Shop

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…