
CHINA
[
]
An Early Victory for
Equal Protection & Civil Rights
(ANTI-Chinese Law REJECTED)! Field, Stephen J. The invalidity of the “Queue Ordinance” of the city and county of San Francisco. Opinion of the Circuit Court of the United States, for the district of California, in Ho Ah Kow vs. Matthew Nunan, delivered July 7th, 1879. San Francisco: J.L. Rice & Co., 1879. 8vo (23.3 cm, 9.2"). 43, [1] pp.
$2800.00
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First edition: The case in which U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Johnson Field (acting as an individual jurist in district court) found that shaving male prisoners' heads, a punitive practice used particularly to discourage queue-wearing Chinese immigrants from serving jail time rather than paying fines for violating the 1870 Sanitary Ordinance, was
unconstitutional.
Following the opinion is an appendix providing “history of the legislation of the Supervisors of the city and county of San Francisco against the Chinese . . . compiled by one of the counsel in the above case [i.e., B.S. Brooks] from the records of the Supervisors and the newspapers of the city.” The text was printed from a revised copy, according to the title-page.
Publisher's printed paper wrappers; corners and edges chipped, paper lost over spine, front wrapper with short tear from outer edge (not touching text), back wrapper with outer edge shortened. The whole now housed in a quarter navy morocco clamshell case with deep blue cloth–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title, gilt-ruled raised bands, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations. Pages slightly age-toned.
A landmark document of American Constitutional law. (34196)
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Chinese Buddhists in India
Beal, Samuel. Chinese accounts of India. Calcutta: S. Gupta for Susil Gupta, 1957–58. 8vo (22.2 cm, 8.75"). 3 vols. (of 4) I: [8], 127, [1] pp. II: vi, [2], [129]–258 pp. III: [8], [259]–396 pp.
[SOLD]
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New editions: Three volumes of Samuel Beal's translations from the original Chinese. Beal (1825–89), a scholar and the first Englishman to translate early texts of Buddhism from the original Chinese, is well known for these renditions of travelogues by various Chinese Buddhist pilgrims to India, including Hiuen Tsiang (c. 602–664, also known as “Xuanzang”), providing
firsthand accounts of their voyages and their interactions with Indian Buddhists.Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Publisher's navy cloth with gilt lettering to spine, in original yellow dust jackets printed in black and white; extremities bumped, boards lightly soiled, jackets price-clipped, edgeworn, and faintly soiled. This very good set includes volumes 1–3 of 4. (38055)

Dropmore Press — Unopened Copy
De Quincey, Thomas. Revolt of the Tartars or flight of the Kalmuck Khan and his people from the Russian territories to the frontiers of China. London: Dropmore Press, Ltd., 1948. 4to (26.8 cm, 10.6"). [10], 96, [4] pp.; illus.
$65.00
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Fine press production, first edition with these illustrations, sole Dropmore Press printing: An evocatively written account of a Tartar migration under threat by Russian soldiers, by the author of Confessions of an English Opium-Eater — who was generally considered to have accomplished a greater feat of literature than of history with this work. The full-page illustrations and chapter headers were done by Stuart Boyle.
This is
numbered copy 119 of 450 printed. The volume was set in Monotype Poliphilus and printed by hand on hand-made paper by Hodgkinson of Wells, with the binding done by Evans of Croydon.
Publisher's half brown morocco and terra cotta cloth, front cover leather with gilt-stamped horse and rider vignette, spine with gilt-stamped title between two raised bands; corners bumped, spine foot and lower raised band slightly rubbed. Signatures unopened. (35218)
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Praised by the Pope, CONDEMNED by the Chinese: Death of a Jesuit Missionary
[Fatinelli, Giovanni Jacopo]; Carlo Majelli. Relazione della preziosa morte dell' eminentiss. e reverendiss. Carlo Tomaso Maillard di Tournon prete cardinale della S.R. Chiesa. Commissario, e Visitatore Apostolico Generale, con le facoltà di legato a latere nell' Impero della Cina, e regni dell' Indie Orientali, seguita nella città di Macao li 8. del mese di giugno dell' anno 1710, edi [sic] ciò, che gli avvenne negli ultimi cinque mesi della sua vita. Roma & Bologna: Costantino Pisarri, 1711. 4to (20.4 cm, 8"). 70, [2] pp.
$875.00
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Cardinal Charles-Thomas Maillard de Tournon (a.k.a. Carlo Tommaso, 1668–1710) was a papal legate to the East Indies and China, tasked with overseeing the missionaries in those areas and with managing the inflammatory issue of the Malabar and Chinese rites: controversial practices intended to accommodate Indian and Chinese traditions and rituals as part of the process of teaching Christian thought and practice. While in India in 1704, Tournon attempted to resolve the problem there by issuing a decree prohibiting a variety of missionary adaptations thought to endorse idolatry or superstition — a decree which actually caused further, knottier complications for the local missions and for the Pope — but once he arrived in China and the Kangxi Emperor learned of his intentions, he was imprisoned at Macau, where he died.
This announcement of Tournon's death, written in Italian with Latin quotations, is attributed to the Cardinal's deputy, Abbot Giangiacomo Fatinelli; following the main statement are “Verba per Sanctissimum Dominum Nostrum Clementem Papam XI . . . de obitu Cardinalis de Tournon” and Carlo Majelli's “Oratio habita in Sacello Pontificio V. Kal. Decembris A.D. MDCCXI. in funere ... Cardinalis Caroli Thomae Maillard de Tournon apostolici ad Sinas, & Indias Orientales.” This is the second of three editions published in 1711, with this being a notably scarce printing: Searches of WorldCat find
only three U.S. institutions reporting holdings (Harvard, Princeton, and Cleveland).
Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, 913–14 (for Gonzaga ed.); DeBacker-Sommervogel, XI, 1285-6 (calling for 38 pages only, i.e. the first part). Later plain paper wrappers, darkened and worn, back wrapper with numeral in red. Title-page with early inked numeral in upper outer corner. Title-page mildly foxed, pages otherwise overall clean. (40109)
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A QUITE
Luxurious & Useful Production
Jacquemart, Albert. Histoire de la céramique. Paris: Librairie Hachette, 1873. 4to (26.5 cm, 10.43"). [2] ff., 750, [2] pp. 12 pls.
$425.00
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Canvassing ancient Egypt to the Italian Renaissance and modern times, this monograph on ceramic art distinguishes classes and styles of pottery, is illustrated with
200 wood-engraved figures by Hercule Catenacci and Jules Jacquemart, bears
12 full-page engraved plates by the latter, and tells how to identify many works' makers, cataloguing
1,000 marks and monograms. Each full-page plate is protected by a guard sheet with a brief letterpress description.
Jules Jacquemart (1837–80) was but in his mid-twenties when he began drawing from the renowned art collection of his father, Albert, an art historian. The Jacquemarts' first book on the subject was the Histoire de la porcelaine, followed shortly by this, its companion, in 1873, when Jules was “at work again on his own best work of etching.” He also made the etchings for Techener's Histoire de la bibliophilie (1860–64) and, in 1864, received an important commission from the French crown for Gemmes et joyaux de la couronne (1865).
The monograph's original
color-painted beaux-arts wrappers are bound in at the front and back here, including the spine in front (rubbed and faded, hinting at original splendor). The title-page is printed in red and black. An extensive index appears at the end.
Binding: Three-quarter evergreen morocco bordered with gilt fillets over bubble gum and mint marbled paper boards; spine with raised bands, gilt-framed compartments containing author, title, date, and appropriate devices in gilt; endpapers matching marbled boards and top edge gilt.
For J. Jacquemart, see: The Nineteenth Century, Vol. IX, pp. 681–90. Leather lightly scuffed at extremities and sunned to a woody green on spine and upper front cover; offsetting from turn-ins onto endpapers. Mild to (occasionally) moderate foxing throughout and old water damage on a few leaves only. (30132)
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“Un Missionnaire Doit Être un Excellent Voyageur”
Jesuits. Nouvelles des missions, extraites des Lettres edifiantes et curieuses. Paris: Societé catholique des bons livres, 1827. 12mo (16.9 cm, 6.68"). 2 vols. I: vii, [3], 214 pp. II: [4], 243, [3] pp.
$350.00
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The first volume here opens with an impassioned defense of the overall interest and significance of the Lettres édifiantes, 34 volumes of correspondence from non-European Jesuit missions reporting back to Rome, originally published from 1702 to 1776. While there was obviously much therein on the condition of the various missions and missionaries and their conversion activities, the writers also addressed social and political conditions and events, as well as occasionally writing detailed descriptions of natural history. The present two volumes, an early 19th-century abridgement, offer some of the
highlights of letters from the Middle East, Asia, and the Americas (Constantinople, Armenia, Persia, Syria, Tripoli, Jerusalem and the Holy
Land, in the first volume; various parts of Canada, California, Santo Domingo, and Guyana in the second).
This ed. not in Sabin; see 40697 for main entry. Contemporary paper in tree calf pattern, spines with gilt-stamped red leather title-labels; rubbed overall. All edges stained yellow. Front free endpapers each with small 19th-century library paper shelving label. Occasional small spots of staining or foxing, pages generally clean. (40086)
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FIRST BIBLIOGRAPHY of
AMERICANA (PLUS)
León Pinelo, Antonio de. Epítome de la bibliotheca oriental, y occidental, nautica, y geográfica ... Añadido y enmendado nuevamente en que se contienen los escritores de las Indias orientales, y occidentales, y reinos convecinos
CHINA, Tartaria, Japón, Persia, Armenia, Etiopia y otras partes. Madrid: En la oficina de Francisco Martinez Abad, 1737–38. Folio (30 cm; 11.75"). 3 vols. I: [71], [135], [27] ff. II: [221] ff. III: 202 pp.
$9000.00
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Antonio de León Pinelo (1589–1660) was a Spanish-colonial historian. Born in Cordova de Tucuman and educated at the Jesuit college of Lima, he left the New World for Spain in 1612 and there enjoyed a highly successful career, becoming attorney of the Council of the Indies and later a judge in the Casa de Contratacion in Seville.
His Epitome was originally published in Madrid in 1629 and is here in the second edition as
enlarged and annotated by Andres Gonzalez de Barcia: It was the first bibliography for the field of Americana and to this day
it remains an important source for scholars and collectors of the colonial era of the New World for its wealth of bibliographic data and most especially information about manuscripts.
Rich says of this edition that it is, “The most complete general bibliography of geographical works, travels, missionary reports, etc.” And LeClerc echoes him: “ouvrage extremement important pour la bibliographie americaine.”
The work is handsomely printed (although erratic in its pagination and signature markings), in double-column format, featuring title-pages in black and red with an engaging small engraved vignette of a ship between pillars reading “Plus” and “Ultra.”
Provenance: Ownership stamp of Carlos Sanz in several places.
Sabin 40053; Palau 135738; Alden & Landis 737/135; Medina, BHA, 3071; Borba de Moraes, II, 150; LeClerc 872. Contemporary vellum over pasteboards, a little soiled especially to spnes, retaining button and loop closures; hinges (inside) open in a few places but bindings strong. Occasional waterstain or other sign of exposure to dampness; a few gutter margins (only) of first volume with a short wormtrack; some cockling of paper. (34810)

A Famous Designer's TRAVELOGUE of
His TRIP TO CHINA in 1984
Miho, Jim. Kromekote opens up a whole new world. [New York?, Cincinnati?]: Champion International Corp., [1985]. 32mo (near miniature: 10 cm; 3.9375"). [48] ff.
$175.00
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Issued chiefly as a sample of the Champion International Corporation's papers. The title appears on the front of the book's box, on the inside cover of the same (as “Champion Kromekote opens whole new worlds”), and below the colophon of the book.
Titled “China” on its front cover, the book is designer Miho's travelogue of a trip to China in 1984, with his conversational, informal text on the verso of its leaves and a
handsome, well-chosen color photograph opposite on each facing leaf's recto.
Colophon reads: “Design [by] Miho. Printing [by] Hennegan Co. Cincinatti [sic]. Paper: Cover, Kromekot 15 cover/.010 Text, Kromekote enamel / 90 lb. Box, Kromekote Lith / 60 lb. Colorcast boxwrap, red on red.”
The near-miniature travelogue book is contained in a larger box measuring 19 x 19 x 2 cm (7.375" x 7,375" x .75").
WorldCat locates fewer than ten reported copies worldwide.
Book in fine condition, box very good.
A fascinating, evocative little production. (36984)

The Latest Views, from the Explorers Themselves
Morgan, Edward Delmar, & Clements R. Markham. Notes on the recent geography of Central Asia; from Russian sources. Progress of discovery on the coasts of new Guinea. London: John Murray, 1884. 8vo (24.5 cm, 9.625"). [6], [203]–337, [1] pp.; 1 fold. map.
$75.00
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“New” findings on Central Asia and New Guinea: Vol. I, pt. 2 of the supplementary papers of the Royal Geographical Society, with a handsome folded map. The Royal Geographical Society was created to advance the geographical sciences, and after its founding in 1830 supported the expeditions of some of the foremost explorers. In this RGS publication, English translator Edward Delmar Morgan and English geographer and former Society president Clements R. Markham (both also renowned explorers) offered updates on their respective areas of study: Morgan (1840–1909) with additional notes to a report on a Central Asian expedition previously translated for the Society), and Markham (1830–1916) with discoveries on the New Guinea coasts, in a paper read at the Society in 1884.
“Part of Central Asia Showing the Territory between the Zarafshan and Amu-Daria Rivers,” the
large folding map relevant to Morgan's paper, is included in the rear. Printed in in black and white with light color accents, it was drawn by the chief draughtsman for the Society, Henry Sharbau, and lithographed by British cartographer and engraver Edward Weller.
Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Original printed blue wrappers, front wrapper with center emblem; wrappers edgeworn and lightly discolored in spots, chipping to rear wrapper with minor loss, spine faded. Interior age-toned, light scuffs to two pages; very small occasional tears at creases of the map.
A solid copy, with the attractive map. (38056)
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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
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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)
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“Another Successful Step in the Exploration of Inner Asia”
Przheval’skii (Prejevalsky), Nikolai Mikhailovich; E. Delmar Morgan, trans. From Kulja, across the Tian Shan to Lob-Nor. London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, 1879. 8vo (22.8 cm, 9"). xii, 251, 32 pp.; 2 maps.
$900.00
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Nikolai Mikhailovich Przheval’skii (1839–88) was a Russian geographer and explorer. His expeditions
extensively contributed to Europe’s knowledge of Central Asia and advanced the study of the region’s geography, fauna, and flora, earning him the Founder’s Gold Medal from the Royal Geographical Society in 1879, as well as a breed of horse named in his honor.
In his second expedition to Central Asia (1876–77), documented here, Przheval’skii traveled through Kulja, today called Yining, to Lop Nur, although the ultimate goal of reaching Lhasa was not achieved due to an illness and worsening relations with China. For this
first English edition, English explorer Edward Delmar Morgan translated the account of the trek and Thomas Douglas Forsyth provided an introduction. The volume includes
two color folding maps; the larger shows Przheval’skii’s journey through South Asia in 1877 and the smaller one depicts the “comparison between Chinese and Prejevalsky’s geography from tracings by Baron Richthofen.”
Evidence of Readership: On the title-page, beside the author’s name, “London 5/11/88 — Telegram death of Col. Prejevalsky while on expedition to Thibet.” Occasionally, an inked or penciled mark or number in a margin.
Provenance: On verso of title-page, signature of M. Holzmann and (in a different hand) “C.J.M. 5944.” Most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
NSTC 0618155. Publisher’s brown cloth with gilt lettering to spine and minimal black decoration; light rubbing with a bit of unobtrusive spotting, corners a little bumped and a sliver of loss to spine-head. Finger smudges to front free endpaper, three small tears along folds to largest folding map.
An interesting and important expedition; a copy complete with the colored maps. (37867)

“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
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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)
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BUDDHISM in
High Asia & CHINA
Schott, Wilhelm. Uber den Buddhaismus in Hochasien und in China. Berlin: Verlag von Veit & Comp., 1846. Small folio (27 cm; 10.5"). 128 pp.
$300.00
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Schott (1807–89) wrote extensively on Asian religions and culture. This work on Buddhism in High Asia and China is the sole book edition, although the text had first appeared in Koeniglich-Preussische Akademie der Wissenschaften (Feb., 1844).
Uncommon. OCLC locates only five copies in the U.S., of which one has been deaccessioned.
Recent boards covered with German-style brown paper specked with black; paper label on front cover. Paper a little cockled on back cover. Old shelving numbers on verso of title-page and a four-digit number inked in lower margin of leaf A1; few dog-ears and one pencilled note. (24768)
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A Micro-Carved Ivory Love Gift: Remember Me
Shen Zhong-Xing, artist. “Love Seeds”: Ivory micro-engraving. China: [ca. 1990?]. Small case (14.5 cm, 5.6").
$750.00
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Classical Chinese poetry in calligraphed format: This tiny rectangle of ivory (only about 4mm tall) is impossibly delicately etched with both the Chinese original and Fletcher's English translation of Wang Wei's Tang Dynasty-era poem “Xiang Si” (given here as “Love Seeds”). The xiang si bean (Abrus precatorius) is a Chinese symbol of love and longing; its small, shiny, red seeds were used as tokens of love, hence the reference in this poem: “The red bean grows in southern lands / With spring its slender tendrils twine / Gather for me some more, I pray / Of fond remembrance 'tis the sign.”
Additionally, both the Chinese and English texts are presented on a folded slip of paper, with additional commentary in Chinese characters only.
The ivory is mounted within a black frame affixed to a small square of gold paper, on red velvet, and contained in a beautiful, eminently displayable case covered in olive-green silk with a woven Asian-inspired knotwork pattern in bronze and blue, decorated with a Chinese-printed label on the front cover. The case closes with a fabric loop and white-painted wooden toggle.
Box as above, showing the faintest hint of rubbing to one corner, overall in excellent condition. Small compartment beneath presentation window seems to indicate a long slender item was at one point laid in, but it is difficult to say what that might have been. (30544)
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“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
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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)

“Pioneer Work in What Was Then Practically
a Virgin Field for Antiquarian Research”
Stein, Marc Aurel, Sir. Ruins of desert Cathay: Personal narrative of explorations in central Asia and westernmost China. London: Macmillan & Co., 1912. 8vo (24.2 cm, 9.52"). 2 vols. I: Col. frontis., xxxviii, 546 pp.; 3 fold. plts., 105 (2 col.) plts. II: Frontis., xxi, [1], 517, [3 (2 adv.)] pp.; 4 fold. plts., 2 fold. maps, 120 (5 col.) plts.
$1000.00
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First edition: “With numerous illustrations, colour plates, panoramas, and maps from original surveys.” Stein conducted 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, the Diamond Sutra, dating to A.D. 868, plus 40,000 other scrolls. He received a knighthood for his efforts, which extended over 30 years. The present account was based on his 1906–08 archaeological and geographical exploration, carried out “under the orders of the Government of India” (p. vii); the volumes are
illustrated with over 200 plates, including color-printed reproductions of artwork, folding maps, and photographic images of Stein's travels.
Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Publisher's dark red cloth, front covers each with gilt-stamped classical vignette; vol. I with edges and extremities rubbed, corners bumped, minor mottling and spots of discoloration; vol. II similar, with area of damage to upper outer fore-edge. Top edges gilt. Vol. I front hinge (inside) starting from foot and sewing loosening; inner margins of frontispiece and printed guard leaf reinforced some time ago with cellophane tape; one leaf with outer margin tattered and resulting short tear (not touching text). Vol. II with back hinge (inside) cracked. Some text pages in both volumes showing pressure lines imprinted from plates. A respectable set of these hefty books, somewhat weakened by their own size and by use, “priced accordingly”; together a record of a significant expedition that offers
both visual and textual interest. (41007)
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Brought to You by the
Royal Asiatic Society
Thomas, Frederick William, ed. & trans. Tibetan literary texts and documents concerning Chinese Turkestan. Part I: Literary texts. London: The Royal Asiatic Society, 1935. 8vo (21.6 cm, 8.5"). x, 323, [1] pp.
$125.00
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First edition of the first part (only) of a four-part series on Tibetan literary texts presented by the Royal Asiatic Society in their “Oriental Translation Fund” series, this being its vol. XXXII. The Royal Asiatic Society, created in 1823, connected significant scholars of Asian Studies, such as Sir Aurel Stein and Sir Richard Francis Burton, to share science, art, and literature related to Asia.
For this volume, Frederick William Thomas (1867–1956), an English Indologist and Tibetologist, collected and translated all the Tibetan literary texts then known. Several translations are prefaced by explanations of the text's origin and/or or notes on previous studies of it.
Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear. A portion of Howard's receipt for purchase, dated 1955, is laid in.
Publisher's navy blue cloth with gilt lettering to spine; edges rubbed and extremities bumped, fading to front board, minor gutter crack at p. 96. This offering is pt. I only. A sound, decent copy of this first volume of an intriguing series. (38078)

BEWICK-Illustrated HERBAL
Thornton, Robert John. A new family herbal: Or popular account of the natures and properties of the various plants used in medicine, diet, and the arts. London: Richard Phillips (pr. by Richard Taylor & Co.), 1810. 8vo (24.1 cm, 9.5"). xvi, 901, [1 (adv.)] pp.; illus.
$850.00
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First edition: “A more complete and perfect herbal than has hitherto appeared . . . intended to unite the various advantages that have been derived to science from [Andrew Duncan's] 'Edinburgh New Dispensatory'” (p. vii). Compiled by an English physician and botanist remembered for his magnificent Temple of Flora, the present pharmaceutical treatise lists and describes the uses of 283 plants
illustrated with 261 wood engravings by Thomas Bewick. According to Johnston, this represents Bewick's “only attempt at botanical wood engravings,” based on designs by Peter Charles Henderson. Dr. Thornton was the author of A Grammar of Botany and The Philosophy of Botany, as well as The Temple of Flora,
In addition to the expectable lavender, chaste tree, burdock, lungwort, etc., also present here are discussions of
Chinese smilax, coffee, tea, the Peruvian bark tree, ginseng, sarsaparilla, pimento (“Jamaica Pepper”), and tobacco.
Provenance: Front cover with gilt-stamped armorial device of Dr. Alfred Freer of Stourbridge, Worcestershire: out of a ducal coronet, an antelope's head.
NSTC T941; Hugo, Bewick Collector, 253; Johnston, Cleveland Herbal, Botanical, and Horticultural Collections, 745; Nissen 1954; Pritzel 9238; Rohde, Old English Herbals, 224 (listing Crosby ed. only). Contemporary calf, covers framed in blind roll and single gilt fillet, spine with blind-tooled compartment decorations; binding rubbed and scuffed overall, spine label now absent with traces remaining, repair work to splits in spine leather and to short tear from inner margin of front free endpaper, joints and extremities refurbished. Front free endpaper with inked ownership inscription (“C.M.W.”) dated 1912. Dedication tipped in. Pages gently age-toned with scattered foxing; small inkstain to upper fore-edge of first 30 ff., barely extending onto pages. One contents leaf with short tear (just touching text, without loss) and old repair in lower outer corner. A now solid, even rather distinguished-looking copy of a desirable pharmacopeia
exquisitely illustrated. (36043)
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