A. Asher & Co. B.V.

Verzeichnis von Nürnbergischen topographisch-historischen Kupferstichen und Holzschnitten.Nuremberg, printed for the author, 1791. 4to. Later boards.

MÜLLER, Christian Gottlieb.

€350.00 ($385.77 | £291.95 | ¥61,610)

208, [2] pp., interleaved.Interleaved copy of the first edition of an early catalogue of woodcuts and engravings depicting Nuremberg and surroundings by Christian Gottlieb Müller. It is divided into 26 chapters, each devoted to a different subject: maps, views, traditional cos...

Icones plantarum incognitarum quas in India Occidental.Erlangen, Johann Jacob Palm, 1794-[1800]. 2 parts in 1 volume. Folio. With XII finely hand-coloured numbered engraved plates. Near contemporary half cloth, marbled sides.

SWARTZ, Olof Peter. · 1760

€12,500.00 ($13,777.59 | £10,426.81 | ¥2,200,366)

Very rare first and only edition of an illustrated description of 13 Jamaican plants (13 illustrated with 1 plate each, but only the first 9 described) by the Swedish botanist Olof Peter Swartz (1760-1818), who had drawn some 200 plants during his travels through the West Indi...

Icones selectæ plantarum, quas in Japonia collegit et delineavit.London, [Library of the British Museum], 1791. Folio (42 x 26.5 cm.). With 59 etched plates, (8 are double-page), by Daniel Mackenzie. Slightly later half calf, marbled sides, gold-tooled monogram AL on spine.

KAEMPFER, Engelbert (Sir Joseph BANKS, ed.). · 1651

€38,000.00 ($41,883.87 | £31,697.51 | ¥6,689,112)

[4], 3, [1 blank] pp.First and only edition of one of the rarest books on Japanese flora. The author Engelbert Kaempfer (1651 - 1716) was a professor from Lemgo, Germany, who joined the Dutch East India Company (VOC) as a medical doctor in 1685. After periods in what are now I...

Horti Elthamensis plantarum rariorum icones et nomina.Leiden, Cornelis Haak, 1774. 2 volumes bound as 1. Folio. With 325 engraved plates, numbered 1-147, [1], 148-324. 4 plates misbound: 6/7 and 273/274. Contemporary boards. Preserved in a professionaly handmade box, made for this book.

DILLENIUS (DILLEN), Johann Jakob. · 1732

€12,000.00 ($13,226.48 | £10,009.74 | ¥2,112,351)

[12] pp.Second expanded Linnaean edition of "one of the most important of pre-Linnaean works" (Hunt): Dillen's description of plants in the great botanical garden in Eltham (London) of James Sherard, "one of the most richly stocked gardens in the world".To this second edition ...

Historia salicum iconibus illustrata.Leipzig, Siegfried Leberecht Crusius, vol. 1: 1785-1787, vol. 2: 1791. 2 volumes. Folio. With 24 engraved plates in vol. 1 (numbered 1-24) and 6 engraved plates in vol. 2 (numbered 25-29, 31: all published), all signed by I. Nuszbiegel after originals by the author, except plate 31, which is signed by Johann Stephan Capieux.Blue sprinkled paper over boards (vol. 1) and limp grey paper wrappers, stab-sewn through the wrappers (vol. 2). Preserved in a professionaly handmade box, made for this book.

HOFFMANN, Georg Franz. · 1785

€14,500.00 ($15,982.00 | £12,095.10 | ¥2,552,424)

66, [4], 67-78; 12 pp.Both volumes of the first and only edition of Hoffmann's monograph on willows, published in instalments from 1785 to 1791, including the series of 30 engraved plates (numbered as 31) made to accompany them, showing willows, their branches, leaves and flow...

Damascus.[Damascus?], Field Survey Co[mpan]y. R.E., E.E.F., 7 October 1918. Map of Damascus (73.5 x 51 cm) printed in black and tan, on a scale of 1:10,000.

[SYRIA - EGYPTIAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE]. · 1918

€8,500.00 ($9,368.76 | £7,090.23 | ¥1,496,249)

Extremely rare British map of Damascus, with a more detailed inset map of the area around Kadem Station (to the west of the city centre), the northern terminus of the Hejaz railway between Damascus and Medina, especially rare in its present first state, published by the Britis...

Sketches illustrating the manners and customs of the Indians and Anglo Indians.London, Thomas McLean, 1842. Large folio (54,5 x 37,5 cm.). With 6 hand coloured lithograph plates and a lithographed title. Contemporary half calf with cloth sides, gold tooled title on front cover.

[INDIA]. TAYLER, William. · 1808

€12,500.00 ($13,777.59 | £10,426.81 | ¥2,200,366)

[16] pp; [6] plates.First and only edition of an ethnographic study of native Indian people by William Tayler (1808-1892), who was at that time Acting Salt Agent of the Central Division of Cuttack for the East India Company. He dedicated his work to "Lady William Bentinck" (bo...

The defence of Jellalabad, ... drawn on stone by W.L. Walton.London, Joseph Hogarth, Henry Graves & Co., and sold by Hullmandel & Walton, [1845/46]. 1mo (full-sheet leaves) (54 x 37 cm). With a lithographed frontispiece portrait of Sale by Thomas Fairl and after a painting by Scarlet Davis, a lithographed illustrated title-page, a lithographed dedication to Queen Victoria (reproducing Sale’s hand-written and signed dedication), a double-page “Plan of Jellalabad” (51.5 x 60 cm, lithographed by S. Leith in Edinburgh) and 34 tinted lithographic views of the city and its fortifications (in landscape format) on 22 leaves. Gold-tooled red goatskin morocco, richly gold-tooled turn-ins, gold-tooled board edges, yellow endpapers, gilt edges.

SALE, Sir Robert H. (and others). · 1842

€15,000.00 ($16,533.10 | £12,512.18 | ¥2,640,439)

Lithographed frontispiece, title-page & dedication plus 5, [1 blank] pp. plus plates.The first and only edition of a grand and spectacular visual presentation (there are only five pages of text) of the city of Jalalabad and its fortifications in eastern Afghanistan and related...

Avonturen gedurende een tweejarig verblijf in Californië en zijne mijnen.Haarlem, A.C. Kruseman, 1850. 2 volumes bound as 1. 8vo. With two lithographed title pages and 20 lithographed illustrations on 10 plates, all drawn by Carel Christiaan Anthony Last after the author. Modern half cloth.

RYAN, William Redmond.

€1,950.00 ($2,149.30 | £1,626.58 | ¥343,257)

[2], 308; VIII, 325 pp.First and only edition in Dutch of the richly illustrated travelogue of William Redmond Ryan, with many details on the beginning of the California Gold Rush and life in the mines. "Although smaller, the plates are superior to those in the English edition...

[Recipe book].[Twente, ca. 1865]. 4to with many added notes. Contemporary half calf, kept in a custom linen case.

[RECIPE BOOK - TWENTE]. · 1865

€1,800.00 ($1,983.97 | £1,501.46 | ¥316,853)

[ca. 300] pp.Anonymous manuscript recipe book (ca. 1865), by a Dutch pharmacist from the Twente region in The Netherlands. The book contains about 150 leaves filled with manuscript recipes and formulas to cure animals. For example: a cure for a sow that will not let her piglet...

Opera. Nunc primum in lucem edita.Utrecht, Herman van Borculo, 1541. With Van Borculo’s winged stag and book device on the title-page and another on the verso of the otherwise blank last leaf. Small 8vo (16 x 10.5 cm). Contemporary vellum wrapper.

SECUNDUS, Janus (Joannes or Jan EVERAERTS). · 1511

€7,500.00 ($8,266.55 | £6,256.09 | ¥1,320,219)

[324], [3 blank], [1] pp.Rare first edition, in the original Latin, of the collected poetic works of the humanist and neo-Latin poet Janus or Joannes Secundus (Jan Everaerts) (1511-1536), who "ranks among the foremost poets of the world" as "the only famous [16th-century] Dutc...

Los emblemas … traducidos en rhimas Españolas. ...Lyon, Guillaume Rouille [printed by Macé Bonhomme], 1549. 8vo (18.5 x 12.5 cm). With an elaborate woodcut architectural frame; 210 emblems (200 with woodcuts); nearly every page in one of about 34 different richly decorated woodcut frames. Early 18th-century (Spanish?) sheepskin parchment.

ALCIATO, Andrea. · 1492

€18,000.00 ($19,839.73 | £15,014.61 | ¥3,168,526)

256, [6] pp.Rouille issue of the first Spanish edition of the first emblem book, by the legal scholar Andrea Alciato (1492-1550) in Milan, first published in Latin at Augsburg in 1531 with only 104 emblems (97 with woodcuts), but greatly expanded up to the author's death. The ...

Chanak.Cairo, Survey Department Egypt, 1915 Colour-lithographed map (79 x 62.5 cm), printed in black, brown, red, blue and green. Mounted on contemporary cloth, with the key on the back (printed on or printed and pasted onto). Folded.

[INTELLIGENCE OFFICE - ARAB BUREAU - CAIRO]. · 1915

€3,500.00 ($3,857.72 | £2,919.51 | ¥616,102)

The finest contemporary map of the Çanakkale sector of the Gallipoli Campaign, the site of the dreaded "Narrows" of the Dardanelles where allied naval forces made their ill-fated attempt to "force the straits" towards taking Istanbul, at a scale of 1:20,000. Drafted in Cairo u...

Friesche lust-gaarde ofte Boom-heester-bloem- en kruyd-waarande, bestaande uyt der gewassen beschrijvinge, die in Hoog- en Neder-duyds-land en de aangrenzende land-schappen bekent zijn.Leeuwarden, Hendrik Rintjes, 1686 (second title-page after preliminaries: 1687). 4to. With an engraved allegorical frontispiece, ascribed to Jan Luyken. Contemporary vellum, sprinkled edges, new endpapers.

GABBEMA, Simon Abbes. · 1628

€3,750.00 ($4,133.28 | £3,128.04 | ¥660,110)

[1], [1 blank], [44], 660, [60] pp.Detailed botanical description of Frisian and Northwest European plants, trees, flowers and herbs by the Frisian historian Simon Abbes Gabbema (1628-1688). Although Gabbema was appointed history writer of Frisia in 1659 by the States of Frisi...

Methodus plantarum, emendata et aucta. In quâ notae maxime characteristicae exhibentur, quibus stirpium genera tum summa, tum infima cognoscuntur & à se mutuo dignoscuntur ... Accedit methodus Graminum, Juncorum et Cyperorum specialis. Eodem auctore"London" & Amsterdam, "Samuel Smith & Benjamin Walford"; J. & G. Janssonius van Waesberge [printed in Leiden], 1703. 8vo. With an integral engraved frontispiece portrait of the author and an inserted letterpress hierarchical table (folded up at the foot). Contemporary calf, rebacked.

RAY, John. (Johannes RAIUS). · 1627

€2,250.00 ($2,479.97 | £1,876.83 | ¥396,066)

[35], [1 blank], 202, [26] pp.First issue of the second edition, the first in its definitive expanded form, of one of the earliest botanical classifications, written by the famous English botanist John Ray (1627-1705), the great pre-Linnaean pioneer of classification. "The fat...

Het secreet-boek vol heerlijke konsten. Als van de hooftstoffen in elks gebruik, vande gebreken, siekten en qualen der menschen, van tamme en wilde dieren ..., bloemen, kruiden en saden ..., van olien en salven te bereiden, van distileren en andere weetenschappen; met een aenhangsel verrijkt, uyt een groot getal Latijnsche, Italiaansche, Francoische, Hoog- en Neder-duitsche autheuren vergadert.Leeuwarden, Hendrik Rintjes, 1694. 12mo. With a woodcut vignet on title-page. Contemporary vellum with boards partly folded over the edge, with manuscript short-title on spine.

BATTUS, Carolus. · 1609

€1,950.00 ($2,149.30 | £1,626.58 | ¥343,257)

573, [3] pp.A popular Dutch book of secrets. This is the very rare last (11th?) edition, the first edition was printed in Dordrecht in 1609. We have located only two copies of the present edition in libraries, both in Amsterdam (VU & UB). The complier, physician Carolus Battus...

Rei agrariae auctores legesque variae. Quaedam nunc primum, caetera emendatiora prodeunt curâ.Including: Antiquitatum agrariarum liber singularis.Amsterdam, Johannes Janssonius van Waesberge, 1674. 2 works in 1 volume. 4to. With an integral engraved allegorical frontispiece, a general title-page with a woodcut decoration, 6 integral divisional titles including one for the Antiquitatum agrariarum, 3 folding engraved plates, 55 further engravings on integral leaves (15 full page), numerous woodcut illustrations in the text (mostly geometric diagrams) and woodcut head- and tailpieces. Contemporary calf, gold-tooled spine, sprinkled edges.

GOES, Willem and Nicolas RIGAULT · 1611

€2,500.00 ($2,755.52 | £2,085.36 | ¥440,073)

[20], 360, [60]; 328 pp.First and only edition of a collection of texts on land surveying and agricultural law from classical antiquity, known as the Corpus agrimensorum Romanorum, here edited by Willem Goes (1611-1686). The classical authors include Aggenus Urbicus, Frontinus...

[Expositio super toto psalterio, incipit:] Ad sanctissimum ac beatissimum dominum dominum Pium Secundum Pontificem Maximum editio in librum psalmorum quem alii soliloquium dicunt incipit feliciter … [colophon:] Explanatio in psalterium …(Colophon:) Augsburg, printed by Johann Schüssler, [1470/71]. Folio (30 x 22 cm). Set in a single type, largely a rotunda gothic but with some roman influences with 35 lines per page, with about 150 manuscript "Lombardic" initials in red ink, the lines introducing the commentary for each psalm underscored and with manuscript paragraph marks, both in red ink. Late 19th-century(?) half vellum, boards covered with 2 leaves from a Latin Vulgate Bible printed on vellum.

TORQUEMADA, Juan de (Johannes de TURRECREMATA). · 1468

€32,500.00 ($35,821.73 | £27,109.71 | ¥5,720,951)

[266], [2 blank] pp. ([133], [1 blank] ll.)Second(?) edition, in the original Latin, of the important and influential extensive commentaries on each of the 150 psalms, by the Spanish Dominican cardinal Juan de Torquemada (ca. 1388-1468). He brings together quotations from the ...

Chiromantia 1 Physiognomia, ex aspectu membrorum hominis. 2 Periaxiomata, de faciebus signorum. 3 Canones astrologici, de judiciis aegritudinum. 4 Astrologia naturalis. 5 Complexionum noticia, juxta dominium planetarium.(Colophon: Strasbourg, Johann Schott, 1534). Folio (31 x 21.5 cm). With a large woodcut portrait of the author on the title page, the author's full-page woodcut coat of arms on the recto of the otherwise blank last leaf, about 93 woodblock illustrations (including 3 hand blocks and a few square astrological diagram blocks used repeatedly with varying content). 20th-century half maroon goatskin morocco.

INDAGINE VON HAGEN (ROSENBACH), Johannes. · 1522

€9,500.00 ($10,470.97 | £7,924.38 | ¥1,672,278)

126, [1], [1 blank] pp.Rare third edition in the original Latin, printed with the woodblocks of the first (1522) edition by the same publisher, of a classic account of palm reading, physiognomy (determining personality from facial features and the shape of the head) and severa...

Verslag eener reis naar de thee-districten van Britsch-Indie en Ceylon ondernomen door de heeren H.J.Th. Netscher en A.A. Holle in opdracht van de Cultuur Maatschappij Parakan-Salak.Including: Harold Hart MANN. Het ferment in het theeblad en zijne verhouding tot de hoedanigheid der thee.Batavia, G. Kolff & Co., 1903. 2 works in 1 volume. Folio. With 1 engraved double-page plate, 4 lithographed colour-plates and 22 albumen photographs with guard leaves containing text. Contemporary brown cloth, title in gold, decorated endpapers.

[CEYLON - TEA]. NETSCHER, H.J.Th., and Alexander Albert HOLLE. · 1900

€4,850.00 ($5,345.70 | £4,045.60 | ¥853,742)

[2], 93, [1] pp.Rare first and only edition of a report on the investigation of tea cultivation and production in Assam (India) and Ceylon. The Dutch cultural association “Cultuur Maatschappij” in Palakan-Salak asked H.J.Th. Netscher and Alexander Albert Holle to investigate t...