A. Asher & Co. B.V.

The capital of the tycoon: a narrative of a three years' residence in Japan. London, Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, & Green (colophons: printed by Spottiswoode & Co.), 1863 [reissued with publisher's advertisements dated April 1875]. 2 volumes. 8vo. With 2 chromolithographed frontispieces, 2 folding engraved maps (partly coloured), 14 tinted, double-tinted and chromolithographed plates (at least one highlighted with silver colour) drawn mostly by Charles Wirgman (1832-1891) and lithographed by Hanhart, 2 black & white wood-engraved plates (engraved by Pearson) and numerous wood-engraved illustrations in text (some signed by Pearson). Original publisher's gold- and blind-blocked green cloth.

ALCOCK, Sir Rutherford. · 1809

€1,250.00 ($1,377.73 | £1,042.83 | ¥220,005)

XXXII, 469, [2]; X, 539 pp.First edition of a famous work on Japan by Sir Rutherford Alcock (1809-1897), the first British consul in Japan extensively illustrated with numerous chromolithographs and wood engravings. Alcock describes Nagasaki, Yokohama, a trip to Hokkaido and J...

Peniculus foriarum elenchi Scaligeriani pro Societate Iesu, Maldonato, Delrio. Auctore Liberio Sanga Verino Cantabro ad Clarum Bonarscium Belgam.“Metelloburgi Mattiacorum” [= Antwerp?], “apud haeredes Matthianos” [printed by Hendrik Swingen?], 1609. 12mo (14 x 9 cm). Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment.

[DELRIO, Martin Antonio]. · 1540

€3,250.00 ($3,582.09 | £2,711.36 | ¥572,014)

“103” [=203], [1 blank] pp.Rare First and only edition of a fierce attack on the brilliant French-born linguist and leading Protestant scholar Joseph Josephus Scaliger (1540-1609), professor at Leiden University, by Martin Antonio Delrio (1551-1608), a learned Jesuit jurist bo...

Mémoires de M. Wagner, sur la Russie, la Sibérie et le royaume de Cassan.Bern, Emanuel Haller, 1790. 8vo. With an engraved portrait of the author and 2 engraved plates. Contemporary boards covered with sprinkled paper, paper title label on spine.

WAGNER, Johann Ludwig. · 1759

€750.00 ($826.64 | £625.70 | ¥132,003)

[4], 254, [2 blank] pp.First and only edition in French of the memoirs of a German postmaster, who spent the Seven Years' War as a prisoner in Siberia. After the capture of Prussian Pillau (modern Baltiysk) by Russia in 1759, Wagner (1735-1820) had unknowingly been sending Rus...

De formulis et sollemnibus populi Romani verbis, Libri VIII...Frankfurt, Joannes Wechel and Petrus Fischer and consorts, 1592. 4to. With title-page printed in red and black, woodcut printer's device, woodcut head- & tail pieces and initials. Contemporary gold-tooled calf.

BRISSON, Barnabé. · 1531

€1,250.00 ($1,377.73 | £1,042.83 | ¥220,005)

[8], 750 [= 760], [84] pp.Second, revised and enlarged edition of a comprehensive compilation of Roman legal terminology, including remarks and data on the Latin language, Roman customs, religion politics and literature, by the French jurist and philologist Barnabé Brisson (15...

The sources of the Nile: being a general survey of the basin of that river, and of its head-streams; with the history of Nilotic discovery.London, James Madden, 1860. 8vo. With 5 maps (1 folding, 4 full-page), a folding plate, and several illustrations and tables in the text. Original publisher's embossed purple pebbled cloth, with the publisher lettered in gold at the foot of the spine.

BEKE, Charles Tilstone. · 1800

€1,900.00 ($2,094.15 | £1,585.11 | ¥334,408)

XV, [4], 155, [1 blank] pp.Dedication copy of the first edition of a survey on the geography of the Nile and it's sources. Charles Tilstone Beke (1800-1874) was an English traveller and geographer, best-known for his explorations and studies of the Nile. The present work inclu...

Album amicorum.Gorkum, Leiden, Warmond, Delft, Amsterdam, The Hague, Laarwoude, Zuidlaren and Assen, 1800-1805. 8vo (14.5 x 10 cm). Manuscript album amicorum on paper, with entries in Dutch, French and German. With 3 watercolours of flowers, a small watercolour of roses, and a fine washed pen drawing of a view on a lake with fishermen at work by the owner's niece, J.M. de Gyselaar. Contemporary calf, richly gold-tooled spine and turn-ins, yellow silk endpapers.

GYSELAAR (GIJSELAAR), Johanna Maria Nicoletta de. · 1800

€1,750.00 ($1,928.82 | £1,459.97 | ¥308,007)

192 pp.Album amicorum of a young Dutch noble girl: Jonkvrouwe Johanna Maria Nicoletta (Marie) de Gyselaer, with her autograph on back of the first leaf, dated 31-01-1800. According to the first poem, the album was a gift from the girl's mother, also dated January 31, 1800. The...

Manuel de l'artificier.Paris, Charles-Antoine Jombert, 1757. 8vo. With 5 folding tables and 12 folding engraved plates. Contemporary mottled calf, richly gold-tooled spine.

[PERRINET D'ORVAL, Jean Charles]. · 1707

€1,500.00 ($1,653.27 | £1,251.40 | ¥264,006)

[8], 142, [3] pp.Second, revised and corrected edition of a popular pyrotechnic manual by Jean Charles Perrinet d'Orval (1707-1780), who was an officer in the French army Corps of Engineers. It was first published in 1755 and includes a large section on Chinese fireworks.With ...

Amstelaedamum omnium recentissimè et accuratissime expressum à Petro van den Berghe, Moschus, Arabs[,] Persae, Maurus, Judaeus, uterque[.] Quod ferat huc, rursusque auferat, Indus habet. Hanc dum mundus adit mundumque haec ipsa perrat[!], non urbs fixa loco, sed vagus orbis erit.Amsterdam, Gerard van Keulen, [ca. 1720]. Etched view (50.5 x 81 cm) on two sheets. In a modern wooden frame.

BERGE, Pieter van den. · 1659

€15,000.00 ($16,532.73 | £12,513.99 | ¥2,640,063)

First state of a famous and rare large etching of ships and boats in the IJ inlet, with a panorama of the city of Amsterdam in the background, showing the city between the Oost Indische Zeemagazijn and the Haarlemmerpoort. This view is interesting for the central role that Pet...

Afbeelding der menschelyke bezigheden, bestaande in hondert onderscheiden printverbeeldingen. Amsterdam, Reinier & Josua Ottens, [ca. 1726/50]. 4to. With richly engraved emblematic frontispiece, engraved publisher's device on title-page, and 100 numbered engraved plates (plate size ca. 12 x 8 cm) of trades and professions, engraved after the designs by Jan and Caspar Luyken. Contemporary blind-tooled vellum, gilt and gauffered edges.

LUYKEN, Jan & Caspar and Anthony JANSSEN van ter GOES. · 1726

€9,500.00 ($10,470.73 | £7,925.53 | ¥1,672,040)

[1] letterpress leaf plus [1], 100 engraved ll.A wholly engraved edition except for the letterpress title-page, printed by Reinier and Josua Ottens (ca. 1726/50) from the plates of the pirated edition of 1695 of the most celebrated and most famous work of Jan and Caspar Luyken...

Lectiones elementares astronomiae, geometriae, et physicae, ex editione Parisina anni 1755 in Latinum traductae a C.S(chefer) e S.J. Including: Appendix, complectens Praecipuas Mutationes, quas Auctor in Ultima Editione Parisina anno 1761 fecit, et in Latinum convertit C.S(chefer) e S.J.Vienna, Prague, Johann Thomas Trattner, 1757-1762. 2 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With woodcut vignette on 2 title-pages, 10 folding engraved plates in text. Contemporary vellum.

LACAILLE (LA CAILLE), Nicolas Louis de. · 1755

€1,950.00 ($2,149.25 | £1,626.82 | ¥343,208)

[10], 280, [6]; 75, [1 blank] pp.First Latin edition of a popular school book on astronomy, geometry and natural science, translated from the second French edition published at Paris in 1755, together with an Appendix, containing a Latin translation of the corrections and addi...

Nieuwe natuur- en wiskonstige vermaaklykheden ...Rotterdam, Reinier Arrenberg, 1771-1775. 4 volumes. 8vo. With 24, 16, 23, and 10 numbered engraved folding plates with illustrations of scientific instruments, experiments, games, perspective and optical compositions, code languages, fireworks, and more. Contemporary half calf, gold-tooled spines with title labels, red sprinkled edges.

GUYOT, Edme Gilles. · 1760

€2,500.00 ($2,755.46 | £2,085.66 | ¥440,011)

XXVIII, 29-414, [4], [2 blank]; VIII, 9-622, [2]; VI, 7-396, [4]; XII, 13-338, [2] pp.Complete set of the first Dutch edition of an incredibly rich collection of scientific experiments in the form of amusing party games, all soundly based on the principles and laws of modern s...

Memoire sur les aimans. Ou description succinte de tout ce qui est necessaire pour la construction de toute sorte d'aiman imaginable; le changement de pôles suivant l'axe ou suivant les cotés de la pierre d'aiman. La construction & trempe des aiguilles de boussole. Une mémoire sur l'engrenage pour les horloger & autre artisans. Et pour les amateurs de l'histoire naturelle deux méthodes pour fermer les bocaux contre evaporation de l'esprit de vin.Venlo, au dépens de l'Auteur, 1768. 8vo. With a folding engraved table and 5 folding engraved plates with technical illustrations and figures. Contemporary calf.

GEUNS, Petrus. · 1769

€1,250.00 ($1,377.73 | £1,042.83 | ¥220,005)

XXIV, 143, [7] pp.First edition, in the original French, of a very rare Venlo-printed manual on magnetism, watch-making and techniques for producing a vacuum. It teaches the reader how to construct all kinds of magnets, including compass needles, gives observations on clockwor...

Dissegno per la fabrica della Libreria Canonicale. [Verona, ca. 1720/25]. Folio (38.5 x 25.5 cm). With 4 architectural drawings, 3 double-page (ca. 37 x 50 cm at a scale of about 1:60) and 1 loosely inserted full-page (24 x 35 cm at a scale of about 1:107), skillfully drawn in brown ink and several shades of grey watercolour. Two of the double-page drawings are elevations (1 partly in cross-section), the other 2 drawings are floor plans, each plan with a folding flap tipped on showing the plan of a higher level. Contemporary stiff paper wrappers.

[ARCHITECTURE - DRAWINGS]. · 1675

€25,000.00 ($27,554.55 | £20,856.65 | ¥4,400,106)

The original designs for the alterations to the chapter library at Verona, situated in the Church of St. Helena, abutting the famous Cathedral of San Zeno (the common wall appears in the drawings). The alteration was ordered by Scipione Maffei (1675-1755) and Jacopo(?) Muselli...

Les quatre elemens.Comprising:(1) La terre.(2) L'air. (3) L'eau.(4) Le feu.[Paris], Imprimerie de Maulde et Renou, [ca. 1840]. 4 volumes. 32mo. With 8 full-page steel-engraved plates (2 in each volume). Original publisher's glazed pastel boards (light blue, yellow, pink, or light green), with the title and a steel-engraved illustration of one of the four elements in the centre of the front board, within an embossed ornamental border.

[CHILDREN'S BOOK].

€1,250.00 ($1,377.73 | £1,042.83 | ¥220,005)

Each 24 pp.Charming set of children's miniature books with instructive reading about both the positive and negative aspects of each of the four elements: earth, air, water, and fire. Each volume focusses on one of the elements and includes two steel-engraved plates, showing th...

Exposicion que hase [sic] el Canton provincia de Porto-viejo, de los motivos legales y políticos que há tenido para declararse unanimente incorporada a la Republica de Colombia segun la ley fundamental del estado dictada por el Congreso general, y sancionada por el voto de los pueblos.Lima, San Jacinto, [1822]. 4to. Side stitched.

[RAMÍREZ Y FITA, Cayetano?]. · 1776

€8,500.00 ($9,368.55 | £7,091.26 | ¥1,496,036)

22, [2 blank] pp.Very rare pamphlet, printed in Lima, proclaiming the decision of the Canton of Portoviejo (in modern Ecuador) to join the Republic of Greater Colombia. The text was presumably written by the priest and revolutionary Cayetano Ramírez y Fita (1776-1854) and adap...

Beknopte huishoudelyke hovenier. Inhoudende eene verhandeling en meernamige lijsten van alle soorten van ooft-vrugten. Insgelyks van alle boom- en heesteragtige plantagie-gewassen. Gelyk ook van alle keuken-gewassen, veld-vrugten, verfstof-gewassen en anderen.Amsterdam, Martinus de Bruyn, [1760-1762]. 3 volumes. 8vo. With a small woodcut vignette on the title-pages, woodcut decorated initials, woodcut tailpieces. Modern quarter paper.

KNOOP, Johann Hermann. · 1700

€6,950.00 ($7,660.16 | £5,798.15 | ¥1,223,229)

X, 294; [8], 415, [1 blank]; [8], 362, [42] pp.Very rare Amsterdam printing of the second improved and enlarged edition of this encyclopedic manual on all aspects of horticulture, including fruit- and kitchen-gardens, as well as the cultivation of medicinal plants and herbs by...

De metselaar ontmomd, of het rechte geheim der vrye metselaren ontdekt, in allen deele oprechtelyk en zonder achterhouding, door een gewezen vryen metselaar. ... Derde druk.Arnhem, Jacob Nijhoff, 1753. 8vo (16.5 x 10 cm). With a woodcut freemasonry device on title-page and 3 folding engraved plates. Contemporary marbled paper wrappers.

WOLSON (WILSON), Thomas.

€950.00 ($1,047.07 | £792.55 | ¥167,204)

[8], 106 pp.Third edition of the very rare Dutch translation a work on freemasonry by the former freemason Thomas Wolson, revealing the secrets of the masonry rites and rituals. Wolson starts with the origin and history of the brotherhood, and narrates his own experiences as a...

[Decree granting a salary to Johan Theodor, Baron of Friesheim, as chief bailiff and state prosecutor in 's-Hertogenbosch].The Hague, 2 April 1681. Folio (31.5 x 20.5 cm). Written in brown ink on paper, with the armorial seal of William of Orange stamped on a decorative paper cut-out over red wax.

[MANUSCRIPT]. WILLIAM III, Prince of Orange. · 1679

€5,000.00 ($5,510.91 | £4,171.33 | ¥880,021)

[1], [3 blank] pp.Decree signed by William of Orange, Stadholder of The Netherlands and future King William III of England, tranferring to Johan Diederik (or Theodo(o)r), 2nd Baron of Friesheim, recently appointed chief bailiff and state prosecutor in the city of 's-Hertogenbo...

[Mortgage agreement, granting Jan Hanneman, Steward General of North Holland, the rights to the tithes of the King's lands of Voorburg and Voorschoten].The Hague and Brussels, 1557 (with additions to 1565). Folio (36 x 25.5 cm). Manuscript mortgage agreement, signed by King Philip's representatives, written in brown ink on parchment in a nearly upright cursive gothic hand. With a typescript transcription of the main text and an interlinear translation in Spanish.

[MANUSCRIPT]. PHILIP (FELIPE) II, King of Spain. · 1556

€6,500.00 ($7,164.18 | £5,422.73 | ¥1,144,027)

[2 blank], 9, [1 blank] pp.Original mortgage agreement in Dutch in which King Philip II of Spain, who had sovereignty over the Low Countries and held the title Count of Holland, grants Jan Hanneman the rights to the tithes from his lands of Voorburg and Voorschoten. Philip had...

Journael van de Nassausche Vloot, ofte Beschrijvingh van de Voyagie om den gantschen aert-kloot … Noch is hier by gevoegt een beschrijvinge vande regeeringe van Peru door Pedro de Madriga, geboren tot Lima. Als mede een verhael van Pedro Fernandez de Quir aengaende de ontdeckinge van 't onbekent Australia … Oock mede eenige discoursen de Oost-Indische vaert en de coopmanschap betreffende.Amsterdam, Joost Hartgertsz., 1648. 4to. With a large engraved double-page plate with 6 views of the fleet in various bays and harbours and a half-page woodcut with two ships on the title-page. 19th-century decorative paper over boards.

[WALBEECK, Johan van]. · 1582

€5,950.00 ($6,557.98 | £4,963.88 | ¥1,047,225)

[2], 76 [=78] pp.Fifth edition, the first containing the plate showing six scenes, of this account of the famous circumnavigation of the Dutch fleet under command of Admiral Jacques l'Hermite (Jacques de Clerck, ca.1582-1624) during the years 1623-1626. The account t is combin...