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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…