A. Asher & Co. B.V.

Arte de navegar, em que se ensinão as regras praticas, e os modos de cartear, e de graduar a Balestilha por via de numeros, e muitos problemas uteis aì navegac¸ão, e roteiro das viagens, e costas maritimas de Guineì, Angola, Brazil, Indias, e Ilhas Occidentaes, e Orientaes ... Lisbon, Miguel Manescal da Costa, 1762. Folio (30 x 20.5 cm). With 21 engraved plates (1 folding), 1 nearly full-page engraving of a compass rose and about 10 woodcut diagrams in the text. Contemporary or near contemporary tanned sheepskin, richly gold-tooled spine, new endpapers.

PIMENTEL, Manuel. · 1613

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

[12], 603, [1] pp.Third edition of a detailed Portuguese handbook of navigation, primarily concerned with navigation in the Portuguese colonies and former colonies in America (including Brazil), Africa and the East and West Indies. It includes 18 numbered plates containing 36 ...

Skandinaviens Fiskar.Including: Bihang, innefattande beskrifningar öfver de I Skandinavien bruklige Fiskeredskap. Stockholm, P. A. Norstedt & sons, "1838" [= 1836-1857]. 10 parts (paginated as 3) in 1 volume. Large 4to (28.5 x 25 cm). With 63 lithographic plates, 59 beautifully and extremely subtly coloured by hand as published, some showing 2 or more fish per plate. Modern half tan morocco (Johanna Röjgård).

FRIES, Bengt Fredrik, Carl Ulric EKSTRÖM [and Carl Jakob SUNDEVALL]. · 1810

€6,000.00 ($6,613.09 | £5,005.60 | ¥1,056,025)

[2], IV, 222; 49-56 (+ 49b-54b) & 125-140 (of "140" [= 146]); 44, [2] pp.Very rare, important and beautiful first edition, in Swedish, of the standard work on fish found in Scandinavian waters, with stunning plates by Wilhelm von Wright (1810-1887) and hand coloured with extra...

Iconologia, of uytbeeldingen des verstands: … Om uyt te drucken, en te vinden, 't begrip van alle sinnebeelden, invallen, devijsen of sinteykenen. …Amsterdam, Dirck Pietsz. Pers, 1644. 4to. With engraved allegorical frontispiece and 196 emblematic woodcut illustrations (ca. 8.5 x 6 cm) in the text by Jan Christoffel Jegher. Parchment (ca. 1725?).

RIPA, Cesare. · 1560

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

[14], 636, [8] pp.First Dutch edition, newly and extensively illustrated, of a famous encyclopaedia of iconology, the Iconologia of Cesare Ripa (1560-1645). It describes about 650 symbolic human or semi-human figures, illustrates nearly 200, and was intended as a guide for all...

Beschrijvinghe van America, wiens inwoonders, wildt, naeckt, seer godloos, ende wreede menschen-eters zijn; hoe hy selve onder de Brasilianen lange gevangen geseten heeft, die hem dagelijcks dreygden doot te slaen en t'eten: …Including: Avontuerlijcke, vreemde, ende waerachtighe beschryvinge van het landt America, alwaer Hans van Staden onder de Brasilianen, Tuppin Imbas ghenaemt, lange gevangen geseten heeft, ...Amsterdam, Jan Jacobsz. Bouman, 1660. 2 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With 2 title-pages, the first printed in red and black, each with a different large (7 x 13 cm) woodcut illustration; and 17 smaller (5 x 6.5 cm) woodcut illustrations (plus 12 repeats) in the text, mostly of Brazilian Indians. 20th-century dark brown calf, with older stiff paper wrappers bound in.

STADEN, Hans. · 1520

€7,000.00 ($7,715.27 | £5,839.86 | ¥1,232,030)

[8], 72 pp.Extremely rare Dutch edition of an important and very popular eye-witness account of mid-16th-century Brazil, by Hans Staden (ca. 1520/25-ca. 1557 or ca. 1576), a Hessian artilleryman who served the Portuguese in Brazil in the years 1547-1548 and 1549-1555. During m...

[Two autograph letters, signed, attempting to secure promised payments for the booty of the captured English frigate HMS Liverpool by the French privateer Le Grand Décidé, one addressed to Auguste-Anne de Bergevin, Commissaire principal de Marine in Bordeaux, and the other to the brothers Amédée & Eugene Larrieu in Bordeaux, who sold the booty].Bordeaux, 30 June & 18 November 1820. Folio (32.5 x 21 cm) & 4to (19.5 x 20.5 cm). In dark brown ink on paper.

PLEUC or PLEVE?, Jacques René. · 1799

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

[2], [2 blank]; [2], [2 blank] pp.Two letters by Jacques René Pleuc (or possibly Pleve), officer of the infamous French 18-gun privateer Le Grand Décidé which had been operating out of Bordeaux since 1799 under its captain Duchesne Lasalle for its owner Pierre Leleu. With the ...

Atlas maior. Amsterdam, Johannes Covens & Cornelis Mortier, [ca. 1725]. Imperial folio (53 x 35.5 cm). With engraved title page and 76 double-page (or in 8 cases larger folding) engraved maps, the title page and all maps and their decorations coloured by a contemporary hand. Half tanned sheepskin (ca. 1900), gold-tooled spine.

WIT, Frederick de. · 1672

€45,000.00 ($49,598.19 | £37,541.97 | ¥7,920,190)

Extremely rare Covens & Mortier edition of De Wit's Atlas maior, here with the engraved allegorical title-page and all 76 maps and their decorations beautifully coloured by a contemporary hand. It combines maps originally issued by Frederick de Wit, with ones from Nicolaes Vis...

Placcaet van … den Staten Generael ... daer by de Spaigniaerts ende alle heure goederen, voor goede prinse verclaert worden.The Hague, Aelbrecht Hendricksz, 1599. 4to. With the woodcut arms of the States General on the title-page. 19th-century blue paper wrappers.

[PROCLAMATION]. · 1599

€395.00 ($435.36 | £329.54 | ¥69,522)

[11], [1 blank] pp.One of three "virtually identical" (Typ. Batava) "1599" editions of a proclamation by the States General declaring all seized Spanish property forfeit to the stadholder Maurits (Maurice), Prince of Orange, and forbidding shipping and trade in the enemy terri...

Placcaet op tstuck vande convoyen (mitsgaders licenten, …) ghedaen … by zyne Excellentie, tot Utrecht den laetsten Aprilis, anno. M. D. LXXXVI. Utrecht, widow of Coenraet Henricksz, 1586. With: (2) DUDLEY, Robert, Earl of Leicester. [Incipit:] ¶ Robert, Grave van Leycester …, allen … die deze … sullen sien oft hooren lesen saluyt. Alsoo …: so ist dat wy … goet … geacht hebben, alle de … lysten vanden goedere[n] gaende naer … vreemde lande[n], …, te redigeren en[de] dresseren in ee[n] sijste[! = lijste], .... (Colophon: Utrecht, printed by Hendrick van Borculo, [1586]). 2 works sewn together. 4to. Disbound.

DUDLEY, Robert, Earl of Leicester. · 1585

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

[8]; [17], [1 blank] pp.Rare first and only editions of two official publications for the government of the Netherlands, represented in the years 1585 to 1587 by the English governor-general of the Dutch United Provinces, Robert Dudley (1533-1588), Earl of Leicester, the Nethe...

Nos souvenirs de Kil-Bouroun pendant l'hiver passé dans le liman du Dnieper 1855-1856. … Album lithographié … Paris, Arthus-Bertrand (printed by Becquet frères), [1856]. 1mo (63 x 46 cm). An album of views, most including ships on the river, from the Battle of Kinburn in the Crimean War, comprising 17 plates: 1 tinted lithographed title-page, 15 tinted and double-tinted lithographed views (image size 30 x 46 cm) and a lithographed map. Many views also coloured by hand. Later half blue cloth portfolio.

[CRIMEAN WARS]. PARIS, [Edouard?], Adolphe BAYOT, Eugène CICÉRI, Antoine Léon MOREL FATTO. · 1855

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

[17] lithographed ll.A rare lithographic print series commemorating the Battle of Kinburn (Kil-Bouroun) on the south bank of the Dnieper River near the Crimea. On 17 October 1855, during the Crimean War, the French and British navies attacked the Russian outpost there with a f...

Kitchin's general atlas, describing the whole universe. London, Robert Laurie, James Whittle, 1808. Imperial folio (53 x 39.5 cm). With 28 engraved maps (numbered in 41 parts) assembled from 67 sheets. Most include elaborate cartouches with pictorial decoration. With the maps coloured in outline. Contemporary half calf.

KITCHIN, Thomas and others.

€18,000.00 ($19,839.28 | £15,016.79 | ¥3,168,076)

1 leaf plus maps.Rare revised and enlarged edition of an English world atlas. Eleven of the maps are made from 4 sheets each, each numbered and bound in 2 parts, and the map of Asia with the islands of the Indian Ocean, Arabia, the East Indies, Australia and the Southwest Paci...

Geschichte der decorativen Wandmalerei in Pompeji … Mit 20 Tafeln in einer Mappe. Berlin, G. Reimer, 1882. 1 text volume & 1 portfolio with plates. 8vo (text volume) and 1mo (plates portfolio 53 x 43 cm). With 20 large numbered plates showing Pompeii wall paintings in situ, mounted on card stock, loose in a separate portfolio with letterpress title-leaf and contents leaf: 9 sepia collotypes (21 x 16 to 26.5 x 24.5 cm) and 11 chromolithographs (21.5 x 19 to 37 x 36 cm), no. 18 actually comprising 7 small chromolithographs on 1 card, each plate with a letterpress label on the back; and 7 black and white floor plans in the text. Contemporary half sheepskin parchment (text); contemporary blue half cloth portfolio (plates).

MAU, August. · 2009

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

XII, 462 pp.First and only edition of a detailed and beautifully colour-illustrated study of Pompeii wall paintings by Augustus Mau, who "knew as much about Pompeii as any other scholar at the time and seems always to have been willing to share the latest information from new ...

Société anonyme des mines et fonderies de zinc de la Vieille Montagne[.] Album de 30 vues.Paris, (printed by Auguste Bry), 1850-1851. Oblong 1mo (55.5 x 38.5 cm). Tinted lithographed title page and 30 tinted lithographed plates (55.5 x 38.5 cm, one slightly smaller: 35 x 50.5 cm), all in fine contemporary hand-colouring. Loose in modern clamshell box.

MAUGENDRE, Adolphe. · 1809

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

Extremely rare first edition of an impressive series of lithographed views showing the zinc mines, foundries and factories in Belgium and Germany owned by the "Société Anonyme de Mines et Fonderies de Zinc de la Vieille Montagne". The series includes views of Moresnet, Welkenr...

Reiss-Beschreibung in unterschiedliche Theile der Welt, nemlich in Türckey, Egypten, Palestina, Persien, Ost-Indien, und andere weit entlegene Landschaften ...Geneva, Johann Hermann Widerholds, 1674. 4 volumes bound as 1. Folio. With 31 engraved plates (1 folding), including frontispiece and portraits of the author and his wife, by Jean Jacques Thourneyser. Contemporary vellum.

VALLE, Pietro della. · 1614

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

[20], 218, [12], [2 blank]; [4], 236, [12]; [4], 244, [13], [1 blank]; [6], 231, [17] pp.First edition in German of Pietro della Valle's deservedly famous narrative of his travels in the Middle East, with an excellent account of Muscat and the Arabian Gulf and reference to Dib...

Voyage a l'Oasis de Thèbes et dans les déserts situés a l'orient et a l'occident de la Thébaïde, fait pendant les années 1815, 1816, 1817 et 1818.Paris, Royal press, 1821. With: (2) CAILLIAUD, Frédéric and Bernardino DROVETTI. Voyage a l'Oasis de Syouah … pendant leurs voyages dans cette oasis, en 1819 et en 1820.Paris, Rignoux, 1823. 2 works in 1 volume. Folio. Ad 1: with 24 numbered engraved plates, including 2 engraved maps (1 folding), 1 plate coloured by hand and 1 double-page. Ad 2: with 20 numbered plates (1 engraved map and 19 lithographed plates). Contemporary green goatskin morocco, richly gold-tooled spine, chemical-marbled sides, marbled edges.

CAILLIAUD, Frédéric and Bernardino DROVETTI. · 1819

€19,500.00 ($21,492.55 | £16,268.19 | ¥3,432,082)

[2 blank], XVII, [1], 120; [12], 28 pp.Ad 1: first edition of the account of Cailliaud's travels in the Oasis of Thebes and his expedition to locate the ancient emerald mines of the Red Sea coast. Together with an account of Drovetti's discovery of the Oasis of Dakel. The plat...

Sciagraphia historiae Aethiopicae, sive regni Abessinorum, quod vulgo perperam Presbyteri Johannis vocatur, deo volente, aliquando in lucem proditurae.Jena, Samuel Krebs, 1676. 4to. Set in roman types with some italic, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic and especially Ethiopic type. Late 19th-century textured blue half cloth.

LUDOLF, Job (Hiob LUDOLPHUS). · 1624

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

[40] pp.First and only edition of a brief history of Ethiopia by Job Ludolf (1624-1704), who was to become the leading Ethiopic scholar of his generation. Since the 1640s Ludolf had been working in Gotha in the diplomatic service of Duke Ernst I of Sachsen-Gotha, who encourage...

Be [! = De] ora Antarctica per regem Portugallie pridem inventa.[Paris, Tross, 1872]. Facsimile of the 1505 edition with 1 diagram constructed from rules and type. Printed on vellum. Wrapper made from 18th-century French marbled paper backed with (and the book interleaved with) 19th-century wove paper.

VESPUCCI, Amerigo. · 1505

€4,500.00 ($4,959.82 | £3,754.20 | ¥792,019)

[11], [1 blank] pp. plus interleaving.A photographic facsimile of the Strasbourg Latin edition (1505) of Amerigo Vespucci's account of what is usually called his third voyage (1501/02). Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512), who gave his name to America, sailed from Lisbon to Brazil an...

Omnia que gesta sunt in Orie[n]te inter Sophi & Maximum Turcarum & Suldanum, & que[m]admodum dux Turcaru[m] caepit Alepum & Damascum & Hierusalem cum om[n]ibus circumiace[n]tibus oppidis, & quo[rum] maximus Turcaru[m] voluit audire una[m] missam apud sanctu[m] sepulchru[m] Iesu Christi.[Basel, Pamphilus Gengenbach, 1518]. 4to. With woodcut illustration on title-page. 19th-century pink wrappers.

[OTTOMAN-MAMLUK WAR]. · 1516

€35,000.00 ($38,576.37 | £29,199.31 | ¥6,160,148)

[6], [2 blank] pp.Rare 16th-century news pamphlet on the Ottoman-Mamluk War (1516-1517). The booklet relates the events from June 1516 to July 1517, followed by an account of Sultan Selim's visit to Jerusalem. During the Ottoma-Mamluk war the Ottoman Sultan Selim I, known as "...

Historia y anal relacion de las cosas que hizieron los padres de la Compañia de Jesus, por las partes de Oriente y otras, en la propagacion del Santo Evangelio, los años passados de 607. y en 608.Madrid, Imprenta Real, sold by Juan Hasrey, 1614 (colophon 1613). 4to. With a woodcut IHS Jesuit device in a decorated cartouche on the title-page, the whole in a border built up from typographic ornaments and acorns; the large woodcut coat of arms of the dedicatee, Don Geronimo Corella y Mendoza; a large woodcut scrollwork tailpiece; 6 woodcut decorated initials (6 series); and headpieces built up from arabesque typographic ornaments. Set in roman types with extensive italic, some cut by François Guyot in Antwerp. 20th-century sheepskin parchment over flexible boards, turned in at the fore-edge, sewn on 3 alum-tawed thongs laced through the joints, with the title in thin textura lettering down the spine.

[GUERREIRO, Fernão (ed.)]. and Christobal SUÁREZ DE FIGUEROA (transl.). · 1607

€9,000.00 ($9,919.64 | £7,508.39 | ¥1,584,038)

[16], 566, [1], [1 blank] pp.First Spanish edition of an extensive account of the missions of the Jesuit missionaries in the years 1607 and 1608 in India, South East Asia, the East Indies and Africa, concerning especially in more detail their efforts in different provinces and...

Tractaat tusschen haar hoog mog. de Heeren Staten Generaal der Vereenigde Nederlanden, en de regeeringe van Tripoli. Geslooten in het jaar 1728.The Hague, Jacobus Scheltus II, 1729. 4to. Modern paper-covered boards.

[NETHERLANDS - STATES GENERAL - TREATY]. · 1686

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

8 pp.First edition, published in Dutch translation, of a treaty signed between the Dutch States General and Pasha Ahmed Karamanli (1686-1745), Turkish Muslim leader of the semi-autonomous state of Tripoli since 1711, when he killed the Ottoman governor and took the throne. The...

[Album of erotic drawings]. [France?, ca. 1815?]. 4to (26 x 21.5 cm). A matching set of 12 erotic drawings (image area about 20 x 16 cm) in coloured gouaches. Each is drawn on thick paperboard and mounted on the album leaves. 20th-century red goatskin morocco.

[EROTICA - DRAWINGS]. · 1815

€19,500.00 ($21,492.55 | £16,268.19 | ¥3,432,082)

A matching set of 12 skilfully executed erotic gouache drawings in numerous colours, each showing a naked or (more often) partly undressed young man and woman engaged in manual, vaginal or oral sex. Each is set in an interior (in at least most cases domestic), most of them ric...