Sanson

1652 · ref. 006683 — Paris: Chez l'Autheur 1652. First Edition. Full Calf. Very Good. 4to. 23.5 by 17.5 cm. Unpaginated 102 pages of text plus 2 pp. of ads 1 Royal privilege page. With 17 copper engraved maps all two page plates each with hand-colored of boundaries. Maps include one of the entire continent then of its various regions as then known plus island groups. Separate maps for China and Japan. Bound in contemporary calf. Condition: Rebacked with joints making this obvious. The original spine was re-mounted with some losses. Its blindstamped decoration of fans is discernible but somewhat vague. We think it is possible this decoration had some gilding or color originally but none survives. Still an interesting and unusual feature in our view. Calf dry and rubbed on spine and joints and edges rubbed. Light to moderate soiling in the margins of many pages and on a few pages the soiling invades inward beyond the margins and also in a few instances the marginal soiling is on the heavier side. There are a few archival tape repairs of small chips three on the title leaf one on the following leaf and after that wormhole edge damage was left untouched. That said the defect and repair isn't as glaring as it might sound. The edges elsewhere can have short spans of a chewed appearance. As a book generally we would consider this copy at best Good. As far as the maps go independent of the book we would regard them as Very Good. A few of the maps might individually fall short of such grading; on the other hand all the maps of this copy one can easily imagine someone enthusiastically framing even without an attempt to clean them up. Two bookplates -- one of the Marquis of Lothian the other the Newbattle Abbey Library. Chez l'Autheur unknown