A. Asher & Co. B.V.

The voyages & travels of Sir John Mandevile, Knight, … to the Holy Land, and to Hierusalem: as also to the lands of the Great Caan, and of Prestor John: to Inde, and divers other countries: ...London, Richard Chiswell, Benjamin Walford, Matthew Wotton, George Conyers, 1696. 4to. With a woodcut ship on the title-page and about 60 woodcut illustrations in the text (mostly about 5.5 x 8 cm) plus about 10 repeats. Gold-tooled, red goatskin morocco by Robert Riviere in London (ca. 1875/80), one of England's best binders.

MANDEVILLE, John [= Jehan d'OUTREMEUSE]. · 1400

€22,500.00 ($24,799.10 | £18,770.98 | ¥3,960,095)

[4], “139” [= 135], [5] pp.A rare 17th-century English edition, with about 60 different woodcut illustrations, of a classic and partly fictional 14th-century account of travels presented as voyages of Sir John Mandeville through Turkey, Egypt, Ethiopia, Syria, Persia, Arabia, ...

Wysgeerige en staatkundige geschiedenis van de bezittingen en den koophandel der Europeaanen, in de beide Indiën.Amsterdam, Matthijs Schalekamp, 1792-1803. 10 volumes bound as 9. 8vo. With 2 different engraved author's portraits, 8 engraved plates (5 as frontispieces), 12 engraved folding maps and 23 letterpress folding tables. Contemporary half calf, gold-tooled spine.

RAYNAL, Guillaume Thomas François. · 1713

€7,500.00 ($8,266.36 | £6,257.00 | ¥1,320,032)

VI, [4], 469, [19]; [8], 533, [1 blank], 11, [1 blank]; [8], 508, [11], [1 blank]; [8], 427, [9], [2 blank]; [8], 365, [9]; [8], 426, [10]; [10], 501, [7]; [8], 458, [11], [1 blank]; [8], 339, [10], [1 blank]; [4], 432, [13], [1 blank] pp.Second copy located, of the second edi...

Het leven en bedryf van den heere Michiel de Ruiter. Amsterdam, for Wolfgang, Waesberge, Boom, van Someren and Goethals, 1687 (engraved title-page: printed by Pieter and Joan Blaeu, 1686). Folio (34.5 x 22.5 cm). With engraved title-page, engraved portrait of De Ruyter, 7 engraved double-page plates by Sebastiaen Stoopendaal and 1 engraved plate by Joseph Mulder. Late 18th-century calf, gold-tooled spine.

BRANDT, Geeraert. · 1607

€3,750.00 ($4,133.18 | £3,128.50 | ¥660,016)

[10], "1063" [=1065], [23] pp.Large paper copy of the first edition, in the original Dutch, of the standard biography of the great Dutch naval hero Admiral Michiel Adriaansz. de Ruyter (1607-1676), who scored several major victories against the French and English, the best kno...

[Short autograph note signed by La Pérouse].[At sea, ca. 1781-1785]. Short manuscript note in ink on a small sheet of laid paper (12 x 13.5 cm).

LA PÉROUSE, Jean-François de Galaup de. · 1781

€18,500.00 ($20,390.37 | £15,433.92 | ¥3,256,078)

An exceptionally rare autograph note signed by the great French explorer La Pérouse. The extraordinary story and achievements of La Pérouse are well known, and recounted in the handsome official account of his expedition. However, because he was lost without trace mid-voyage, ...

Historie van mevrouwe de hartoginne van Pompadour. [Wrapper-title: Levensbeschryving van de hartoginne van Pompadour]. Zaltbommel, Johannes Willem Kanneman, 1761. 8vo. With engraved frontispiece and title-page printed in red and black. Recased in 18th-century vellum, later endpapers, preserving the original publisher's printed wrappers.

[KERSTEMAN, Franciscus Lievens]. · 1721

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

[8], 207, [1 blank] pp.First and only edition of Kersteman's extremely rare "histoire scandaleuse", describing the flagrant life of Madame de Pompadour (1721-1764), mistress of Louis XV. The book is described on the title-page and in the preface as a defence against the slande...

Over de monumentale schilderkunst en hare beinvloeding door de maatschappij.[Laren?, 1910].With: (2) ROLAND HOLST, Richard Nicolaüs. Over het rythmische en het naturalistische element in de monumentale schilderkunst.[Laren?, 1914]. Small 4to. Neatly written in dark brown ink on machine-made wove paper without watermark. Loosely inserted is a newspaper clipping with an article about Roland Holst's lectures in Paris, from the Nieuwe Rotterdamse Courant, 28 November 1923. Sewn in quires and each essay formerly glued (now loose) in dark grey thick paper wrappers.

ROLAND HOLST, Richard Nicolaüs. · 1868

€2,250.00 ($2,479.91 | £1,877.10 | ¥396,009)

[2 blank], [64], [2 blank]; [35], [5 blank] pp.Author's fair-copy manuscripts of two important and influential Dutch essays on the applied arts and society, written by the artist, craftsman, teacher and writer Richard Nicolaüs ("Rik") Roland Holst (1868-1938), husband of the M...

Segrare i Derby & Oaks [Winners at the Derby & Oaks].[England and/or Sweden], ca. 1835?-ca. 1855. 4to (24.5 x 18 cm). 36 pencil drawings of English thoroughbred race horses (7.5 x 11.5 to 11 x 16 cm), 1 finished in ink washes and a few touched up with white or light brown. Each drawing mounted on (or occasionally drawn on) a card, loose in a Swedish blind-blocked, textured red cloth portfolio (ca. 1860?).

HALL, Harry (by and/or after), and others. · 1822

€7,500.00 ($8,266.36 | £6,257.00 | ¥1,320,032)

[36] loose ll.A collection of 36 pencil drawings of famous English thoroughbred race horses by at least three artists, including one signed "Harry Hall" and several others clearly based directly or indirectly on his paintings. Some horses appear in their stables or grounds, so...

Les chevaux de course[:] pedigree - description - historique. 60 portraits en couleur par V.-J. Cotlison, L. Pénicault et Le Nail. Texte orné de 182 vignettes … = Historique des étalons pur-sang Anglais et Français et des juments Françaises les plus célèbres ayant paru sur le turf de 1764 à 1887.Paris, J. Rothschild, 1889. Oblong folio (24.5 x 37 cm). With 2 title-pages in red and black, each with a different vignette; 60 chromolithographed plates, highlighted with gum arabic and lithographed by Thurwanger, each facing an inserted letterpress leaf with a pedigree of the horse portrayed. Further with 182 lithographed vignettes in the text. Contemporary gold- and blind-blocked brown morocco, with the original publisher's front wrapper (lithographed and hand-coloured) mounted on the front board in a wide decorated gold frame, gold-tooled turn-ins, gilt edges, white glazed endpapers with a watered-silk pattern, signed on the front board, "A SOUZE A. LENEGRE REL.", meaning Auguste Souze and Antoine Lenègre the younger in Paris.

[TEYSSIER des FARGES, George Aimé]. TOUCHSTONE, S.F. (pseudonym).

€3,500.00 ($3,857.64 | £2,919.93 | ¥616,015)

XXV, [1 blank], 165, [1 blank] pp.An impressive record of 60 famous English and French thoroughbred racehorses. After a 26-page history, the series opens with the Godolphin Arabian, a legendary 18th-century Arabian horse, named after Francis, 2nd Earl of Godolphin, and the sub...

Commentarius in Enchiridion Epicteti, ex libris veteribus emendatus. Cum versione Hieronymi Wolfii, et Cl. Salmasii animadversionibus, et notis quibus Philosophia Stoica passim explicatur & illustratur.Leiden, Johannes Maire, 1640. 4 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With three title-pages. Set in roman, Greek and Arabic types. Contemporary French pointillé binding in the style of "Le Gascon", richly gold-tooled in concentric panels on both covers, and in the six compartments of the spine, the second with the title.

SIMPLICIUS of Cilicia. · 1588

€9,750.00 ($10,746.27 | £8,134.09 | ¥1,716,041)

[20], 332, [12]; [1], [1 blank], 329, [23]; [34], 88, 15 pp.A parallel Greek and Latin edition, edited by Daniel Heinsius, of Simplicius's commentaries on Epictetus's Enchiridion. The commentaries are especially valuable for the light they shed on earlier philosophers, some of...

A dictionary of the Malayan language, in two parts, Malayan and English and English and Malayan.London, printed for the author by Cox and Baylis, 1812. 4to. Set in roman and Arabic types with incidental Devanagari and italic. Modern blue cloth with a morocco spine label, retaining the nonpareil-marbled edges from the previous contemporary binding.

MARSDEN, William.

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

[1], [1 blank], XV, [1], 589, [1], [2 blank] pp.First edition of Marsden's excellent Malay dictionary, which quickly succeeded all earlier dictionaries and set the standard for those that followed. The author's 16-page introduction discusses the language and the arrangement of...

De vermakelyke avanturesse, of de dienstmaagd van fortuin. Vervattende hare zonderlinge levensgevallen, ontelbare wederwaardigheden en rampen; zeltzame ontmoetingen, en koddige vryagien; deszelfs driejarige dienst als lakye, gevangenneming op de Moorsche kusten, en hare slavernye in Asia by de Arabieren.Amsterdam, Steven van Esveldt, 1754. 8vo. With engraved frontispiece. Contemporary mottled half calf, gold-tooled spine, later endpapers.

[KERSTEMAN, Petrus Lievens]. · 1854

€3,500.00 ($3,857.64 | £2,919.93 | ¥616,015)

[4], 360 ppVery rare first edition of a Dutch picaresque novel telling the story of the girl Janneton, who was born in Brussels and moved with her parents to Amsterdam when she was 9. When she was around 16 she made plans to leave town with her lover, Charles, after being freq...

[Letter on the fighting between the Ottomans and Mamluks in Egypt]. Bucharest, 13 December 1803. 4to (23.5 x 18.5 cm). Autograph letter in English, signed, written in brown ink on laid paper.

DRUMMOND, William. · 1770

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

[2] pp.A signed autograph letter by William Drummond (1770-1828), Scottish classical scholar, poet and British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, written in Bucharest en route from Constantinople (Istanbul) to Berlin. The British had taken Alexandria from Napoleon's troops on 2...

L'Histoire des Indes Orientales et Occidentales …Paris, Robert de Ninville, 1665. 2 volumes bound as 1. 4to. Each volume with a (different) woodcut coat of arms of France and Navarre on the title page. Contemporary mottled calf, gold-tooled spine and board edges.

MAFFEI, Giovanni Pietro. · 1634

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

[32], “353” [= 351], [1 blank]; [2], "292" [= 296], [24] pp.A French translation of Maffei's celebrated Historiarum Indicarum. Divided into 16 books, it describes the Portuguese discoveries and missionary work in India, the East Indies, Persia, Japan, China, Brazil and other p...

Grammatica Arabica; cum varia praxios materia, cujus elenchum versa dabit pagella.Leiden, Johannes Maire, 1656. 2 parts in 1 volume. 4to. Mid 19th-century half tan calf, gold- and blind-tooled spine.

ERPENIUS, Thomas. · 1638

€3,500.00 ($3,857.64 | £2,919.93 | ¥616,015)

[12], 172, “282” [= 284] pp.Third edition, expanded and edited by Jacobus Golius, of Erpenius's classic Arabic grammar. The present edition is augmented with an Arabic chrestomathy that Fabricius had published in 1638. Erpenius (1584-1624) revolutionized Arabic scholarship in ...

Brevis & fida narratio, et continuatio rerum omnium a Drako et Norreysio (post ex Occidentalibus Insulis, reditum) in sua expeditione Portugallensi singulis diebus gestarum.Frankfurt am Main, Paul Brachfeldt, 1590. 4to. With the woodcut arms on the title-page, the upper related to that of Queen Elizabeth of England and the lower that of King Philip I of Portugal (Philip II of Spain), each supported by putti, a full-page woodcut standing soldier with sword and spear, perhaps intended as Francis Drake. Gold-tooled green morocco (2nd half of 19th century).

DRAKE, Francis (subject). · 1589

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

[2], 29, [1 blank] pp.Second edition (the first published outside England), in the original Latin, of a news/propaganda booklet reporting on Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Norris's failed 1589 attack on Portugal, first published in London as Ephemeris expeditionis Norreysii & ...

A grammar of the Malayan language, with an introduction and praxis. London, printed for the author by Cox and Baylis, sold by Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, and by Black, Parry and Co., booksellers to the British East India Company, 1812. 4to. Set in roman and Arabic types with incidental italic. Modern dark green cloth.

MARSDEN, William. · 1405

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

[1], [1 blank], L, [2], 225, [1 blank] pp.First edition of Marsden's excellent Malay grammar, which quickly succeeded all earlier grammars and set the standard for those that followed. After the author's 50-page introduction, discussing the previous literature, the language an...

A descriptive dictionary of the Indian Islands & adjacent countries.London, Bradbury & Evans, 1856. 8vo. With a folding engraved map of parts of the East Indies and Southeast Asia, with title "Asiatic Archipelago". Original publisher's blind-blocked brown cloth, title in gold on spine.

CRAWFURD, John. · 1820

€2,750.00 ($3,031.00 | £2,294.23 | ¥484,012)

[4], 459, [1 blank] pp.First edition of an authoritative work, in encyclopaedia form, on the Indonesian Archipelago. It is a sequel to Crawfurd's much-acclaimed History of the Indian Archipelago (1820). Initially the author planned to publish a second edition of his History, b...

Les merveilles des Indes Orientales et Occidentales, ou Nouveau traitté des pierres precieuses & perles, ...Paris, Christophe Lambin, 1661. 4to. With an engraved portrait of Anne Marie Louise d'Orleans facing the dedication. Contemporary gold-tooled, tanned sheepskin, gold-tooled sides.

BERQUEN, Robert de.

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

[12], 112 pp.First edition, first issue, of a rare work on precious stones and pearls found in what the title calls the East and West Indies (but including the Gulf region), written by a Paris "marchand orphevre". It is most important for the author's new information on diamon...

La venerie ... de nouveau reveuë, & augmentée du Miroir de fauconnerie.Paris, Pierre David, 1640. 4to. With 57 woodcut illustrations (plus 1 repeat) on integral leaves, including 1 on the title-page (3 full-page, further mostly 11 x 12 cm); woodcut music notes. Lacking part 2 on hawking (38 pp.). Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment.

FOUILLOUX, Jacques du. · 1640

€3,750.00 ($4,133.18 | £3,128.50 | ¥660,016)

[4], 124, [4] ll.The 1640 Paris edition of Fouilloux's classic and beautifully illustrated work on hunting, first published ca. 1560, here with the numerous additions first included in the Paris editions of 1573 and 1585, but lacking the second part on hawking (noted on the ti...

Brieven over Egypte. Amsterdam, Martinus de Bruyn, 1788-1789. 3 volumes. 8vo. With 4 numbered engraved folding plates, including maps of Egypt and northern Egypt, a plan of Alexandria, and a cross-section of the Great pyramid. Contemporary mottled calf, richly gold-tooled spines and binding edges.

SAVARY, (Nicolas) Claude Étienne. · 1777

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

XVI, 446, [1], [1 blank]; XVI, 364, [2 blank], [1], [1 blank]; “XIV” [=XXIV], 390, [1], [1 blank] pp.Surprisingly rare first and only edition of the Dutch translation of a collection of literary letters published after Savary's travels in Egypt (1777/79). Claude Étienne Savary...