Asia

Calcutta: Printed and Sold By Manuel Cantopher. Very Good with no dust jacket. 1790. First Edition. Hardcover. Professionally rebacked by Barbara Schmelzer, preserving original endpapers, and with remnant of original leather spine laid down. Moderate chips and scrapes to leather boards, with moderate losses of leather at corners of boards. Corners of boards strengthened by conservator with Japanese tissue paper. A 1" tear to the folding plate of the Hindoo Lunar Mansions. Pages 268-269 are transposed with pages 272-273. ; The second volume only of "Asiatick Researches" (the name later changed to "Asiatic Researches"). The scarce Calcutta first edition, preceding the London editions. [iv], 502, [2] pages + 14 plates (5 folding). Pages 501-502 have a list of the Society's members at the end of the year 1790. The final leaf has "Corrections" on the recto, and is blank on the verso. Quarto size. Page dimensions: 288 x 220mm. Signature on front endpaper of… Leer más

Paris: Firmin Didot frères, fils et Cie, 1867. Livre. Très bon. Demi-cuir. Ed. originale. In-8. Firmin Didot frères, fils et Cie, Paris, 1867. 2 tomes reliés en un volume. 18 x 24,5 cm (R), in-8°, XXXII pp. + 407 pp. & (4 pp.) + 472 pp. ; avec 4 planches hors texte : 1 planche lithographiée et coloriée (le Taj-Mahal à Agra du côté de la Jumna), 1 planche lithographiée en noir (Un éléphant porteur de reliques, et chefs kandiens à Ceylan), toutes deux placées en frontispice de chaque tome, et deux photographies originales contrecollées (Tombe d'Akmud Oud Doula, Agra et Vue de l'intérieur de la Chaïtya, grottes de Karli), reliure demi basane fauve, dos à 5 nerfs orné de fers dorés avec pièces de titre olive et grenat, tranches mouchetées. Rare récit d'un voyage de 11 mois fait à travers l'Asie par un homme de 67 ans… Leer más

[Hong Kong : London Mission Society Press, c1861] ; ??????? [Shanghai : Shanghai Shangye Yingshuguan, n.d., 1861. Book. Very Good. Hardcover. [1], 298, 378 pp. ; bound in Chinese fashion, with folded sheets right to left, in a western-style, mid-nineteenth century cloth board cover binding with decorations ; James Legge, the famous Scottish sinologist and missionary of the London Missionary Society was born in Huntly, Aberdeenshire, Scotland on Dec 20th, 1815. He graduated from Highbury Theological College in 1837, joined the London Missionary Society in 1838 and went to Malacca in 1839 as a missionary. In 1843 Legge arrived in Hong Kong and remained there until 1873 except for three short trips back to Scotland. In 1876, Legge became the first professor of Chinese at the University of Oxford, and died in 1897 ; This is the first volume of Legge's monumental translation of nine sacred books of Chinese literature, in a very probable 1st edition, 1st Chinese printing, with mixed asian and western… Leer más

(Japan: Sûzan Shobô, 1816. Bôsai, Kameda. Small quarto. (19)ff. A Japanese book of color woodblock prints by Kameda Bôsai (1754-1826), one of the leading painters of the Nanga or Bunjinga (literati) schools of painting. The seventeen full-page illustrations, five of which extend across the page spread, are landscapes depicting mountainous terrain, comprised of strong, black calligraphic lines with soft colors. Each includes descriptive text printed along the margins and the artist's stamp in red. The images are simple but poetic, expressing the artist's love of the natural world, with descriptions that translate as: "The refreshing sound of a mountain waterfall," "The intoxicating effect of river and mountains," "Solitary fisher on a wintry river," and "Jeweled mountains like sapphires and water like emerald," among others. With a preface and two closing notes. Working during the Edo period, Bôsai was recognized for his paintings, calligraphy, and book illustrations. In her book Block Printing… Leer más

Professionally recased; half calf; marbled boards. Twenty four copper engravings on twenty-three plates. A handsome and sturdy set. Volume 1. xxii, errata, list of plates, 644; Volume 2. vii, 715, errata. Foxing to plates. Discrete bookplate to pastedown. ; 4to; All shipments through USPS insured Priority Mail.

Paris: Chez le Rouge, 1776. 1st Edition. Cloth. Near Fine. Elephant Folio - over 15 - 23" tall. Four volumes. No date ( c. 1770's ). 1st ed. Oblong elephant folio ( 17.5 inches ). Modern burgundy cloth and end papers with simple gilt title on spines. Cahier One - 23 plates and 3pp of text ( lacks the four plates after the text ); Cahier Two - 23 plates plus the extra folding plate; Cahier Three - 28 plates; Cahier Four - 29 plates numbered 1 - 30 with #16 not present, probably as issued, as the on-line digital version is also so numbered. A total of 103 plates plus two extra. Front cover of Cahier One has a wear spot. The plates in the first three volumes are generally near Fine, Cahier Three has a few that have some minor to moderate spotting on the blank fore edge, the extra plate is Very Good + with some slight tanning along the fold line. The paper of Cahier Four seems to be of a lesser quality which has caused the margins to tan on most of the plates and 17 of them have lightly tanned over… Leer más

London.: Butterworth.. Number 77 of a limited edition of 750 copies.. 1924.. Maps including colour folding plan of City of Victoria, 18 colour plates, many in black and white, 528pp, bibliography, index, bright top edge gilt. Fore edge lightly browned, front endpapers browned, cloth very clean and bright, lettered in bright gilt, an exceptional copy in original slightly chipped dustjacket. 30.7 x 25.5cm. This remarkable book records the extraordinary collection that Hong Kong businessman Sir Paul Chater built. This volume includes descriptions and representations of the prints and maps within his collection. Paul Chater was an energetic and innovative man who though coming from disadvantage built an enviable business empire as well as involving himself with the government of Hong Kong. He served as Senior Unofficial Member of the Executive Council for 30 years ending only with his death. When Sir Paul Chater died in 1926 his collection of porcelain, prints and paintings together with Marble Hall,… Leer más

(Circa1900).. Large illustrated map of Beijing showing the city in the period following the invasion of the military forces of the Eight National Alliance, old folds, scale not given. Some scattered light foxing particularly at edges, short closed tear at fold lower edge, neat non acidic tape repair short section upper edge wear along folds, and a couple of small, unobtrusive holes with minor image loss. Blocks of text in traditional Chinese right and left upper sections stating each nation's occupied zone, Japanese text title accompanies the English title along the upper section of the map. 63.7 x 56.9cm. Very good overall. A rare and significant large Japanese woodblock map of Peking (Beijing), issued just after the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion. Centred on the Forbidden City, the map depicts Peking following the multinational suppression of the Boxer Rebellion or Yihetuan Movement of 1900. The map was issued to illustrate the areas of occupation associated with each of the powers in the Eight… Leer más

[南京].[Nanking].: 南京特別市農民協會.. [1928].. Chinese Kuomintang (KMT) propaganda poster stencilled in blue and red, appears to have been issued folded with 4 neat horizontal folds visible, some other minor creasing, small closed tear from margin, archival repair to lower left corner, small stain lower corner. Issued by the Peasants' Association of Nanking Special Municipality, the party emblem of KMT is centrally placed at the top of the poster with skulls and crossbones just below, calligraphic text takes up the majority of the poster with the characters for "five" and "three" highlighted, lower edge dripping blood, overall very good. Text in traditional Chinese. Sheet measures 78 x 26cm. In the final stage of the Northern Expedition, Chang Kai-shek's National Revolutionary Army (NRA) entered Jinan, the capital city of Shandong Province in April 1928. The two characters "five" and "three" so graphically depicted on this poster… Leer más

Paris, 1888. Fine. Paris 1888, 18x23cm, relié. - Manuscrit intitulé ""La Porcelaine de Chine"" orné de nombreux dessins originaux in et hors-texte en noir et en couleurs réalisés à même la page, sur de fins morceaux de papier de Chine contrecollés dans le texte ou sur des planches isolées de papier fort. L'exemplaire est également truffé d'une planche provenant du Costume historique de Racinet (1888) ainsi que d'une page imprimée de ce même texte. Il s'agit d'un recueil factice réalisé d'après plusieurs textes : Octave de Sartel, La Porcelaine de Chine (1881), Stanislas Julien, Histoire et fabrication de la porcelaine chinoise (1856), Maurice Paléologue, L'Art chinois (1887) et Louis Figuier, Les Merveilles de l'industrie (1873). Une dernière partie sur les bronzes chinois provient également de L'Art chinois de Paléologue. Tous les dessins sont réalisés d'après les illustrations des ouvrages sus-mentionnés et très… Leer más

Bombay-printed description of Gujarat and beyond
ombay, printed at the Times' Press, by James Chesson, 1849.
Folio (29x23,5 cm.). [14], 408, VIII, [2], IX-XXIV pp. Illustrated with several plans of palaces.
First edition, printed at Bombay, of a very thorough, lengthy description of "Gujarashtra" (present-day Gujarat, India). One of the very few copies of this Bombay-printed first edition: WorldCat records only 1 copy, digitized by the University of Bradford.
Henry Briggs was born in Bombay, October 20, 1824. He travelled in South Africa in 1843, in China in1845, and settled in Bombay in 1846 to work in the office of his father: Briggs & Co. Meanwhile he started writing about India. First he edited the Sindian (1854) and in 1855 the Sind Kossid. In 1856 he became assistant secretary at Bombay to the G.I.P. Railway. His first published book was the present Cities of Gujdrashtra, "containing curious information gleaned from travellers in India: of whose rare works he made an extensive collection"… Leer más

London: William H. Allen, 1839. First edition. Quarto (12 1/8 x 9 1/2 inches; 307 x 245 mm). lx, 518, [1, eratta], [1, blank] pp. With nine engraved plates including frontispiece by W.F. Sterling after F. Mackenzie from original sketches by Colonel Hunter Blair,. Numerous vignette engravings within the text. With half-title. Newer half green straight-grain morocco over marbled boards. Spine stamped lettered and stamped in gilt, with elephant motif. Edges dyed brown. Some minor offsetting from plates. Newer endpapers. Some previous owner's neat marginalia throughout, some in red and blue pencil, some in neat old ink and some in pencil. Still very clean inside. Overall very good. Lieu-Col. James Tod was an "army and political officer in India... Appointed on 29 May 1800 lieutenant in the 14th Bengal infantry, he went up country; in 1801, when stationed at Delhi, he was ordered to survey an old canal in the neighbourhood. In 1805 he was attached to the escort sent with his friend Graeme Mercer, envoy… Leer más

Printed by W. Bulmer & Co. for G. Nicol. London. 1797. FIRST EDITION. Three volumes. Complete. - Two quarto text volumes (12 x 9.4 inches), and a folio atlas of plates (16.6 x 12.3 inches). ---- Both text volumes in contemporary full brown calf boards with decorative gilt borders. Re-spined in recent brown calf with raised bands, the compartments ruled in blind, two red morocco labels, lined and lettered in gilt. Gilt inner dentelles. Marbled endpapers. All edges marbled. The atlas volume bound in recent half brown calf. Spine with raised bands, each decorated in gilt. Compartments ruled in gilt. Red title label, gilt. Marbled paper on boards. Text volumes with engraved portrait frontispiece to each, 1 plate and 26 vignettes after William Alexander et al. in all, atlas with 44 engraved views, plans, plates and maps and charts, including large folding world map, 3 natural history subjects and 25 views. Some foxing and sporadic spotting to both text and atlas, a couple of the maps have professional… Leer más

London, John Murray, 1875.. SECOND EDITION 1875, With the Addition of New Matter and Many New Illustrations. FIVE PAGE INK HAND WRITTEN LETTER SIGNED BY YULE to COLONEL (LEWIS) PELLY, author of "Journal of a Journey from Persia to India through Herat and Candahar" seeking information for this work. 2 volumes, complete set, 8vo approximately 220 x 145 mm, 8½ x 5½ inches, 2 frontispieces, portrait and Great Armilary Sphere, extra pictorial title pages, text printed red and black and dated 1874, 16 maps, 6 folding, 14 full page plates, 3 folding, 2 in colour and 1 heightened in gilt, 35 full page text illustrations, approximately 78 text illustrations of various sizes, pages: Volume 1, xl, [ii], 1-139 (Introduction), followed by Additional Corrigenda (1 tipped in slip), 1-444; Volume 2, xxi, [ii], 1-606 including index, bound in full vellum (probably a presentation binding), gilt lettering and decoration to spines, gilt pictorial covers with coat of arms of Marco Polo, gilt cross to all pastedowns, all… Leer más

Rare original first edition, published and printed during Hokusai's lifetime (Bunka 2, 1845) - the coronation of the Gakyō Rōjin" 画狂老人; "The Old Man Mad About Art" period. Your chance to own an authentic Hokusai print and a piece of history!
Orange stitched (fukurotoji bindings) wrappers, 6 vol.set
The Shaka goichidaiki zue is the illustrated record of Shakyamuni's life, published in 1845, which consists of six volumes. The entire work is composed of 55 episodes compiled by Yamada Isai 山田意斎 and 35 monochrome illustrations crafted by Katsushika Hokusai 葛飾北斎. This book has three publishers: Echigoya Jihei 越後屋治兵衛 in Kyoto, Yamashiroya Sahei 山城屋佐兵衛 in Edo, and Kawachiya Mohei 河内屋茂兵衛 in Osaka, indicating that it was prevalent during that time.
For further reading and another impression in the Arthur Tress Collection, in the Kislak Center, University of Pennsylvania Libraries, go to:… Leer más