Alken, Henry.MareMagnum
4 134 résultats
Landscape 4to (28.4 x 38.2 cm). 7 hand-coloured etched plates. Red half morocco by Riviere, marbled endpapers, gilt edges. An important work showing the progression of a race horse through successive stages of life, at one point pampered and adored, at another rejected and scorned. - Expert repairs to plate corners, light marginal finger-soiling, occasional browning, plates 2 and 4 with very minor marginal tears with two very small repairs to versos. Dixon 80. Mellon/Snelgrove 62. Tooley, Coloured Plates 48.
8vo. 71 ff. (lacking final blank). All edges sprinkled in red. Contemporary limp blue boards. Last Italian edition of the 16th century: a famous account of Islam (with a life of the Prophet Muhammad) given by a Muslim convert to Christianity, first published in Spanish in 1515 and frequently reprinted and translated. The author gives his former name only as Alfaqui ibn Abdallah from Játiva near Valencia in Spain; he flourished 1487-1515. - Some browning and brownstaining throughout due to paper; a few pages waterstained; old ink notes to title page (some ink corrosion). Rare; only two copies in WorldCat (Paris-BnF and Mazarine); four in Italy (Venice, Prato, Modena, Messina); none in the U.S. Edit 16, CNCE 1728. Chauvin XII, p. 21, no. 83. Göllner 2280. I.A. 105.567. Palau 12175 (note). OCLC 800261833.
455 x 575 mm and 435 x 560 mm. 14 folding posters: 13 graphic posters and 1 photographic poster. With instructions in English and Arabic. A collection of Aramco safety posters featuring bright illustrations, bold colors, and techniques that give a nod to popular culture. The earliest poster in the set, dating from June 1984 ("Stop accidents before they stop you"), was designed by Ninoy Lumboy - perhaps the most productive artist of Aramco safety posters in the 1980s. "For the three years from 1982 to 1984 he designed almost every poster published by the Loss Prevention Department. While Lumboy was prolific, he was also amazingly inventive, merging elements of the cubism and impressionism art movements with pop art to create colorful and striking posters. He described his technique as 'crosshatchism' - a method of painting where an artwork is rendered with multiple layers of intersecting sets of parallel lines" (Bartlett). - Other than the Lumboy-poster, only 2 posters bear their artist's name or at least initials: Jenny Dahroug ("Wear hearing protection"), and J.v.D. ("Hand tool tips"). The remainder of the set are anonymous creations not ranging behind the above-mentioned in effort or style. Also, the set includes one photo poster featuring Aramco employees as models - a technique "that would become standard practice for the company's safety publications" (ibid.) from 1986 onwards. The present specimen shows two uniformed guards strapping into their car seats, ready to respond to a call, captioned with the slogan "The danger may not always be obvious. Buckle up". - Margins slightly worn. A unique ensemble. Bartlett, Saudi Aramco and the Art of Safety, 227 & 238.
Folio (282 x 410 mm). 2 parts in 1 volume. LV, (1), 199, (1) pp. 121, (1) pp. Title page printed in red and black. With engr. frontispiece, engr. title vignette, 9+26+1 (= 36) engr. plates, numerous text engravings (one full-page), and several engr. initials, head- and tailpieces. All edges sprinkled in red. Disbound. First and only edition of this ambitiously conceived catalogue of the Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic and Greek manuscripts at the Laurentian Library ("Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana") in Florence. The 9 engraved plates of the first part show the architectural details and ornaments of the library that was planned and partly built by Michelangelo; the plates of the second part show examples from the illuminated manuscripts of the collection - a rich trove of Near-Eastern and Middle-Eastern book art. Antonio Maria Biscionio (1674-1756) was a celebrated scholar and the appointed keeper of the Laurentian Library. "No more published; later catalogs were issued by Biscioni's successor as librarian, Angelo Maria Bandini. An abridgment appeared in 1757 under title: 'Bibliothecae ebraicae graecae florentinae, sive Bibliothecae mediceo-laurentianae catalogus'" (OCLC). - Vellum slightly rubbed at extremeties; foxing to edges of final pages. Rare; only two copies in international auction records since 1950. Graesse I, 432. OCLC 6475224.
Small 4to. (2), 126 pp. Trimmed, touching the first work title and a few headlines and page numbers. Expertly bound to style in 19th century straight grained brown morocco, covers elaborately bordered in gilt, spine with raised bands in six compartments, lettered in the second, the others with a repeat decoration in gilt, marbled endpapers, gilt edges. Scarce early English work on the Levant. Blount journeyed to the Levant in 1634 and first published his account two years later (the present second edition appearing later in the same year). It is an important English work and one of the first to view the Turks without prejudice. "Blount wrote objectively and viewed Turkish society as different from, but equally valid to, the life he knew in England" (Blackmer catalogue). Provenance: E.B.,Trinity College, Cambridge (inscription on verso of title dated 1748). Atabey 119 (first edition). Blackmer 154. STC 3137. Wing B3317. Weber 289.
Folio (235 x 337 mm). (18), 398, (8) pp. With engr. half-title, engr. portrait of the author (after Godfrey Kneller), and 210 as well as several lettered or unnumbered engravings (many by Jan and Caspar Luyken after the author's drawings) printed on 57 plates, 24 double-page plates and 20 folding plates (most of which are panoramic views). Wants the folding map of the Eastern Mediterranean. Contemporary Dutch blindstamped vellum. First edition, the only one to appear in the original language. The Dutch painter and traveller Cornelius de Bruyn travelled to Constantinople and throughout the Levant and the Ottoman empire between 1677 and 1685. "De Bruyn was primarily a landscape artist and this manifests itself in the several fine panoramas which include Smyrna, Constantinople, the Bosphorus, Rhodes, Tyre, Alexandria, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Aleppo, Palmyra and others. De Bruyn's costume plates are mostly of the different types of Greek and Turkish head-dresses" (Atabey). - Some browning, fingerstaining and edge flaws throughout. Complete save for the map. Atabey 159. Tiele 207. Gay 2101. Henze I, 378. Howgego I, p. 157, B177. Weber II, 402 (note). Röhricht 1184. Tobler 114. Cobham/Jeffery 7. Laor 967. Schwab 74. Cohen/de Ricci 610. Lipperheide Ci 48 (= 546). Graesse I, 552. OCLC 4619950. Cf. Blackmer 225 (2nd French ed.). Aboussouan 164 (1725 French 4to ed.).
Large 4to (220 x 277 mm). IX, (3), 439, (1) pp. With an engraved map. Near-contemporary brown half calf (giltstamped spine recently rebacked). First edition, posthumously edited by William Ousely. With this work, Burckhardt submitted what was at the time the fullest and most thorough account of the various nomadic tribes of Arabia, including a history of the Wahhabis from their first appearance until 1816 (cf. Henze). A two-volume octavo edition followed immediately, as did a German translation. - The Swiss explorer Burckhardt (1784-1817) travelled through Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Nubia, and the Arabian Peninsula. Under the name "Sheikh Ibrahim", he crossed the Red Sea to Jeddah, passed an examination on Muslim law, and participated in the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina. He died in Cairo and is buried there in the Muslim cemetery. He left his 350-volume library to Cambridge University; his diaries were acquired by the Royal Geographical Society. - Light waterstain to the lower corner of the map, otherwise a very good, wide-margined copy of this rare work. Embacher 57. Howgego II, p. 83, B76. Gay 3606. Ibrahim-Hilmy I, 106. Engelmann 104. Brunet I, 1401f. Graesse I, 575. Cf. Macro 626; Henze I, 406f.; Hiler 127 (two-volume edition).
Large 4to (282 x 230 mm). (4), XXIII, (3), 668 pp. With lithographed portrait frontispiece, 3 engraved maps (2 folding), and 3 engraved plans. Contemporary full calf with gilt spine, two labels, and cover borders. Gilt inner dentelle, marbled endpapers. First edition. Posthumously edited by William Leake, these journals describe Burckhardt's various journeys between 1810 and 1816. It was at Aleppo that he studied Arabic in preparation for his later travels (clandestinely, in Arab guise under the cognomen Sheikh Ibrahim) and he toured Syria, the Lebanon and Palestine. Burckhardt had been recruited by Sir Joseph Banks on behalf of the African Association to carry out these explorations, but unfortunately he died in 1819 before he was able to complete the entire project. - Binding somewhat rubbed along extremeties; hinges and upper spine-end repaired. A little browning and foxing near the beginning, otherwise internally fine. The portrait shows Burckhardt "in his Arab Bernous, sketched at Cairo Feb. 1817 by H. Salt, Esq.". Macro 628. Blackmer 237. Atabey 166. Aboussouan 174. Tobler 141. Röhricht 1627. Weber I, 107. Howgego II, p. 82, B76. Henze I, 406. Brunet I, 1401. Graesse I, 575. Ibrahim-Hilmy I, 106.
8vo. 3 vols. XXXVI, 391, (1) pp. XVII, 579, (1) pp. VII, 559, 13 pp. Contemp. calf with double label to gilt spine; leading edges gilt. Marbled endpapers. All edges red. First edition of this history of the Byzantine Empire up to the fall of Constantinople and the beginning of the Ottoman reign. - Exceptionally beautiful set from the Ottoman collection of the Swiss industrialist Herry W. Schaefer. Cf. Blackmer 243. Atabey 168 (both dated "1750").
Mostly 8vo and 4to. Ca. 206 pp. A loose collection of letters, diary entries, telegram slips, inserted sketch maps, and related paraphernalia. Includes: A Map of the Nile, From the Equatorial Lakes to the Mediterranean, Embracing the Egyptian Sudan (Kordofan, Darfur, &c.) and Abyssinia (London, Stanford, 1883). Folding coloured map of the Nile, inscribed by Burn-Murdoch. Burn-Murdoch, who rose to the rank of Major General, commanded, among other things, the cavalry in Egypt as a member of the Royal Dragoons. Part of his estate is in the National Army Museum, London. The collection offered here is in several hands, largely that of Burn-Murdoch himself, partly (probably also a little later) by others, especially the sections marked "copy" on the cover sheet. - "March from Aswan to Wada Halfa" is written on one cover; another piece is untitled, but describes a military operation near Tunis. Several sketch maps are inserted. Some of the sheets are numbered by hand, showing some sections to be partly incomplete. The overarching perspective of the collection is predominantly a military one, with geographical and meteorological commentary only mentioned in connection with military matters. However, in some letters to his father, Burn-Murdoch does add a few hints of daily life: "I am writing this in great luxury as I have got hold of an old wine cask and have constructed a kind of armchair out of it". He chats casually about seeing the pyramids of Giza, and subsequently "had a very hot walk from the Pyramids into Cairo", describes witnessing an accident which led to a drowning in the Nile, and notes that they were eating well enough, having had two cooks, though "one of whom deserted at the Pyramids". Also included is a hand-coloured map, presumably once in Burn-Murdoch's ownership with his name inscribed on the front cover of its case. - Overall in good condition, with some light wear. Despite the gaps, it gives an impressive picture of the life of British colonial troops in North Africa before 1900.
4to. 64, 852, (2) pp. With title vignette, 3 headpieces, 2 tailpieces, 5 initials, folding plan, and 23 portraits (all engraved). Contemporary calf with giltstamped ownership "N. H. v. Engelhard" to upper cover. "First edition in German" (Atabey), translated by J. L. Schmidt. The principal work of Dimitrie Cantemir, Prince of Moldavia (1673-1723), author of numerous learned historical works. With the author's portrait, portraits of the Turkish rulers, and a layout plan of the city of Constantinople. - Endpapers stamped "Andre S." and with ms. ownership "H. W. Lado" (both 18th-century ownerships); deleted stamp to title page; occasional edge repairs. Formerly in the Ottoman collection of the Swiss industrialist Herry W. Schaefer. Atabey 192. Graesse II, 38. Ebert 3465. OCLC 630479705.
8vo. (16), 249, (3) pp., 1 final blank leaf. With a full-page woodcut in the text (illustration of hawking instruments), woodcut initials and ornaments, printer's device on title page and different, larger device at the end. Contemporary vellum (spine professionally repaired). First edition - the edition of 1547 mentioned by Harting and Souhart does not seem to exist, propably confused with Federico Giorgi's work - of the best-known and most authoritative of 16th century Italian books on falconry, the breeding and training of falcons, their ailments, etc. "Carcano states in his Preface that this treatise is the result of forty years' experience as a falconer, and the perusal of all the Italian and French books he could find relating to Falconry [...] The author's reputation as a falconer caused this book to become very popular, and it not only passed through several editions [...], but was extensively copied by subsequent writers, as, for example, Raimondi and Turberville" (Harting, p. 142f.). "An interesting treatise on falcons and sporting dogs, with remedies for their diseases" (Schwerdt). The full-page woodcuts shows a set of veterinary instruments for use by the falconer. - Occasional slight brownstaining; a minute paper flaw to margin of fol. P3 (barely touching text). Lacks 2 leaves of dedication in the preliminaries, not bound with all copies, and the second of the two final blanks, otherwise a fine copy. Harting 267 (p. 141). Adams C 644. BM-STC Italian 148. IA 132.009. Bongi II, 271. Souhart 86. Ceresoli 132. Schwerdt I, 94.
Folio (250 x 360 mm). 4 parts in 1 vol. (16), 1015, (29) pp. 289 cols., (3) pp. 4 pp., cols. 5-128 (+ 2 ff.), (2) pp. 65 ff., 66-114, (4) pp. (several mispaginations). With engr. t. p., 2 engr. plates, and numerous engravings in the text. Contemp. calf. All edges red. Chronicle of the early history of the Ottoman empire; one of several editions printed in the same year. First published in its French translation in 1577, this work by the Byzantine historian Chalkokondyles (c. 1423-90) was republished frequently throughout the 17th century, always including the account of Ottoman costumes and an interpretation of the seventeen enigmatic illustrations of Byzantine prophecies foretelling the downfall of the Ottoman Empire. The folding plate depicts a bird’s-eye view of Constantinople with its prominent buildings. The chronicle itself is illustrated by numerous portraits of rulers. The costume plates were originally designed for the travel account of Nicolas de Nicolay (1517-83), first published in 1567 (cf. Lipperheide Lb 2), who had visited the Ottoman court as a diplomat in the services of King Henry II. - Hinges and extremeties professionally repaired. Engraved title closely trimmed at top; slight loss to edge of plate showing the Turkish army as well as one costume plate. Occasional brownstaining and edge defects throughout. From the Ottoman collection of the Swiss industrialist Herry W. Schaefer. Cf. Atabey 214. Navari (Greek) 138. Hage Chahine 860-862. Navari (Greek) 138. Hamilton 23. Not in Blackmer.
Folio. 163, (19) pp., final blank f. With woodcut printer's device to title-page. - (Bound with) II: Hoffmeister, Johann. In XII priora capita actuum apostolicorum commentaria [...]. Cologne, Arnold Birckmanns heirs, 1567. (6) pp., 1 blank f., 225, (1) pp. With woodcut printer's device to title-page. Contemporary limp vellum with ms. spine title. Traces of ties. First edition of the history of the Saracens and Turks, dedicated to Emperor Maximilian II. The humanist C. A. Curio (1538-1567) thinks it likely that the Turks are descended from the Huns and shows skepticism toward theories that they might be descended from the Twelve Tribes of Israel, or, as Pliny had surmised, from the Tartars. Curio describes the Saracens as a people wrought by internal strife, often defeated and fragmented by the Arabs. - Bound within the same volume is a rare commentary on the first 12 chapters of the Acts of the Apostles by the Augustinian and theologian J. Hoffmeister (c. 1509-47). - Binding slightly loosened; some reinforcements to gutters; second word rather browned in places with occasional waterstains. A good copy of an important, early work on the Turkish people. I: VD 16 C, 6410 (D 2655). Göllner 1211. Adams C 3078. BM-STC German 232. Schottenloher 51906. Kutter A14, 1. - II: VD 16. H 4266. Not in Adams or BM-STC German.
800 x 755 mm. 20 parts mounted on linen. A monumental and highly detailed 1751 map of India, Persia, and Arabia by the French cartographer Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville. Centered on Persia, this map covers from Istanbul to eastern India and Tibet, and from the Black Sea to the Maldives. It offers excellent coverage of the central Asian portions of the Silk Road naming the centers of Samarkand, Bukhara, Lop Nor, and others. At the bottom center there is a large decorative title cartouche including stylized Christian, Muslim Zoroastrian, and Buddhist elements. - Some worming, slightly browned.
Large 4to (236 x 290 mm). (6), 63, (1) pp. With 57 plates, mostly heliographed, of archaeological inscriptions, sites and maps, 9 folding. Contemporary half calf over cloth boards with red label to richly gilt spine. Only edition: the "first fruits of Arabia" (Hogarth, Life of Charles M. Doughty, 1928), and the first publication in English of any account of Doughty's travels, predating "Travels in Arabia Deserta" by four years. (In spite of the French publication, the "Note de M. Doughty sur son voyage", comprising pp. 7-35, is entirely in English.) Doughty (1843-1926) first met the great French orientalist and writer Ernest Renan in 1883, and after the failure of his attempt to sell to Berlin the copies of the inscriptions he had made in the region of El-Hejr and Medain Salih, Renan wrote the preface and supervised the publication of Doughty's work in Paris. - Occasional light foxing, mainly confined to endpapers, but an appealing copy, removed from the University of Lancaster Library with their bookplate to the flyleaf and their stamp to the title-page; additional armorial bookplate to pastedown. Macro 855.
4to. (8), 179, (1) pp. With woodcut printer's device to title-page and numerous woodcut initials. Contemporary limp vellum with remnants of ties. Extremely rare: the first edition of this pharmaceutical treatise by the elusive physician Guillaume Dupuis (fl. 1536-51) from Blangy in northern France but long settled in Grenoble. "Il [...] exerca longtemps la médicine avec une grande réputation [... et] était en même temps professeur à l'université de cette ville" (Hoefer). The work was republished in 1554, with a treatise by Cousinot, under the title "De occultis pharmacorum purgantium facultatibus". Like most of its kind, it draws heavily on Galen and the Arabic tradition of Mesue; p. 105 refers to the use of Aloe among the Arab physicians. - Browning and dampstains throughout; numerous ink annotations to endpapers and throughout; occasional worming, mainly confined to margins. Several paper flaws to the edges. Binding wrinkled and rubbed. - Provenance: Several near-contemporary ink ownerships by the pharmacist Joseph Nicolau (including in the device and the first initial); additional 18th century ink ownerships by Luís Ferrari. BM-STC French 145. Wellcome 5300. Ferchl 428 ("Leiden" in error). Baudrier X, 223. Gültingen VIII, 95, 158. Hoefer XV, 367. Not in Durling, but NLM WZ 240 ("Imperfect: p. 177 mutilated"). OCLC 14307014. Not in Waller or Osler.
4to. (12), 282 pp. Title printed in red and black with large engraving. - (Bound with) II: Sennert, Andreas. Arabismus, h. e. praecepta arabicae linguae [...]. Wittenberg, Fincelius, 1666. (8), 166 pp. - (Bound with) III: The same. [Mi'a Matal]. Centuria proverbiorum arabicorum. Ibid., 1658. (24) pp. Contemporary vellum with ms. title to spine. I: Third, most encompassing edition of the first scientific Arabic grammar written by a European scholar. Erpenius had published his "Grammatica Arabica" in 1613, having completed it four years earlier while staying in Paris with Casaubon. A second edition appeared in 1636 - edited by Anton Deusing, a pupil of Golius - adding the fables of Lokman and Arabic proverbs earlier edited by Erpenius. The present edition was edited by Golius himself, Erpenius's successor to the chair of Arabic. Repeating Deusing's 1636 edition, it now adds a modest Arabic chresthomathy previously edited by Golius's pupil Fabricius. This copy includes the cancel-slip for two lines of text and a catchword on f. *2v. Interleaved between pp. 200 and 201 with five ms. pages by a Swedish scholar (c. 1915). - II: Second edition of Sennert's Arabic grammar, followed by a concise Arabic dictionary. - III: Only edition of this rare collection of Arabic proverbs with their Latin translations, also prepared by the German scholar Sennert (1606-89), himself a pupil of Golius and in 1640 Jakob Weller's successor as professor of oriental languages in Wittenberg. - Somewhat browned due to paper, but well-preserved altogether. Several old ownerships on flyleaf, including a note of acquisition dated Wittenberg, 1619, and the ownership of Ernst Friedrich Tobias (dated Feb. 1725). I: Smitskamp, BO 72. Schnurrer 81. Juynboll 148f. - II: Schnurrer 82 (note). VD 17, 12:130977S. OCLC 836692815. - III: VD 17, 3:313989Z. OCLC 633598572.
Large 4to. (8), 838, (40) pp., final blank f. With several woodcut headpieces. 19th century green half mororcco gilt with marbled covers. First edition. - "Garzoni [1652-1719] was appointed official Venetian historiographer in 1692. His work deals mainly with the Sacra Lega and the Venetian victories against the Turks in the Morea during the war of 1684-90" (Atabey, 2nd ed. only). A second volume, a sequel in name only, deals with the War of Spanish Succession and was not appended until 1716. - Binding rubbed, corners somewhat bumped. Interior shows occasional browning, but largely quite clean. A good, wide-margined copy, this has been annotated throughout in pencil by an Arabic hand, probably in the early 20th century. Rare; no copy of the first edition on the market for 25 years. Brunet VI, 25458. Libr. Vinciana 1032. Graesse III, 82. OCLC 832293066. Cf. Atabey 479 (1707-19 second ed. only). Not in Blackmer.
8vo. 371 pp. With black & white illustrations and plates throughout. Publisher's orange cloth with gilt lettering to upper cover and spine. Original dust jacket (slight defects). First edition. The personal copy of HH Said bin Taimur (1910-72), the 13th Sultan of Muscat and Oman from 1932 until 1970, with his handwritten ownership in black ink to the front pastedown, and subsequently inscribed by him in blue ink to Captain (later Brigadier) Colin Maxwell on the half-title: "To Captain C. C. Maxwell / Said / 29.1.53". The gift would have been partly in recognition of Maxwell's key role in raising the first standing army of Oman, in preparation for ejecting Saudi Arabian forces from the Buraimi Oasis. - The Arab Legion was the army of the Emirate of Transjordan and of Jordan after the country's independence in 1946. When Glubb became the Legion's commander in 1939, he they transformed it into the best-trained military force in the Arab world. - Binding rubbed and stained, spine chipped and ends and professionally rebacked. Paper somewhat browned as common. Dust jacket shows light chipping to edges with a larger portion torn from the lower jacket cover without loss to blurb; protected under cellophane sleeve.
4to. 2 vols. (4), XXIV, 453, (19) pp. (2), VIII, 537, (2) pp. With engr. title vignette, 10 engr. initials, 20 engr. text vignettes, 2 engr. frontispieces, and 28 engr. plates. Contemp. calf gilt with giltstamped spine labels. First edition (vol. 2: second ed.). "This work is especially valued for its engravings of Turkish costume figures and genre scences by Duflos after Boucher and Hallé" (Navari Greek), as well as for "its fine folding panorama of Constantinople" (Atabey). "The French writer and jurist Guer (1713-64) had not travelled. His work is based on a wide knowledge of historiography and travel literature. It is singled out by the high quality of its wealth of illustrations" (cf. Chatzipanagioti-Sangmeister). The first edition was published by Coustelier in Paris, 1746-47; the same year saw the second edition (Merigot & Piget in Paris) as well as the third (Mortier in Amsterdam). Nearly all sets in the trade are mixed copies. - A good, nearly unbrowned copy from the library of Baron Karl Ludwig von Pöllnitz with his autograph ownership to titles. Atabey 534. Auboyneau 301. Blackmer 762. Weber II, 761. Chatzipanagioti-S. 382. Cohen/R. 465. Colas 1348. Hiler 401. Hage Chahine 2000. Navari (Greek) 308. Sander 872. Brunet II, 1783. Cf. Aboussouan 308. Lipperheide Lb 31 (Mortier).
4to (230 x 165 mm). With a woodcut illustration of a hunt using falcons on the titlepage (90 x 95 mm), 7 nearly full-page woodcut illustrations of birds of prey on integral leaves. 38, [2 blank] pp. Half red goatskin morocco (1930s?). Rare fifth edition, the first published outside of Paris, of a concise practical handbook on the choosing, training, care and feeding of birds of prey for hunting, by the falconer to Louis XIII, first published in 1620. "Copies of this work [in any edition] are very difficult to procure" (Harting). The hunting scene on the title-page, which has no related illustration in the first edition or in d'Arcussia, shows two men in the foreground, one blowing a horn and with a dog on a leash, the other holding a falcon and with hawking paraphernalia. It shows falcons attacking birds in the sky, and a hunting scene with dogs and men on horseback chasing a stag in the background. - With the modern armorial bookplate of the Verne d'Orcet family, whose great library on the subject of hunting was begun ca. 1900. With a few minor stains and faint offsetting, but still in good condition, the binding with very slight wear to the fore-edge corners, but otherwise fine. A rare and important practical hondbook on falconry, illustrated with the woodcuts of the second (1634) edition, including a hunting scene not in the first edition. Bibl. Mun. Rouen, Histoires de chasses (exhib. cat. 1992–93), 79; Harting, Bibl. accipitraria 156 note; Souhart, col. 238; Thiébaud, col. 493; USTC 6814292 (1 copy); cf. Schwerdt, pp. 230–231 (1620 ed.); for the binder: Fléty, p. 159.
8vo. (8), XXXXV, (1), 104 pp. With engraved dedicatory headpiece and 10 engraved plates (some depicting cuts of diamonds) and tables. Contemporary French mottled calf with red giltstamped label to prettily gilt spine. Marbled endpapers. All edges red. First edition in French of this early book describing "how diamonds and pearls can be evaluated on the basis of the factors of size (or weight) and style of cut" (Sinkankas). The London jeweller Jeffries is the first author to provide "a clear statement of the principle that the value of pearls should be calculated to the square of their weight [...] This principle is implicit in the valuation tables given by earlier authors, including Tavernier and others, but Jeffries is the first to state it explicitly. At the back of his book, he provides tables allowing the calculation of the value of individual and batches of pearls of different size or quality. This is effectively a 'chau' book, as used by merchants in the Gulf and India until the mid-20th century, and fulfils exactly the same function" (Carter). - "The text explains the [diamond] cutting procedure, how the evaluation rules were derived, the importance of imperfections and flaws as affecting price, notes on rough diamonds [...] and finally, a somewhat similar procedure for the valuation of pearls, with highest values accorded to pearls of closest approach to spherical perfection, luster, etc. The mathematical rule used for the pearl is known as the 'square of the weight' multiplied by a per-carat base price" (Sinkankas). - This French edition is much scarcer than the expanded second English edition, on which it is based. It is dedicated by the translator (the Royal librarian Chappotin S. Laurent) to the sixteen-year-old Louis Joseph de Bourbon, prince de Condé, on the occasion of his marriage to Charlotte de Rohan. - Professional repairs to hinges and corners; in all a fine copy. Provenance: Handwritten ownership of the Brussels jeweller Emanuel Meyer, dated 1788, to title-page. 19th century engraved bookplate of Thomas Westwood to pastedown. Latterly removed from the Library of the Birmingham Assay Office, one of the four assay offices in the United Kingdom, with their library stamp to the second flyleaf. Sinkankas 3198. Cf. Carter, Sea of Pearls, p. 83, 125f., 251. Goldsmiths' 8500. Hoover 453. Roller/G. II, 10.
Large folding chromolithographed map (map size 65.5 × 88 cm). Original publisher's printed paper wrappers. Large folding map of the world, completely in colour, showing the areas containing oil and where oil/gas wells are located. Inserted around the margins of the map are several more detailed inset maps of Europe, Poland, California, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Mexico, Venezuela, Trinidad, Apsheron (Azerbeidzjan), Sumatra, Japan, Egypt and Borneo. Also included is a large diagram illustrating the world's oil production, from 1860 to 1924. - Only very slightly worn along a few folds. Paper wrappers slightly damaged, otherwise in very good condition.
4to. XIII, (1), 15-242, (2) pp. With a folding family tree. Near-contemporary full vellum with giltstamped borders and spine title, original 1860 upper wrapper cover bound within. Endpapers with floral pattern. The first (and only early) edition of this detailed study of Arabic inscriptions found in Granada, with the texts of the inscriptions set in naskh Arabic type and also translated into Spanish. It includes many poems, notably those of Ibn Zamrak (1333-93), as well as Lafuente's overview of the history and genealogy of the Moorish Nasrid dynasty (1230-1492) that ruled the Emirate of Granada, the last Islamic realm in Spain. Emilio Lafuente y Alcantara (1825-68), a disciple of Don Pascual de Gayangos and José Moreno Nieto, includes much information from documents he had newly discovered himself. He was "gifted with great erudition and love of scholarship" and condemned mediaeval Christian intolerance of Islam, the destruction of Arabic manuscripts during the Inquisition and the damage done to the Alhambra by rebuilding under Charles V. In his present first major publication, Lafuente attempts to document surviving Arabic inscriptions in Spain before anyone could destroy or incompetently restore them. This quickly established him as one of the leading oriental scholars of the Iberian peninsula, but his work was cut short by his premature death nine years later. The book, reissued in 1860 with no change except for the date on the new wrappers, inspired a new interest in Iberian Arabic poetry, but was largely forgotten by bibliographers of Arabic studies. It was reprinted without revisions in 2000 and remains an important source for Islamic Granada. - Vellum covers slightly warped. Paper evenly browned throughout; slightly foxed in places. Near-contemporary handwritten English annotations in ink and pencil to p. 169, correcting Lafuente's claim that a large vase had disappeared from the Alhambra and probably is to be found "ornamenting the cabinet of some Englishman, passionate for our things": "This is a mistake entirely. The great 2nd jar is in the Museum at Madrid [...]". James T. Monroe, Islam and the Arabs in Spanish scholarship (1970), pp. 119-122. Palau 129800. Harrassowitz, Arabien und der Islam 1932, 2414 ("Rare"). Petzholdt, Neuer Anzeiger für Bibliographie und Bibliothekswissenschaft 1862,140. Abascal/Cebrián, Manuscritos sobre Antigüedades de la Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid 2005, 309. Dodds, Al-Andalus, 404.
