Travel and geography

ANDUEZA, José María. de. Isla de Cuba pintoresca, historica, literaria, mercantil, e industrial. Recuerdos, apuntes, impresiones de dos épocas. Madrid, Boix, 1841.

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First and only edition, very rare in such fine condition, of this charmingly illustrated work by a 19th-century part-time immigrant, and also a much understudied work of rather greater interest than suggested by its title.

The finely executed lithographs include of views of Guanajay, the Teatro de Tacón and the Convents of Belen and Santo Domingo in Havanna, the Husillo Falls, the St. Francis Piers, the Puentes Grandes River, and the residence of the Conde de Fernandina in Havanna’s Cerro quarter.

BIRON, Claude. Curiositez de la nature et de l’art, aportées dans deux voyages des Indes; l’un aux Indes d’Occident en 1698. & 1699. & l’autre aux Indes d’Orient en 1701. & 1702. Avec une Relation abregé de ces deux Voyages. Paris, Jean Moreau, 1703.

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First edition, rather rare, of Claude Biron’s account of his two voyages to the Lesser Antilles and to India, including observations of curiosities, both natural and man-made, and one of the works known to have been with Sir Joseph Banks aboard the Endeavour.

  [DE RUYTER].  BRANDT, Gérard. La vie de Michel de Ruiter. Duc, Chevalier, Lieutenant Amiral Général de Hollande & de Oüest-Frise. Où est comprise l’histoire maritime des Provinces Unies, depuis l’An 1652 jusques à 1676. Amsterdam, P. & J. Blaeu, for Waesberge, Boom à Someren and Goethals, 1698. 

£3000

A fine copy of the first French edition (first Dutch 1687), of the life and deeds of one of the most famous Dutch admirals of all times, and recently immortalised in the excellent movie Admiral – command & conquer.

Michiel Adriaenszoon de Ruyter (1607-1676) is celebrated and regarded as one of the most skilled admirals in history, and famous for his achievements with the Dutch Fleet during the Anglo-Dutch Wars. He fought the English and French naval forces and scored several critical victories, with the Raid on the Medway being the most famous of them.

Retaining the pagination of the original Dutch printing, the folding plates depict 1) the naval battle at Plymouth in August 1652, with General George Ayscue in charge of the English fleet and attack, 2) the joint battle of Dutch and Danish forces against the Swedes at Nyborg in November 1659, with the Swedish army commanded by the Prince of Sulzbach and Marshal Steenbok, 3) de Ruyter’s brief stop at Algiers, following the signing of a peace treaty with Tunis in September 1662, 4) the raid on Medway in June 1667, 5 ) the huge naval battle of Kijkduin in August 1673 against the combined English and French fleet, under the commands of Prince Rupert of the Rhine, Duke of Cumberland, and the Comte D’Estrées, 6) the battle against the French fleet under the command of Admiral Abraham Duquesne near Sicily in April 1676, where de Ruyter was mortally wounded.  

 Provenance: ‘Captain Simcoe R[oyal] N[avy] Wolford’ with his 19th-century lithographic armorial bookplate to front paste-down, and most likely identifiable as Captain John Kannaway Simcoe (1825-1891), grandson of General John Graves Simcoe, and the last member of this rather illustrious family. John Kannaway Simcoe was a direct descendent of James Cook’s captain on HMS Pembroke, John Simcoe (1710-1759), who, together with Samuel Holland, is remembered as one of Cook’s mentor in methods of navigation.  

HAYGARTH, Henry William. Buschleben in Australien … Aus dem Englischen von M.B. Lindau. Dresden and Leipzig, Arnoldische Buchhandlung, 1849.

£550

Rare first German translation, with a short preface by the translator, Martin Bernhard Lindau, explaining the original, English, work’s interest and partly directed at future immigrants from Germany.

LANGSDORFF, Georg Heinrich von.  Bemerkungen auf einer Reise um die Welt in den Jahren 1803 bis 1807.  Frankfurt, Friedrich Wilmans, 1812.

£3850

First edition of this important travel book by Langsdorff, who participated in the first Russian curcumnavigation of the Earth.

‘Langsdorff was naturalist to Krusenstern’s expedition, which he had quitted at Kamtschatka, and explored the Aleutian Isles, the Northwest Coast, California etc., and returned overland through Siberia.  His work contains a fuller account of Sitka, the Settlement of St. Francisco etc., than any other’ (Sabin).  

Langsdorffs ‘description of the voyage to the Northwest Coast … represents an important contribution to our knowledge of Russian America and of California at that time’ (Lada-Mocarski). 

Finely illustrated, Langsdorff’s work contains several images of his impressions of Japan, and famously the first published view of San Francisco, which was not included in the English translation of 1813-14.  Also included is an extensive account on the sled dogs of Kamtschatka, and a plate reproducing one of the rarest old documents of Brazilian folk music.

ROOMEN, Adriaan van [Adrianus ROMANUS]. Parvum theatrum urbium sive urbium praecipuarum totius orbis brevis et methodica descriptio. Frankfurt, Nicolaus Basse, 1595.

£12,000

First edition, and a very appealing copy with the woodcuts here finely coloured, of the famous Flemish physician and mathematician’s Latin town book.

Whilst the woodcuts are largely identical to Abraham Saur’s German version, but with some omitted or added, ‘this Parvum theatrum urbium is not a Latin edition of the German work. Completely independent from Saur’s, van Roomen’s text is entirely new, displaying a very different and more succinct approach in his rendition of this geographical work, much reflecting his scientific education and orientation.

The work includes 67 European woodcut city views and plans including cuts showing London, Lisbon, Louvain, Antwerp, Brussels, Rouen, Ghent, Lyon, Bordeaux, Paris, Frankfurt, Mainz, Aachen, Heidelberg, Hamburg, Bremen, Hannover, Fulda, Wittenberg, Magdeburg, Nuremberg, Augsburg, Tubingen, Dresden, Worms, Leipzig, Erfurt, Jena, Lubeck, Brunswick, Strasburg, Basel, Geneva, Riga, Rome, Venice, Genova, Prague, Vienna, and Riga, as well as Constantinople, Jerusalem and the tower of Babylon (the final illustration contained). All are in fine colouring, employing red, various shades of green, as well as yellow, purple, and brown, with some delicate and carefully applied heightening in gum Arabic.

SCHUBERT, Gotthilf Heinrich von. Bilder aus dem heiligen Lande. Vierzig ausgewählte Original-Ansichten biblisch-wichtiger Orte, treu nach der Natur aufgenommen und gezeichnet von J. M. Bernatz. Stuttgart, J. Steinkopf'sche Buchhandlung (Louis Hänel), no date [1839].

£2200

First edition, (a later issue ?) issue of Schubert and Barnatz’s beautifully executed views of the Holy Land.