of one Wm. Richardson at head of half-title printed bookplate of T. D'A. Lucas M. D. to front pastedown; resewn when rebacked a few leaves guarded in the gutter; a very good copy. ESTC T152270 locating the Göttingen copy only. hardcover
Best.-Nr. 46415592like new. unknown
1883Best.-Nr. 174897London: Harrison & Sons 1883. A single copy traced institutionally First edition of this valuable collection of official papers over half of which concerns Admiralty patrols and slavery cases in the Zanzibar region. Many items of correspondence were sent by or to the influential Arabist Samuel Barrett Miles 1838-1914 the political agent and consul-general. Records show only the British Library's copy. For Britain curtailing the slave trade in the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea was a means to consolidate control over the region. In 1873 it signed anti-slaving treaties with the Sultan of Muscat and after blockading Zanzibar Sultan Barghash bin Said al-Busaidi r. 1870-88. Throughout the 1870s the Admiralty bolstered its naval presence. Textual and statistical memoranda from Miles and others reported encounters by patrolling vessels with slaving dhows and fugitive slaves the seizure and destruction of vessels and legal proceedings. An important moment was the lethal encounter in December 1881 of HMS London with a dhow flying French colours. As related by Rear-Admiral Gore Jones Commander-in-Chief East Indies Station to the Secretary of the Admiralty "no one on London was expecting action and all were personally unarmed. The Arabs instantly fired and then rushed on board." London's captain Charles Brownrigg "fought like a lion" but was fatally stabbed through the heart pp. 188-9. The incident hardened British resolve; in the late 19th century slavers were increasingly forced to seek overland rather than maritime routes. The compilation also includes two documents concerning Persia a report of a man who had escaped from slavery in Mecca and a short despatch on the sentencing of a slaver submitted by Lynedoch Needham Moncrieff the acting British consul at Jeddah. Folio. Tables in text. Original blue wrappers spine and covers lettered in black. Losses at spine ends a few chips and light stains to covers contents clean: very good. Bennett The Arab State of Zanzibar: A Bibliography 510. unknown
1831Best.-Nr. 169340Edinburgh: Printed and sold for Friends of Commerce in England Scotland and Ireland 1831. Reforming bankruptcy First edition presentation copy inscribed to "Mr Vizard" presumably the prominent lawyer William Vizard 1774-1859 who was in 1831 the active and reform-minded secretary of bankrupts under Lord Grey. The Caution to Bankers is a manifesto-handbook by one of the earliest trade protection societies in Britain. The bankruptcy system and its potential for exploitation was a key concern of the Friends who complain in the Caution of its lack of subtlety and the opportunities it provided for dishonest figures to "take the benefit of the insolvent and bankrupt laws easily arrange matters for making all appear fair and just when they come to be examined by the Judges and Commissioners" p. 31. Vizard together with Brougham as Lord Chancellor was in 1831 engaged on the long-anticipated project of removing bankruptcy from the jurisdiction of chancery and of establishing dedicated bankruptcy courts. The inscription - "Mr Vizard with best respects from the Editor" - is on the front free endpaper. Octavo 220 x 139 mm pp. iv ii ii ii 148 24. Contemporary brown cloth-backed blue boards spine with later printed label edges uncut. Light bumping and rubbing front free endpaper re-inserted several gutters split minor foxing and browning to contents: a very good copy. Goldsmiths' 26740. hardcover
1918Best.-Nr. 77000New York: Sonora Phonograph Sales Co. 1918. First edition. Narrow octavo. 62 pp. Numerous full page illustrations of their phonographs from the least expensive Melodie-$50 to their most expensive Supreme-$1000. Publisher's pictorial color wrappers. Wonderful condition.Sonora Phonographs were considered the very best. Sonora Phonograph Sales Co. unknown
1839Best.-Nr. 188502Likely London: Ordered by the House of Commons to be Printed 1839. A beverage of empire - the demise of the Chinese tea monopoly First edition covering material submitted by East India Company representatives between 1834 and 1838 - a crucial period during which Britain laid the foundations of its tea empire in Assam. The splendid maps incorporate the findings of explorers such as Captain Francis Jenkins and the observations of tea-growing made in China by the Macartney and Amherst embassies. The documents concern the key actors in the growth of Britain's formal tea empire including Jenkins the powerful Bengal civil servant William Hay Macnaghten and the members of the Tea Committee established by Governor William Bentinck in 1834. Pages 36-37 carry the text of the committee's momentous 24 December 1834 report announcing that the tea plant was indigenous to Assam: "We have no hesitation in declaring this discovery. to be by far the most important and valuable that has ever been made on matters connected with the agricultural or commercial resources of this empire." Five years later the first twelve chests of Assam-grown tea were auctioned in London to great fanfare. Copies are held at the British Library Linnaean Society Calke Abbey UCLA National Agricultural Library Institut de France and National Library of Australia. Folio 331 x 215 mm. With 5 lithographed plates 3 leaves of explanatory letterpress 6 folding maps 3 with hand-colouring illustrations and tables in text. Twentieth-century dark blue buckram spine lettered in gilt original blue printed wrappers bound in. Ex-Reading University Library with its bookplates including on front cover index card holder and other markings and stamps on endpapers; a little old underlining in text. Light spotting internally maps in well-preserved condition and without stamps: very good. hardcover
1775Best.-Nr. 191552London: Printed for D. Steel 1775. Catties cowries candarines and comashees An otherwise untraced pocket reference for supercargos with alphabetically arranged sections for major destinations along eastern trade routes including China Medina Mecca Bengal Bombay and Batavia. The final page concerns Japan evidence of British commercial dealings with the Dutch East India Company. Pages 19-24 concern the sterling value of local coins offering exchange rates for the Chinese tael a Bengali English crown and for sequins dollars piastres and other currencies used in Arabia. For Bengal a special section discusses sea shells cowries as a currency for "coolies labourers and other small payment" over 2400 cowries making one "current rupee". The publisher David Steel 1734-1799 specialized in handbooks charts maps and other maritime material for naval use and for seaborne commerce. Trading out of his warehouse at Little Tower Hill Steel built a publishing empire that was continued by his son of the same name and his daughter-in-law Penelope Steel. The latter continued the business alone following David Steel the younger's death in 1803. In 1775 Steel published two other longer works for the India and China trade including the 56-page Indian Trader's Complete Pocket-Assistant which was an expanded form of the present handbook. Small duodecimo pp. 24. Sewn into contemporary marbled wrappers edges trimmed. Housed in custom grey card box. 1974 ownership signature of one E. Harris on inner front cover; date added in same ink on title page. Covers rubbed some browning internally: well-preserved. Not in ESTC or Witt. unknown
1883Best.-Nr. 188758China and Britain: 1883-1911. Prickly heat mosquitos coolies yelling and no ice every alternate day - makes life not worth living A voluminous record of the business and social affairs of Henry Whistler 1861-1951 a representative of the merchants Evans Pugh & Co. and the chair of the British Municipal Council. Offering an immediacy often missing from company archives it reveals a world in which personal relations greased the wheels of commerce and a life of long hours punctuated with intrigue and drama. Armed with a £100 life insurance policy Whistler arrived in Hankow in December 1885. After the obligatory tourism "Went through native city No ambition to go there again" - 23 December 1885 he settled into an expatriate life. He led the council from 1896 to 1897 and 1898 to 1904 was appointed the Dutch vice-consul in the late 1880s and served as chairman of the Hankow Club. His businesslike entries of varying lengths note important events and commercial information. Dozens of associates recur: Sir Robert Bredon the customs commissioner; personnel from many firms e.g. Tokmakoff Molotkoff & Co. the tea giant; Alexander Price the secretary of the chamber of commerce; and the veteran Scottish trader J. R. Reddie. Evans Pugh & Co. traded in hides rhubarb tobacco and tea and it later developed an interest in land sales. He notes orders and the names of brokers arrivals and departures and commercial gossip as well as costs and prices land auctions and other transactions. His colleague J. A. Hawes is a perpetual problem being "frequently under the influence of liquor and unable to attend to his business. Mr Behrend tells me that J.A.H. has been of no use in the tearoom this year" 26 June 1897 and 28 May 1901. The volume for 1896 includes a lengthy memorandum regarding extensions to Hankow's concessions. In Beijing in October Whistler made representations to Sir Claude MacDonald the British minister and Sir Robert Hart the head of the maritime customs on behalf of his firm and the municipal council. "HBM Consuls in this affair as well as in almost all matters treat British interests with great contempt" 7 October 1896. In 1897 Whistler married Emma Augusta Howard b. 1874 the daughter of a customs official. Later volumes reveal the strain his work placed on their relationship. In the summer heat or amid the Boxer threat he retreated to Lushan Kuling and Shanghai. Insubordinate servants "Dismissed my boy 'Afa' for cheek and squeezing" - 27 July 1887 and diarrhoea are part of the daily grind. Horseracing cricket and parties at Victoria Hall afford welcome relief. Whistler spent time in Britain in 1891 1895 and 1902-03 although whenever he was in Britain he still transacted business relating to his China affairs. "Having done more than my share of work for the British Municipal Council" 2 March 1905 he took his final leave in 1907 tipping in a copy of the RSVP card for his farewell dinner at the Hankow Club on 11 March. Other accompanying ephemera include his 1897 certificate of registration in Hankow and his wedding invitation. Together 29 Letts desk diaries including 26 octavo and 3 duodecimo. Legible manuscript entries throughout. Original green cloth spine and front covers lettered in gilt marbled endpapers and edges bookmarkers. Trunk 370 x 570 x 155 mm: lid lettered "H. Whistler Shanghai" handles key lock no longer functional. General signs of handling as expected: a very good collection. hardcover
1865Best.-Nr. 195501London: Printed by Harrison and Sons 1865. First edition containing several detailed reports of British expeditions undertaken in the early 1860s in search of a route into China via the Irrawaddy or Salween rivers. Among the papers is a long 1864 memorandum pp. 68-82 by Dr Clement Williams 1833-1879 the first political agent in Mandalay which draws on his explorations of the Irrawaddy. He argues strongly in favour of a trade route running by steamer along the river as far as Bhamo and onwards to Yunnan by road. Williams subsequently published Through Burmah to Western China 1868 and joined the Sladen Expedition of the same year. Two other accounts are by Lieutenants Gideon Colquhoun Sconce pp. 32-51 and C. E. Watson pp. 55-66 who both surveyed the upper course of the Salween between November 1863 and March 1864. Large quarto 321 x 204 mm. Tables in text. Recent blue limp card wrappers printed title label on front cover. Ex-All Souls College University of Oxford with its 19th-century ink stamp on list of papers; leaves foliated in pencil. Light foxing and creasing: very good. unknown
1942Best.-Nr. GB0046CR3GMI3N01McGraw-Hill Book Company Inc 1942. Hardcover. Good. Missing dust jacket; Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More Spend Less.Dust jacket quality is not guaranteed. McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc hardcover
2011Best.-Nr. SBBIH-Z5WLWY7OQEPRStationery Office Books 2011. paperback. Very Good. Most of our very good books have only minor imperfections such as shelf wear consistent with a new book that's sat on a bookshop shelf for a year or two. Occasionally we may miss other minor imperfections as we have to grade books at speed. Our books are dispatched from a Yorkshire former cotton mill. We list via barcode/ISBN so please note that the images are stock images and may not be the exact copy you receive furthermore the details about edition and year might not be accurate as many publishers reuse the same ISBN for multiple editions and as we simply scan a barcode or enter an ISBN we do not check the validity of the edition data when listing. If you're looking for an exact edition please don't order at least not without checking with us first although we don't always have time to check. We aim to dispatch prompty the service used will depend on order value and book size. We can ship to most countries see our shipping policies. Payment is via Abe only. Stationery Office Books paperback
2018Best.-Nr. mon0000016117Cambridge University Press 2018. hardcover. Very Good. 1.26 9.61 6.46. hardcover Cambridge University Press hardcover
Best.-Nr. 76847N.p.: N.p. ca. `975. Presumed first edition. Oblong quarto 11 1/8 x 8 inches. 29 leaves paginated with no gaps and printed on rectos only bearing 466 patterns. No title page but nonetheless a remarkable display of Victorian hair jewelry. Most often used to connote mourning but were used for other purposes as well. Extremely popular in the mid to late 19th century and then all but forgotten. Front blank with old two-inch cellotape repair to leaf 8. Contemporary sand-grain blue cloth with blind stamped borders but no lettering. A bit loose in the binding. Hair jewelry catalogs seldom come up.Hair was fashioned into a piece that was braided woven or otherwise worked into a form and a design. Brooches bracelets earrings watch fobs and rings could be made from hair. While it is impossible to declare with any certainty we find in the catalog of hair jewelry by Charles T. Menge of New York ca. 1875 exactly the same twining borders and two pieces that are a definite match. Of course copying was probably rampant then but an interesting tidbit nonetheless as this would make it an American company rather than a British one. N.p. hardcover
1930Best.-Nr. 181168London: Christie Manson & Woods 1930. First edition of the sale catalogue for the famous Lansdowne collection. Pieces were hammered to famous buyers including J. Paul Getty Spink and the Brummers. Provenance: Stephen C. Massey. Octavo. Halftone frontispiece and 36 plates. Original drab printed boards. Front board with contemporary ownership signature of Colonel William Kenyon Mitford 1857-1943; price and buyer annotations internally. Spine now almost completely lacking volume remains sturdy toning and some offsetting internally including from old newspaper clipping at pp. 68-9: a good copy. hardcover
1874Best.-Nr. 181166London: Christie Manson & Woods 1874. A catalogue of 1408 lots several hundred with pencilled hammer prices. The sale which included oils sketches made on the grand tour engravings and pencil sketches made almost 70000 pounds driven by strong buyer interest. Provenance: Stephen C. Massey. Octavo. Original sewn self-wrappers. Sewing now loose chipping and short closed tears outer leaves dust-soiled: very good. unknown
2016Best.-Nr. x-135821333XPalala Press 2016. Hardcover. New. 364 pages. 6.14x0.81x9.21 inches. Palala Press hardcover
Best.-Nr. 45118577-nnew. unknown
