Quran.MareMagnum
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26 x 37 mm. 819, (5) pp. Original leather leather binding richly gilt with floral motifs, with leather clasp and cord with attached magnifying lens. All edges gilt. In original cardboard box. A charming miniature Quran in excellent condition, preserved in its original gilt binding and cardboard box. With richly decorated opening double page frontispiece. Fully vocalized text set in a frame, verse separators, sura headings and section markers in the margins printed in black throughout. These miniature Qurans were printed at the press of Hans Steinbrener since the early 1900s; with the new millennium, the shop closed down and ceased production. These miniature editions of the Holy Quran, with their elaborate gilt leather bindings and attached magnifying glass, count among the finest examples of their kind and as masterpieces of Bohemian printing and craftsmanship. "The firm advertised itself as the continent's largest producer of artistic bindings for prayer books and the largest publisher of prayer books [...] This publisher supplied a market ranging from Manila to New York" (Marija Dalbello, "Franz Josef's Time Machine: Images of Modernity in the Era of Mechanical Photoreproduction", in: Book History, Vol. 5 [2002], pp. 67-103). - Available colours: green, red, blue, brown, maroon. Gilt cover design, box design, and clasp design may vary. Coin shown for size comparison only.
8vo. IX, (1 blank), 349, (1) pp. With a photo of the author as a frontispiece, 6 plates and 1 folding map of the Arabian Peninsula. Blue cloth with gold lettering on front cover and spine, and blind-tooling on front cover. An account of the travels of an Englishman through Arabia, including an eye-witness account of the 1911 siege of Sana'a, the capital of Yemen. This siege was one of the last big events in the Yemeni-Ottoman conflicts, which started with the first Ottoman attempt to conquer Yemen in 1538. In 1911 a treaty was signed, with which Yemen became a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire until the country could take advantage of the Empire's collapse during and after WWI to reclaim its independence. - Wavell did not intend to include a description of his journey to the holy city of Mecca, but apart from his accounts of Yemen he admits in the preface that the present work breaks no new ground. The places he visited had already been described, possibly more extensively, by other explorers and travellers, but a journey to Mecca and Medina was still quite out of the ordinary for Europeans, and thus a description of his experiences was added to the work. It was first published in 1912 and the present copy was a part of the second impression of that edition, which appeared in 1913. An edited, smaller and thus cheaper second edition appeared posthumously in 1918. The chapters on Wavell's travels in Yemen had been removed and an introduction by Major Leonard Darwin, son of the naturalist Charles Darwin, had been added. - Arthur John Byng Wavell (1882-1916) was an English army officer and traveller who was educated and trained at the Royal Military college Sandhurst. He was a cousin of the decorated field marshal Archibald Percival Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell, who served in the Second Boer War, in other parts of Africa, and in India where he also served as the Viceroy. The author of the present work resigned his army commission in 1906 and went to Mombasa in British East Africa - modern Kenya - where he learnt Arabic and Swahili and where his desire to explore Arabia and even visit Mecca grew. After his travels in Arabia, described in "A Modern Pilgrim in Mecca", he returned to Africa. During the First World War he remained in Africa, where he founded a coastal defence force called the "Arab Rifles", active around Mombasa. Later he was sent to serve near the border of Kenya with Tanzania (then British East Africa and German East Africa), where he was killed in 1916 as a result of a German ambush. - Binding slightly rubbed, very slight foxing on the edges, some foxing on the first and last flyleaves. Small tear in the in the inner margin of the map, without affecting the map itself. Sharp folding lines in the plate of The Haram in Mecca (between pp. 152-152). With an ownership inscription: "R. S. Breene, 1 June, 1928" over the remnants of an erased inscription on the first flyleaf. Howgego IV, W13. Smith, The Yemens, 103. Cf. Macro 2266. Canton, From Cairo to Baghdad: British Travellers in Arabia, pp. 161-165. Sotheby's, The library of Robert Michael Burrell, 858 (other ed.).
179446191794 London, Laurie & Whittle, 1794 Carte gravée sur cuivre (50,5 x 57 cm hors marges, 54 x 73 cm toutes marges comprises). Tirage de l'époque. Quelques traces d'une autre carte en surimpression. Map on copperplate (50,5 x 57 cm without the margins, 54 x 73 cm with the margins). Contemporary printing. Several light printed marks of another map.
4to. XII, 383, (1) pp. Folding engr. map frontispiece ("Map of a Route through the Regency of Tripoli and Kingdom of Fezzan"), 17 chromolithogr. plates drawn by Lyon and lithographed on stone by G. Harley or D. Dighton, M. Gauci, as well as a text illustration. Modern red cloth with gilt-stamped black spine labels. First edition of Lyon's account of his botched Timbuktu expedition, finely illustrated with 17 plates (created by M. Gauci and D. Dighton after Lyon's own drawings) showing the Arabian desert culture. - In 1818, G. F. Lyon (1795-1832) was sent with surgeon-explorer Joseph Ritchie by Sir John Barrow to find the course of the Niger River and the location of Timbuktu. A year later they had only got as far as Murzouk where they both fell ill. Ritchie never recovered and died, but Lyon survived and continued his travels. After a year he returned to Tripoli, the expedition having failed utterly. Upon return, he was promoted and in 1821 - the same year this book was published - given the command of HMS Hecla on his second attempt. Lyon was reputed to have a genuine informed interest in the culture and inhabitants of the lands he visited. Wearing Arab/Muslim dress and speaking fluent Arabic, he managed to blend in with the inhabitants of North Africa. "An important work. Lyon joined the British government scientific mission headed by Ritchie, taking place of Captain Frederick Marryat. They met at Tripoli in November 1818. Ritchie died in 1819 and Lyon took over command of the expedition. He returned to London in July, 1820. Shortly after that he joined Parry's arctic expedition. The fine plates illustrate mostly costumes, and are all after drawings by Lyon" (Blackmer). Fergus Fleming characterizes the relationship between Ritchie and Lyon, who was a "moustachioed extrovert aged twenty-two [...] Lyon was not, on the face of it, suited to African exploration". By his own confession, his main interests were "balls, riding, dining & making a fool of myself". - The plates include: Costume of Tripoli (2 types), Triumphal Arch - Tripoli, Arabs Exercising, The Castle of Bonjem, A Sand Wind on the Desert, Piper and Dancer - Tripoli, The Castle of Morzouk, Tuarick in a Shirt of Leather & Tuarick of Aghades, Tuaricks of Ghraat, Costume of Soudan, Negresses of Soudan, Tibboo Woman in Full Dress, Tibboo of Gatrone, A Tuarick on his Maherrie, camel Conveying a Bride to her husband, A Slave Kaffle. - Offsetting on title from map; map tears repaired. Altogether in very good condition. Blackmer 1044. Abbey Travel 304. Howgego II, L52 (p. 376). Henze III, 318. Lipperheide Ma 14 (note). Colas 1920. Hiler 556. Ibrahim-Hilmy I, 397. Lambert I, 147. Tooley 311. Fergus Fleming, Barrow's Boys: A Stirring Story of Daring, 2001, pp. 956. Brunet III, 1254. Graesse IV, 312.
8vo. 2 vols. XXXII, 400 pp. VII, (1), 320 pp. With a total of 8 folding maps and 11 plates as called for. Contemporary full calf with giltstamped red labels to gilt spine. Second London edition of this important work, first published in Edinburgh in 1727, "which remains to this day one of the most valuable first-hand histories of English merchant shipping in the Indian Ocean and East Indies" (Howgego). It covers "the whole of the Orient" (Hill) from Ethiopia to Japan and is very strong on India (some 20 chapters, not counting Bengal, which is described separately), but also includes an extensive section on the Arabian Peninsula: chapter IV "gives a little description of the coast of Arabia the Happy, from Mount Sinai to Mocha, with some observations on the religion, customs and laws"; chapter V "gives a description of the Immaum of Mocha's country, particularly its situation, laws, customs and commerce"; chapter VI "contains a description of Aden [...], also an account of the sea-coast of Arabia petraea, as far as Muskat and Bassora", chapter VII "treats of the kingdom and city of Muskat, and of their religious and civil customs [...] and a little account of the sea-coast of Arabia deserta, as far as Bassora", while chapter VIII "gives an account of Bassora City, and that part of Arabia deserta". Includes a rough, but apparently original map of the Gulf, showing "Barreen Island", "Cape Mussendon", and little detail along the Peninsula's northeastern coast in between save for a place labelled "Zoar", here not indicating Sohar in Oman but clearly referencing the area of the present-day Emirate of Sharjah (even Niebuhr's 1765 map still shows a town named "Seer" - Sir, Julfar - opposite the island of "Scharedsje"). The text mentions the region's trade in horses and pearls, stating, "There are no towns of note between Muskat and Bassora, but Zoar, and but very few inconsiderable villages; but there are two or three pretty convenient harbours for shipping. The southernmost is about 6 leagues to the southward of Cape Mosenden, called Courfacaun. It is almost like Muskat Harbour, but somewhat bigger, and has excellent fresh water from deep wells, about a quarter of a mile from the landing place. The village contains about twenty little houses; yet there are pretty good refreshments to be had there [...]". - In India, Gujarat and Bombay are covered particularly extensively, and the illustrations include not only a detailed coastline map of the subcontinent, but also several plates showing Ganesha, the elephant-headed god; a religious procession involving an elaborate wheeled scaffold from which men are hung; the temple of Jagannath; and the notorious "Juggernaut" car. - The Scottish captain Hamilton went to sea, in his own words "very young", in 1688, and travelled as far as the Barbary coast before basing himself in Surat and trading and travelling all over the Indian Ocean, "visiting, it is said, every port between the Cape and Canton" (Howgego). He made a reputation for himself as a foul-mouthed, resourceful and bold operator fending off Baluchi robbers, treacherous governors and Indian pirates. - Bindings professionally repaired. Light browning and occasional waterstaining; a few pencil annotations. Provenance: from the collection of the American diplomat Alexander Weddell (1876-1948) and his wife Virginia Chase Steedman Weddell (1874-1948); deaccessioned from the Virginia House Museum, Richmond (handwritten ownership "A. & V. Weddell, 1924, Calcutta" to flyleaves; bookplate to pastedowns). Alt-Japan 630. Howgego I, p. 477, H13. Cf. Macro 1115. Goldsmiths' 6522. Hanson 3724. Cordier, Indosinica 890. The Hill Collection of Pacific Voyages (2004) 765.
Large hand-coloured folding engraved map (ca. 103 x 82 cm). Scale ca. 1:1,000,000. In contemporary red morocco slipcase. Rare 1833 edition of a historical map of Palestine, with a part of Egypt and Arabia. This map is of particular interest for showing the principal roads and travel routes through the desert, with the old Roman road and the route of the Hajj, as well as the route taken by Eyles Irwin in 1777. Occasional browning; slipcase rubbed and bumped, but well preserved on the whole. Cf. Röhricht (Palästina) 633 (London, 1831). Laor, Maps of the Holy Land (1839 edition). Not in Al Ankary or Al-Qasimi.
Hand-coloured engraved map (61 x 46 cm). Detailed map of the Middle East, published by Laurie & Whittle in London. Includes interesting annotations, including a note about the Barren Desert in the interior of the peninsula. Al-Qasimi 211. Not in Tibbetts. Cf. Al Ankary 382.
Engraved map, outline colour (725 x 542 mm). Detailed map of the Middle East, published by Laurie & Whittle in London. Includes interesting annotations, including a note about the Barren Desert in the interior of the peninsula. - Minor soling and spotting near centerfold. Al-Qasimi 211. Not in Tibbetts. Cf. Al Ankary 382.
Hand-coloured engraved map (515 x 470 mm). A highly detailed late 18th Century map of Persia, from an early edition of Cary's atlas. Offers extraordinary detail regarding cities, trade routes and physical geography. In some cases Cary offers annotations on important battle sites and on the ruins of ancient Mesopotamian cities. - A near fine example in beautiful wash color. Al-Qasimi 217.
Engraved map, outline colour (725 x 542 mm). Decorative large format 18th Century map of the Persian Empire, by one of England's leading map publishing firms of the late 18th Century. - Minor soiling and offsetting. Al-Qasimi 212. Not in Tibbetts, Al Ankary.
1939SS2801no place: 1939. 1939. 228 x 303 mm. 8 pp. Illus. Printed wraps; center leaf loose. 1939. paperback books
8vo. 2 vols. XXXI, (3), 273 pp., final blank page; IX, (3), 283 pp., 1 blank page, 24 pp. of adverts. With 2 woodcut frontispieces (included in pagination), 13 woodcut plates, and several woodcut illustrations in the text, as well as 1 folded map of Northern Arabia. Contemporary full cloth, decorated in black and gold on covers and spine. First edition. A true classic of travel literature, describing the 1879 expedition across the Nejd from Beirut, south into the Great Nefud, north to Baghdad and east to the Arabian Gulf, undertaken by Anne Blunt and her husband Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, a prominent couple of British explorers. Conveying "an ideal of an Arab aristocracy of the desert" (Nash), the travelogue describes the Blunts' interaction with sheikhs and emirs, but also their fascination with Arabian horses, including an account of the stables at Hail. Lady Blunt was, along with her husband, the founder of the Crabbet Arabian Stud, and the first European woman to journey to Central Arabia. Furthermore, the Blunts were the first Europeans to enter the Jebel Shammar in the Nejd "openly and at leisure", free to map and record geographical and physical features. - Apparently received as a gift from the author, with pencil inscription by the recipient on the flyleaf of volume I: "Lady Anne Blunt to Stephen Pearse" (?), additional pencil ownership of Flawn E. Thomas (?); a previous ownership erased. A few annotations and reading notes, also marking the date of beginning and ending each volume, between 6 and 13 October 1928. Later pencil acquisition note referencing Heffers bookshop in Cambridge (for 1/5/-), dated 11 January 1940. - Bindings a bit stained and slighty rubbed. Paper slightly foxed throughout; small tear to inner margin of the map (not touching image), small tear in the lower margin of the map repaired; tear to the contents page of vol. II repaired. Overall a good copy. Macro 555. Nash, Travellers to the Middle East 73. Howgego III, B49. Boyd/P. 16. NYPL Arabia Coll. 164. Henze I, 277.
17 vols. Royal 8vo (24 x 16 cm). With numerous illustrations (including the series by Albert Letchford), repeated on laid paper; the 17 frontispieces repeated in colour. Contemporary three quarter olive green morocco, gold-tooled spine, tops gilt. A handsome edition of Burton's "Arabian Nights", finely illustrated and printed in a limited edition of 100 hand-numbered copies. Bold to a fault, Richard Burton travelled to Mecca, explored the African Great Lakes, shocked his readers with his candid travel accounts, and gained fame and riches with his translation of the Arabian Nights. The first edition was published in 1885-88 and re-issued by the Burton Club shortly thereafter. The present edition is a reprint of the first Burton Club edition, illustrated with, among others, Albert Letchford's famous plates. - Spines slightly faded. Fine set, uncut and partly unopened. Cf. Howgego III, B98 (p. 146, first ed. 1885-88).
Royal 8vo (24 x 16 cm). 14 (instead of 17) vols. With frontispieces and numerous illustrations (vol. 8 lacking one image). Contemporary richly gilt full cloth. Top edges gilt. - (2) The same. The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night. A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments. Vol. IV. (Including: Supplemental nights, vol. VI). (Colophons: USA), ibid., [ca. 1940]. Contemporary richly gilt and silvered full cloth. Top edges red. The first Burton Club edition of Richard Burton's celebrated translation of Alf Laylah wa-Laylah, commonly known in English as the Arabian Nights. These Arabic tales, cherished in Europe since the early 18th century, are often erotic in content, and in Burton's unexpurgated translation they outraged Victorian England. Burton included numerous footnotes and a scholarly apparatus, offering a vivid picture of Arabian life, which set his translation apart from earlier English renderings. Bold to a fault, Richard Burton travelled to Mecca, explored the African Great Lakes, shocked his readers with his candid travel accounts, and gained fame and riches with his translation of the Arabian Nights. The first edition was published in 1885-88 and re-issued by the Burton Club shortly thereafter. - The present set lacks volume 4 of the "Nights", as well as volumes 4 and 7 of the "Supplemental Nights". The volumes numbered "IV" and "V" of the "Supplemental Nights" are in fact volumes 5 and 6. In lieu of the missing tomes the collection includes volume 4 of the "Arabian Nights" and volume 6 of the "Supplemental Nights" from a later 16-volume Burton Club edition, which Ross dates ca. 1940. This later date is supported by the fact that this edition is not included in Penzer's thorough bibliography published in 1923. - Spines slightly faded; extremities lightly worn. A fine set, uncut and partly unopened. Penzer 131. (2) Scheherazade's Web: The 1001 Nights & Comparative Literature, J. Ross 10 & 11.
Small folio (220 x 276 mm). 99, (1) pp. Illustrated throughout. Original blue cloth with gilt title "GB AVP 41" stamped to upper cover. Commemorative publication "written, compiled and produced by [the] officers and men" of the U.S.S. Greenwich Bay after the ship's first tour of duty to the Persian (Arabian) Gulf as flagship for the Commander of the U.S. Navy Middle East Force. In the foreword, Commander K. G. Hensel acknowledges the Gulf as "one of the oldest yet least known parts of the world", a historic region that has "served for thousands of years as pathway of commerce by caravan and by dhow. Today, these areas are strategically among the most important that exist anywhere on the surface of the globe" (p. 3). - The small seaplane tender "Greenwich Bay" departed Norfolk on 30 April 1949 for a six-month mission, four months of which were spent in the Gulf area based at Bahrein, calling at Kuwait, Ras al Misha'ab, Ras Tanura, Sharjah, and Muscat before returning to Norfolk on 1 November. Every year thereafter the ship would repeat this duty, sailing through the Mediterranean to operate as flagship in the Red Sea, Gulf, and Indian Ocean for 4 to 6 months. In total, the "Greenwich Bay" made 15 Mediterranean deployments. This fully illustrated record contains rare images of a fire at Aramco's Ras Tanura oilfield that scorched the ship's hull, scenes from Manama, Bahrein, the "distinguished guests" who visited aboard (dignitaries of the Gulf countries visited, including a portrait of HRH Faisal al Saud on board the "Greenwich Bay"), etc. In addition to operating with foreign naval units in the Mediterranean, Red Sea, Gulf, and Indian Ocean, the "Greenwich Bay" performed extensive work in the People-to-People programme, particularly in carrying drugs and other medical supplies to Arab and African nations, and operated as an important tool of diplomacy in the region. - Light brownstaining to endpapers, otherwise a fine copy of a rare, privately printed work whose press-run likely did not exceed the number of the crew: 20 officers and 206 men. Inserted are a 3-page assessment form "Military requirements for all men in the Navy" and a Bombay port receipt from the ship's call at Bombay in July 1949.
4to. (6), 112 pp. (but: 108 pp.; pp. 61-64 skipped in pagination). With large engraved map of Vienna and its environs; wants an additional plan. Contemporary calf; spine repaired; leading edges gilt. All edges sprinkled in red. First English translation. The Imperial Councillor of War J. P. a Vaelckeren was sick in Vienna in 1683 when the Turks enclosed the capital. His report of the siege and liberation of the city quickly spread throughout Europe in numerous editions and translations. - Wants the map of Vienna; the corresponding "explanation of figures" is present in the preliminaries. Early 19th c. ownership "H. E. Somerville" to pastedown. A good copy of this rare English imprint. Sturminger 2953. Apponyi II, 1132. ESTC R28429. Gugitz I, 485. Cf. Kábdebo, p. 43f. Cf. Mayer 576ff. Cf. Jöcher IV, 1381.
rja651716<p>UKslim 8vo HBdw/djillustrated1st edn. Preceded by the US1st edn issued a year earlier in 1959. Author's 2nd book/title following on from his first and best-seller 'How to Play Your Best Golf All the Time'. FINE/VG. Owner's neat ink namedate inscrptn to reverse of ffe and no price-clip to dw/dj. Bright crisp generally clean matt colour pictorial artwork non-credited illustrated front panelspine of dw/dj with red and black lettering; with negligible shelf-wear or creasing to edges and corners - no major nicks or tears present. Head of spine/backstrip of dw/dj bumpedcreased and minimally rubbed and rear inner flap with an accidental approx 1/2" internal vertical crease to it's entire length. Topfore-edges slightly aged/toned but still generally bright and clean; contents bright tight clean solid and sound - near pristine - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners appears unread apart from my collation. Publisher's bright clean but slightly sunned sharp-cornered original plain green cloth boards with a black ink golf club 2 hand-grip vignette to front board's lower right-hand corner and bright crisp blocked gilt titlepublisher letters to printed gilt double-line edged dark green box/label on spine/backstrip and clean multi-green coloured golf links illustrated endpapers. Part of the dw/dj illustration/design has 'ghosted' or bled throughto the front board beneath. UKslim 8vo HBdw/djillustrated1st edn 1-143pp paginated includes 15 chapters4-colour block green pale green black and white illustrations by Merrit D. Cutler as chapter head pieces part-page and full-page illustrations and technique diagrams throughout the text and the book; plus unpaginated half-title page publisher advert for Armour first best-seller book with full page colour illustration to it's reverse by Cutler title page a dedication a Contents list/table title separator page a Note about author and 2pp blanks at the rear. Described hard but fairly and honestly - not as bad as it reads or would sound! See my book ID rja651616 for his 3rd book - 'Tommy Armour's ABC's OF GOLF'a UK8vo HBdw/dj1st edn. A BOOK FOR EVERY GOLFER by one of the acknowledged Masters of the Game. Nine holes of a friendly foursome described stroke by stroke with instruction and advice both technical and strategic given to the players who are of very different prowess the whole lit up by anecdotes from Tommy Armour's personal experience to illustrate his points. Instructive entertaining and splendidly illustrated by Merrit D. Cutler. Please contact seller @ rpaxtonden@blueyonder.co.uk because of the value of this item for correct insuredor uninsured at own risk shipping/Pp quotes - particularly ALL overseas buyers - BEFORE ordering through the order page! N.B. ALL buyers please note stocks' shipping quotes are adjusted for any refunds AFTER receipt of order and BEFORE the despatch of the order especially if the item is offered either Pp included/FREE. <br /> N.B. US/Canada customers please be aware: Standard US AIRMAIL to these destinations can now in some cases cost more than the price of the book! If speed is not of the essence then Economy rate is recommended - at approx. anything from a 1/3rd to 1/2 of the standard US AIR quote/rate - sometimes arriving sooner than the 42 days - but not always.</p> LONDON.HODDER & STOUGHTON.1960. hardcover
1st UK edition. VG pbk. ISBN 0552992259. Golfing humour. 16271. eng
176 pages. Select Bibliography. Oblong 12" x 9". "Both a stunning visual record of a region of boundless physical treasures, and a fascinating history of the 'gateway to a continent'". - from dust jacket. Gift greetings upon black front free endpaper scarcely visible else unmarked. Moderate wear overall. Quality copy of this enchanting work. Book
8vo [23.5 x 16 cm]; xi, 2342, [i] pp, illustrations from drwgs, maps and plans on endpapers. original cloth, gilt spine title lettering, dj (not price clipped, light wear), discrete name on endpaper, else fine and clean in very good dj. A picture of this book is available upon request by email. Respected journalist and golf writer, the author describes his exploration of the countryside, the people, golfing in the area. Sean Connery, in the foreword, describes his stay in the same area, where he had filmed Goldfinger, and describes his own golf game.
Folio (340 x 490 mm). 2 ff, 24 coloured aquatints (1 folding). Contemp. half calf with giltstamped red morocco label to marbled front cover, spine rebacked and gilt. "The plates in this selection are not re-engraved, but plates available from the stock originally printed for Bowyer, with new title page" (Atabey). Includes views of Constantinople, the Voivode palace of Bucharest, Tripoli and Tortosa, a mosque in Laodicea, as well as antiquities from the Eolian Islands and Ephesus. - The German-Italian artist Luigi Mayer (1755-1803) was one of the foremost late 18th-century European painters of the Ottoman Empire. He was a close friend of Sir Robert Ainslie, British ambassador to Turkey between 1776 and 1792, and the bulk of his paintings and drawings during this period were commissioned by him. Mayer travelled extensively throughout the Ottoman Empire and became well known for his sketches and paintings of panoramic landscapes of ancient sites from the Balkans to Turkey and Egypt, particularly ancient monuments and the Nile. Many of the works were amassed in Ainslie's collection, which was later presented to the British Museum, providing a valuable insight into the Middle East of that period. - Occasional insignificant brownstaining. Formerly in the Ottoman collection of the Swiss industrialist Herry W. Schaefer. Atabey 790. Chatzipanagioti-S. 631. Hage Chahine 56. Cf. Blackmer 1100. Abbey 369.
4to. XVI, 400 pp. With 3 folding maps and 3 plates. Contemporary full calf, spine elaborately gilt, leading edges gilt, red morocco label. Second edition (the earliest mentioned). Irwin relates the series of misadventures which occurred on his journey back from India after his dismissal from the East India Company. Following the near wreck of his ship he was taken prisoner by Arabs who took him to the Nile, whence he travelled to Cairo on his release. - The East India Company servant Eyles Irwin, born in Calcutta in 1751, was appointed to survey the Black Town in 1771 and "was made superintendent of the lands belonging to Madras [...] In 1776 he became caught up in the political storm that overtook the governor of Madras, George Pigot, who was placed in confinement by members of his own council. Irwin supported Pigot, and in August he was suspended from the company's service. Early in 1777 he left India in order to seek redress in England. Irwin later published an account of his journey home, which was entitled 'A series of adventures [...]'. In this he displayed his classical education and described his experiences and observations during the journey, which lasted eleven months [...] Irwin returned to India in 1780 as a senior merchant and his route was again overland, but this time via Aleppo, Baghdad, and the Persian Gulf" (ODNB). The author recounts his imprisonment in Yanbu, Arabia, and further voyage to Jeddah, as well as his adventures in Egypt, his journeys through the Peloponnesus and Balkans as well as Persia. He includes an "Ode to the Persian Gulf", which extols the beauties of Bahrain. In 1802, Irwin was to produce a musical play, "The Bedouins, or Arabs of the Desert: a Comic Opera in Three Acts" (1802), which played in Dublin for three nights. - The plates include views of the town of Mocha (al-Mukhah) on the shore of the Red Sea in Yemen, including its early mosques, and of the Straits of Bab al Mandab ("Babelmandel"). Also shown is a detailed view and chart of Yanbu, the port giving access to al Medina. - Macclesfield bookplates to front pastedown and free endpaper. Plates somewhat toned and offset, otherwise an excellent copy, sumptuously bound. Macro 1293. Ibrahim-Hilmy I, 325. Gay 66. Brunet III, 459. Blackmer 865. Cf. Weber II, 576 (3rd ed.).
Large folio (456 x 592 mm). Modern half morocco over marbled covers, spine gilt around raised bands with gilt spine title. 9 tinted lithographs on 8 plates (2 on 1 leaf) after Robert Clive. 3 leaves (1 repeat) of letterpress printed on rectos only. First edition of this rare lithographic plate book of Mesopotamian antiquities and views. The first instalment of a total of three, containing nine lithographs: 1. Sculptures at Nimroud-Lions; 2. Moosul; 3. Hît; 4. Distant view of Mount Ararat; 5. Arab encampment near the Birs Nimroud (on one sheet); 6. Sheikh Adi; 7. Baghdad; 8. Roman ruin on the way to Palmyra; 9. Sculptures in the Mount at Nimroud. The Victoria and Albert Museum ascribes this work to the artist Robert Charles Clive (1827-1902). - Original torn and somewhat defective front wrapper laid down on heavy paper and bound into a modern half calf binding; plates and binding fine. The two-page list of plates with descriptions is also laid on heavy paper. OCLC 785146909. Not recorded in Atabey, Blackmer, Tooley, Röhricht or Tobler.
Folio (322 x 212 mm). 50 watercolour miniatures on paper, ca. 9 x 14 cm, pasted on coloured cardboard within multiple gilt and pen-ruled frames, bound as a fan-fold book with cloth hinges. Near-contemporary black leather covers, stored in blind-stamped black slipcase with top flap. An exceptional series of 50 meticulously executed miniatures, compiled and painted by an anonymous artist. 41 of the delicate watercolours represent famous calligraphers, 5 (1 in grisaille) presumably represent sufis, and one more (not coloured) shows a seated prince, while 3 miniatures (2 in grisaille) depict flowers. - The main series of calligraphers begins with Yaqut al-Musta'simi, who lived in Baghdad under the Abbasid dynasty in the 13th century, and reaches so far as to include artists from the first half of the 19th century (the most recent date of death being that of Aqa Fath-'Ali Sirazi, 1852/53). Their names are captioned under the image, all in the same hand in nasta'liq script (with a single exception in sikasta). Most calligraphers are shown kneeling, with one knee raised on which they rest their paper - the typical posture of a scribe. One is shown writing at a desk, another seated on a low stool; yet another is busy sharpening his pen. The poet Wisal Sirazi is seen writing on his knee, but has a small table with an inkwell and paper in front of him. Nearly all are depicted holding their reed pen in hand, with various writing implements next to or in front of them, such as inkwells, pen cases, extra pens and paper, pen-knife, and sometimes a hookah (indeed, two scribes are shown smoking). Others have in front of them a candle and teapot, flowers or a bowl of fruit. They are shown wearing different kinds of turbans or a black astrakhan "kulah", the Qajar headdress. All the miniatures bear numbers between 1 and 50 on the reverse of the mounting boards, though they are not bound in order. - Provenance: apparently from the collection of Paul Manteau, a French (or Belgian?) official in Iran, with a press-copied salary receipt loosely inserted: "Je reconnais avoir reçu de Son Altesse Impériale Djellal-e-Daulet la somme de Soixante Tomans représentant le montant de mes appointements du mois de Châval année 1310. Téhéran le 11 avril 1893. Paul Manteau". As Shawwal 1310 began on 18 April 1893 AD, Manteau would have received his salary in advance, proving that the capacity in which he served could not have been altogether minor. Sultan Husayn Mirza Jalal al-Dawlih (b. 1868/69), his employer, was the eldest son of prince Mas'ud Mirza Zill al-Sultan (1850-1918) and grandson of the Qajar ruler Nasir al-Din Shah (r. 1848-96). In the later 19th century, numerous French and particularly Belgian officials worked in Iran: especially from 1898 onwards, Belgium posted to Persia a large number of officials whose task was to organize or reorganize various administrative departments. However, Manteau does not appear in Annette Destrée's standard account of "Les fonctionnaires belges au service de la Perse, 1898-1915" (Téhéran/Liège 1976): he clearly arrived before the great Belgian influx and may have left the country before 1898. - Some of the cloth concertina hinges professionally repaired, but finely preserved altogether.
Small folio (219 x 278 mm). 28 pp. With numerous black-and-white photographic prints. Original printed wrappers. Stapled. Illustrated history of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. This informative magazine includes high-quality images of the construction of pipelines, views of the Abadan refinery and other oil compounds, the Braim residential area, and an aerial view of Lali county - an area "typical of the difficult terrain in which the Company's main oilfields are situated". - Punched holes. Margins slightly worn.
