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  An amazing and unique survivor, being a finely executed original manuscript map of the Praça de São Sebastião, the grand 16th century fortress which guarded the town of Ilha de Moçambique, the capital of Portuguese East Africa and a globally significant entrepôt for slaves, gold and ivory, and which today has the distinction of being the oldest complete fortress…

  A comprehensive first-hand report on the Battle of Salman Pak, located south of Baghdad, which took place during the Mesopotamian campaign, authored by Bimbashi (Major) and military historian Mehmet Emin, featuring extensive maps and charts for detailed analysis.  

  An indispensable and highly sophisticated primary account tracking the interconnected geopolitical and cultural ties of the Nile Valley, written during the complex dual governance of the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium.  

  The first edition of the monumental Japanese work on insects.  

  An introductory educational textbook and Ottoman-Turkish alphabet primer (Elifbâ) designed for late-Ottoman student instruction.  

  An exceptionally rare and complete early Turkish Republican data visualization poster mapping the national prison population and judicial sentence distributions.  

  Very rare – a great monument of Arctic exploration and cartography, being a colossal 19-sheet map (or atlas) that represents the first systematic scientific and broadly complete mapping of North Greenland, charting a 1,200 km-long arc from Cape York, in the southwest to Danmark Fjord, in the northeast, conducted by the ‘Danish Bicentenary Jubilee Expedition (1921-3)’ led by Lauge…

  This rare pamphlet of the Diet of Augsburg (Reichstagsordnung) from 1582, printed under Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II, codifies essential legal and religious regulations from a pivotal period of European history.  

  Published at the beginning of the Kingdom's historic First Five-Year Development Plan (1970–1975), this exceptionally rare, gigantic thematic atlas details the infrastructure plans for areas around Riyadh and Dhahran—roughly covering the eastern portions of today's Riyadh and Eastern Provinces—with a primary focus on transportation, oil fields, and spatial geography.  

  A handsome clean example of an exceedingly rare first Ottoman lithographed atlas, made by a pioneer of the Ottoman modern mapmaking, Ali Şeref Paşa in the time of his schooling in Paris. Ali later became the leading Ottoman governmental cartographer and is today known for his last, unfortunately unfinished gargantuan project of wall map of Anatolia in 100 sheets,…

   

  Very rare – a sermon preached by the senior Jesuit diplomat and administrator Manoel de Figueiredo at Velha-Goa’s Cathedral of Bom Jesus celebrating the momentous military victory at the Siege of Alorna (May 4, 1746) scored by the Portuguese forces under the Marquez de Castello Novo aganst the Maratha Confederacy, the sermon being a key element of the elborate…

  Exceedingly rare – one of the great monuments of Late Ottoman cartography, being the only official large-format Ottoman transportation atlas, including 26 double-page maps of an original, ingenious proto-modernist design, of which 8 maps concern the Arab World, including 1 map showcasing Hejaz and 1 map depicting Mecca & Jeddah; backed by detailed text explaining numerous itineraries for the…

  With a dedication of the author, Prince Damrong Rajanubhab, to King of Italy Victor Emmanuel III  

  The very rare first edition of the foundational map of the British colonial regime in Egypt; created by the Intelligence Department of the War Office on the eve of the Anglo-Egyptian War (1882), whereby Britain forcibly made Egypt a protectorate, so gaining dominance over the Suez Canal; predicated upon the best sources, the very large four-sheet work was the…

  An apparently unrecorded guidebook to Florida, issued around 1902 by the Seaboard Air Line Railway, a critically important driver of the development of Central Florida, including of Tampa Bay and Orlando, written by John W. White, the railway’s General Industrial Agent, the work is copiously illustrated with 25 photographic images and features a custom edition of the large format colour…

  Exceedingly rare – 1 of only 3 known examples - the first edition of the first book of poetry published in Mozambique, featuring verses written by Arthur Serrano, one of Mozambique’s leading early journalists, the Deputy Mayor of Lourenço Marques (Maputo) and a protégé of José da Silva Campos de Oliveira, the colony’s ‘first poet’; printed in the Ilha…

  Very rare – the definitive report on the Central Provinces and Berar Cholera Epidemic of 1868, written by Dr. Stephen Townsend, the region’s top medical officer; this outbreak of cholera drew great attention as it occurred in the Nagpur-Jubbulpore corridor on the eve of India’s first trans-peninsular railway being completed the area, while the epidemic was unusual as it…

  Extremely rare – the foundational modern map of Burma, being the first realistic general map of the country, as well as a monument of early lithography in India; the very large format work was published in Calcutta by the Asiatic Lithographic Press during the height of the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824-6), it served as an invaluable strategic aid for…

A fine example of the first edition of a magnificent, illustrated work on time and astronomy by one of the greatest Ottoman military leaders Gazi Ahmed Muhtar Paşa, printed in Cairo by the Bulaq Press.

  A thick manual on the Islamic law by Muhammed Seid Serdarević (1882 -1918), a Müderris (teacher) at the Sultan Ahmed's Madrasa in Zenica, is one of the first such books, written in Arebica. I was written in Zenica in 1917 and published after the author’s death with an epilogue by the editor Džemaluddin Čaušević.  

  An amazing survivor - a large format working manuscript sea chart of Brazil’s Rio Pará Estuary, leading to the port of Belém, a great trading port of tropical cash crops that was the gateway to the Amazon; the chart was obviously drafted by one of the many British merchant mariners who frequented Belém during the 1820s, during the heady…

  Two volumes of rare pamphlets, likely given as gifts to the members of Christ's Church in Tsingtao after World War I, reflect a significant period for the German community in China. During uncertain times, especially with thousands of men still imprisoned in Japanese POW camps, the evangelical church served as a vital center for support.  

  This text, translated from a Chinese source, focuses on personal development, inner peace, understanding one’s life goals, and fostering love for humanity. It emphasizes the importance of organized thoughts, a tidy home, and an orderly environment around our living spaces.  

  A collection of 20 poems was translated from Chinese to German by Richard Wilhelm. The images included in the book were sourced from various publications and were likely mounted by the author himself or by his circle. The illustrations and their number vary (we could trace between 3 and 6 illustrations) among the different examples of the title.  

  Translations of Chinese poems involving motifs of spring by Richard Wilhelm, with handsome original silk binding with Chinese floral pattern.  

  A charming and ephemeral Portuguese lunisolar calendar, which form has survived until today in a modern publication called Borda d'Água, named after the alleged first author of this work.  

A rare book of the Octoechos and other hymns for Arabic-speaking members of the Greek Orthodox Church, printed early at the Patriarchal Press of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

A rare manual for practical warfare in Eritrea at the beginning of the Italian invasion in 1887 was written by an anonymous author, well acquainted with local habits, geography, and climate.

A rare travelogue from Istanbul to North America and the Caribbean, written in French by P. G. Foscolo from a family of shipowners. Printed in Istanbul.

A unique private photo album representing the collection of works by Austrian-Hungarian artist Elisabeth Neumayer-Somossy, whose creations transitioned from applied arts to highly valued artworks.

Rare - the pioneering and definitive 19th century study of Macau’s Chinese community which after three centuries under Portuguese rule had developed many distinct cultural characteristics, covering subjects such as cuisine, attire, weddings, homes and domestic habits, justice, religion, festivals, commerce (the city’s great bazaar), medicine, as well as a valuable chapter on the Chinese emigration to Cuba that flowed…

A translation of a Chinese folk tale with a decorative title page and mounted illustrations.

Translation from Chinese of twelve poems and short texts featuring autumn motifs by Richard Wilhelm.

An amazing original artefact from the Japanese Imperial Court during the glorious days of the Meiji Emperor, and of Japan’s ongoing opening to the West, being the original manuscript invitation presented to Joaquim José da Graça, the Governor of Macau and the Portuguese Minister Plenipotentiary to Japan, to attend an audience with the Meiji Emperor on July 5, 1882, written…

The very rare first state of J.F.W. Des Barres’s beautifully rendered chart of Plymouth Bay, Massachusetts, famously the site of the Mayflower Pilgrims’ landing at ‘Plymouth Rock’; after the first scientific mapping of the bay executed by Thomas Wheeler, as part of Samuel Holland’s General Survey of the Northern District of British North America, an epic endeavour that trigonometrically charted…

A rare publication with an early article on the cultivation of potatoes in Austria.

An amazing survivor, being an original manuscript caricature drafted during the Eighth European-Xhosa War (1850-3), one of the century-long series of brutal conflicts between Dutch, and more recently British, forces and the formidable Xhosa nation for control over the Eastern Cape Frontier, South Africa’s ‘Wild, Wild East’; involving a very clever use of imagery and dialogue, the caricature shows two…

administrator or military officer to be employed while making a reconnaissance of the island in the tense period leading up to World War I; featuring 26 colour photolithographed maps and 1 legend sheet all published in Antananarivo by the colonial military press, the ‘Service géographique de l’Etat Major du groupe de l’Afrique Orientale’, including 19 provincial maps and 6 large-format, sophisticated…

An amazing artifact of Indonesian Independence, being an original draft of the first constitution of an independent Indonesia, as ratified at the famous ‘Round Table Conference’ (August 23 to November 2, 1949) in The Hague that set the final arrangements for the county’s sovereignty which was achieved on December 27, 1949; the present crudely-made mimeograph of a typescript is one…

[20 pp.], 23 x 19 cm (9 x 7.5 inches), manuscript in Italian, in dark brown ink on 10 sheets of laid paper with a post horn watermark and name of Van der Ley paper makers, and watermarks with initials GR and a crown (minor age-toning, tiny holes from binding on the spine, unbound and inserted in a later marbled…

Very Rare – the first edition of ‘Monzongo’, “the most popular anti-slavery production staged across the Netherlands until well into the nineteenth century”, authored by Nicolaas Simon van Winter, the eminent merchant, poet and dramatist who became an ardent Abolitionist upon witnessing the brutal Dutch crackdown which ended the Berbice Slave Rebellion (1763-4), in modern-day Guyana; the play concerns an…

The original proposal for the grand Modernist masterplan to redevelop Caracas, conceived at the hight of the Venezuelan Oil Boom, when the city was one of the fastest growing and most economically vibrant urban areas on earth; illustrated by over a dozen sophisticated thematic maps, this preliminary study of the ‘Plano Regulador’, developed by an all-star international team of urban…

An exceedingly rare depiction of a Prague folk festival for the Coronation of Emperor Ferdinand I and Maria Anna of Savoy, lithographed in Litoměřice, showcases unique ethnographic and documentary details from this historic event as well as the diversity of Bohemian culture and social life of the early 19th century in Prague.   Lithograph, 55 x 69 cm (21.6 x…

A rare map of the Bosporus commissioned by Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II and created by Prussian military surveyor Helmuth von Moltke.   Lithography with original colour in outline, 73,5 x 68 cm (29 x 26,77 inches), dissected in 20 segments and mounted on linen. An advertisement of Artaria, Vienna, on green paper mounted on one of the segments verso. Housed…

An ephemeral broadside, printed in Damascus in Arabic and Ottoman languages, marks the stations along the Hejaz Railway between Damascus and Medina, as well as the availability of water for washing and drinking.   Broadside: 37 x 23,5 cm (14.5 x 9.28 inches), original blind stamp (little age-toned, light staining and tiny tears, but overall good).

After World War I and the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, diplomat Fahreddin Reşad Bey (also known as Rumbeyoğlu Fahreddin Bey or Rumbeyoglu Fahr al-Din Bey, 1867–1943) and Mehmed Nâbi Bey (1868–1924), who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs beginning in October 1918, released several government publications about foreign affairs administration in former Ottoman territories and border regions at the…

A trio of very large format diagrams (2 blueprint maps, 1 line chart) made for the Companhia de Petróleo de Angola in the 1920s, when it was prospecting the Cuanza (Kwanza) Basin, one of Africa’s great petroleum deposits; the works were drafted by James J. McGowan, a larger-than-life Irish-American engineer who later became a pillar of Luanda’s business community; the…

Exceedingly rare - 1 of only 3 known examples - the first ultra-detailed printed city plan of Paramaribo, the capital of Surinam, issued only 12 years after the abolition of slavery, when the city’s was experiencing dramatic physical and population growth due the influx of emancipated slaves migrating from rural plantations; made by Albertus Jacobus Meijer, a tax collector, who…

An exceedingly rare survivor - 1 of only 2 known examples - an official, authoritative account of the efforts of the crusading physician Henry Nicholls to combat the scourge of Yaws, a highly infectious disease that was then ravaging the working population of the Caribbean island of Dominica; here Nicholls details the disease’s origins, symptoms, pathology, diagnoses, and treatments, and…

A documentary report on Haiti by former President François Denys Légitime   Large 8º, [8 pp.], full page portrait on thicker paper, full page view of Port au Prince on thicker paper, XLVI, 422 pp., [4 pp.], double-page colour lithographed map, later binding with red marbled paper boards and cloth spine with lettering, speckled edges (binding slightly rubbed on the…

8° (22 x 14.5 cm): [2], 82 pp., bound in modern marbled paper wrappers (Very Good, uncut, overall clean, just the odd light spot, some light toning to last leaf).

An extremely rare sammelband featuring several foundational works regarding the colonial era in what is today Kenya and Uganda, composed of various publications and ephemeral documents assembled and custom-bound in 1889 by Sir Lewis Pelly, one of the founding directors of the Imperial British East Africa Company (IBEAC), the private company that was charted in 1888 by the British government…

A unique court record book documenting trials at the provincial court in Plateau Province, Nigeria, between 1927 and 1931. Large 4º, 257 unnumbered sheets, printed text on the left-hand side, printed template with entries in black and red ink and annotations in colour pencils on the right-hand side. two inserted sheets with typescript, reverse calf binding with linear tooling in…

Two ephemeral advertisements for the Fisk Jubilee Singers, an early African-American a cappella group that introduced spiritual music originating from enslaved people to audiences worldwide.

Seemingly the only known surviving example of the first printing of the first published work by the first Western-trained Chinese medical doctor, being a report on the operations of the Kum-lee Fow Hospital, a missionary medical institution located in the western suburbs of Canton (Guangzhou) that pioneered many advanced Western treatments in China; Wong Fun, a graduate of the University…

A resplendent and unique presentation piece given to Pieter Meijer, the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), being the very rare economic yearbook for the colony for 1867, custom bound in sumptuous full red morocco with elaborate gilt neo-rococo designs and bearing a dedication to the His Excellency; published locally by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Batavia,…

An early and rare German publication on cacti, featuring a handsome hand-coloured frontispiece. Small 8º, copper printed frontispiece with hand colour, X, 98 pp., contemporary simple tan paper binding, bound with contemporary string (little age-toned and stained, tiny chips and holes in white margins, binding with light staining and with abrasions on corners).

The publication contains transcriptions of documents related to the foundation of Kuwait, sourced from the Ottoman archives and published after World War I.    8º, 34 pp., original front cover with lettering, later spine (missing rear cover).  

A remarkable manuscript map of Trieste vividly illustrates the city during its pivotal development into one of the world's largest ports.   Black ink and water colours on paper, 129 x 195 cm (50.8 x 77 inches), contemporarily dissected into 24 segments and mounted on brown linen (minimal staining, but overall good).  

Extremely rare – the earliest comprehensive published account of the ‘Bhamo Expedition’ of 1868, the ambitious official British mission to open what promised to be an exceedingly lucrative trading route between Upper Burma and Yunnan, one of China’s wealthiest yet most politically unstable provinces, written by one of the endeavour’s principals, Captain Alexander Bowers, a seasoned ‘China hand’; the work,…

Highly important and seemingly unrecorded – as best as we are aware the only complete printed cadastral masterplan of the International Settlement of Shanghai in its expanded (post-1899) form, thus including 5 separate maps, respectively showcasing the Central (The Bund), Northern (Hongkou) and Western Districts, while the Eastern District is covered by 2 of the maps; the plans were made…

The very rare, spectacular and complete portfolio of 8 very large format maps and 2 Topographical Cross-Sections from the ‘Ordnance Survey of the Peninsula of Sinai’ (1868-9), the ambitious exploring expedition led by the Royal Engineer captains Charles William Wilson and Henry Spencer Palmer that conducted the first scientific mapping and archaeological reconnaissance of the interior of the Sinai, both to…

Two rare lithographs depicting the funeral ceremony of Don Carlos María Isidro Benito de Borbón y Borbón-Parma, pretender to the Spanish throne, who passed away in exile in Trieste.

A fine example of the first edition of the first printed atlas of the Cape Verde Islands (Cabo Verde), the then Portuguese archipelago off the coast of West Africa, featuring 11 large, attractive, custom drafted maps, including one for each of the major islands, along with detailed textual descriptions, by Christiano José de Senna Barcellos, a Portuguese naval officer and…

The New Testament in Ottoman Turkish is based on the first translation by Ali Ufki. It was printed in Paris using 17th-century Arabic types, which were previously utilized in Napoleon’s Cairo press. This typeface is considered one of the most elegant designs created in the West.   4°. [2 pp.], 3 pp., 318 pp., [4 pp.] blank, contemporary brown goat…

A fascinating and perhaps unparalleled archive that provides highly detailed and authentic insights into Guerilla Warfare Training, which played a vital role in the ultimate Allied victory in the Southwest Pacific Theatre of World War II, a topic often mentioned by historians, but seldom revealed as here; the archive is comprised of 23 elements, mostly lesson plans for specialist courses…

Exceedingly rare – an important report written by António Marques Pereira, the ‘Procurador dos Negócios Sinicos de Macao’ (‘Crown Attorney of the Chinese Affairs of Macau’), the ultra-powerful magistrate who oversaw all matters concerning the Chinese residents of Macau and the colony’s relations with China, including the ‘coolie trade’, the quasi-enslavement of migrant Chinese workers sent to Latin America; the…

The first and only illustrated book on birds, published in Cuba, with originally coloured plates.   Small 4°: [4 pp.] blank, 126 pp., [4 pp.], 20 lithographed plates on thick paper (18 with original colouring, nos 13 and 19 uncoloured) and protected by guards, contemporary or slightly later binding and endpapers (minor staining, tiny chips in margins, partly repaired on…

An exceptionally rare book containing the Austrian national anthem, written in ten languages of the Austrian Empire and published in Lemberg, now known as Lviv in Ukraine.   16º. Mispaginated and wrongly bound, but complete: original front wrapper, [1-2] title page, [7]-8, [3]-4, [5]-6, [17]-18, [9]-10, [11]-12, [13]-14, [15]-16, but wrongly numbered as 15, [19]-20, [23]-24, portraits, original rear wrapper.…

A scarce large representation of the German explorer Alexander von Humboldt in his Berlin library, and surrounded by the artefacts from his journeys in the last years of his life. Colour Lithograph, 70 x 85 cm (27 x 33.3 inches) (minor age-toning, tiny chips in margins, repaired tear in the lower margin).

An educational toy for children, designed as a cyclorama - a card theater featuring rotating images in the center. It represents dramatic scenes with heroic Muslims and was created during the German economic growth interest in North Africa, especially in Egypt. Accompanied by a rare original pamphlet addressing the connection between voice and visual effect.

12°: 13 pp. with illustrated cover, [3 pp.] blank, stapled (minor foxing to the wrappers, otherwise in a good condition)

A rare pamphlet by the Albanian resistance against the Italian Fascism, printed in Istanbul.   8°, [10 pp.], wrappers with illustrated covers, stapled (little stained and dusty, small holes in the lower margin of the cover, soft folds)

A lucidly written overview of the first 140 years of Barbados history, especially valuable for its lively treatment of the internal political undercurrents that buffeted the island in the 18th century; while issued anonymously, the work is known to have been written by Henry Frere, a leading member of the plantocracy and the island’s government; published in the immediate wake…

A unique Ottoman manuscript atlas created by a geography teacher at the Preparatory School in Bolu to address the lack of modern printed materials for geography classes. 8º. Manuscript. [14 pp.] text, 99 single- and double-page numbered maps, but actually 101 maps with nos. 10 and 11 marked twice, all maps with contemporary coloured details and verso blank, interleaved blank…

A remarkable memory book of a German or Austrian soldier during World War II, with entries made in various US POW camps and writings by his fellow inmates. 8º. Blank, title page, 3 full page illustrations with attached canteen slips, hand written entry, full page illustration with attached canteen slip, 8 sheets with 8 entries in different handwritings, full page…

A valuable and unique archive concerning the “Slave-Grown Cocoa Controversy”, a great scandal that made global headlines in the years leading up to WWI, whereupon Portugal was found to be allowing the owners of the famed cocoa plantations of the islands of São Tomé and Príncipe to literally enslave black migrant workers, mainly from Angola; the scandal embroiled the three…

An original manuscript contract for the sale of 35 named slaves, sold for the price of £1800 by the Irishman Patrick Coningham, based in Union Island, in the Grenadines, to his brother Walter Coningham, one of St. Vincent’s preeminent sugar planters and the proprietor of he the well-known Colonarie Vale estate; the contract, which was signed sealed and witnessed in…

Two diaries, written mostly during World War II by Inge Weinbrecht from Munich, depict a life of a teenage girl from the early years of the war, when she was sent to a Nazi children’s summer camp, to her witnessing the fall of the Reich and marching of American soldiers into Munich.

A fascinating and academically valuable ‘insider’s account’ of the Jagannath Temple (in Puri, Odisha), perhaps the most famous and controversial place of Hindu worship in the world, home to the Ratha Yatra, a massive festival where in old times pilgrims were crushed under the wheels of gigantic ceremonial chariots (under mysterious circumstances), events the inspired the English work ‘Juggernaut’; featuring…

A rare address book of Vienna   Large 8°. [4 pp.] title and introduction, 226 pp., [1 pp.] errate original pink card binding with lettering (Very Good, with minor foxing to the first and last page and very small wear to the cover).

Black ink and gouache on paper, 64 x 37 cm (soft folds with light wear and tiny holes, light staining, otherwise in a good condition).

An exceedingly rare ephemeral music score, made by an Austrian geographer and diplomat Gustav von Kreitner for the German Club Concordia in Shanghai in 1878 to raise money for wounded Austrian soldiers in Bosnia. 32 x 25,5 cm (12.6 x 10 inches), [4 pp.] printed title and double-page music score (minor foxing, traces of glue on the spine, old signature…

A bespoke example of Captain William Cornwallis Harris’ fascinating and important account of his 1836-7 expedition to the Transvaal, featuring the complete collation of the first edition, published in Bombay in 1838, with 4 plates lithographed by the author, plus, his excellent and important map, plus, extra-illustrated by 24 resplendently hand-colored lithographed plates and the map from the subsequent London…

An exceedingly rare, nearly complete set of 184 issues (of 186) of one of the pioneering Colombian magazines, promoting contemporary literature, extra illustrated with four lithographs by Manuel Doroteo Carvajal Marulanda.

A critical observation of bad management of palm groves in Angola among the native people after the abolition of slavery in 1869, with a plan how to educate Angolans in modern techniques of agriculture for their own benefits.   12°, 44 pp. [4 pp.] blank, original green wrappers with lettering (wrappers little stained with old paper labels on the cover…

A rare and highly detailed bilingual map of Victoria (Central), depicting the governmental and commercial epicentre of Hong Kong as it appeared on the eve of the Roaring ’20s, labeling every street and outlining every key building and institution, published in Shanghai by the Guoguang Shuju printing house.   Photolithograph, small contemporary mss. annotation in pink crayon, with printed pastedown…

An impressive commemorative photographic album accompanying a large exhibition in Luanda, in 1938, demonstrating colonial introduction of Western architecture and design in Angola.   Large 4°, 173 pp. text with vignettes and decoration, printed in black and orange, interleaved black and white photographs. [17 pp.] advertisements printed in black and orange, original illustrated wrappers (wrappers rubbed with small chips on…

A rare and important work on Demotic script, the ‘keystone’ that linked ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics to the medieval world, which permitted the legendary philologist Jean-François Champollion to decipher the Rosetta Stone; the present study written by his brother, the archaeologist Jacques-Joseph Champollion-Figeac, is largely based upon the late Jean-François’s work, and critically emphasized the alphabetical nature of the script and…

An exceedingly handsome large binding, made by a Slovenian artist and professor Davorin Volavšek during the revival of the national style in the time of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, represents lake Bled with its island and castle.   Large 4°, title, 52 unnumbered colour and black and white plates and photographs, recto only brown calf with embossed decoration, corners reinforced…

A George III mahogany globe case, being an extraordinary, and likely unique master piece of the 18th English furniture maker’s art, its grand scallop shell shaped compartment is skillfully composed of thick pieces of pure mahogany, while the case it designed to house a normal midsize globe; the con sequence of an expensive bespoke commission, it is a striking oeuvre…

Very rare and historically significant – “the first Brazilian pharmacological handbook”, published in Rio de Janeiro, and authored by José Maria Bomtempo, the chief physician to the Portuguese-Brazilian royal court and an internationally-renowned authority on tropical medicine; the fascinating and surprisingly readable work was intended to educate military doctors working in the field in Brazil on how to identify flora,…

A seemingly unrecorded variant of an extremely rare, colossal ‘Headquarters Map’ of French Indochina (modern day Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos) that was the blueprint for the imminent French colonial control takeover of Laos; the map was made in the immediate wake of the Third Mission Pavie (1889-91), led by the brilliant eccentric diplomat-explorer August Pavie that secured the pathway for…

A photograph of the Ibex Mine in Leadville, Colorado, by the local photographer G.B. Sanborn, made around 1900   Albumen silver print 16,5 x 21,5 cm (6.5 x 8.5 inches), originally mounted on grey card 25,5 x 30,5 cm (10 x 12 inches), with stamp of the author verso (margins little scuffed and stained, but overall in a good condition).…

A rare miniature Ottoman calendar for women was published in 1916 during World War I by the first Ottoman Muslim feminist press, which also printed a newspaper under the same name, Kadınlar Dünyası (Women’s World). 7 x 5,5 cm (2.8 x 2.2 inches), [64 pp.], calendar with blank pages verso, portraits of contemporary leaders and dignitaries, original illustrated covers mounted…

2 postcards. 9 x 14 cm (3.5 x 5.5 inches). Each postcard has Fabricius’s address on the front and a manuscript in black ink on the verso. One postcard is signed H. K., the other without a signature, but a continuation of the same topic in the same handwriting.