THE FIRST COLONIZATION OF AUSTRALIA

"As a detailed and officially sanctioned account of the new colony, the first edition of Stockdale's Phillip is a key work and essential to any serious collection of Australian books."

[PHILLIP, ARTHUR.] THE VOYAGE OF GOVERNOR PHILLIP TO BOTANY BAY; with an Account of the Establishment of the Colonies of Port Jackson & Norfolk Island . . . . London: Printed for John Stockdale, 1789. Engraved vignette on title, frontispiece portrait and fifty-three engraved plates and charts, including the earliest plan of the settlement of Sydney, Australia. FIRST EDITION of "the first authentic and official account of the expedition to New South Wales and of the foundation of the settlement" (Ferguson). FULL DESCRIPTION > >

"The history of the world's sieges
contains no more brilliant episode"

REES, L. E. RUUTZ. A PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF THE SIEGE OF LUCKNOW. London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts, 1858. Engraved frontispiece portrait, large folding plan of Lucknow. FIRST EDITION by an English merchant who found himself in the middle of the siege of Lucknow during "the great revolt of the Bengal native army . . . which led to the transference of Indian government from the East India company to the crown in 1858" (Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th ed.). FULL DESCRIPTION > >

UPWARDS OF SEVENTY RICHLY COLOURED ENGRAVINGS OF THE RUSSIAN PEOPLES

(RUSSIAN COSTUME). COSTUME OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE . . . . London: Printed for E. Harding, 1803. Seventy-two hand-colored stipple engraved plates, including half-title. FIRST EDITION, with the text and plates watermarked 1801 and 1802, and finely hand-colored plates illustrating the traditional garb of numerous indigenous peoples then still living throughout the far-flung czarist empire. FULL DESCRIPTION > >

EXCURSIONS IN THE MOUNTAINS
OF RONDA AND GRANADA
- WITH FORE-EDGE PAINTINGS OF SPAIN

SCOTT, C. ROCHFORT. EXCURSIONS IN THE MOUNTAINS OF RONDA AND GRANADA, With Characteristic Sketches of the Inhabitants of the South of Spain. London: Henry Colburn, 1838. FIRST EDITION of the scarce account of Scott's travels throughout the mountainous Andalusia region of Spain, with two colorful 19th-century fore-edge paintings of Spanish views. FULL DESCRIPTION > >

A VANISHED CULTURE

SMITH, EDMOND REUEL. THE ARAUCANIANS; Or, Notes of a Tour Among the Indian Tribes of Southern Chili. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1855. FIRST EDITION. FULL DESCRIPTION > >

"Relations of voyages and travels have at all times, and in all ages, since the invention of letters, been favourably received by the public: but, perhaps, in no age so well as in the present."

- Andrew Sparrman

SPARRMAN, ANDREW. A VOYAGE TO THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE, TOWARDS THE ANTARCTIC POLAR CIRCLE, AND ROUND THE WORLD: But chiefly Into the Country of the Hottentots and Caffres, From the Year 1772, to 1776. London: For G. G. J. and J. Robinson, 1785. FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. FULL DESCRIPTION > >

TWENTY YEARS' RESIDENCE
IN SOUTH AMERICA

STEVENSON, W. B. A HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE NARRATIVE OF TWENTY YEARS' RESIDENCE IN SOUTH AMERICA . . . . London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., 1825. FIRST EDITION of Stevenson's only book, a detailed first-hand account "of great value for the period immediately preceding the South American revolution" (DNB). FULL DESCRIPTION > >

THE FIRST COMPLETE TRANSLATION OF
ABEL TASMAN'S JOURNAL

"The most ambitious of all Dutch voyages for
the exploration of the Southern Hemisphere"

[TASMAN, ABEL JANSZOON.] HEERES, J. E., ed. ABEL JANSZOON TASMAN'S JOURNAL of His Discovery of Van Diemens Land and New Zealand in 1642 . . . Being Photo-Lithographic Facsimiles of the Original Manuscript in the Colonial Archives at the Hague With an English Translation and Facsimiles of Original Maps to Which Are Added Life and Labours of Abel Janszoon Tasman . . . . Amsterdam: Frederik Muller & Co., 1898. Original publisher's gilt-ruled vellum. Five large folding maps in rear pocket. FIRST EDITION of the first complete translation of Tasman's journal, and one of only two hundred copies. FULL DESCRIPTION > >

"There must be no smiling with Cruikshank.
A man who does not laugh outright
is a dullard, and has no heart."

- William Makepeace Thackeray

[THACKERAY, WILLIAM MAKEPEACE.] AN ESSAY ON THE GENIUS OF GEORGE CRUIKSHANK. With Numerous Illustrations of His Works. (From The Westminster Review, No. LXVI.) With Additional Etchings. [London:] Henry Hooper, 1840. FIRST EDITION IN BOOK FORM. FULL DESCRIPTION > >

THE FIRST PUBLISHED ACCOUNT
OF AN ENGLISH EXPEDITION TO TIBET
- IN THE ORIGINAL BOARDS

TURNER, SAMUEL. AN ACCOUNT OF AN EMBASSY TO THE COURT OF THE TESHOO LAMA, IN TIBET; Containing a Narrative of a Journey Through Bootan, and Part of Tibet. London: W. Bulmer and Co., 1800. Original boards and paper spine. FIRST EDITION of the first published account of a journey to Tibet written by an Englishman, and the only such account "until Bogle and Manning's narratives were printed in 1875" (DNB). FULL DESCRIPTION > >

MAROONED ON CELEBES

[VAUGHAN, WILLIAM, ed.] THE NARRATIVE OF CAPTAIN DAVID WOODARD AND FOUR SEAMEN . . . And an Appendix, containing Narratives of various Escapes from Shipwrecks . . . . London: For J. Johnson by S. Hamilton, 1804. FIRST EDITION of the remarkable adventures of an American seaman as told by him to a prominent London merchant. FULL DESCRIPTION > >

WHITE'S VIEWS IN INDIA

WHITE, GEORGE FRANCIS. VIEWS IN INDIA, CHIEFLY AMONG THE HIMALAYA MOUNTAINS . . . . Edited by Emma Roberts. London & Paris: Fisher, Son, and Co., 1838. Twenty-eight engraved plates. FULL DESCRIPTION > >

THE SAN FRANCISCO HORROR

WHITE, TRUMBULL. COMPLETE STORY OF THE SAN FRANCISCO HORROR . . . . N. p.: N. p., (c. 1906). Forty-six full-page illustrations after photographs and drawings. SALESMAN'S SAMPLE, evidently produced shortly after the great San Francisco earthquake of April 18, 1906. FULL DESCRIPTION > >

ONE OF ONLY ONE HUNDRED COPIES
ON LARGE PAPER

"The first, the most particular, and the most authentic account of the battle [of the Nile]".

WILLYAMS, COOPER. A VOYAGE UP THE MEDITERRANEAN IN HIS MAJESTY'S SHIP THE SWIFTSURE, One of the Squadron Under the Command of Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson, K. B. . . . . With a Description of the Battle of the Nile . . . . London: By T. Bensley for J. White, 1802. Folio. Hand-colored dedication page and forty-two hand-colored aquatint plates, including double-page chart of the Mediterranean. FIRST EDITION, one of only one hundred copies on large paper. FULL DESCRIPTION > >

"THE FIRST AMERICAN AERONAUT
OF ANY CONSEQUENCE"

WISE, JOHN. A SYSTEM OF AERONAUTICS, Comprehending Its Earliest Investigations, and Modern Practice and Art. . . . Philadelphia: Joseph A. Speel, 1850. FIRST EDITION of the first book by Wise, an American pioneer in the science of ballooning and "the first American aeronaut of any consequence" (DAB). FULL DESCRIPTION > >