
INDIA
[
]
Benthamite/Utilitarian/Imperialist/Influential
History of India
(A View from a Desk in London). Mill, James. The history of British India ... in six volumes. London: Baldwin, Cradock, & Joy, 1826. 8vo (23.1 cm, 9.1"). 6 vols. I: iv, xxxv, [1], 450 pp.; 1 map. II: iv, 463, [1] pp.; 1 map. III: iv, 571, [1] pp. IV: iv, 508 pp. V: iv, 546 pp. VI: iv, [2], 631, [1] pp.
$650.00
Click the images for enlargements.
A best-seller at the time of its publication and still widely studied, this influential work provides a critical examination of the British presence in India, along with a general account of the country and her religions, government, law, arts, and economy. The author was a prominent Scottish Utilitarian economist, philosopher, and ally of Jeremy Bentham's; he freely acknowledged never having visited India himself.
This is the third edition, following the first of 1817; the set is in the publisher's original bindings, and an uncut copy.
Vol. I opens with an oversized, folding, hand-colored “Map of Hindoostan” done by Aaron Arrowsmith, while vol. II opens with an oversized, folding map of Persia, Afghanistan, etc.
NSTC 2M27509. Publisher's dark red cloth, spines sunned to not-red with printed paper labels (chipped); cloth worn and wrinkling, some joints splitting, three spine heads reinforced. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplates, call number on endpapers, pressure-stamp on title-pages, no other markings. Vol. I map with short tear along one fold and with tear from inner margin, repaired some time ago; vol. II map waterstained, with tear from inner margin. Vols. I and II with light to moderate waterstaining to lower portions, most pronounced at endpapers; vol. II map stained; vols. III and IV with endpapers stained; vol. IV with upper and lower margins of one internal signature and last few leaves stained; vol. VI with upper edges of portion towards back stained. A few instances of scattered spotting; three leaves with short edge tears; first few leaves of vol. VI creased. Page edges untrimmed. Definitely a “used” set, but not one so “distressed” as recital of faults may imply; overall, internally mostly clean and certainly sound for use. (28162)

“A God-Hero of the Golden Age of Myth” —
The First Original English-Language Poem on the Buddha
Arnold, Edwin. The light of Asia. Being the life and teaching of Gautama prince of India and founder of Buddhism. Avon, CT: Printed for the members of the Limited Editions Club, 1976. Folio (30 cm, 11.8"). xxiv, 193, [3] pp.; 8 col. plts.
$100.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Limited Editions Club edition of Sir Edwin's epic verse retelling of
the life of the Buddha, with an introduction by Melford E. Spiro. Ayres Houghtelling painted eight brightly colored, “highly unconventional” plates, as to which he said that he “allegorically painted by design and symbolism what [he hoped] Sir Edwin Arnold would have liked” (according to the newsletter); he also provided a number of black-and-white and two-color line drawings. The volume was designed by Frank J. Lieberman, and the green, yellow, cream, and tan paisley and floral cotton cloth binding was done by the Tapley-Rutter Co.
This is
numbered copy 733 of 2000 printed, signed at the colophon by the illustrator. Both the appropriate Club newsletter (in its original envelope) and the prospectus are laid in.
Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 497. Publisher's fabric-covered binding as above, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, in original brown paper–covered slipcase with printed paper label; spine cloth very slightly (and unobtrusively) sunned, slipcase showing only minimal traces of shelfwear.
A nice copy of this handsome piece of LEC exotica. (36838)

The First Jesuit Mission to the
Mughal Empire
Bartoli, Daniello. Missione al Gran Mogor del P. Ridolfo Aqvaviva ... sua vita e morte, e d'altri quattro compagni uccisi in odio della fede in Salsete di Goa. Milano: Lodovico Monza, 1664. 12mo. [4] ff., 193, [1] p., [1] f.
$8750.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Rodolfo Acquaviva (a.k.a., Ridolfo Aquaviva), nephew of Claudio Acquaviva the fifth Superior General of the Society of Jesus (1581–1615), after his Jesuit novitiate was ordained a priest in 1578 at Lisbon and sailed for India. Arriving in India he taught at the Jesuit school (Saint Paul's College) in Goa, founded by St. Francis Xavier and the site of the first printing press in India. In 1580 the Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great summoned him to his court and thus began Acquaviva's mission to the Mughal empire. His was, in fact, the first Jesuit mission there.
As Prof. Emerita Frances W. Pritchett of Columbia University writes on her great website (http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00islamlinks/ikram/part2_12.html): “Of all the aspects of Akbar's life and reign, few have excited more interest than his attitude toward religion. . . . [H]e built the Ibadat Khana, the House of Worship, which he set apart for religious discussions. Every Friday after the congregational prayers, scholars, dervishes, theologians, and courtiers interested in religious affairs would assemble in the Ibadat Khana and discuss religious subjects in the royal presence.”
It was to these discussions/conversations/debates that Acquaviva was invited.
The religions represented were many, the major participants including Muslims, Jews, Catholics, Hindus, Jains, and Zoroastrians. After several months Acquaviva felt his contributions to the debates insufficient to justify continuing as part of the mission and left the task to fellow Jesuits. On return to Goa his missionary work led him to the Hindu Kshatriyas of Salcette, south of Goa, which proved a fatal decision. Prior to his arrival, the Jesuits with the aid of Portuguese troops had destroyed some temples there; the Cuncolim Revolt of July, 1583, was partially a result of
those actions and it was in the revolt that
Acquaviva and the four companions alluded to in the title of this work were murdered.
The author of this biography was a major Jesuit historian of the Society's activity in Asia. He was the author of the monumental Istoria della Compagnia di Gesu (1650–1673) in 6 folio volumes, Della vita e dell'istituto di S. Ignatio, fondatore della Compagnia di Gesu (1650), L'Asia (1653), Il Giappone, parte seconda dell'Asia (1660), La Cina, terza parte dell'Asia (1663), L'Inghilterra, parte dell'Europa (1667), L'Italia, prima parte dell'Europa (1673), and biographies of Jesuits Vincenzo Caraffa (1651), Robert Bellarmine (1678), Stanislas Kostka (1678), Francis Borgia (1681), and Niccolo Zucchi (1682). Also of interest are his works on science: Della tensione e della pressione (1677), Del suono, dei tremori armonici, dell'udito (1679), and Del ghiaccio e della coagulatione (1682).
This is the second edition of Bartoli's account of Acquaviva and his mission, following the first of the previous year. Searches of NUC, WorldCat, and COPAC locate just two copies of the 1663 edition, both in the U.S., and similarly only two copies of this 1664 (one in Germany, one at Oxford).
DeBacker-Sommervogel, I, 975; Graesse, I, 303 (for first edition and other later editions but not knowing of this second). Late 18th-century quarter vellum over light boards covered with green paper. Undeciphered 17th-century ownership inscription on title-page. Waterstaining, at times significant, at others barely visible.
A sound copy with no worming or tears. (35200)
— BIBLES —
LANGUAGES
The ONLY Portion of
the Bible in This Indian Language?
Bible. N.T. Bikaneri. 1820. The Holy Bible containing the Old and New Testaments. Vol. 5, containing the New Testament. Serampore [India]: Printed at the Mission Press, 1820. 8vo (20.5 cm; 8.125"). 649 pp.
$2500.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First and apparently sole printing of any portion of the Bible in Bikaneri (a.k.a.Vikanera), a Marwari language of the Rajasthan region of India. The text is in Devangari characters with an added title-page in English that reports the text was “translated from the originals into the Vikanera language by the Serampore missionaries.” The title-page also makes clear that this was meant to be vol. V of a complete translation of the Bible, but that project was never completed and it seems no other books of the Bible have been translated into the language.
The non-English title-page reads, in transliteration: “Svaraki sagali katha, jake adamyamkem uddharavei aura calanavei codem karyochem, u, Dharma pustaka, unko chedalo virada, va mhakem taranavala Bhagavanna Yisukhrishtaka phayadaki, Mangalika vatam.”
The paper used for the text seems to be native-made laid stock.
WorldCat and NUC combine to locate only six copies in U.S. libraries, one of which is this one, properly deaccessioned.
Provenance: Ex–Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School library; properly deaccessioned.
Darlow & Moule 7651; North & Nida, Book of a Thousand Tongues (1972), 826. Contemporary boards covered with blue paper a bit scuffed, soiled, and with areas of wear; original paper shelfback replaced with cloth of a closely matching color. A very little library pencilling; no stamps. (35167)

A Trio from the Old Testament — Bengali
Bible. O.T. Job. Bengali. Yates. 1843. The preceptive and devotional books of the Old Testament comprehending Job, the Psalms of David and the writings of Solomon, in Bengálí. Calcutta: Printed at the Baptist Mission Press, 1843. Sm. 4to (25.5 cm; 10.125"). [4], 475–608 pp.
$350.00
Click the images for enlargements.
The title-page tells us this was translated “by the Calcutta Baptist missionaries with native assistants” and that it was translated from the Hebrew. The lead translator was William Yates (1792–1845), a Baptist missionary who was first stationed at Serampore where he studied under William Carey and afterwards resided and worked at Calcutta.
Titled in English, the text is in Bengali characters in a double-column format.
Binding: Brown ribbon–embossed cloth, printed paper spine label, all edges speckled red. Bookcloth is Krupp style At2, which
suggests the cloth was exported to India in addition to its use in England and America.
Searches of NUC, WorldCat, and COPAC locate only one copy in the U.S.. one in Canada, and two in Britain.
Not in Darlow & Moule; nor North & Nida, Book of a Thousand Tongues (1972); on binding cloth, see: Krupp, Bookcloth in England and America, 1823–50, p. 50. Bound as above; cloth lightly discolored in a mottled fashion, spine chipped with small loss of cloth and printed label rubbed, one mark on back cover. Gentle age-toning with light foxing on endpapers. (36118)

In One of the
Longest Surviving Classical Languages in the WORLD
Bible. Tamil. 1844. Fabricius-Rhenius. The Holy Bible. In Tamil. Madras: Printed at the American Mission Press for the Madras Auxiliary Bible Society and American Bible Society, 1844. 8vo (22.5 cm; 8.875"). [4], 1104, 388 pp.
$1100.00
Click the images for enlargements.
We are told by Darlow and Moule that this is “A new edition of . . . [the Tamil Bible of 1840]; with fresh chapter-headings and dates, translated from the English Bible by M. Winslow.” While Winslow was the translator of these elements, “The Old Testament, [was] translated from the original by J.P. Fabricius; [and] the New Testament by the Rev. C.T.E. Rhenius and revised by the Committee of the Madras Auxiliary Bible Society.”
The first complete translation of the Bible into Tamil appeared in 1727. This is only the second complete Bible in Tamil in one volume.
The English title-page is followed by a title-page in Tamil script; the text of the Bible is
entirely in Tamil script, as is the pagination. The N.T. has a separate title page in English and Tamil.
The translators were a German missionary of the Lutheran faith who was a scholar of the Tamil language (Johann Philipp Fabricius, 1711–791) and a German-born missionary of the Church Mission Society (Charles Theophilus Ewald Rhenius, 1790–1838).
Darlow & Moule 9125; North & Nida, Book of a Thousand Tongues (1972), 1233 (not listing this edition). Publisher's mottled and speckled dark brown calf; joints lightly abraded and the front joint (outside) starting to open in the lower inch-plus. A very good copy. (35478)

Calcutta Baptist Mission Press
Bible. O.T. Psalms. Bengali. 1844.; Bible. O.T. Proverbs. Bengali. 1844. [four lines in Bengali, then] The Psalms of David and the Proverbs of Solomon in Bengálí. Calcutta: Pr. for the Bible Translation Society and the American and Foreign Bible Society, at the Baptist Mission Press, 1844. 12mo (16.3 cm; 6.5"). 178, 53, [1 (blank)] pp.
$475.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Other than the title-page in Bengali and English, the entire work is in Bengali. “Second edition” is declared on the title-page with an additional edition statement on verso of same; this edition consists of 1000 copies, while the first was issued in only 500 and immediately exhausted. “Translated from the original Hebrew by the Calcutta Baptist Missionaries” — though just which of the Baptist missionaries translated this edition is unclear.
Publisher's purple cloth with faded printed paper spine label. Ex-library: call number on spine, bookplate removed, pencilled notations, rubber-stamps. Withal, a clean crisp copy. (21736)

The Four Gospels & Acts of the Apostles — in Bengali
Bible. Gospels. Bengali. Yates. 1845. [five lines in Bengali, then] The four Gospels, with the Acts of the Apostles, in Bengali. Calcutta: Pr. at the Baptist Mission Press ... for the Bible Translation Society, 1845. 8vo (19.7 cm; 7.75"). [2], 282 pp.
$250.00
Click the images for enlargements.
The Yates translation, probably with the assistance of John Wenger and native converts, here in the seventh edition of 3000 copies. This appeared just as Yates was revising his translation to conform to the standards of the 1844 O.T. Yates (1792–1845) was a Baptist missionary who was first stationed at Serampore where he studied under William Carey; afterwards he resided and worked at Calcutta.
Provenance: Bookplate of the Baptist Missionary Society Mission House Library on front pastedown.
Not in Darlow & Moule; not list in North & Nida, Book of a Thousand Tongues (1972). Publisher's textured olive cloth with paper spine label; spine ever so lightly faded, paper label (remarkably) intact. Marked as above, light pencilling on endpapers.
A very nice copy with a very good provenance. (36117)

A Sanskrit Bible — Inscribed to One Great Baptist Missionary from Another
Bible. Sanskrit. 1848. The Holy Bible in the Sanscrit language. Vol. I. Containing the five books of Moses and the book of Joshua. Calcutta: Pr. at the Baptist Mission Press, 1848. 8vo (22.2 cm, 8.75"). [6], 414 pp.
$800.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Uncommon first edition: First volume (of four) of one of the earliest complete Sanskrit-language Bible translations. This is John Wenger's revision of the work begun by William Yates; the title-page attributes it simply to the Calcutta Baptist Missionaries “with native assistants.” Save for the added English title-page, the entire volume is in Sanskrit, in Devanagari script.
The printing of this Bible was spread over a quarter of a century, with the fourth volume not appearing until 1872
Provenance: Early inked inscription: “Rev. S.S. Day [/] From his friend & fellow-laborer in the great work of Missions, Lyman Jewett [/] Baptist Mission House, Nellore, Jan. 18th 1850.” Samuel S. Day (1808–71) was the founder of the Telugu Mission at Nellore, the first of its kind; Jewett (1813–97) was the first to translate the Bible into Telugu, an Indian language related to Sanskrit.
Darlow & Moule 8002; NSTC 2B22470; North & Nida, Book of a Thousand Tongues (1972), 1142. Contemporary brown cloth, recently rebacked with similar cloth, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; original cloth with edges rubbed and areas of discoloration. Front fly-leaf (with inscription) and English title-page with margins repaired. English title-page and one other leaf perforation-stamped by the Philadelphia Divinity School; Sanskrit title-page with inked numeral in lower margin. Pages faintly age-toned. A few corners chipped; one leaf with tear in upper margin, not touching text. Occasional pencilled marginalia, some in English and some possibly in Telugu.
A solid copy with nice provenance. (36322)



Introducing . . .
Brockie, William. Indian philosophy, [an] introductory paper. London: Trubner & Co. 8vo. 25 pp.
$95.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
Brockie (1811–90) was a Scottish-born writer and all around interesting guy who wrote on a wide variety of topics. He was also a moving spirit of the Free Associate Church.
We find six copies only in U.S. libraries.
Publisher's printed wrappers; minor pencilling in some margins, dust-soiling. Folded once lengthwise. Very good. (34312)

Corruption Trial & Ultimate Vindication
Buchan, David Stewart Erskine, Earl of. Letters of Albanicus to the people of England, on the partiality and injustice of the charges brought against Warren Hastings, Esq., late Governor General of
Bengal. London: Pr. for J. Debrett,, 1786. 8vo (19.5 cm; 7.5"). [1] f., vii, [1 (blank)], 97, [1 (blank)] pp.
$950.00
The Earl of Buchan (1742–1829) writes convincingly in defense of Warren Hastings (1732–1818), the former governor of
Bengal, against charges levelled against him by Burke. Buchan was impeached on several charges, others were added in later months, and the trial dragged on from 1787 to 1795, when he was ultimately found not guilty of all charges. What a nightmare!
Attributed to the Earl of Buchan by Halkett & Laing (vol. 9 [1962 ed.]).
Goldsmiths’-Kress 13204; ESTC T143537. Recent full brown speckled calf, covers gilt-tooled in the Cambridge style. Raised bands on spine accented with gilt beading on bands and defined by gilt rules above and below each band. Title-page printed aslant or trimmed somewhat askew, and with a few small old inkspots; pamphlet otherwise clean, with occasional light instances of foxing. (21735)
PERSIA in
10 Volumes & 79 Plates
Chardin, John. Voyages de Mr. le chevalier Chardin, en Perse, et autres lieux de l'Orient. Paris: André Cailleau, 1723. 8vo (16.5 cm, 6.5"). 10 vols. I: Frontis., [10], 254 pp.; 1 fold. map. II: 334 pp.; 4 fold. plts., 5 plts. III: 285, [1 (blank)] pp.; 4 fold. plts., 3 plts. IV: 280 pp.; 2 fold. plts., 3 plts. V: 312 pp.; 4 fold. tables, 5 plts. VI: 328 pp.; 4 plts. VII: [10], 15448 [i.e., 446] pp. VIII: 255, [1 (blank)] pp.; 10 fold. plts., 6 plts. IX: 308 pp.; 1 double-spread fold. plt., 8 fold. plts., 19 plts. X: [22], 3220, [82 (index)] pp.
$4000.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Attractive French edition of Sir John Chardin's Persian travelogue, originally published in 1686. Brunet calls the account, which covers Chardin's voyages through India, Russia, and Persia, “un des plus intéressants que l'on ait publiés” in the 18th century; the work was and continues to be a major source of information on contemporary Persian politics, government, religion, and culture. The title-pages are printed in red and black, and the 10 volumes are illustrated with a total of 79 plates (many folding) and tables, including one map and one frontispiece.
Brunet, I, 1802. Contemporary speckled calf, spines extra gilt; edges, joints and extremities rubbed, leather in some cases cracked or starting along joints or chipped at spine extremities, two spines with compartments chipped. All edges speckled. Front pastedowns each with institutional bookplate, front free endpapers rubber-stamped and with inked ownership inscriptions dated [18]67, title-pages except for vol. I rubber-stamped, reverse of map in vol. I rubber-stamped, some vols. with first text page rubber-stamped. Additional plate (creased) laid in, seemingly excised from another work. (19664)

An American Unitarian in India & Beyond — Very Early Account of Travelling the Suez Canal
Dall, Charles Henry Appleton. From Calcutta to London by the Suez Canal. Calcutta: The “Englishman” Press, 1869. 12mo (16.2 cm, 6.35"). [6], 272, xxii pp.
$1000.00
Click the images for enlargements.
The Maryland-born, Harvard-educated Rev. Dall, who established several schools in Calcutta as part of his work with Hindu reformers, was for 30 years the sole Unitarian missionary to India. This volume focuses primarily on his travels rather than his religious and educational work: it collects the letters he wrote as “Roving Correspondent” to the Englishman. These observant, engagingly written accounts were “fresh from the localities indicated” (p. [v]) — including the Suez Canal, which Dall explored from end to end in 1868 and again in 1869, making this a very early account of that modern marvel, for the canal officially opened on November 17, 1869.
The letters cover politics, culture, commerce, and tips on travelling in “far” places.
This is the uncommon first edition; WorldCat and NSTC locate
only five hard copies in U.S. institutions.
NSTC 2D970. Publisher's gray-blue paper wrappers; front wrapper with tiny hole, spine creased with one chip, edges and corners rubbed. Pages age-toned, otherwise clean.
A solid, clean copy of a scarce item. (36558)
The Title Says It All
Edwardes, Herbert B.
Our Indian empire: Its beginning and end. [London: 1861]. 16mo. 32 pp.
$100.00

Plenty of Stories in
Plenty of Places
Frewen, Moreton. Melton Mowbray and other memories. London: Herbert Jenkins Limited, 1924. 8vo (21.6 cm; 8.5"). viii, [4], 311 pp., [16] plts.
$240.00
Click the images for enlargements.
A very opinionated autobiography recounting Frewen's numerous adventures throughout England, the United States, Egypt, the Balkans, and India, from his childhood as part of the English gentry to tales of bison used as snow plows in the Wyoming Territory.
Howes notes ten chapters are dedicated to Frewen's “disastrous cattle enterprise on Powder river.”While suffering from financial difficulties throughout his life, Frewen continually worked with influential people, many of whom are here discussed in detail, including his wife Clara Jerome, aunt of Winston Churchill.
One way and another there is plenty of huntin', shootin', and fishin'; and there are plenty of politics.
Provenance: A tantalizing “Wealdside 1924” in ink on the front pastedown. The Weald is of course of huge extent, and there are therefore potentially a number of possible “Wealdsides”; but it is notable that the Frewen family dates back to Elizabethan times in East Sussex — and, perhaps, that Moreton Frewen died in 1924.
Howes F380; Graff 1442. Light green publisher's cloth, cover ruled and lettered in black, spine and back also stamped in black; gently rubbed and text slightly cocked, with a thumbnail-sized pink stain along the edge of the back cover and speckling the bottom edge. Light age-toning with offsetting to fly-leaves; inscription as noted.
A good read in a good solid copy. (37037)

Polenta before It Was Made with
“Turkey Wheat”
& Woodcuts from the
Moretus Press
Gerard, John. The herball, or, General historie of plantes. London: Printed by Adam Islip, Joice Norton & Richard Whitakers, 1636. Large folio (35.5 cm; 14"). [19 of 20] ff., 1630 [i.e., 1634] pp., [24 of 25] ff. (without the initial and final blank leaves).
$13,500.00
Click the images for enlargements.
“When reading Gerard we are wandering in the peace of an Elizabethan garden, with a companion who
has a story for every flower and is full of wise philosophies” (Woodward, p. viii). And indeed, Gerard's herbal is written in “glorious Elizabethan prose, [with] the folk-lore steeping its pages'” (Woodward, p. vii), these factors going a long way towards making it one of the best-known and -loved of the early English herbals. The “herbs” surveyed include plants aquatic and terrestrial, New World and Old, embracing shrubs, plants, and trees, each with a description of its structure and appearance, where it is found (and how it got there), when it is sown and reaped or flowers, its name or names (often with engrossingly exotic etymologies), its “temperature,” and its “vertues” or uses (often curious).
The story is famous: John Norton, Queen's printer, wished to bring out an English language version of Dodoen's Pemptades of 1583 and hired a certain “Dr. Priest” to do so, but the translator died with the work only partially done. A copy of the manuscript translation made its way into John Gerard's hands and he seized the opportunity, reorganizing the contents, obscuring the previous translator's contribution, incorporating aspects of Rembert and Cruydenboeck's works, and commandeering the result as his own.
Gerard abandoned Dodoen's classification, opting for l'Obel's instead, and, in a stroke of ambition and brilliance, illustrated the work with
more than 2500 woodcuts of plants. Many of these are large and all are attractive but more than a few were of plants he himself did not know, thus leading to considerable confusion between illustration and text in the earliest editions, this being third overall and the second with Thomas Johnson's additions and amendments. For both Johnson editions
a large number of the woodcuts were obtained from the famous Leyden printing and publishing firm of Moretus, successors to the highly famous firm of Plantin. As Johnston notes: “Most of the cuts were those used in the botanicals published by Plantin, although a number of new woodcuts were added after drawings by Johnson and Goodyer” (Cleveland Herbal . . . Collections, #185).
The large thick volume begins with a handsome engraved title-page by John Payne incorporating a bust of the author, urns with flowers and herbs, and full-length seated images of Dioscorides and Theophrastus and of Ceres and Pomona. Replacing the missing initial blank is a later leaf on which is mounted a large engraving of Gerard. The text is printed in italic, roman, and gothic type.
There is, to us, a surprising and very interesting section on grapes and wines. The first part of our caption delights partly in discovery that maize, the “corn” of the U.S., is here called “turkey wheat” — with further note that you can make bread of it, but that the result is pleasing only to “barbarous” tastes! The entry as a whole shows
Gerard at his characteristic best, at once scientifically systematic and engagingly discursive.
Provenance: Neatly lettered name of “W. Younge” at top of title-page; it is tempting to attribute this to William Younge, physician of Sheffield and Fellow of the Royal Linnean Society, whose online correspondence shows him to have been an eager collector of botanical books.
STC (rev. ed.) 11752; Alden & Landis, European Americana, 636/25; Nissen, Botanischebuchs, 698n; Pritzel 3282n; Johnston, The Cleveland Herbal, Botanical, and Horticultural Collections, 185; Woodward, Gerard's Herball: The essence thereof distilled (London, 1964). On the source of the blocks, see: Hunt Botanical Catalogue and Bowen, K. L., & D. Imhof, The illustration of Books Published by the Moretuses (Antwerpen, 1997). For “Turkey Wheat, “ see: Gerard, p. 81; for polenta, p. 71. Late 17th-century English calf, plain style; rebacked professionally in the 20th century, later endpapers. As usual, without the first and last blank leaves. Three leaves with natural paper flaws in blank margins. A very good copy. (34500)
For HERBALS, click here.

More than One Lifetime's Worth of Adventure & Interesting Ideas
Harriott, John. Struggles through life, exemplified in the various travels and adventures in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, of John Harriott, Esq. London: Pr. for the author, 1815. 12mo (18 cm, 7.1"). 3 vols. I: Frontis., xvxv, [1], 443, [1] pp. II: xii, 428, [2] pp. III: vii, [1], 479, [1] pp. (lacking pp. 69–72); 1 fold. plt., 1 plt.
$750.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Autobiography of
one of the founders of the Thames police, a clever and independent mariner who went adventuring around the world before settling down to become an Essex justice of the peace and eventually Resident Magistrate of the Thames River Police (a.k.a. the Marine Police Force, sometimes called England's first official police force). Here he looks back on his remarkably varied youthful escapades, including travelling in the merchant-service, visiting “the Savages in North America,” meeting the King of Denmark, serving in the
East India Company's military service, and narrowly escaping such dangers as tigers, poisonous snakes, floods, fires, and scamming fathers-in-law. If the narrator is to be believed, the two issues that caused him the chiefest distress in life were pecuniary difficulties and other people's unchivalrous treatment of women. He also has much to say about law and business in the New World and the Old, slavery in America, forcible incarceration in private madhouses (with excerpts from a first-person account of such), and the nature of farming in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, as well as the state of affairs in Washington, DC, and, of course, the history of the creation of the Thames police.
Vol. I opens with a steel-engraved portrait of the author, done by Henry Cook after Hervé; vol. III is illustrated with an
oversized, folding plate of a water-engine intended for millwork, devised by the author, and a plate of another of his inventions: the automated “chamber fire escape”, which enables anyone to lower him- or herself from a high window. This is the third edition, following the first of 1807.
NSTC H625; Sabin 30461. Contemporary speckled sheep, spines with gilt-stamped leather title-labels; vol. I with joints and extremities refurbished, vols. II and III with spines and edges rubbed, old strips of library tape reinforcing spine heads. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplates, call number on endpapers, pressure-stamp on title-pages, vols. II and III with paper shelving labels at top of spines (vol. I showing signs of now-absent label). Vol. I title-page with offsetting from frontispiece; vol. III with pp. 69–72 excised (two leaves of a rather long religious-themed letter from Harriott to his son) and with upper portion of one leaf crumpled, reinforced some time ago. Some light age-toning, intermittent small spots of foxing and ink-staining, pages generally clean.
Utterly absorbing. (30651)
Youthful Writing. Good Writing!
Kipling, Rudyard. The city of dreadful night and other places. Allahabad & London: A.H. Wheeler & Co / Sampson Low, Marston, & Co., [1891]. 8vo. 96 pp.
$150.00
First U.K. edition of Kipling's evocative description of Calcutta , printed in the style of the Railway Library series (XIV).
Stewart 94. Publisher's wrappers, front wrapper lacking, back wrapper torn and chipped. Publisher's slip detached (torn away, affecting four letters) but present. First and last few leaves lightly foxed. (13989)

“I Am the Colonel Sahib's Son”
Kipling, Rudyard. Wee Willie Winkie, and other child stories. Allahabad: Published by Messrs. A.H. Wheeler & Co., [1889]. 8vo (22 cm, 8.625"). [1 (ad)] f., [1 (title)] f., 104 pp., [4 (ads)] ff.
[SOLD]
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition, or as Richards says “First (Indian) Edition,” in the
first state of the wrappers. These stories, with the exception of “The Drums of the Fore and Aft,” are “Reprinted in chief from the 'Week's news'” (title-page) and include “Wee Willie Winkie,” “Baa, Baa Black Sheep,” and “His Majesty the King.” This is vol. 6 in
“A.H. Wheeler & Co.'s Indian Railway Library” series.
A good deal has been written about “Wee Willie Winkie” and the other short stories here, much of it negative-revisionary in nature, but we would call one's attention to John McGivering's evenhanded (but perhaps partisan) observations on the Kipling Society website: “Looking at this story of a spoilt and precocious child in the cold light of the 21st Century, it seems at first sight most unlikely, even in a work of fiction, that such a child could so confront and outface a gang of wild armed men. However, considering the status of the British in India in that era, and looking at Kipling’s account of his own childhood in Bombay reflected in the first part of 'Baa Baa, Black Sheep' . . . it is perhaps not as implausible as it seems.”
The illustrations on the wrappers are by Kipling's father, John L. Kipling, and were engraved on wood at the Mayo Art School in Lahore where he was the principal.
Richards A19; Stewart 54; Martindell 34; Livingston 43. Never bound, in original green wrappers lightly soiled; light discoloration to lower corners of wrappers, front one with an old crease, short tear at base of spine. Advertisement leaf before title-leaf (not called for in any bibliography) torn and detached but present. A fragile publication, housed for protection in a red cloth chemise. (37903)
For a number of KIPLING
COPYRIGHT EDITIONS,
& More, click here.



A Good BAV Title — Macclesfield Provenance
Mela, Pomponius. Pomponii Melae De orbis situ libri tres, accuratissime eme[n]dati. Lutetiae Parisiorum: [Chrétien Wechel], 1530. Folio (34 cm; 13.25"). [14] ff., 196 p., [1] f., [28] ff. (without the fold. map, if one was actually issued with it).
$1450.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Mela's work De orbis situ libri tres (a.k.a., De chorographia) is, of course, a standard and famous work of ancient geography and, dating from the first century A.D., is the oldest surviving geographical text written in Latin. It enjoyed readership for centuries in manuscript and was first printed in 1471 with eight subsequent incunable editions, while in the 16th century to 1530 there was virtually a new edition every other year: Clearly, it was
a book of interest and importance for the Renaissance.
It is a short work; the Petit printing of it in 1513, for example, occupies only 60 pages. In this edition, however, Mela's text (printed in roman) is surrounded by
extensive commentary in italic by Joachim Vadianus (1484–1551), thus extending the whole to 196 pages. The volume ends with an appendix, “Loca aliquot ex Vadiani commentarijs summatim repetita, & obiter explicata,” consisting of Vadian's study of Mela's work and attempting to address inconsistencies and problems in it.
Printer Wechel has arrayed the commentary around the text here with
notable attractiveness, he has supplied quite a number and variety of attractive initials, and both his main title-page and the sectional one for the “Loca aliquot” are dramatically presented with the same
elaborate multipart woodcut title border.
Although Mela's work is solely concerned with the world as known by Greeks and Romans, one should remember that their world did encompass portions of Africa and a knowledge of India. Additionally the appendix, originally written in 1521 and first appearing in the 1522 Basel printing of Mela, has a coda consisting of a 1515 letter of Vadian’s to Rudolph Agricola, the younger, that briefly discusses
Vespucci (X5v) and the New World (Y1r) when discussing the Spanish empire.
This is the third edition of Vadian's Mela, taken from the second edition (1522), but only the second with Vadian's appendix. Graesse comments, “Second éd. . . . fort changée et corrigée sur des mss.”
Whether all copies of the work were issued with a map has been long discussed and is without resolution: What we do know is that some have a map, most do not.
Provenance: Macclesfield copy with the bookplate and handsome pressure-stamps.
Evidence of readership: Scattered minor (usually one or two words) marginalia.
Harrisse, BAV, 157; Renouard, Paris, 2210; Alden & Landis 530/30; Sabin 63958 (not callin for a map); Graesse, V, 401 (not calling for a map). 18th-century quarter vellum with blue-green paper–covered sides, author's name in old ink to spine. Title-page lightly soiled, light discoloration or inkstains in some margins, light occasional foxing; pinhole-type worming in text of some pages with no loss of text, and a corner of last leaf torn away without loss of text; on pp. 170–96, a light waterstain across upper gutter not touching text and another across upper outer corners impinging on it. As usual, without the map found in only a few copies. Macclesfield pressure-stamps and marginalia as above.
A good, sound, and soundly pleasing old folio. (34114)

A Mash-up of Attitudes — A Catalogue of Erotic Options
Member of the Royal Asiatic Society. Marriage ceremonies & priapic rites in India & the East. No place: Privately Printed, 1909. Sq. 8vo. [1] f., 107, [1] pp., [1] f.
$50.00
Click the images for enlargements.
“Printed for private circulation only.” Classic study of marriage, sex, manners, customs, and social life in India in the 19th century.
Publisher's tan linen shelf-back with rust-colored boards. Boards lightly chipped. A very good copy. (36591)

“That Country is Very Delightful; But Their Government is Tyranical [sic],
& the People are Wretched”
A peep at the various nations of the world with a concise description of the inhabitants. Embellished with several engravings. Concord, NH: Hoag & Atwood, 1831. 16mo (10.1 cm, 4"). 16 pp.; illus.
$125.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First New England printing of this internationally-themed toybook, containing
16 wood-engraved illustrations altogether. This is no. 6 of Hoag & Atwood's second series of children's books; it contains brief accounts of the French, the Dutch, the Spanish, the Persians, the Russians, the Hindoos, the Chinese, the Turks, the Peruvians, and the Hottentots. In addition, the work opens with illustrations of North and South American Indians (and a short admiring account of the “five nations” of Native Americans present before the American Revolution); it closes with Tartars and Egyptians.
Provenance: From the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, sans indicia.
American Imprints 8657; Rosenbach, Children's, 763 (this copy differing slightly from Rosenbach's physical description). Publisher's printed tan paper wrappers. Some minor foxing, otherwise clean.
An unusually crisp, unworn example of the genre. (38474)

WORLD MYTHOLOGY — 8 Vols. & Thousands of Entries
Pozzoli, Giovanni; Felice Romani; Antonio Peracchi, et al. Dizionario storico-mitologico di tutti i popoli del mondo. Livorno: Stamperia Vignozzi, 1824–28. 8 vols. 8vo (21 cm, 8.25"). I: 580 pp. II: 581–1163, [1] pp. (pp. 1057–64 repeated in place of pp. 1065–72). III: [1165]–1708 pp. (pagination 1551–52 repeated, 1687–88 skipped). IV: [1709]–2342 pp. V: 2351–3086 pp. (pagination skips 2519–26). VI: 3087–3855 pp. (pagination skips 3407–08). VII: 576 pp. VIII: 577–1074 pp.
$2500.00
Click the middle and right hand-images for enlargements.
Second edition of this classic dictionary of comparative mythology,
a hefty collection of the deities, heroes, tales, festivals, antiquities, and
other folklore of numerous cultures and countries including Mexico, Peru, America,
Africa,
India,
Japan, China, etc, along with Jewish, Greek, and Roman antiquities. The foundation
of the work was François Noel's Dictionnaire de la Fable; copious
additions and corrections were made by Pozzoli, Romani (the famed poet, scholar,
and librettist for La Scala), and Peracchi (another librettist). The resulting
encyclopedic endeavor was originally published from 1809–27 under the
title Dizionario d'ogni mitologia e antichità incominciato, according
to Graesse and Brunet, who both give Pozzoli's first name as Girolamo.
This set includes two volumes of supplemental text, adding a number of entries.
The first edition was followed by two volumes of supplemental plates, not
present here and not called for: Graesse describes this edition as “sans
grav.”
The pagination is erratic in a number of places; there is a numbering gap
from 2342 to 2351 between vols. IV and V, but the text and signatures are
uninterrupted.
Uncommon:
OCLC locates only two U.S. institutional holdings of this second edition.
Provenance:
Most volumes with small inked ownership inscription in an outer margin:
“G.R.W.” the mark of William Rollinson Whittingham (1805–79),
fourth Episcopal Bishop of Maryland and an enthusiastic book collector.
Brunet, IV, 851; Graesse, V, 429. Not in Sabin. Contemporary
half binding, recently rebacked with tan paper, spines with printed paper
labels; boards rubbed and faded with small chips, one vol. with front cover
waterstained. Foxing almost throughout, generally no worse than moderate;
light waterstaining in upper margins of vol. I; one leaf in vol. VII with
lower outer portion torn away, with loss of words from about 18 lines on each
side. Vol. II with printer's error replacing pp. 1065–72 with duplicates
of pp. 1057–64; pagination erratic in other places. Most vols. with
ownership mark as above; vol. VI with one pencilled and one inked marginal
annotation. (25862)
Prinsep, Henry Thoby. The India question in 1853. London: William H. Allen & Co., 1853. 8vo (19.6 cm, 7.75"). [2], 111, [1 (blank)] pp.
$350.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
Parliament reviewed the management of the East India Company every 20 years beginning in 1773. At the time of the 1853 review the number of directors of the East India company was reduced, one of those retained being Henry Prinsep (1793–1878), an able and successful Indian civil servant and member of the Council of India. He here gives his insights on a wide range of issues, from
education and the press to finance, the administration of justice, and how best to govern the country.
NSTC 2P27024. On Prinsep, see: DNB. Removed from a nonce volume. Lightly age-toned. Traces of soiling and small inked numeral on title-page. A few instances of pencilled sidelining. (11186)

“Improved Taste of Modern Time Must
Question the Crudities of Former Days”
Rocco, Sha [pseud. of Abisha Shumway Hudson]. The masculine cross and ancient sex worship. New York: Asa K. Butts & Co., 1874. 8vo (19 cm, 7.75"). 65, [7 (adv.)] pp.; illus.
$200.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition: A study of cruciform sexual symbolism in ancient religions, touching on Indian, Egyptian, Chinese, and other mythological connections to the shape of the cross. The volume is illustrated with in-text engravings of statues, relics, and other items, including the final chapter (“The Phallus in California,” about the results of the author's antiquity-hunting expedition in Stanlislaus County, CA), which features a representation of what the author says is misidentified as an “Indian pestle.”
Hudson was a Massachusetts-born physician and one of the founders of the Keokuk Medical College; his publisher here was the notable freethinker and
contraception advocate Asa K. Butts, who has supplied several pages of advertisements for some of his other publications.
Publisher's blue cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped title and fish vignette with blind-stamped decorative borders; spine slightly darkened, small spots of light discoloration, extremities rubbed. Sewing just barely starting to loosen but holding; pages clean.
A more than decent copy of this interesting and, shall we say, “highly personal” work. (35139)
Sheridan, Richard Brinsley. A comparative statement of the two bills, for the better government of the British possessions in India, brought into Parliament by Mr. Fox and Mr. Pitt...second edition. London: J. Debrett, 1788. 4to (28.5 cm, 11.25"). 39, [1 (blank)] pp.
$800.00
Second edition. Sheridan entered Parliament in 1780, crowning his previous career as a successful playwright and theatre manager with a long and distinguished record of public service. He originally read the main portion of this statement before the House of Commons as part of the debate, after noticing that the gentlemen discussing the two bills in question appeared not to have paid “any very minute degree of attention” (p. 6) to the details of either one.
The texts of both bills are present here, along with Sheridan’s analysis of how each would address “the question of right between the public and the [East India] Company” (p. 39).
ESTC T30944; Goldsmiths’-Kress no. 13610. Recent marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with gilt-stamped leather title label and spine with gilt-stamped leather author label. Half-title and several other pages stamped by a now-defunct institution. Pages with edges untrimmed and a few small spots of staining; mostly, clean. (10859)

“It Was a Fascinating Discovery Which Invited Prolonged Exploration”
Stein, Marc Aurel. On ancient Central-Asian tracks: brief narrative of three expeditions in innermost Asia and north-western China. London: Macmillan & Co., 1933. 8vo (24 cm; 9.5"). xxiv, 342 pp.
$1750.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition. Based on lectures given at the Lowell Institute, this book reflects on the explorations made by (Marc) Aurel Stein in four expeditions to Central Asia that took him into Eastern Turkestan, westernmost China, and across the Hindu Kush and the Pamirs. His greatest triumph involved
discovery of the world's oldest printed text, Diamond Sutra, dating to A.D. 868, plus 40,000 other scrolls. He received a knighthood for his efforts, which extended over 30 years.
Stein's account is accompanied by many illustrations, in both black and white and color. These include a color frontispiece, several fold-out panoramas, and a folding color map at rear, with all color illustrations having intact tissue guards.
Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear. Rust-brown publisher's cloth with gilt spine lettering and gilt medallion to front board, in an edgeworn, lightly soiled dust jacket with significant portions torn away at spine, smaller losses at corners/edges and price-clip, and two small stains to rear panel. Binding clean, with extremities bumped. Purple monogram ownership stamp to front free endpaper, p. 83, and a leaf in the index; text otherwise clean with upper corners lightly creased across and a few leaves unopened.
Good, in a good- dust jacket that appears in most instances to be lacking entirely. (37601)

“Cyclic Readjustment is Now Taking Place” for
Theosophists
(Theosophy). A collection of 36 theosophical pamphlets. Bombay: Theosophy Company (India) Ltd., 1930–54. 8vo (19.3 cm; 7.625"). 2 vols.
$900.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Founded in 1875 by spiritualist Helena Blavatsky, occultist William Quan Judge, Colonel Henry Steel Olcott, and others in New York City, the Theosophical Society aims to promote the study of comparative religions and the occult. After Blavatsky's death in 1891, the society split in 1895 into two groups — one led by Judge in the United States and another led by Olcott and Annie Besant in India. This collection of pamphlets, published by the latter, contains excerpts of texts written by the Judge, Blavatsky, Damodar Mavalankar, Annie Besant, and Koot Hoomi.
A list is available on request.
Provenance: Bookplate of the United Lodge of Theosophists, Ottawa, Ontario, tucked into each volume; several pamphlet wrappers and a few pages of text with library stamps from theosophical institutions.
Evidence of Readership: Underlining or other markings in a number of the pamphlets in very neat ink and pencil, sometimes colored.
Recent navy blue cloth, printed paper label on spine with gilt ruling and decoration, new endpapers; all pamphlet wrappers bound in text. Marked as above, one pamphlet with label residue to front wrapper. (36132)

A
PRINTER-Missionary in INDIA
Ward, William. Farewell letters to a few friends in Britain and America, on returning to Bengal, in 1821. New York: E. Bliss & E. White, 1821. 12mo. 250 pp.
$275.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Ward (1769–1823) was a printer and a missionary in Serampore, in the Bengal region of India. He learned printing in Derby, England, and in 1799 went to the Danish settlement in Serampore where he printed and supervised the printing of translations of the scriptures into
Bengali, Tamil, and more than 20 other languages. He somehow also found time to preach and do other missionary work.
Health concerns forced him to leave India in 1818, but he returned in 1821. During his years away he lectured and travelled in the U.S. and England, raising money for his mission.
The present collection of letters first appeared in London in 1821 and this is its first American edition. His letters have much to say about his work and the native population; he is acutely aware of
the position and treatment of women and in more than one letter addresses the issue.
Provenance: The Rochester Divinity School, which in the 19th century trained more than a few noteworthy missionaries to India.
Shoemaker 7568. Original boards covered in blue-green paper; rebacked in the style of the era. Ex-library with 19th-century stamp on title and librarian's pencilling on verso of same. Foxing throughout. Uncut and partially unopened: a good, solid copy. (34989)

“To Write or Speak the Epilogue after Any Great & Grand Drama Is
by No Means an Easy Task”
Whewell, William; Henry T. De la Beche; & Others. Lectures on the results of the Exhibition, delivered before the Society of Arts, Manufacturers, and Commerce, at the suggestion of H.R.H. Prince Albert, president of the society. Philadelphia: Reprinted by A. Hart, late Cary & Hart (Printed by T.K. & P.G. Collins), 1852. 12mo (17.9 cm; 7"). [2], 463 pp.
$150.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Twelve essays about the effects of
the Great Exhibition of 1851 on different industries written by experts in the field, including mining, agriculture, education, engineering, and more.
Provenance: From the German Society of Philadelphia (properly released) with bookplate on front pastedown and its 19th-century handwritten shelfmark on endpaper.
Publisher's red textured cloth with title and ALL authors' names gilt-lettered on spine; covers double-ruled in blind, gilt circlet surrounding title on front cover, yellow endpapers with printed publisher's advertisements; binding gently rubbed and lightly soiled, spine pulled at top with loss of cloth and text moderately cocked. Marked as above, interior clean. (36185)
All material © 2018
The Philadelphia Rare Books & Manuscripts Company, LLC
 |
PRB&M/SessaBks |
 |
PLACE AN ORDER | E-MAIL US | GO (BACK) TO TOPIC/INTEREST TABLE