The Arab

and Islamic
World

Peter Harrington
london
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 Peter Harrington
london

c ata l o gue 1 3 3

The Arab
and
TheIslamic
Arab
World
and Islamic
World

All items from this catalogue are available to view at Dover Street

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 1

1
(ABU’L-FIDA’.) SCHIER, Karl. Géographie d’Ismaël
Abou’l Fédâ en arabe. Publiée d’après deux manuscrits
de Musée britannique de Londres et de la Bibliothèque
royale de Dresde. Dresden: I. H. G. Rau & Fils, Institut
lithographique, 1846
Folio (356 × 250 mm). Contemporary purple pebble-grained cloth over
flexible boards, title gilt to spine, original wrappers bound in front and
back. Lithographed throughout including decorative chromolithograph-
ic Arabic title page and divisional titles printed in red. From the library
of British colonial agent and Arabist Colonel Samuel Barrett Miles (1838–
1914), with a printed bookplate to front pastedown noting his widow’s
bequest of his collection to Bath Public Library in 1920, associated man-
uscript shelf-marks to spine and front pastedown, and blind-stamps to
the text as usual. Spine slightly sunned, tips bumped, a few pale mark-
ings to covers, original wrappers and title slightly marked, variable light
browning to contents, a few trivial spots. A very good copy.
first and only edition thus, an attractive lithographed edi-
tion of the Kitab Taqwim al-buldan (Survey of the Lands), an import-
ant Arabic compendium of geographical knowledge completed
in 1321 and containing important first-hand information on
Syria and Palestine. It was widely used by European orientalists
throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. The Arabic title page is
dated 1846 and the French title is undated; isolated references to 1

2
 1 2

editions 1840 or 1841 appear erroneous. The author Abu’l-Fida’ sive Agreement. One of 500 copies printed, a printed issue-slip
(1273–1331) was an Ayyubid prince who governed Hama, Syria, tipped to the title page of volume I appearing to indicate that a
as a client of Mamluk Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad. His other maximum of 250 copies were actually issued in the first instance,
major work was his Mukhtasar ta’rikh al-bashar (Compendium on the with just six copies now traced in libraries worldwide.
History of Man), a work of similar character. Schier was a Dres- The first agreement is the General Treaty with the Friendly Ar-
den-based private scholar who was noted by Arabists for his abs, signed at Ra’s al-Khaymah in 1820 (p. 144). Arab signatories
ability to write in an attractive Arabic script, and supported him- include “Sheik Shakbool”, that is Tahnun b. Shakhbut, shaykh
self and his publication by teaching German to wealthy English of the Bani Yas and ruler of Abu Dhabi from 1818 to 1833, “Sul-
businessmen. Rare: no copies listed in auction records, three tan bin Sugger”, or Sultan bin Saqr al-Qasimi, ruler of Sharjah,
copies in UK libraries (British Library and two in Cambridge), and the “Sheik of Dubey”, who in later agreements is named
twelve traced world-wide. explicitly as Maktum b. Bati, who announced the independence
Encyclopaedia of Arabic Literature Vol. 1 p. 32.
of Dubai from Abu Dhabi in 1833 and founded the Maktum dy-
nasty. The treaty binds the Arab shaykhdoms to aid the British
£3,500 [117578] against piracy in the Gulf, illustrating that the British, despite
their naval supremacy, found their interests genuinely threat-
The emergence of the modern Gulf states ened by the activities of Arab sailors in the region. A further set
of agreements, signed in 1838, with the chief of Abu Dhabi now
2 known as “Khaleefa ben Shakbool”, gives the British the right to
(ADMIRALTY.) Instructions for the Guidance of Her detain and search any ships entering their ports which are sus-
Majesty’s Ships of War Employed in the Suppression of pected of carrying slaves. The final set of treaties, agreed with
the various Gulf shaykhs over the course of 1847, including the
the Slave Trade. London: for Her Majesty’s Stationery Office by
chief of Bahrain, Muhammad b. Khalifah b. Subman, gives li-
Harrison and Sons, 1892 cence to British cruisers to seize any ships suspected of involve-
2 volumes, octavo (236 × 150 mm). Contemporary black half calf, dark ment in the slave trade. Rare, and a highly important document
blue cloth sides (vol. I morocco-grain and vol. II watered), spines gilt
of the formation of the modern Gulf States.
in compartments, raised bands, buff endpapers, edges speckled red.
Occasional blind-stamps of the Barbados Corporation. Slightly rubbed £7,500 [104970]
overall, extremities bumped, vol. II sunned along head of front board,
spotting to endleaves of vol. I, a few pages finger-marked in the margins
not affecting text. A very good copy.
first edition of this rare handbook for British sailors, re-
printing in full the texts of each treaty signed between the Gulf
shaykhdoms and the British from 1820 to 1847. These Instructions
were published in light of the Brussels Anti-Slavery Conference
of 1889–90; the year of publication was also that of the Exclu- 2

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk 3

 3

The first appearance in print of the earliest reference in history to

the Arabic language
3
(AGATHARCHIDES.) [Title in Greek letters.] Ex Ctesia,
Agatharchide, Memnone exerptae historiae, Appiani
Iberica. Item de gestis Annibalis. Omnia nunc primum
edita. Cum Henrici Stephani castigationibus. Geneva:
Henri Estienne, 1557
Octavo (161 × 94 mm). Attractive late 18th-century green goatskin, title
gilt to spine, rolled bands, dog and willow tool to compartments, single
3
fillet panel to boards, rope-twist gilt edge-roll, all edges gilt, floral roll
gilt to the turn-ins, marbled endpapers, pale yellow silk page-marker
intact. Greek types. Ineffectually obliterated ownership inscription of that Photius had a text very close to Agatharchides’ original be-
the 17th-century lexicographer Robert Sherwood to the title page. A lit- fore him” (Retso, p. 300).
tle rubbed, five small surface wormholes to the front board, small paper “On the Erythrean Sea”, an account of an expedition to the
label at the head of the spine, light browning, some pale dampstaining
west coast of Arabia ordered by Ptolemy II in 280 bc in reaction
towards the lower margin, but overall a very good copy.
to Seleucid expansion in the region, has been identified as “the
editio princeps of these five Greek histories, including most important source for an almost forgotten chapter in the
Photius’s version of “On the Erythrean [Red] Sea” by Agathar- history of discovery, the exploration of the Red Sea . . . by the
chides, containing the earliest reference in history to the Arabic agents of the Ptolemaic government in Egypt . . . It also contains
language. “Agatharchides’ original text is lost, but extracts and the earliest extensive account of the geography and ethnography
digests of it are found in three later authors: Diodorus Siculus, of the coats of northeast Africa and Western Arabia” (Burstein).
Strabo and the collection of extracts made by the Byzantine Several peoples are identified as arabes, including the Nabataoi
theologian Photius in the ninth century ad . . . Of these three (Nabateans), Thamoudenoi (Thamud) and Gasandoi (Ghassan-
witnesses . . . the Photius text is considered closest to the orig- ids). This edition of Agatharchides precedes its appearance in
inal” (Retso, The Arabs in Antiquity, p. 295): Diodorus extensively Hoeschel’s editio princeps of Photius’s Bibliotheca, itself based on
altered the text to fit his “distinctive literary style”, whereas Stra- a manuscript owned by Estienne, by nearly half a century. An
bo’s immediate source was not Agatharchides at all but the lost attractive copy of a highly significant early source for the region,
geography by Artemidorus of Ephesus (Burstein, Agatharchides of which also includes the first separate work on India by Ctesias
Cnidus, p. 38). Photius’s version is unique in referring to an aro- of Cnidos, and two books by Appian which were not included in
matic plant “which in Arabic (arabistii) is called larimna”, a pas- Estienne’s 1551 edition.
sage found at p. 71 of the present text: if part of Agatharchides’s
original account, this would be “the earliest reference in history Adams C3020.
to a language named after the Arabs” and Retso has “no doubt £2,500 [92349]

4 Peter Harrington 133

 5

among the first Muslim accounts of the Prophet to be published

first in English (that is, excepting editions of classical Arabic
texts, see Dimmock, Mythologies of the Prophet Muhammad in Ear-
ly Modern English Culture, p. 214). Uncommon, with six copies
traced in British libraries (British Library, Cambridge, National
Library of Scotland, Oxford, Royal Asiatic Society, St Andrews)
and four world-wide. Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan was “the principal
motivating force behind the revival of Indian Islam in the late
19th century” (Ency. Brit.) His attempts to reconcile Islam with
the progressive and scientific ideals current in the mid-19th cen-
tury have been shown to have influenced other reformers such
as Muhammad ‘Abduh and Rashid Rida. He wrote the present
essays in Urdu during a visit to England in 1869, and they were
then translated into English by his son.
£1,250 [117579]
4
5
AHMED, Ibrahim Fouad. Qatar and the Sea. Doha:
4
Ministry of Information, Department of Tourism and Antiquities,
AHMAD KHAN, Sir Sayyid. A Series of Essays on the Life 1987
of Mohammed, and Subjects Subsidiary thereto. Vol. I [all Quarto. Original black boards, titles to spine and front board gilt, blue
published]. London: Trübner & Co., [1869]–70 and white endbands. With the photographic dust jacket. Text in English
Octavo. Original green cloth, recased and relined, spine lettered in gilt, and Arabic. Profusely illustrated with colour photographs and maps
decorate blind frame to covers enclosing gilt block of a camel above Arabic throughout the text. Extremities very lightly bumped, negligible pale
text to front. Separate title page for each essay, 2 folding genealogical marking to rear board, hinges split. A very good copy in the bright dust
tables, double-page two-tint lithographic view of the Ka’bah. From the jacket with a small chip to head of spine.
library of British Arabist and colonial agent Col. S. B. Miles (1838–1914), first and only edition, the first half concerning the maritime
with printed bookplate noting his widow’s bequest of the collection to geography and history of Qatar and its surrounding islands, with
Bath Public Library in 1920, and associated manuscript shelf-marks and
a discussion of the history of pearl-diving in the region; the sec-
blind-stamps as usual. Extremities rubbed and bumped, a few nicks to
foot of spine, tips worn, a few short nicks to folding tables, closed tear to ond is a detailed account of marine life around Qatar (the author
pp. 29/30, which remain partly unopened, in the sixth essay. A good copy. being a marine biologist by training). Scarce, only four copies in
libraries worldwide and none in the UK or Gulf.
first edition of these 12 influential essays on Muhammad, Is-
lam and Arabia, written in response to William Muir’s criticism £500 [100952]
of the Prophet in his Life of Mahomet (1858–61) and considered

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk 5

 6

6 Taurus Mountains, discovered several deposits of commercially

important minerals in Mesopotamia and Anatolia, and explored
AINSWORTH, William Francis. Researches in Assyria,
a substantial part of south-east Persia”.
Babylonia, and Chaldea; forming Part of the Labours of
the Euphrates Expedition. London: John W. Parker, 1838 Atabey 10; Howgego II, C26; not in Blackmer, Weber or Wilson.
Octavo. Original blue-green fine diaper cloth, title gilt to spine, panels £1,250 [95148]
and elaborate strapwork centre-tool to boards, cream surface-paper
endpapers. Tinted lithographic frontispiece, steel-engraved title-page vi-
gnette and 4 further similar vignettes, 3 extensive folding hand-coloured 7
geological sections at the rear. A little rubbed, spine sunned, corners ALDAMER, Shafi; Richard Mortel; Humberto da
bumped and slight string-notches to fore-edges of boards, small patch
at fore-edge of front board rubbed through, some foxing to frontispiece,
Silveira. The Visit of HRH Princess Alice, Countess of
largely on verso, light browning, but overall a very good copy, hinges Athlone and the Earl of Athlone to the Kingdom of Saudi
tight and text and plates clean. Arabia 25 February – 18 March 1938, With a Summary
first edition. “Ainsworth was one of the founding members of Saudi-British Relations. Riyadh: King Abdulaziz Public
of the Royal Geographical Society. In 1835 he was appointed Library, printed Anis Commercial Printing Press, Beirut, 2007
surgeon and geologist to the Euphrates expedition. This account Quarto. Original grey cloth, title in toned grey to front board, publisher’s
of the geological work [of the expedition] is dedicated to Francis device similarly to tail of spine. With the dust jacket. Profusely illustrated
Chesney head of the expedition. Ainsworth produced this work from the Countess’s photographs, 2 of them in colour. Text in English
very quickly, long before Chesney’s own account had appeared” throughout. Very good in jacket with minor crumpling along the edges.
(Atabey). The expedition was intended to “examine the feasibil- first and only edition, extremely uncommon, Copac locates
ity of opening up the Mesopotamian rivers to steam navigation copies in BM, Durham, Exeter, National Art Library at the V&A
as a new route to India, as well as asserting British political only, OCLC adds Singapore National Library, and a copy in the
presence in the area, promoting British commercial ties, and Jefferson City School District Library, Colorado. A beautifully
gathering scientific and archaeological data” (ODNB). Ainsworth presented first publication of the photographs taken by HRH
contributed “geological sections across northern Syria and the Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, on her 1938 historic state vis-
it to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, undertaken with her husband
the Earl of Athlone, and her son, Lord Frederick Cambridge. The
countess, Queen Victoria’s longest surviving grandchild, was the
first British royal to visit the country, and the only British royal to
meet King Abdulaziz. The tour took in Riyadh, Hofuf and Dam-
mam, and Princess Alice met Noura bint Abdul Rahman, sister of
the king and other members of the Saudi royal family. The images
show the kingdom right on the cusp of its major transformation.
Oil was struck in significant commercial quantities for the first
time at Dammam No. 7 in the same year. The original photo-
graphs are in the collection of the King Abdulaziz Public Library,
and had never previously been published. Most were shot in black
and white, but the few taken in colour are believed to be the first
colour photos to be taken of the Kingdom, certainly predating the
advent of Aramco’s well-resourced photographic department by
6 several years.

6 Peter Harrington 133

 7 7

Laid into this copy are two original press photographs depict- effectively erased. Educated at Edinburgh, Glasgow and Sandhurst,
ing the party’s outward journey from London via Cairo. The first Alexander was commissioned in the 1st Madras light cavalry in
(203 × 154 mm) has a caption slip mounted on verso reading: “Kin 1821. “He was made adjutant of the bodyguard by Sir Thomas
of British Royalty visit Saudi-Arabia . . . Princess Alice, Countess Munro, and served in the First Anglo–Burmese War. On leaving the
of Athlone, waving good-bye at St. Pancreas [sic] Station as she . . . East India Company’s service he joined the 13th light dragoons as
set out on the first leg of [her] trip to Saudi-Arabia. Mussolini is cornet on 20 January 1825 . . . As aide-de-camp to Colonel Kinneir,
said to have objected to the trip on the grounds it was British pro- British envoy to Persia, he was present with the Persian army during
paganda in the Near East”, marked up for publication in vermilion the war of 1826 with Russia, and received the Persian order of the
grease pencil on recto. The second (179 × 232 mm) is captioned: Lion and Sun” (ODNB). The present work gives a full account of his
“English nobility in Cairo – Earl of Athlone, Uncle of King George services to this point and includes a “Chronological Epitome of the
VI, and Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone are pictured on their late Military Operations in Ava” and a “Summary of the Causes and
arrival here en route to Saudi Arabia, a trip disapproved by Italy’s Events of the existing War between Russia and Persia”.
Mussolini . . . At right with the couple is Ahmed Hassanin Pasha, Subsequently Alexander’s career took him to the Balkans during
who represented King Farouk of Egypt. Beside the Countess is Sir the Russo–Turkish War of 1829; to Portugal during the Miguelite
Miles Lampson, British Ambassador to Cairo. The Earl is walk- War of 1832–4; South Africa in the Frontier War of 1835; from
ing behind with Gen. Sir George Weir, Chief of British Troops in 1847–55 he was in Canada as aide de camp to the commander of
Egypt”. The party is pictured walking along the platform at Ram- the troops there; in 1856 he joined his regiment in the Crimea. In
ses Station. The great Libyan Desert explorer Hassanein Bey had retirement he was responsible for saving “Cleopatra’s Needle from
accompanied Rosita Forbes to the Oasis of Kufra in 1920–1. With destruction, and had much to do with its transfer to England in
Acme Agency and Newspaper Enterprise Association stamps to 1877. At its base he buried, among other artefacts, photographs of
both photographs on verso. Both a little cockled but remaining the twelve best-looking English women of the day.”
very good. Unusual and attractive. Abbey, Travel 520; Bruce 4420; Tooley 17.
£1,250 [102589] £2,000 [50006]
8
ALEXANDER, James Edward. Travels from India to
England; comprehending a visit to the Burman Empire,
and a journey through Persia, Asia Minor, European
Turkey, &c. In the years 1825–26. London: Parbury, Allen and
Co., 1827
Quarto (263 × 203 mm). Recent calf to style, green morocco label, flat
bands with gilt foliate roll, lozenge devices gilt to compartments, double
gilt fillet panels to boards, edges and endpapers marbled. Lithographic
portrait frontispiece printed on India paper and mounted, 5 hand co-
loured aquatints, 9 lithographic plates and 2 lithographic maps, 7 pages
of vignettes at the rear. Stabholes visible in fore edges of some plates,
light toning, but overall a very nice copy.
first edition, presentation copy, inscribed on the first blank
“with the Author’s respectful compliments”, the recipient’s name
8

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk 7

 ries a leading polemicist of Islam. His message was both for his
co-religionists and for the British. In his publications, notably his
Spirit of Islam (1891), developed from his A Critical Examination of the
Life and Teaching of Mohammed (1873) . . . he restated the history of
Islam for the West, and he influenced both British readers and
Western-educated Muslims in India and Egypt. Like other mod-
ernists, he claimed that some Koranic injunctions were relevant
only to the prophet’s period, though his angelology was cautious-
ly traditional. He argued that Christianity was an ‘incomplete
religion’ and Islam the final stage in the evolution of religion.
He claimed that it was superior to Christianity and Hinduism,
dismissing the latter as idolatry and fetishism. He idealized the
orthodox caliphate of the first four caliphs, and claimed the Mus-
lim failure to conquer Europe was a tragedy, limiting its civilizing
mission. He claimed ‘the real history of India commences with
the entry of the Mussulmans’, and that they brought culture to an
idolatrous and backward land” (ODNB).
£1,250 [117580]

10
ALLEN, Isaac Nicholson. Diary of a March through Sinde
9 and Afghanistan, with the Troops under the Command
of General Sir William Nott and Sermons delivered on
9 Various Occasions during the Campaign of 1842. London:
ALI, Syed Ameer. The Life and Teachings of Mohammed. J. Hatchard and Son, 1843
Or the Spirit of Islam. London: W.H. Allen & Co. Ltd, 1891 Octavo (198 × 112 mm). Original red cloth, gilt device of three Afghans to
Octavo (217 × 130 mm). Contemporary maroon half morocco, raised front board, and in blind to rear, neatly rebacked in morocco, title gilt to
bands between blind rules to spine, compartments lettered or decorated spine, endpapers renewed. Folding single-tint lithographic frontispiece and
in gilt, marbled sides, sprinkled edges, orange endpapers. From the 7 other similar lithographic plates. Boards a little rubbed and bumped, pale
library of British Arabist and colonial agent Col. S. B. Miles (1838–1914), browning, the plates lightly foxed, but overall a very good copy.
with printed bookplate noting his widow’s bequest of the collection to first edition. Allen was assistant chaplain to the Bombay
Bath Public Library in 1920, and associated manuscript shelf-marks and establishment, and accompanied Nott’s forces through the
blind-stamps as usual. Spine rolled and lightly sunned, prelims slightly campaign from April 1841 to February 1843. “Allen’s diary offers
foxed. A very good copy.
a perceptive vision of the landscapes bringing to mind Biblical
first edition, fairly common institutionally, but rare in com- scenes of the Old Testament . . . Youthful and exuberant at the
merce, no copy listed at auction since 1914. “A Muslim modernist campaign’s advent, the diary reflects an older and more mature
and orthodox Shi‘i, Ali was in the late 19th and early 20th centu-

10

8 Peter Harrington 133

 11

cleric by its end” (Riddick). An uncommon account, just six loca-

tions on Copac.
Bruce 4457: Riddick 67.

£575 [109458]

11
ALLEN, Mark. Falconry in Arabia. Foreword by Wilfred
Thesiger. Illustrated by Mary-Clare Critchley-Salmonson.
London: Orbis Publishing, 1980
Quarto. Original dark brown cloth, title gilt to spine. In the dust jacket.
Colour frontispiece from paintings by Critchley-Salmonson and 9 other
similar plates, 10 plates from photographs, 2 of them colour, 2 full-page
maps, line-drawn vignettes as chapter headers. An excellent copy in the
bright dust jacket with toned flaps and very light rumpling at the head of
the spine panel.
first edition, signed by thesiger in the foreword, with
an intriguing Christmas card signed by Allen laid in, reading:
“Have at length returned from Jordan etc & am now working at
the Foreign Office. In January I’ll be moving back to the flat on
the corner of Abingdon Villas/Earls Ct. Road. May I give you a
ring and perhaps you would come to dinner? Lots to tell you.
Best wishes from Mark Allen”. Sir Mark Allen, former MI6 agent,
diplomat, and noted Arabist, took up hawking at the age of 12 and
has become one of the world’s leading authorities on the subject.
The illustrator Mary-Clare Critchley-Salmonson is widely rec-
ognised as one of the most skilled portraitists of sporting birds.
10 £500 [117157]

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk 9

 12 13

12 1878; he was based in Shiraz from June to October 1875; then

repairing lines from Shiraz to Kazeroon (based in Dashtarjin)
ANDERSON, T. S. My Wanderings in Persia, with
until March the following year; Shiraz–Abadeh (Sevund, with
Illustrations, and Map showing the Scientific Frontier in leave at Dehbeed and Yazd) March–December 1876; Shiraz from
Afghanistan and the Russian Advance in Central Asia ; January to March 1877; and finally in Tehran, repairing and es-
with Author’s Routes, etc. London: James Blackwood & Co., tablishing telegraph lines with iron poles, as the wooden ones
1880 were constantly stolen” (Simpson, “Making their Mark: Foreign
Octavo. Original green decorative cloth, titles gilt and elaborate em- Travellers at Persepolis” in Arta, 2009, p. 18).
bossed panelling in black to spine and front cover, pale cream endpa-
pers. Frontispiece and 5 other plates, folding map with routes in colour. £1,500 [92907]
Somewhat rubbed and soiled, some light soiling, mild toning, title page
and one other leaf a little ragged at the edge, short split on a fold to the 13
map, but overall very good.
(ANGLO–EGYPTIAN WAR 1882.) MALET, Sir
first edition, uncommon, decidedly so in the cloth. Eight
Edward. An Episode of the Egyptian Rebellion of 1882:
copies only on Copac, OCLC adds just 11 more in libraries
worldwide; one copy at auction in the last 40 years. An infor- correspondence between the Right Honourable Sir
mative, if slightly gossipy, account of a lengthy sojourn in the Edward Malet, G.C.B. and Mr. Wilfrid Scawen Blunt.
region. “Anderson worked for the Indo-European [later In- Together with a leading article on the subject in The
do-Persian] Telegraph Company in Iran from June 1875 to March Times. Guildford: Reprinted [by Billing and Sons, Ltd] for private
use from the Times of October 12, 16 and 18, 1907
Small octavo, pp. 28. Original drab grey-green printed wrappers,
stitched as issued. Touch of foxing to title. An excellent copy.
first and only edition, privately printed by Sir Edward Malet
in what must have been a very small print run. With an autograph
letter signed by Malet to “Dear Margaret” (on his letterhead and
dated 6 December 1907): “You were kind enough to take an inter-
est in the attack upon me by Mr. Blunt in his amazing book [Secret
History of the English Occupation of Egypt, 1907]. May I ask your kind
acceptance of the released which gathers the letters & The Times
leading article into a sheaf ”.
The very public Malet–Blunt spat in the pages of The Times
during October 1907 arose from their opposing views on the An-
glo–Egyptian War of 1882, when Malet served as consul-general
in Cairo and supported the khedive and Blunt took the side of the
nationalist uprising under Ahmed ‘Urabi, known as Arabi Pasha.
12 12

10 Peter Harrington 133

 15

“endured a series of ordeal not at all unlike the extraordinary plots

concocted by adventure story writers” (McKorkle, “John Antes;
American Dilettante”, Musical Quarterly 1956). The most horrifying
incident was his imprisonment and beating by the Bey in an at-
tempt to extract a ransom.
On leaving Egypt Antes spent two years in Germany, before
joining the Moravian congregation at Fulneck, Yorkshire as
warden. He remained in England until his death in Bristol in
1808. Antes was a talented musician and maker of watches and
14
instruments; a violin that he made in 1759 is held by the Moravi-
an Historical Society Museum at Nazareth, PA. He developed a
Rare: Copac locates no copies in British and Irish institutional number of innovations, improved piano hammers, violin bows,
libraries, OCLC cites only the one at Brigham Young University. and tuning pegs for violins and cello. A door-lock he invented was
further refined by his nephew, the American architect, Benjamin
£300 [113491]
Henry Latrobe. In musical circles he probably best remembered
as a putative friend of Haydn and the composer of a considerable
14 number of religious vocal works.
ANTES, John. Observations of the Manners and Customs Atabey 25; Blackmer 36; Goldsmiths’–Kress 17825.1
of the Egyptians, the Overflowing of the Nile and its
Effects; with Remarks on the Plague, and other Subjects. £600 [49172]
Written during a Residence of Twelve Years in Cairo and
its Vicinity. London: John Stockdale, 1800 15
Quarto (260 × 204 mm). Contemporary half calf, rebacked with original (ARABIAN GULF.) REZVAN, Efim. Russian Ships in the
spine laid down, marbled boards. Large folding map frontispiece of Gulf 1899–1903. Reading: Ithaca Press, 1993
the Nile from d’Anville’s 1765 map. A little rubbed, light browning, but
Octavo. Original black boards, gilt lettered spine. With the dust jacket.
overall very good.
Illustrations from photographs throughout and a map. Jacket spine with
first edition. An interesting and uncommon account of Egypt short closed-tear and creasing at foot (slight bump to binding), spine
before the French expedition. An account of Napoleon’s invasion, slightly rolled. A very good copy.
and of the Battle of the Nile was added to a subsequent edition in first edition, first impression. “Using previously unpublished
order to cash in on popular interest. Antes was born in Freder- material from the Russian Navy Central Archives in St Petersburg,
ick, Pennsylvania, his father Heinrich, a member of the German this book is the first publication of its kind, shedding new light on
Reformed Church, being largely responsible for the establish- the period from 1899 to 1903 when Russia succeeded in penetrat-
ment of the Moravian Brotherhood in that state. In 1769 he was ing the Arabian Gulf for a short time” (jacket blurb).
ordained in the Moravian ministry and travelled out to Egypt as a
missionary. From his arrival in 1770 to his departure in 1781 Antes £250 [114443]

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk 11

 16

16 of that publication. Beyond the specifically maritime aspects,

including coastal geography, these handbooks provided basic
(ARABIAN NIGHTS.) BURTON, Richard F., trans.
background on local conditions, climate, items of trade, and
The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night. With so forth. Of particular interest is their account of settlements
introduction explanatory notes on the manners and unrecognisable today: Jeddah “is mile square, and inclosed [sic]
customs of Moslem men and a terminal essay upon The by a wall, with small towers at intervals, the angles toward the
History of The Nights. London: Privately printed by the Burton sea being commanded by two forts” (p. 311), whereas Aqaba “is
Club, [c.1900] a small Arab village, in an extensive date grove . . . Close to the
17 volumes, octavo (243 × 162 mm). Contemporary brown half morocco village is a small square fort, garrisoned by Turkish soldiers” (p.
by Bayntun, rose cloth sides, titles and decoration to spines gilt, raised 278). Uncommon: only one copy in British libraries (Oxford);
bands, single rule to boards gilt, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt oth- more prevalent in American institutions but seldom encoun-
ers untrimmed. Numerous monochrome illustrations. Bookplates to tered in commerce.
front pastedowns, mild bumping and wear to corners, light wear along
spine edges, a few volumes with light fading to spines and cloth sides, a Macro 314 for eighth edition of the British title.
very good set.
£1,250 [100003]
Limited edition of 1,000 numbered sets. A complete set of Bur-
ton’s translation of the Arabian nights, containing ten volumes
of the Arabian Nights plus the seven supplementary volumes. A
particularly handsome set.
£4,500 [90741]

17
(ARABIAN PENINSULA.) Red Sea and Gulf of Aden
Pilot. Comprising the Suez Canal, the Gulfs of Suez and
Akaba, the Red Sea and Strait of Bab el Mandeb, the
Gulf of Aden with Sokotra and adjacent Islands, and the
Southeast Coast of Arabia to Ras al Hadd. Washington:
Published by the Hydrographic Office under the Authority of the
Secretary of the Navy, Government Printing Office, 1916
Octavo. Original red-brown cloth, title gilt to spine and front board.
Folding colour map frontispiece. Bookplate to front free endpaper. A
little rubbed and spotted, spine marked and with minor damage at the
head, corners slightly bumped, light toning, but a very good copy.
first edition of this US naval pilot, to be distinguished from
the British title of the same name first published in 1863, though
deriving most of its information from the sixth edition (1909)
17

12 Peter Harrington 133

 19

19
ASHE, Waller. Personal Records of the Kandahar
18
Campaign by Officers engaged therein. Edited and
Annotated, with an Introduction . . . London: David Bogue,
18 1881
(ARABIAN PENINSULA.) Arabia in Pictures – a Portfolio Octavo. Original brown pebble-grained cloth, title gilt to spine, geomet-
of 8 Photographs. Series 1. Washington, DC: Shoreham House, ric panelling in black to front board, in blind to rear, grey-green floral
publishers for Arabian American Oil Company, 1955 sprigged endpapers. Small inked library mark “Orotava Library” and
paper label to front pastedown. A little rubbed, lower corners through,
Folio. 8 high quality collotype plates loose in printed card portfolio as front hinge just started, quite heavy foxing to the verso of the free end-
issued. With the original mailing card case. Portfolio a little rubbed and papers and by contact to the half-title and last leaf of the catalogue, oth-
soiled, some chipping and splitting at the edges and on the folds, con- erwise isolated to the edges with minor encroachment to the margins,
tents clean and sound, mailing case a touch grubby, overall very good. overall a very good copy.
first edition, all published, of this superbly printed selection first edition of an important and uncommon source for the
of images contrasting Arabia old and new, including fraction- Second Afghan War, comprising 23 letters written by several
ating columns at Abqaiq and a donkey-powered irrigation well; unnamed officers of the British Army during the Second Afghan
Badanah pumping station and a family dwelling at Jiddah; the War. They “focus mainly on General Burrow’s disastrous defeat
newly developed port of Dammam and an oasis in Al Kharj: at Maiwand, and the consequent relief force led by General Rob-
“Bedouin Tranquility” at Jabrin, and an Aramco rig at Abqaiq. erts . . . While unquestioning of the British presence in Afghan-
This copy was sent out as a promotional item for Edward Stern istan, the variable quality of British generalship does not pass
& Company Inc.’s Optak printing process, a hybrid variant on unnoticed. Although written by various individuals, they form
collotype printing “utilizing among other exclusive elements, a coherent whole in theme and prose quality” (Riddick). Ashe
special plates and inks, ultra-fine screens . . . starting at 200 was also author of The Story of the Zulu Campaign (1880) and trans-
lines and going to as fine as 400 lines” (from the explanatory fly- lator of The Military Institutions of France (1869). The Barrow-built
er, tipped onto the verso of the front wrapper). With a business steamship Orotava was launched in 1889 for the Liverpool–Val-
reply card loosely inserted. Uncommon, with a single copy on paraiso service of Pacific Steam Navigation Company. She made
OCLC, at the University of Delaware. two voyages in that service in 1889 and was then placed under
£695 [100046] Orient Line management for service from Liverpool to Australia
via Suez. She was transferred to the Royal Mail’s West Indies
service in 1909, served as an armed merchant cruiser during the
First World War, and was broken up in 1919.
Bruce 4495; Riddick 271.

£850 [91924]

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk 13

 20 21

20 appointment of assistant assay master at the mint, which he

retained until 1828. In 1818 he also filled the deputy chair of Per-
ATIL, Esin. Süleymanname. The Illustrated History of
sian in Fort William College . . . In addition to his appointment
Süleyman the Magnificent. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., at the mint, he held the post of superintendent of the Govern-
1986 ment Gazette from 1817 to 1828. When the official connection
Folio. Original blue cloth, titles to spine and tughra to front board gilt, of the government with that journal was discontinued in 1823,
light grey endpapers. With the dust jacket. Profusely illustrated from the proprietors, in view of his previous success, invited Atkinson
photographs, colour and black and white. An excellent copy in the bright
to take sole charge of both the Gazette and the Press” (ODNB).
dust jacket.
Atkinson was chief surgeon to the Army of the Indus during the
first edition of this monograph on the Süleymanname, a lav- First Afghan War, but he returned to Bengal in 1841 “and thus
ishly illuminated manuscript account of the great Ottoman ruler escaped the fate which awaited the army of occupation.” His
now preserved in the museum of the Topkapı Palace in Istanbul. Persian translations in both prose and verse are his chief claim
£125 [110848] to fame, “accomplished in literature and art, both a scholar and
a popular writer, James Atkinson was a pioneer of oriental re-
search” (ibid..)
21
ATKINSON, James. Customs and Manners of the Women £850 [71977]
of Persia, and their Domestic Superstitions. Translated
from the Original Persian Manuscript. London: Printed for 22
the Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland, 1832 ATKINSON, James Sketches in Afghaunistan. London:
Octavo (210 × 130 mm). Modern half calf, tan morocco longitudinal label Henry Graves & Company; J. W. Allen & Co.; and Day & Haghe,
to spine, brown linen sides. Charming lithographic frontispiece from a 1842
sketch by the author, printed on India paper and laid down, title-page Large folio (540 × 367 mm). Original green morocco-backed green moiré
vignette. Frontispiece browned around the laid-down sheet but not onto boards, title gilt to spine and front board, French fillet in blind and dou-
it, browning offset onto the title page, slight marginal damp stain in the ble gilt rule, thick and thin at spine edges, cream endpapers. Single-tint
head-margin for a few leaves front and back, but a very good copy. lithographic title page and 25 similar plates, lithographic dedication
first and only edition. “An amusing translation of a Persian leaf, and letterpress leaf of descriptions, printed in blue in double col-
essay on harem life” (ODNB), a translation of the Kitabi Kulsum umn. All original guard-sheets in place. Elaborate armorial bookplate of
Naneh, which was well reviewed by the Asiatic Journal, whose Hugh, 2nd Duke of Westminster to front pastedown. Just a little rubbed,
reviewer considered that it showed “the actual state of Persian almost imperceptibly recased where shaken loose from the gutta-per-
cha, some foxing as usual, but a very good copy indeed.
life behind the curtain . . . drawn by the sportive pencil of a
caricaturist; a circumstance, which indeed, imparts a feature of first edition. Without doubt one of the finest illustrated
additional interest to the work” (NS, vol. X, no. 37, 1833). books on Afghanistan, the plates depicting a selection of superb
A surgeon in the Bengal service, Atkinson attracted Lord views on the march – Bolan Pass, Quetta, Khojak Pass, Kanda-
Minto’s attention for his linguistic skills and was “given the har, and Kabul. In 1833, after a furlough in England, Atkinson
returned to his original profession as surgeon to the 55th NI,

14 Peter Harrington 133

 22

and in 1838 was chosen as Superintending Surgeon to the Army coloured, originals for these plates, 16 of which are now in the
of the Indus during the First Afghan War. He was “relieved in British Museum, show clearly that the lithographer, probably
the ordinary course of routine shortly after the surrender of Dost Louis Haghe, had little “working up” or “improving” to do, to
Mohammad” and returned to Bengal in 1841 “and thus escaped create highly attractive and effective images. This work is often
the fate which awaited the army of occupation”. encountered loose, ragged and heavily foxed. This is a really su-
Atkinson is perhaps best remembered for his translations perior copy, largely clean and bright, carefully restored.
from Persian, of these his selections from the Shâh Nâmeh of Abbey Travel 508; Colas 173; Lipperheide 1493; Tooley 73.
Firdausi being the most notable (see also the previous item), but
he evidently possessed considerable, if amateur, artistic abili- £6,000 [102546]
ties. The highly detailed, yet skilfully composed and sensitively

22 22

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk 15

 23

23
ATTAR, Maher. Souk Waqif – Once upon a Time. Beirut:
24
Art & Privilege, Diwan Amiri, 2006
Landscape quarto. Original black cloth, title in silver to spine and front
board. With the dust jacket. Largely black and white photographic sional pencilled underlining and marginalia. Spine rolled, extremities
plates, section dividers of heavy white paper, with 8 translucent calque lightly rubbed, a few small markings to front cover, a couple of pale
pages with the title and colour concept drawings by the photographer. spots to title. A very good, clean copy.
Jacket just a little rubbed, else very good. first and only edition, “printed for private circulation
first edition of this uncommon photobook by the Leba- only” (front board and title page), uncommon: OCLC traces ten
nese-born photojournalist and portraitist Maher Attar, re- copies world-wide; Copac adds copies at Glasgow University
cording the renovation of the old Souk in Doha. The text is by and the Royal College of Physicians. Attfield (1866–1908) went
Mohamed Ali Abdullah, the architect on the project which won to Egypt as sanitary and quarantine medical officer at Suez, and
the Aga Khan Architectural Award for 2010. “The revitalisation also worked as a director of the pilgrims’ quarantine encamp-
project, a unique architectural revival of one of the most import- ment at El Tor, situated across the Red Sea in Sinai. The advent
ant heritage sites in Doha, was based on a thorough study of the of steam travel in the mid-19th century greatly exacerbated the
history of the market and its buildings, and aimed to reverse the spread of disease, especially cholera, among Muslim pilgrims
dilapidation of the historic structures and remove inappropriate travelling to Mecca, and epidemics often spread to Europe and
alterations and additions. The architect attempted to rejuvenate North America as well as the pilgrims’ countries of origin across
the memory of the place: modern buildings were demolished; Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The appendices are both sci-
metal sheeting on roofs was replaced with traditionally built entific papers, “An investigation of the natural solidified sodium
roofs of dangeal wood and bamboo with a binding layer of clay sulphate lakes of Wyoming, U.S.A.”, originally read to the Soci-
and straw, and traditional strategies to insulate the buildings ety of Chemical Industry in 1895, and “The probable destruction
against extreme heat were re-introduced” (AKAA website). Just of bacteria in polluted river water by infusoria”, first printed in
two copies located of the English language edition on OCLC the British Medical Journal on 17 June 1893.
(BnF and the Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar)
£250 [115304]
alongside two copies of the simultaneously issued French edi-
tion (BnF and Rhode Island College).
25
£650 [98886] ATTWOOD-MATHEWS, Florence Blakiston.
Watercolours and memorabilia related to British Egypt
24
and the Sudan: “The Book of Egyptian Fame”. 1898–1916.
ATTFIELD, Donald Harvey. A Private Journal in Egypt 2 sketchbooks, 1 oblong octavo (120 × 203 mm) and 1 oblong quarto
from May 1894 to May 1895. Appendices. I – Wyoming in (228 × 277 mm). Contemporary beige cloth, beige closure strap, brush
1891. II – Munich in 1892. London: printed by Spottiswoode & holder to top edge of rear boards. Volume I with 4 hieroglyphs and a
central design of a scarab with spread wings hand-painted to front
Co., 1895
board. Housed in a dark blue flat back cloth box. Volume I with 38 full-
Octavo. Original maroon diagonal-ribbed cloth, spine lettered in gilt, page watercolours, numerous autographs, mounted cartes-de-visite,
covers ruled in blind, front gilt-lettered “For private circulation only”, letters, newspaper clippings, 3 photographs; also with 5 loosely inserted
black coated endpapers, bottom edge untrimmed. Photographic portrait items: 2 sketches, 1 letter, 1 envelope, and 1 autographed paper slip.
frontispiece with tissue guard, folding colour map, folding plan. Occa- Volume II with 16 full-page watercolours, 2 portraits, and 1 sketch.

16 Peter Harrington 133

 25

All watercolours with pencilled captions on the adjacent leaves. With Egyptian crowd. Interspersed with the watercolours, clippings,
ticket of London-based artist’s equipment shop L. Cornelissen & Son and photographs are numerous signatures, cartes-de-visite, and
to rear pastedowns. Boards lightly soiled and rubbed, ghosts of stamps occasional inscriptions of British military and administrative
to front boards, corners of boards a little bumped and rubbed, edges
figures based in the Nile region, including Sir Archibald Hunter,
of leaves slightly nicked. Volume I: spine ends lightly worn with splits
along bottom of front and rear joint, top of rear joint, binding weak but
British Army General and Governor of Omdurman; Colonel E.
still holding, several loose leaves, occasional browning from newspaper S. Stanton, the Governor of Khartoum; the Governor-General
clippings. Volume II: spine ends lightly worn, endpapers slightly toned. of Sudan Sir Reginald Wingate; G. E. Matthews, Governor of the
Overall very good, with bright watercolours. Upper Nile Province; Colonel Colin Scott-Moncrieff; and James
Two unique watercolour sketchbooks by Florence Blakiston Att- Henry Butler Pasha, soldier and Governor of the White Nile
wood-Mathews, the second daughter of British Swedenborgian Province. Clearly, Attwood-Mathews had both interest in and
writer and homeopathic doctor James John Garth Wilkinson. access to many of the key British colonial figures established in
The contents in these two sketchbooks stretch over the period Egypt and Sudan in the early 20th century.
1898–1916, with particular emphasis on January–March 1898 and However, she was undoubtedly also intrigued by the history
November 1913–July 1914. and culture of the region in general, as evident in the collection
Volume I largely tracks Attwood-Mathews’s Nile cruise in ear- of signatures by Egyptologists, including Howard Carter,
ly 1898, when she travelled on the post steamer Amenartas from
Cairo to Khartoum. She was clearly interested in the ongoing
Mahdist War and the British involvement in it: one watercolour
portrays six British military officers from various regiments trav-
elling on board the Amenartas while another shows a boat towed
behind the post steamer with troops on board. Similarly, in Vol-
ume II, Attwood-Mathews seemingly chose to paint a couple of
landscapes as much for their role in the conflict as any aesthetic
appeal. A vista of two hilltops viewed from the Nile is described
as follows: “Where the battle of Toski was fought, under these
hills”. Meanwhile, the view from her hotel balcony in Khartoum
is accompanied by the following caption: “Sand dunes where
our troops lay the night before the battle of Omdurrman [sic]”.
Attwood-Mathews’ interest in the Mahdist War continued after
the end of the conflict in 1899, as evident from the many news-
paper clippings pasted into Volume I, the latest dated 1916. Most
of these are concerned with the events of the war and the people
involved in it and include general reports (“The Soudan Crisis”,
“Sirdar’s speech to the troops”), political coverage such as Sir
Reginald Wingate’s succession as Governor-General of Sudan,
as well as several “Romance of the Sudan” stories concerning
Joseph Ohrwalder, a Roman Catholic priest held captive by Mah-
dists for ten years. Two of the three photographs pasted into the
sketchbook show Mahdist leaders captured by British-Egyptian
forces; Attwood-Mathews identifies them as Emir Abu Zeid,
Emir Mahmoud, Emir Yunis al-Dikaym, and Osman, Khalifa
Abdallahi’s son. The third photograph depicts a ‘plane above an
25

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk 17

E. A. Wallis Budge, Ernest A. T. Wallis, and A. H. Sayce. While
many watercolours in Volume I depict landscapes painted from
the deck of the Amenartas there are also views of the pyramids
of Giza, streets in Cairo, Nag Hammadi, and Khartoum, the
Sidi Arif mosque in Sohag, windmills and feluccas spotted
along the river, as well as several studies of the everyday life of
local Egyptians and Sudanese. The watercolours in Volume II,
predominantly dated between late 1913 and early 1914, show a
similar range in subject matter. Sunrise and sunset panoramas
of the landscape near Abu Girgeh, Nag Hammadi, Denderch,
and Khartoum dominate. However, there are street views of Cai-
ro, Aswan, and Khartoum, two studies of the ancient Egyptian
temples of Wadi es-Sebua and Amada in their original location
prior to the relocation in 1964 due to the Aswan Dam project, as
well as two pleasant portraits of local boys in Khartoum. Also
included in Volume II is a loosely inserted watercolour (253 × 177
mm), dated December 1905, depicting locals at the waterfront in
Beni Hasan.
Taken as a whole, the contents of the sketchbooks outline At-
twood-Matthews’s wide interest in the region, concerned as she
seems to be with a range of topics: the British presence and the
Mahdist War, the history and culture of the area she was visit-
ing, as well as the people living there. A singular combination of 26
charming watercolours, still vigorously bright, and memorabilia
relating to the British presence in Egypt and Sudan. of botanical expeditions in the Levant which were made under
£12,500 [91569] the most difficult conditions. Jaubert has edited in detail six of
Aucher-Éloy’s journeys. From Nov. 1830 to Oct. 1831 he travelled
through Egypt, Sinai, Jerusalem, Cyprus and Kos. In 1832 he
26
visited Rhodes, Smyrna and the coast of Asia Minor. In 1833
AUCHER-ÉLOY, Pierre Martin Remi. Relations de he examined the area around Constantinople, Brussa, and the
voyages en Orient de 1830 a 1838. Revues et annotées par Asian Olympus. In February 1834 he travelled through Anatolia
M. le Comte Jaubert. Paris: Librairie encyclopédique de Roret, and met [the French archaeologist, Charles Félix Marie] Texier
1843 at Trebizond. From February to November 1835 he journeyed
2 volumes, octavo (205 × 122 mm). Near-contemporary English green
through Asia Minor and Syria to Persia. In 1836 he visited Greece
half calf, richly gilt spines, red and olive green twin labels, green peb- and from 1837 to 1838 he again travelled in Persia, where he died
ble-grain cloth sides, red speckled edges, drab green coated endpapers. in 1839” (Blackmer).
Large engraved folding map (at end of volume II) and the folding table A little more detail of Aucher-Éloy’s travels is given in New
(at p. 760, volume II). From the library of British Arabist and colonial Arabian Studies: “In March–April 1838 he spent more than a
agent Col. S. B. Miles (1838–1914), with his discreet ownership stamp month in Oman, partly at Muscat, and partly travelling through
on preliminary blank in both volumes and ownership inscription on the Jabal Akhdar . . . [then] to the coastal town of al-Sib before
half-title of volume I; printed bookplate noting his widow’s bequest of
journeying inland to Nakhl and across the Ghubrah Bowl to as-
his collection to Bath Public Library in 1920, with associated manuscript
shelf-marks and blind-stamps as usual. Bound without the half-title to
cend ‘Aqabat al-Hajar before arriving at Sayq and Tanuf . . . Miz-
volume II; bindings a little rubbed, abrasion to front cover of volume I, wa, Birkat al-Mawz, and Izki, thence along Wadi Sama’il back to
scattered foxing, occasional pale dampstaining, patchy unsightly brown- Muscat” (vol. 2, 1994, p. 25).
ing to volume II title page , map with old tape repair on verso, errata leaf Copac cites just four copies in British and Irish institutional
heavily toned. A handsomely bound copy. libraries (British Library, Oxford, Natural History Museum,
first and only edition. Aucher-Éloy (1793–1838) played an Kew); well represented on OCLC but in commerce decidedly
important part in the botanical history of the Middle East: he scarce, with four copies traced at auction, including the Black-
“was the first to make a comprehensive collection of plants from mer and Atabey copies.
northern Oman. He collected mainly in the northern mountains Atabey 40; Blackmer 55; Macro 439; Troelstra, Natural History Travel Narra-
and foothills during March and April 1838” (Shahina A. Ghazan- tives, p. 45; not in Hilmy, Tobler or Weber.
far, “Aucher-Eloy’s Plant Specimens from the Immamat of Mus-
cat”, Taxon Vol. 45, No. 4, Nov. 1996, pp. 609–26). £3,750 [117581]
“This interesting work consists of letters and extracts from
the journals of the botanist Aucher-Éloy. He was also interested 27
in typography, and in c.1830 he was engaged by Halil Pacha, (AVIATION.) [RAF propaganda leaflet in Arabic.] Izki,
Turkish ambassador to Russia, to accompany him to Constan- Oman: [Royal Air Force,] 1957
tinople where they would found a French-Turkish journal. This
Single sheet (191 × 163 mm) typed in Arabic, recto only. Verso docketed
did not work out, but Aucher-Éloy decided to undertake a series
in pencil “22/7/57, Izki Muscat, Oman” in the hand of Francis J. Field (au-

18 Peter Harrington 133

 27 28

thor of Aerial Propaganda Leaflets: A Collector’s Handbook, published strong and effective weapon. This experiment will last for only
1954). Three faint transverse creases from folding. Very good condition. a few minutes, but such an operation can in theory last much
Rare propaganda document air-dropped by the RAF during the longer”.
first few days of direct British involvement in the Jebel Akhdar A ground operation followed, culminating with the SAS
War, 1954–9. In 1954 the Sultan of Oman granted exploration securing the formidable Jebel Akhdar plateau, a success often
licenses to the British-owned Iraq Petroleum Company, prompt- credited with staving off their disbandment and which has often
ing a violent tribal uprising led by the Imam of Oman, Ghalib overshadowed the decisive role of air power in the conflict out of
ibn ‘Ali al-Hina’i, in whose putative territory the largest oil fields which emerged the modern state of Oman.
lay. The initial rebellion was suppressed with little resistance,
but Ghalib’s brother Talib retreated to Saudi territory to form
£675 [109729]
the Omani Liberation Army. He landed at Muscat on 14 June
1957 with a small force and had taken Nizwa by 17 July, at which 28
point the Sultan appealed to the British for help. AZZI, Robert. Saudi Arabian Portfolio. Introduction by
“The plan was to use air power to weaken the rebel resolve His Royal Highness Prince Saud Al Faisal. Design by Will
sufficient to re-occupy the area. Under Operation black mag- Hopkins. Zurich: First Azimuth Ltd, 1978
ic, the region to the south of Jebel Akhdar (centred on Nizwa)
Folio (340 × 233 mm). Original dark green calf, spine lettered in gilt,
was formally proscribed. Proscription was, in effect, an inwards front board with palm silhouette on gilt ground, above gilt title of King
blockade that denied the inhabitants of the proscribed towns Khalid ibn ‘Abd al-’Aziz Saudi Arabia, grey endpapers. Colour photo-
or villages the opportunity to travel or to work in their fields graphs throughout, full-page and inset. The slightest of rubbing to tips,
during daylight hours – on pain of attack. It aimed to disrupt spine-ends and foot of rear board. An excellent copy.
agriculture and trade to such an extent that the tribes would ca- first edition, king khalid of saudi arabia’s copy of this
pitulate. To achieve effect, it required a permanent air presence splendid photoessay, inscribed by the photographer “To His
and the willingness to employ force when the prescription was Majesty King Khalid ibn Abdulaziz, with many thanks for the
broken . . . Commencing 24 July, the fortified towers at Izki, encouragement and cooperation of the Government of Saudi
Nizwa, Tanuf, Birkat al Mawz, Bahla and Firq were attacked on Arabia, enabling me to complete this work, Robert Azzi” on the
successive days. Each operation was preceded by warning leaf- front free endpaper. This is one of ten copies only in the presen-
lets (dropped 48 hours in advance) . . . The fort at Izki was badly tation binding of full calf gilt (the trade issue was cloth-bound).
damaged by Venoms, although the main tower at Nizwa proved The photographs include city and desert views, historical and
more resilient against rockets” (Air Vice-Marshal Peter Dye, religious sites, scenes of daily life, and various images of the
“The Jebel Akhdar War”, in Air Power Review, vol. 11, no. 3, winter Saudi royal family. Azzi, a Lebanese-American photographer,
2008, pp. 20–3). The text of the present leaflet, translated, reads: achieved recognition for his work for Newsweek and National Geo-
“Warning from Sa’id ibn Taymur, Sultan of Muscat and Oman. graphic, as well as photobooks on Saudi Arabia. Khalid ascended
Your forts will be attacked by aeroplanes the day after tomorrow the Saudi throne in 1975; after his death in 1982, this copy was
between sunrise and sunset. The aim of this is not immediate gifted back to Azzi.
destruction but rather to make you see that at our disposal is a
£1,250 [114374]

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk 19

 29

29
BACCANTI, Alberto. Maometto, legislatore degli Arabi e
fondatore dell’Impero musulmano. Poema. Casalmaggiore:
Fratelli Bizzarri, 1791
2 volumes in one, quarto (235 × 172 mm). Contemporary half sheep
vellum, marbled sides, twin morocco labels lettered in gilt and manu- 29
script shelf-mark label to spine, edges speckled blue. 2 engraved portrait
frontispieces and 12 similar numbered plates by Paolo Araldi, vignettes
succeeded in creating a unified Arabian caliphate that laid the
to title pages. Complete with the half-titles and imprimatur leaf. Boards
slightly rubbed with light wear along fore edges, labels a touch chipped foundation for the rise of the Ottoman Empire: a contrast to
to minimal loss of lettering, very sporadic faint soiling chiefly to mar- other European works portraying him as “an odious impostor
gins as usual, isolated portions of minor dampstaining to head of gut- and a man of most dissolute morals”.
ter. An excellent copy, preserved here in remarkably fresh condition in a “Scholars of the Enlightenment particularly struggled with
pleasing contemporary binding. dual impulses towards Muhammad’s depiction, aspiring both
first and only edition of this epic poem in Italian recount- to a more historically-based, objective image of the Prophet, yet
ing the life of Muhammad in 12 cantos of ottava rima, each canto also perpetuating the public appetite for romantic, exotic de-
illustrated with a full-page engraved plate, in addition to two tails” (Shalem, ed., Constructing the Image of Muhammad in Europe,
frontispiece portraits of the author and of Muhammad astride a p. 3); Baccanti’s work perpetrates the common anachronisms
rampant horse, all after original paintings by Paolo Araldi. Orig- of presenting Muhammad in contemporary Turkish dress,
inally from Casalmaggiore, Araldi (d. 1811) studied at the Acad- preaching in interiors more redolent of orientalist fantasy than
emy of Parma, where he taught Giuseppe Diotti (1779–1816), seventh-century Arabia, and leading his troops against a con-
before returning to his native city. Alberto Baccanti (1718–1805), spicuously European-style fortress. An unusual and extremely
also from Casalmaggiore, studied theology at Cremona before uncommon work, with only seven copies held by libraries world-
travelling to Rome in 1741, under the auspices of the Gonzagas wide (none in the United Kingdom).
to work in the Vatican as a papal secretary. He returned to Casa- Not in Atabey, Blackmer, Burrell or the Arcadian Library.
lmaggiore in 1755. Tipaldo lists an additional 10 printed and 11
manuscript works written by Baccanti, chiefly poems, orations, £8,750 [102633]
and exequies in verse.
The 12 plates depict Muhammad in the stages of his proph- 30
ecy: ascending with the archangel Gabriel to heaven (laylat
(BAHRAIN PETROLEUM COMPANY.) Collection of
al-mi’raj), preaching to his first followers in Mecca, leading
his armies to battle and uniting the disparate tribes under his
original photographs commissioned for the Bapco in-
leadership. Baccanti explains in his foreword that he sought house magazine, The Bahrain Islander. Awali, Bahrain: The
to characterise the Prophet as a statesman and general of “rare Bahrain Petroleum Company, 1954–6
talents” who, regardless of the truth of the religion he founded, 18 original silver-print 10×8 press photographs (257 × 204 mm, or the
reverse), one a duplicate, carbon-copy, typescript caption texts mounted

20 Peter Harrington 133

 30

averaged 60 per cent of government income and helped to fi-

nance major development, education, and health programs. In
1975 the government of Bahrain acquired a 60 per cent interest
in Bapco, and assumed control of the remaining 40 per cent in
30 1980. An attractive, unusual and allusive group, giving insight
into the transformation of Bahrain from a “pearl state” to an “oil
versos; together with 4 issues of the bi-monthly company magazine state”.
The Bahrain Islander (September and November 1955, January and April
1956); a copy of the Annual Company Report for 1954; and two 4–page £4,750 [68214]
offprints, “Who are we,” on the history of Bapco, and “Schooling in
skills,”about the training and education of the company’s Bahraini 31
employees; all preserved within a Bapco card folder. The folder a little
sunned and rubbed, but overall very good.
BAKER, Sir Samuel W. The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia,
and the Sword Hunters of the Hamran Arabs. London:
An unusual collection of original photographs illustrating the
oil industry in Bahrain, together with a group of internal com-
Macmillan & Co., 1867
pany documents, providing news, history and an overview of Octavo (215 × 189 mm). Recent half calf, old marbled boards, red moroc-
co label. Double portrait engraved frontispiece, 2 coloured maps, one
the financial development of the company. Bapco had been
full-page the other folding, and 23 plates. Some foxing front and back,
founded by Standard Oil Co. of California in 1928 to exploit the light toning throughout, occasional spotting, folding map a little weak-
exploration rights that they had been granted in the country. ened on the folds, but overall a very good copy.
Bapco #1 struck oil on 1 June 1932, which presented them with
first edition; the important adjunct to Baker’s book on
the problem of marketing its production. This was solved by a
the Albert N’yanza. “His prowess in the field won for him the
collaboration with the Texas Oil Company in the founding of
friendship and admiration of the Hamran Arabs, themselves
Caltex. While Socal provided the product, Texaco offered their
mighty hunters. He explored other tributaries of the Atbara, in-
marketing subsidiaries throughout the eastern hemisphere, in
cluding the Bahr-er-Salam and the Angareb, and followed up the
Africa, Australasia and Asia. By 1935, when 16 oil wells were in
course of the Rehad to its confluence with the Blue Nile. Thence
production and construction of the Bahrain refinery had com-
he marched to Khartoum, where he arrived on 11 June 1862. The
menced, the royalties paid by Socal to the Bahraini government
value of the work of exploration during this fourteen months’
constituted more than 40 per cent of the state budget. In the
journey and of the observations proving the Nile sediment to
years up to independence in 1971, Bapco oil revenues annually
be due to the Abyssinian tributaries was publicly recognised by
Sir Roderick Murchison, president of the Royal Geographical
Society. Baker had also during the period gained for himself ex-
perience as an explorer, mastered Arabic, and acquired the use
of astronomical instruments” (DNB). Czech remarks on Baker’s
preference for a “four-barrelled muzzle loading 10-bore” as his
“regular battery”, while describing the present work as “A classic
of exploration and big game hunting”.
Czech p. 11; Gay 2578; Hilmy I, p. 50.

£350 [90759]

30

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk 21

 32 33

32 33
BAKER, Sir Samuel W. Ismailïa. A Narrative of an BARCLAY, Edgar. Mountain Life in Algeria. With
Expedition to Central Africa for the Suppression of the Illustrations by the Author. London: Kegan, Paul, Trench, &
Slave Trade, organised by Ismail, Khedive of Egypt. Co., 1882
London: Macmillan and Co., 1874 Quarto (244 × 178 mm). Original blue-green cloth, gilt-lettered spine,
2 volumes, octavo. Original green cloth, spines lettered and decorated black geometric border extending over spine and boards, titles and
in gilt, gilt panels enclosing large gilt block of a camel caravan to front decoration to front in red and silver, publisher’s device in black to rear,
boards, rear boards panelled in blind, fore edges untrimmed, brown all edges gilt, black coated endpapers. Photo-engraved frontispiece, 7
coated endpapers, binder’s ticket of Burn & Co. to rear pastedowns, similar and 7 wood-engraved plates, vignette chapter headings, all by
Wood-engraved portrait frontispiece, 52 plates, 2 lithographic maps, Barclay. Recent owner’s label to front pastedown. Spine sunned and
one folding. Tips and covers very lightly rubbed, vol. 2 spine gently lightly marked, extremities lightly rubbed and bumped, scattered pale
rolled and faintly marked, folding map with closed tear at stub and short markings and small portions of cockling to sides, faint tide-mark to top
nicks at folds, still an excellent copy, the cloth bright and fresh, the con- edge of frontispiece, title page and plates, the images never affected. A
tents clean. very good copy.

first edition. In 1869 “the Khedive Isma’il appointed Baker first edition, scarce. Barclay (1842–1913), painter and etch-
to a four-year term as governor-general of the equatorial Nile er, was a member of the British circle of artists known as the
basin, with the rank of pasha and major-general in the Ottoman “Etruscans” owing to their preference for Italian landscapes. He
army. It was the most senior post a European ever received under studied at Dresden with Carolsfeld, and then in Rome, where he
an Egyptian administration. According to the khedive’s firman, became acquainted with Giovanni Costa. Between 1873 and 1880
Baker’s duties included annexing the equatorial Nile basin, estab- he made several visits to Algeria, recording his observations on
lishing Egyptian authority over the region south of Gondokoro village life, local customs and dress, and antiquities. The Athe-
[modern-day South Sudan], suppressing the slave trade, intro- naeum considered Mountain Life in Algeria “a most interesting
ducing cotton cultivation, organizing a network of trading sta- and charming work”.
tions throughout the annexed territories, and opening the great £600 [117145]
lakes near the equator to navigation” (ODNB). “While most of the
narrative involves travel and military adventure, there are several
episodes of sport as well. Baker’s troops bagged crocodile and
34
hippopotamus, depicted in several fascinating engravings. South BEHR, Johann von der. Diarium, oder Tage-Buch über
of Regiaf, the author bagged a pair of elephants, and attempted to dasjenige, so sich Zeit einer neun-järigen Reise zu Wasser
collect a few more by using both Hale’s rockets and the company’s und Lande, meistentheils in Dienst der Vereinigten
fieldpiece . . . Later, in Unyoro, he hunted antelope and lion while Geoctroyrten Niederländischen Ost-Indianischen
natives drove the game toward a series of nets” (Czech). Compagnie, besonders in denselbigen Ländern täglich
Blackmer 66; Czech (Africa) p. 11; Ibrahim-Hilmy I p. 49. begeben und zugetragern. Jena: Urban Spaltholtz, 1668
Quarto (187 × 153 mm). Later pinkish-yellow glazed boards, pale green
£1,500 [117582]
morocco label, compartments formed by a single gilt rule, gilt flower

22 Peter Harrington 133

 34 34

tool to compartments. Engraved portrait frontispiece and elaborate A view of the attack on Qeshm is included in the somewhat
emblematic additional title page, 15 engraved plates, the view of Batavia naïve, but nonetheless splendid, plates which also show Bata-
folding. A little rubbed at the extremities, some browning, but overall a via, Goa, St Helena, and Kamron in Persia, and images of some
very good, clean copy.
of the unusual flora and fauna encountered by Behr – coconut
first and only edition of this fascinating account of the trees, the cinnamon tree, an elephant hunt, and flying fish.
East Indies and Persia by a German soldier in the service of the Uncommon and highly attractive, the book is well-represented
VOC. “Behr enlisted in 1641 and sailed to Batavia about two institutionally, but extremely uncommon in commerce with just
years later . . . he went on to serve in Java, as well as with the one copy at auction in the last 50 years.
fleet of Johann Maetsuycker on the Malabar Coast. Apart from a
Landwehr, VOC, 309.
voyage to Persia, Behr spent four of his six years with the VOC in
Ceylon” (Howgego). £12,500 [96772]
The originality of parts of Behr’s account have been questioned,
with comparisons being drawn with the published journals of
Johann Jacob Merklein, and in particular with Johann Jacob Saar’s
record of his service in Ceylon. Behr had returned to Europe in
1650, but his narrative was not published for another 18 years; the
most likely explanation for any plagiarism is editorial light fingers
rather any lack of authenticity in Behr’s account. He certainly
provides an entirely authentic account of the VOC’s attack in 1645
on the strategically important island of Kischmisch (Qeshm),
which dominated the Strait of Hormuz and had been contested
between the Persians, Portuguese and English for some time. The
Dutch were struggling to improve the terms of their silk trading
agreement with the Safavids, and attacked the island in the hope
of forcing the Shah’s hand in negotiations but were unable to take
the fort. The show of force did however achieve some ameliora-
tion of their situation, and the incident is illuminating of power
relationships in the Gulf in the Early Modern period, challenging
“conventional wisdom that the Safavid economy was subservient
to the exploitative practices of European Companies” (see Floor
& Faghfoory, The First Dutch–Persian Commercial Conflict: The Attack on
Qeshm Island, 1645). 34

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk 23

 36

Archeologique, Publiée sous la direction de Mm. G.

Perrot et S. Reinach. Paris: Ernest Leroux, Editeur, 1906–7
Six offprints bound together as one, octavo. Contemporary purple cloth
35 backed marbled boards, titles gilt to spine. Offprints respectively Revue
1906, I, p. 1–29; p. 385–414; II, p. 7–36; p. 225–252; p. 390–401; Revue 1907,
I, p. 18–30. Plans and photographic illustrations (after photographs by
35 Bell) in the text throughout. Spine sunned, some minor marks and nicks
BEKE, Charles Tilstone. The Late Dr. Charles Beke’s to boards, internally sound and clean but for a very few sprays of spot-
ting, very good condition.
Discoveries of Sinai in Arabia and of Midian. Edited by his
widow. London: Trübner & Co., 1878 rare presentation set of offprint first editions com-
prising the complete “Notes on a Journey Through Cilicia and
Large octavo (240 × 155 mm). Original red cloth over bevelled boards,
spine lettered and ruled in gilt, two-line frame enclosing pictorial vi- Lycaonia”, with an autograph letter signed from Bell presenting
gnette gilt to front board, similar frame in blind to rear board, all edges the whole to Professor Ludwig Richard Enno Littman (1875–1958)
gilt, brown coated endpapers. Photographic portrait frontispiece with laid in. The apparently unpublished letter, on Rounton Grange,
facsimile signature and tissue-guard, 13 engraved plates, 2 plates of ta- Northallerton, stationery, is dated October 1[90]7, and contains
bles and graphs, folding lithographic map in partial colour to rear. With four pages of lively archaeological discussion (”Your suggestion
the errata slip tipped in to the contents leaf. Rubbed and marked over- that all this series of castles is Islamic comes to me I confess as a
all, cockling to spine, headcaps refurbished with a little fraying to foot, new idea. It needs some consideration. Kal’at al Badya at any rate
contemporary label of Mudie’s Select Library pasted to front board not
belongs to two periods, the Syrian tower in the fort being rebuilt
affecting image, label of Worcester Public Library to front pastedown
(inscribed “sold by order June ’95”), very mild occasional foxing short of its materials. Your idea could not materially alter the kunst
closed tear to map fold just touching image. A good copy. wissenschaftlicke importance of the buildings, nor could it alter,
I think, one’s conception of the artistic influences under which
first edition. “In December 1873 Beke left England on his
they were built”), after which Bell declares “I send you all the
last trip, designed to vindicate an argument first made in his
papers from the Revue archiologique [sic]. The Cilician churches,
Origines [biblica, 1834] concerning the geography of Mount Sinai
Guyer says, were mostly rebuilt by the Armenians. Concerning the
and the Red Sea. He returned to England the following March
Karaiagh churches Sir W. Ramsay & I will have much to add & to
and died suddenly on 31 July 1874 . . . The results of the Red Sea
correct. We have, we think, got back with certainty to earlier dates
expedition were posthumously edited and published in 1878
than we could be sure of before.”
by his widow, Emily, . . . The 1878 volume, considered by some
Littmann was a German scholar of Oriental languages who
contemporaries to be his most important, aroused consider-
had studied at Princeton. In 1905 he lived among the Tigre people
able controversy at the time, but left no lasting mark on biblical
in Eritrea, and in 1906 directed the German Aksum Expedition
research” (ODNB). Much of Beke’s scholarship sought to harmo-
in Ethiopia. In the same year he succeeded Theodor Noldeke as
nise recent scientific discoveries, especially in the field of geolo-
chair of Oriental languages at the University of Strasbourg. He
gy, with a belief in the Bible as divine revelation.
went on to serve as professor of Oriental languages at Gottingen,
£250 [112329] Bonn and Tubingen. He is notable for having deciphered Palmy-
rene, Nabataean and Syriac inscriptions as well as historical texts
36 of ancient Ethiopian monuments. He later published a translation
of One Thousand and One Nights from Arabic into German.
BELL, Gertrude. “Notes on a Journey Through Cilicia This early work by Bell relates her travels through what is now
and Lycaonia” [Complete as six offprints from] Revue South-Eastern Turkey and Northern Syria, and represents her
primary fascination with the archaeology for the Middle East

24 Peter Harrington 133

 36

(before, like Lawrence, she made the uneasy transition to foreign

agent). It is rare – no other copies are traced at auction – and only
six are listed by OCLC in institutions worldwide, one in France,
two in the US, and three in the UK (and none listed at Oxford, 37
where Bell studied history).
£4,500 [115580] insula extensively between 1893 and his death in 1897, adding
“much to European knowledge of the Hadhramaut country, the
37 mountainous area backing the Gulf of Aden . . . In November 1896
he traversed Socotra and explored the little-known country within
(BELL, Gertrude, contrib.) The Arab of Mesopotamia. 50 miles of Aden. His last journey was through parts of southern
Basra: Published by the Superintendent, Government Press, 1918 Arabia in 1897” (ODNB). This account of those last explorations
Small octavo. Original green cloth, title gilt to front board. Housed in green – divided into sections on Southern Arabia, Muscat, the Hadh-
cloth slipcase and chemise, maroon morocco label to spine. Frontispiece ramaut, Dhorat and the Gara Mountains, the Eastern Soudan,
map of Mesopotamia. Cloth bubbled on the boards, usual light browning
the Mahri Island of Sokotra, Beled Fadhli and Beled Yafei. – was
throughout, but the hinges entirely sound, text-block unshaken, in far bet-
ter condition than usually encountered, genuinely very good.
edited by his wife, “herself an intrepid traveller”, and is much en-
hanced by “her important and early photographs” (ibid.)
first edition of this fragile official publication, uncommon,
particularly so in such – relatively – sharp condition. A “series of Macro 524
brief essays on subjects relating to Mesopotamia, written during £2,000 [95175]
1916, by persons with special knowledge of the subjects dealt
with” (Preface). However, one section (pp. 100–202) has a sepa-
rate title page entitled “Asiatic Turkey” and is by Gertrude Bell.
She says in her Preface (dated October 1917) that “these articles
were written at the request of the War Office during June and July,
1917. It has been suggested that they might be of some interest to
members of the Force serving in Mesopotamia who may not have
had opportunity to make acquaintance with the Dominions of the
Sultan beyond the battlefields of Gallipoli and the ‘Iraq”.
£850 [116968]

38
BENT, Theodore & Mabel. Southern Arabia. Soudan and
Socotra. London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1900
Octavo. Original red cloth, title gilt to spine, device in blind to the front
board. Photogravure portrait frontispiece and 25 half-tone plates, 6
coloured maps, 5 of them folding. Spine a little sunned, pale toning, a
scatter of foxing to the fore-edge, else an unusually well-preserved copy.
first edition, later issue. Uncommon, particularly so in such
sharp condition. Bent and his wife surveyed in the Arabian pen-
38

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk 25

 39 40

39 Octavo (262 × 166 mm). Contemporary “native” green half morocco by the
Education Society’s Press, Bycullah, raised bands and gilt rules to spine,
BEVERIDGE, William. De linguarum orientalium, titles gilt to second compartment, pebble-grained cloth sides, red sprinkled
praesertim Hebraicae, Chaldaicae, Syriacae, Arabicae, & edges. 2 decorative title pages and one dedication leaf lithographed in or-
Samaritanae praestantia, necessitate, & utilitate quam ange, green and purple; Arabic text. From the library of British Arabist and
colonial agent Col. S. B. Miles (1838–1914), with printed bookplate noting
& theologis praestant & philosophis . . . [and:] — [First
his widow’s bequest of the collection to Bath Public Library in 1920, and as-
five words in Syriac] id est, Grammatica linguae Domini sociated manuscript shelf-marks and blind-stamps as usual. Stripping and
nostri Jesu Christi, sive Grammatica Syriaca tribus libris rubbing to corners, a few trivial nicks to final leaves. A very good copy.
tradita, quorum primus vocum singularum proprietatem, Extremely uncommon Arabic gospel produced by the Dominican
secundus syntaxin, tertius figuras grammaticas & praxin Mission to Mesopotamia and Kurdistan, one copy only traced in
continet . . . Londini: excudebat Thomas Roycroft, 1658 libraries, at Tilburg in the Netherlands, and none listed at auc-
2 works in one volume, octavo (178 × 109 mm). Contemporary blind- tion. The text largely follows the influential Arabic Bible printed at
ruled sprinkled calf, later morocco spine label, sprinkled edges. Book- Rome in 1703, with corrections and notes made through compari-
plate of the Islamic scholar R. M. Burrell to front pastedown. Slightly son to the original Greek, the Vulgate and the “Syro-Chaldaic ver-
rubbed, fore edges of boards restored, occasional red ink-marks to sion”. The dedicatee was Cardinal Lucien Bonaparte (1828–1895),
margins from edge-sprinkling, otherwise a few trivial marks, front free godson to Napoleon III, who was cousin to both his parents. The
endpaper chipped, first title page slightly soiled, marginal tan-burn to
editor was Yusuf Dawud (1829–1890), a figure of great importance
second title, contemporary inked annotations to title, p. 3 of first work,
and p. 83 of the second. A very good copy.
in the revival of Arabic letters in the 19th century. Dawud “was
born in a village near Mosul. After receiving his elementary ed-
first editions of both works, usually found together and ucation in his home town, he went to Rome where he received a
probably always intended to be issued thus, with the text of the degree in philosophy and theology and learned several European
second work reading from back to front; there was a second and Semitic languages. After he was ordained a priest in 1855
edition in 1664. Bishop William Beveridge (1637–1708) would he returned home and became the Syriac-Catholic Bishop of
become one of the leading Anglican patristic scholars of the late Damascus 1879. Bishop Dawud then devoted his life to teaching,
17th century. This “ambitious Latin treatise” (ODNB) was his preaching, and writing” (Chejne, The Arabic Language: Its Role in His-
first published book and intended for those who wished to study tory, p. 138). His other works include an edition of the Peshitta and
Walton’s Polyglot Bible (1654–7). grammars of Arabic and Syriac.
Wing B2092 & B2093.
£3,500 [117622]
£1,750 [104443]
41
40 BIRD, Isabella. Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan.
(BIBLE; Arabic.) Novum testamentum domini nostri Jesu Including a Summer in the Upper Karun Region and a
Christi versio arabica. Mosul: Typis Fratrum Praedicatorum, Visit to the Nestorian Rayahs. By Mrs. Bishop (Isabella L.
1876 Bird). London: John Murray, 1891

26 Peter Harrington 133

 41 42

2 volumes, octavo (204 × 130 mm). Original light blue cloth, spines let- (1831–1904) became the first woman elected to the Royal Geograph-
tered in gilt, front boards decoratively stamped in blue with titles and ical Society.
concentric frames gilt, patterned endpapers, fore and bottom edges un-
trimmed. Photographic frontispiece to vol. 1, 12 engraved plates including Burrell 100; Robinson, Wayward Women, pp. 82–3; Wilson p. 23.
the frontispiece to vol. 2, engravings to the text. Bookplate of Francis Gray
Smart (1844–1912, physician and pioneer of homeopathy) to front paste- £1,500 [117136]
downs. Tips bumped, trivial mark to vol. 1 spine, superficial splits to vol. 1
inner hinge and to head of vol. 2 front joint. An excellent copy. 42
first edition of one of the most important English accounts of BLACK, Archibald Pollok. A Hundred Days in the East. A
Persia in the 19th century (Wright, The English Amongst the Persians, Diary of a Journey to Egypt, Palestine, Turkey in Europe,
p. 149), by “the most notable woman traveller of her time” (ODNB). Greece, the Isles of the Archipelago, and Italy. London:
“The archetypal Victorian Lady Traveller . . . Isabella Bird did not
John F. Shaw & Co., 1865
begin her travelling career until quite late in life . . . for until she
was forty she was occupied as the family spinster in caring for her Octavo (175 × 117 mm). Original green cloth over bevelled boards,
gilt-lettered spine, blind frame to boards, dome and minaret vignette
parents” (Robinson). For health reasons she sailed for Australia,
gilt to front, brown coated endpapers. Map frontispiece, folding map
New Zealand the Sandwich Islands, then visiting in China and to rear, 6 plates, all wood-engraved. Contemporary gift inscription, “To
Japan. Following a trip to India in 1879, Bird landed at Basra on 1 Stephen Jay, from his friend, [?]R E Daintree” on the front free endpa-
January 1880 intending “to ride across little known parts of Turkey per. Lightly rubbed, very short superficial split to cloth at foot of spine,
and Persia, to visit Christian outposts and the ancient communities tips slightly bumped and worn, small marking to rear board, contents
of the Armenians and Nestorians in Kurdistan. She fell in with Ma- toned, sporadic mild spotting. A very good, bright copy.
jor Herbert Sawyer of the Indian army. Her reputation as a traveller first and only edition, quite scarce: four copies only in
must have preceded her, for the tough officer of thirty-eight agreed UK libraries (British Library, Cambridge, National Library of
to set off with the widow of sixty (said to be in poor health). On 21 Scotland, and Oxford); OCLC adds eight world-wide. Black, a
January 1890 they left Baghdad for Tehran on the roughest journey Church of Scotland clergyman, travelled east in March 1864,
in her experience. It took them forty-five days, through driving and sailing from France to Alexandria and visiting Cairo and Suez
drifting snow, sheltering at night in overcrowded and filthy caravan- before undertaking an extensive tour of the holy sites of Pales-
serai. So impressed was Sawyer with his companion’s courage and tine and the ancient monuments of Syria, Anatolia, Greece and
efficiency that he took her with him on his official journey among Italy. He writes in his introduction that “the author, from cir-
the Bakhtiari tribespeople of south-west Persia” (ODNB). After Bird cumstances and choice, having travelled without tent or escort,
finished helping Sawyer with his survey work, she rode north for found himself in localities and amidst scenery seldom visited
the Black Sea. Bird’s obituary in The Guardian considered her account by ordinary tourists . . . The book will not only be useful to Sab-
“in some respects . . . the best of her works, for both country and bath-schools, church libraries, travellers to Palestine, but also to
people and people are full of interest and variety, and her journey all who take an interest in the Holy Land”.
included a visit to some of the little-known Christian settlements
Ibrahim-Hilmy p. 76; not in Weber.
in Syria, whose archaic ceremonies and and curious way of living
she sympathetically describes”. The year after publication Bird £500 [117038]

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk 27

43 at Scutari . . . Lady Alicia quickly demonstrated her energy and
resourcefulness. Initially she took responsibility for 280 women
BLACKWOOD, Lady Alicia. Scutari, the Bosphorus and the
and infants, many of them the wives, widows, and children of
Crimea. Twenty Four Sketches in Aid of the Irish Church soldiers who had arrived from Varna in wretched condition.
Missions, the Moravian Church Missions, the Vaudois While sympathetic to the women’s plight, Florence Nightingale
Schools, the Turkish Missions. Ventnor: John Lavars, 1857 regarded them as hindrances to the major task of caring for mil-
2 volumes, large folio (54.5 × 37 cm). Original cloth-backed drab paper itary casualties. With supplies brought from England, charitable
wrappers printed in black. Housed in a flat-back cloth box by the Chelsea gifts, supplemented with goods bought locally, Lady Alicia set
Bindery. Tinted lithographic title to each volume, 19 similar plates of up a women’s hospital in a rented house” (ODNB). She also took
which 5 are folding panoramas, folds of panoramas linen-backed verso
charge of a lying-in ward, an invalid hospital, and set up a small
as issued. Corners bumped, wrappers slightly marked in places, with a
few nicks and short closed tears, two small perforations to each wrapper
infants’ school, and estimated that by she eventually had some
of the second volume, touching lithographic title and final plate, now re- 500 women working for her. When peace was proclaimed in
paired, browning along edges of plates 1 and 9, plates 9–11 with pale tide March 1856 Blackwood and her husband travelled visited Balak-
mark at top edge, similar markings to top and fore edges of 20–21, stron- lava, Inkerman, Chernaya valley, and Cathcart’s Hill. Her sketch-
ger in the latter, though the images never affected. A very good copy. es, which later appeared in octavo format in her memoir (1880),
first and only edition of this rare collection of Crimean include impressive folding panoramas of the Bay and Monastery
War views, dedicated to Florence Nightingale, under whom the of St George, the Valley of Inkerman, the barrack hospital at
artist worked in Scutari. Just a handful of copies traced in com- Scutari, and Constantinople from the cliffs of Scutari, together
merce, and five only in libraries worldwide (Oxford, National with views of Sevastopol from the Redan, Bahçesaray, and more.
Library of Ireland, Newberry Library, New York Public Library, Abbey Travel 242; Atabey 113; Blackmer 148.
and Brigham Young); the Wellcome Institute has a fragmentary
collection of six individual lithographs. £7,500 [116740]
Blackwood (1818–1913) and her husband were active members
of the Evangelical Alliance; they travelled to Turkey after learn- 44
ing of the fall of Sevastopol and the terrible situation following BLEECK, Arthur Henry. Avesta: the religious books of the
the Battle of Inkerman. “When Florence Nightingale was con-
Parsees; from Professor Spiegel’s German translation of
vinced that Lady Alicia was in earnest and willing to work she
was asked to take charge of 200 women sheltering in appalling the original manuscripts. In three volumes. Hertford, Herts:
conditions in the foul basements of the great barrack hospital for Muncherjee Hormusjee Cama, by Stephen Austin, 1864

43

28 Peter Harrington 133

 44 46

3 volumes in one, octavo (215 × 133 mm). Original pink cloth over bev- very light spotting and bleeding from edge-dye to margins. A very good,
elled boards, covers elaborately panel-stamped with ropework border attractively bound copy.
enclosing similar central panel, floral cornerpieces, spine lettered and
second edition, revised, of Bonomi’s “major publication
decorated in gilt, edges sprinked red, cream surface-paper endpapers.
Spine sunned with a few nicks at extremities, tips rubbed, rear hinge
. . . a popular and scholarly work which regarded the city from
repaired, a very good copy. the artistic and scriptural points of view and illustrated and
discussed in depth the chief sculptures, reliefs, and inscriptions
first edition. “Bleeck was for some time in the British Muse-
then known of that city”(ODNB). Nineveh and its Palaces was origi-
um, where his remarkable linguistic capacity rendered him very
nally published the previous year.
useful. He had a wide knowledge of both oriental and European
languages. He afterwards went out to the East during the Crime- Arcadian Library 11034 (later edition).
an War, and until the conclusion of peace held a post in connec-
£250 [117585]
tion with the Land Transport Corps at Sinope on the Black Sea,
where his co-author, William Burckhardt Barker, was also sta-
tioned. Refused readmission to the British Museum on his re- 46
turn to England, Bleeck worked for several years for a prominent BOROVKOV, A. Dorvoz. Brodizchiy tsirk v Srednei Azii
Parsi merchant, Muncherjee Hormusjee Cana, who employed (Dorvoz, The Wandering Circus of Central Asia). Tashkent:
him to prepare an English version of the Avesta, the religious Sredazkniga, 1928
books of the Parsis, who were Zoroastrians, from an existing Octavo. Wire-stitched in original light card pictorial wrappers. Three
German translation. He performed the task well, publishing the colour lithographic illustration to the front panel of the wrappers, 3
work in 1864 in three volumes. Bleeck’s other works included A plates from photographs, 30 pages of text. Overall just a little browned,
Practical Grammar of the Turkish Language (with W. Burckhardt Bark- very good.
er, 1854) [and] A Concise Grammar of the Persian Language (1857)” first and only edition, print-run of just 800 copies, ex-
(ODNB). Scarce in the original cloth. tremely uncommon with no copy traced institutionally. An
£650 [108196] attractive early study of the Uzbeki traditional circus. Evidence
found in ancient Samarkand (Afrasiab) from the fifth and fourth
centuries bce, shows the presence at that early date of pro-
45
fessional animal trainers, bareback riders, jugglers, acrobats,
BONOMI, Joseph. Nineveh and its Palaces. The clowns, and ropewalkers. These last are the main feature of Uz-
Discoveries of Botta and Layard, applied to the beki circus performance, with the art of “ustoz” or ropewalking
Elucidation of Holy Writ. London: Ingram, Cooke & Co., 1853 being passed down as a family tradition. The word “Dorvoz”
Octavo. Later (c.1900) half vellum, red morocco spine label, marbled translates as “playing with the gallows”.
sides and endpapers, yellow edges. Profuse wood-engraved illustrations,
as plates and to the text. From the library of British Arabist and colonial £1,750 [117104]
agent Col. S. B. Miles (1838–1914), with printed bookplate noting his
widow’s bequest of the collection to Bath Public Library in 1920, and as-
sociated manuscript shelf-marks and blind-stamps as usual. Occasional

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk 29

 charts back to England. He then proceeded to Muscat to obtain
permission to survey the coastline of Omani possessions in east
Africa, and on New Year’s Day 1824 commenced a survey of the
Arabian coastline. Owen had planned to trace the coast from
Muscat to Dhofar, but unfavourable winds prevented this. He
therefore commenced at Ra’s al-Hadd, continuing to the island
of Masira, where he carted its outer coast to its southern point
at Ra’s Abu Rasas . . . Leven continued along the coast past Ra’s
Markhaz and the Kuria Muria islands, discontinuing the survey
at Ra’s Mirbat after Owen had contracted rheumatic fever. From
Ra’s Mirbat the Leven sailed to Socotra, and thence to the African
47
coast to meet up with the Barracouta . . . Both Owen and Thomas
Boteler published lengthy books about their journeys. Boteler
“This great surveying undertaking” (Burton) was initially second lieutenant on Leven, but after the death of
Captain Cutfield of the Barracouta during the survey of Delagoa
47
Bay, Mozambique, was transferred to the Barracouta as first lieu-
BOTELER, Thomas. Narrative of a Voyage of Discovery tenant. Owen’s book, badly edited by Heaton Bowstead Robin-
to Africa and Arabia, performed by His Majesty’s Ships son, is at times confusing, and it is difficult to know whether the
Leven and Barracouta from 1821 to 1826. Under the words are those of Owen or Boteler . . . Boteler’s book, edited
command of Capt. F. W. Owen, R.N. London: Richard by Richard Bentley (Boteler having died in 1828 from the effects
Bentley, 1835 of fever), is less spoiled by editorial meddling and more faithful
to the original manuscript. Chapter 6 of volume II includes an
2 volumes, octavo (219 × 136 mm). Late 19th-century red half calf, dec-
orative gilt spines, pinkish linen cloth sides, top edges gilt, marbled
account of the Leven and her operations in Arabian waters, but is
endpapers. Lithograph frontispieces and 2 plates by C. Hamberger or T. based on Owen’s journal, as neither Boteler nor Barracouta visited
M. Baynes after Boteler. From the library of British Arabist and colonial Oman” (New Arabian Studies, Vol. 2, 1994, pp. 10–11).
agent Col. S. B. Miles (1838–1914), with printed bookplate noting his Gay 39; Hilmy I 84; Mendelssohn I p. 252.
widow’s bequest of his collection to Bath Public Library in 1920, with
associated manuscript shelf-marks and blind-stamps as usual. Spines £2,500 [117586]
sunned and with a few dark blemishes, touch of soiling to front cover of
volume II, embossed library stamps to plates, scattered light foxing. A
very good, tall copy. 48
first edition, commercially rather uncommon. Sir Richard BOULGER, Demetrius Charles. The Life of Yakoob Beg;
Burton, in a footnote in his Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cat- Athalik Ghazi, and Badaulet, Ameer of Kashgar. London:
aracts of the Congo (1876) described the journeys of the Leven and W. H. Allen & Co., 1878
Barracouta as “this great surveying undertaking”. Octavo. Original red cloth, rebacked with the original spine laid down,
“Following the re-establishment of British sovereignty in title gilt to spine, blind panelling to boards, grey-brown surface-paper
South Africa at the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars, and with endpapers. Folding coloured map frontispiece. A little rubbed at the
trade possibilities emerging along the east coast of Africa, the extremities, perhaps a quarter of an inch lacking at spine ends, hinges
British Admiralty decided to undertake a major survey of the slightly cracked, light toning, overall a very good copy.
African coastline. An expedition was fitted out at Woolwich in first edition of this uncommon life of this “remarkable Muslim
1821, led by William Fitzwilliam Owen on board Leven, a ship- adventurer” (Hopkirk, The Great Game, p. 322) from Piskent, Kokand
sloop of 26 guns, assisted by Commander William Cutfield on – now Uzbekistan – who became ruler of Kashgaria. He signed
the 10 gun brig Barracouta. The expedition progressed to south- treaties of amity and commerce with both Russia and Britain, but
ern Africa and in late 1823, while the Barracouta was surveying crucially failed to get them to support him against the Chinese. He
part of the African coast north of Mozambique, Owen sailed to died in 1877, after his army had been routed by the Emperor’s in-
Bombay in Leven to obtain provisions and to send completed vasion force – “whose leisurely progress included the planting and

47 48

30 Peter Harrington 133

 49 49

harvesting of its own crops”, taking three years to reach Kashgar free endpaper somewhat creased, the text a little browned, but other-
– most likely the victim of a poison plot: “Four of Yakoob’s sons and wise clean, a well-finished and handsomely-presented example.
two of his grandsons fell into the hands of the Chinese. One son This French manuscript is a painstakingly completed school
was beheaded, one grandson died, and the rest were sentenced to exercise, which has resulted in the creation of a highly attractive
be castrated and sent as slaves to the soldiers on the Amoor” (Giles, atlas to accompany a course in ancient history, covering the
A Chinese Biographical Dictionary). The author was one of the founders, period from the Assyrian Empire to the demise of Alexander’s
and first editor, of the Asiatic Quarterly Review and a leading publicist Empire in eight maps, each of them accompanied by a brief
of Empire and Asian affairs. explanatory text. Individual maps include Egypt and Arabia; the
Assyrian and Persian Empires; Asia Minor; Greece, the Greek
£575 [109139] Colonies; and the Expeditions of Alexander. There are also full
page watercolours of the Parthenon and the Hephaestion, or
49 Temple of Theseus, in Athens. The setting of such tasks was a
BRACHET, H. “Atlas pour le cours de Géographie et relatively common practice in the early 19th century, but it was
d’Histoire ancienne pendant l’année Scolaire 1840. Avec very rare indeed for the result to be such a highly finished and
le Sommaire de chaque leçon.” 1840 assured piece, here bound with commensurate care.
Landscape quarto (222 × 290 mm). Contemporary burgundy peb- £2,250 [91993]
ble-grained morocco, title direct to spine which is decorated in rocaille
style with repeated foliate arabesques, floral and bird tools, both boards
with thick-and-thin fillet gilt panel enclosing an elaborate decorative 50
panel similarly composed to spine decoration with numerous flamboy- (BRAHE, Tycho.) SAYILI, Aydin. Tycho Brahe Sistemi
ant large foliate arabesques, all edges gilt, broad swagged roll gilt to
Hakkinda XVII. Asir Baslarina Ait Far[s]ça Bir Yazma. An
turn-ins, hand-finished floral-sprigged black surface-paper endpapers
36–leaf manuscript with title-page vignette of an oak and laurel wreath Early Seventeenth Century Persian Manuscript on the
in black and sepia, and 6 other vignettes, 8 detailed full-page maps fin- Tychonic System. Ankara: Dil ve Tarih-Çografya Fakültesi, 1958
ished in colours, and 4 full-page watercolour illustrations en grisaille, Octavo. Original printed wrappers. Wrappers slightly sunned at the edg-
accompanying text in a neat calligraphic hand. A little light shelf-wear, es. A very good copy from the collection of American Islamicist Nicholas
some discolouration at the gutter of the front and rear blanks, one front Heer, with his ownership inscription to the front panel.
Offprint from the Annual Review of the Institute of Archaelogy at the
University of Ankara, describing a manuscript in the Vatican Li-
brary (MS Vat. Pers. 9), namely a 1631 copy of renowned explorer
Pietro della Valle’s Persian translation of a short pamphlet by
one Christophoros Borrus, a Milanese Jesuit and astronomer,
defending the planetary system of Tycho Brahe yet making no
explicit mention of the Copernican system that was to supersede
it: an interesting insight into the defining contest in 17th-cen-
tury astronomy. Della Valle originally wrote his translation in
Goa in 1624 and addressed it one Mawlana Zayn al-Din al-Lari,
known as “al-munajjim” (Arabic for “the astronomer”), appar-
ently a local potentate of some kind.
49 £50 [104031]

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk 31

51 dian administration” (ODNB) and concurrently serving as assis-
tant to the political resident in the Persian Gulf, Sir Percy Cox,
(BRITISH RESIDENCY, BANDAR ABBAS.) Manuscript
who finally established the outpost on surer foundations, despite
daybook. Bandar Abbas: 1905–29 the upheaval of the Constitutional Revolution. In 1902 a Times of
Folio ledger book (390 × 240 mm). Contemporary sheep dyed red, marbled India report had lamented the “half-finished” consulate building;
endpapers, cloth hinges, pp. [4], 286, numerous blank leaves at rear; pp.
Shakespear oversaw the construction of a new complex of build-
161–4 typescript; typescript memorandum pasted to pp. 273–6. Most agree-
ments ratified with consular ink-stamps or pasted Consular Service postage
ings which he proclaimed to have had “an excellent effect on the
stamps. Binding rubbed and worn, inner hinge split between pp. [2–3], very public mind … the political predominance of the British flag at
occasional ink-smudging, nevertheless in excellent condition. this port being well typified by their superiority and extent” (Brit-
Manuscript daybook covering the formative period of the British ish Library, “The Lonely Death of a British Vice-Consul in Persia”,
consulate at the key Gulf port of Bandar Abbas, from early in the online).
tenure of the influential yet ill-fated Captain William Shakespear Twelve documents in this daybook are signed by Shakespear,
(1904–9) to the flourishing of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in including several wills and, notably, two property leases by ex-
the late 1920s. The documents, which are mainly in Persian or En- porters Gray Paul & Co., who had established their office at Ban-
glish, with a number in Arabic and a few in Sindhi (Khudawadi dar Abbas in 1865, and pioneered the expansion of British com-
script), include fair copies of bills of sale, promissory notes, prop- merce in the Persian Gulf (see Jones, Two Centuries of Overseas Trad-
erty leases, inheritance agreements, and other contracts (general- ing, p. 23). In 1906 Shakespear was sent to Muscat, probably to re-
ly involving the appointment of agents). The parties include local lieve tensions between him and the Russian consul, leaving Indi-
merchants, of Arab (Bahraini and Omani) and Indian origin in ad- an Army officer Cecil Hamilton Gabriel as acting consul until his
dition to Persians, and various British companies which played an return in 1909, shortly after which he transferred to Kuwait, where
important role in the expansion of imperial influence in the re- he was the first British officer to make contact with Ibn Sa’ud, and
gion. The contracts themselves mainly concern property or oper- made important explorations into the Arabian interior. It has
ations in Bandar Abbas and nearby Minab, as well as Qeshm Is- been speculated that had he not been killed in a skirmish between
land, inland Persia, the hometowns of Indian signatories, and the the House of Sa’ud and the Shammar in 1915, he might have “suc-
oil field at Hengam Island. Together they form a highly detailed ceeded in harnessing Ibn Sa‘ud’s energies more thoroughly to the
primary source for the commercial and social life and “the major imperial war effort, [and] a very different post-war Arab world
entrepôt for the whole of southern Persia” (Busch, Britain and the might well have emerged” (ODNB).
Persian Gulf, 1894–1914, p. 44), for the functioning of an important In 1904 Russia established a consular agency at Bandar Abbas,
British outpost during an era marked by such convulsions as the with a full consul appointed in 1906. Gabriel’s tenure witnessed
Iranian Constitutional Revolution of 1905–11, the First World War, the Anglo–Russian Agreement of 1907, which divided Iran into
and the Persian coup d’etat of 1921, and for the rapid growth of spheres of British, Russian, and so-called “neutral” influence,
APOC and the ongoing strategic contest between the British and though consular activities during this time appear to have contin-
Russian empires. ued as usual, mainly involving deals between local Persian and In-
The documents are neatly presented throughout; those in Per- dian merchants. In 1910 and 1911 Britain and Russia issued Iran
sian are composed in an especially attractive flowing nasta’liq with ultimatums concerning their interests in the south and north
script. All are briefly described in English, then ratified, signed of the country respectively. In 1910 a new consul, Captain Hugh
and stamped by the acting consul (only occasionally a munshi, who Biscoe, was appointed, by which time the British consulate is
is named as Abdus Samad). The whole is very well preserved in- shown to be ratifying mortgages and other commercial agree-
deed, and forms a highly attractive historical record. ments originally executed by the Sadid al-Saltanah – the local dig-
After the collapse of the Safavid dynasty in 1722, Bandar Abbas nitary appointed Russian consular agent – on behalf of British In-
came under Omani control and underwent a long period of de- dian subjects (see the entries for 5 June and 16 October 1911).
cline until the Qajar reconquest in 1868 led to a revival in trade. By The Administration Report of the Persian Gulf Political Resi-
1889 George Curzon noted a variety of products passing through dency for the years 1911–1914 (Qatar Digital Library, online),
the port – “exports included opium, cotton, dates, salt, wool, pis- gives a useful overview of how British interests developed under
tachios, almonds; imported were cotton fabric, thread, copper, Biscoe, the year 1914 being the first of many in which the Bandar
iron, tin, spices, indigo, sugar, tea, glassware, and porcelain” Abbas district “enjoyed complete immunity from pillage and
(Ency. Iran.) – though growing Russian dominance of central Asian disorder … The incursions en masse by Baharlus and other
trade led to a decline in British imports in the 1890s. The British tribesmen … appear to have ceased” (p. 17). The Russian consul-
consulate was established in 1900, the same year in which the ar- ar agent, Mirza Muhammad Ali Khan, moreover, is said to “take
rival of a Russian vessel, Giliak, “supported the view among British but little part in local activities” while the Persian deputy-gover-
authorities that the Russians were seeking a naval base in the nor, in post since 1911 “continued to work most satisfactorily for
Gulf ” (Martin, ed., Anglo-Iranian Relations since 1800, p. 155). In 1902 British interests and to maintain most friendly relations with
the British held a secret conference at which it was decided that Captain Biscoe” (ibid.) Biscoe’s report does, however, also allude
seizing Bandar Abbas would be a priority in the event of war with to the success of German propaganda among the Indian com-
Russia or France. munity and to the inevitable sympathy of the local Muslim pop-
Conditions were notoriously inhospitable: the first three British ulation towards the Ottomans.
consuls were either invalided out or died of fever; a fourth (Major W. R. Howson, previously vice-consul at Lingeh, replaced Bis-
W. G. Grey, 1902–4) lasted slightly longer, but it was Shakespear, coe in March 1915, serving until 1919. His entry in the Administra-
“at the time of his appointment . . . the youngest consul in the In- tion Report of the Persian Gulf Political Residency for the Years
1915–1919 describes the ongoing cooperation of the Persian depu-

32 Peter Harrington 133

 51

ty-governor, but also renewed aggression by Baharlu tribesmen, ladari), who is recorded signing extensive memoranda of agree-
and an attack on the Anglo-Persian Oil Company camp on Qeshm ment with APOC (9 November 1921) and the Royal Indian Marine
Island by a party of Khuzistanis, which he attributes to “German (13 June 1924) respectively agreeing to supply salt obtained at
intrigue” (p. 16). Qeshm Island and to perform coaling services at Hengam.
In response to the German threat, Sir Percy Sykes landed at The overall impression of Bandar Abbas is one of a cosmopoli-
Bandar Abbas in 1916 to establish the South Persia Rifles, a native tan Gulf hub. There are mortgage deeds executed by Bahraini no-
force under his command, with some initial success. One con- taries (Sheikh Ahmed bin Sheikh Hassan Bahreini and Seyid
tract recorded here (18 October 1916) engages an “S. Dorabjee” to Moosa bin Seyd Alawi Bahreini) on behalf of various Hindu mer-
provide 1,000 camels to Captain R. C. Ruck, British commanding chants in Minab and Bandar Abbas itself; a trader on Qeshm Is-
officer at Bandar Abbas. This is Bombay merchant Sir Dorabji land giving power of attorney to a partner in Bombay; such docu-
Tata (1859–1932), who developed the business founded by his fa- ments as “Bond of compromise executed between Seyid Abdul
ther Jamsetji that is now the global conglomerate Tata Group. The Kader, the agent of Haji Muhamed bin Abdullah Ghulam of Mus-
Tatas reappear in May 1922, when they are appointed sole agents cat and the heirs of the late … Gelladari of Bunder Abbas”; an ex-
for selling candles produced by the Burmah Oil Co (a similar con- tensive deed of sale, in Arabic, involving one Haji Nasib of Mus-
tract agreed on 18 September 1924). By 1929 they are recorded se- cat; and an intriguing agreement involving the sale of Persian car-
curing a similar contract with APOC. pets through an agent in New York named Amin Izmirhan. In ad-
Although the Anglo-Persian Agreement of 1919 never came into dition there is a fascinating description by S. G. Knox, political
effect owing to the Persian coup d’état of 1921, APOC rapidly ex- agent at Muscat, concerning a building in the city known as
panded throughout the 1920s, during which time the consul at “al-Hatim”, which was used by the city’s Persian population “for
Bandar Abbas was Indian Army officer Arthur William Fagan. The recital of odes on the anniversary of the death of Hussain”, Knox’s
daybook shows how APOC and other British companies success- description apparently being intended to secure permission to re-
fully cultivated networks of local agents, mainly of Indian origin. furbish the structure.
The final 50 pages are entirely taken up by contracts concerning
oil and its by-products. A successful Indian merchant aside from £16,500 [117495]
Tata was Khan Sahib Ibrahim Giladari (also Gelladari or Gal-

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk 33

 52 53

52 contents lightly browned throughout, the prelims more heavily so, and
some foxing to the maps, one map with neat, old paper repair verso,
BROCKBANK, Oliver. Diary of a Journey through the Sinai remains very good in an appealing contemporary binding.
Peninsula and Arabia in 1914. London: [ for the author,] 1916 second edition, enlarged, first published in 1799. “This
Octavo. Original red buckram, title gilt to the front board. 16 plates, important work contains the earliest information in English
folding map. Just a little rubbed, spine mildly sunned, endpapers lightly
about Darfur (Sudan). Browne, inspired by Bruce’s travels, went
browned, pale toning to the text, couple of short tears – no loss – to the
map, a very good copy.
to Egypt in 1792 hoping to explore the oases in the eastern Sa-
hara and to journey to the source of the White Nile. He reached
first and only edition, uncommon, just eight copies on El Fashur in Darfur and was the first Englishman to explore the
OCLC. Brockbank was born into a wealthy Mancunian Quaker temple of Jupiter Ammon at the Oasis of Siwa. Browne was the
steel family in 1870, and was educated at Cambridge. He made first European to describe Darfur, which he reached with a Suda-
several trips to the Middle East in search of the “Holy Land” of nese caravan in 1793. He was imprisoned there by the Sultan of
the scriptures, on this occasion spending “exactly five weeks Darfur. In 1796 he reached Egypt again by caravan and eventually
and a day under canvas in the Desert of the Exodus and Arabia, returned to England via Syria and Constantinople” (Blackmer).
and during the time covered 400 miles on camel and 700 miles Browne’s description of Egypt is widely considered to be “one of
on horseback”, from Port Said to Jerusalem. Despite Brock- the best of the period, despite its dry, affected style” (Howgego);
bank’s evangelicalism – he founded a working-class chapel, the book caused “some controversy because of its considerable
Ivy Cottage, at Didsbury in 1893 which still thrives today – his sympathy towards, and admiration of, the East” (ODNB).
diary-form narrative is more chattily descriptive than preachy,
and is much enhanced by the plates from the author’s own pho- Arcadian Library 11091 for the first edition; not in Atabey, Browne’s
tographs. An interesting and well-produced privately-published work represented solely by a French juvenile based on the Travels 156;
Blackmer 219 listing the first edition; Gay 43; Howgego I, B170; Ibra-
travel journal. him-Hilmy I, p. 91
£450 [95146] £2,000 [97302]
53 54
BROWNE, William George. Travels in Africa, Egypt, and BUCKINGHAM, James Silk. Travels in Mesopotamia.
Syria, from the Year 1792 to 1798. London: T. Cadell and W. Including a Journey from Aleppo, Across the Euphrates
Davies; and Longman Hurst Rees and Orme, 1806 to Orfah (the Ur of the Chaldees,) through the Plains of
Quarto (268 × 209 mm). Contemporary half calf on drab boards, black
the Turcomans, to Diarbekr, in Asia Minor; from thence
morocco label, flat bands, elaborate gilt tooling to compartments,
foliate roll gilt to spine and corner edges, edges marbled. Engraved to Mardin, on the Borders of the Great Desert, and by
frontispiece, 3 folding maps, and full-page plan, with errata, corrigenda the Tigris to Mosul and Bagdad: with Researches on
and directions to the binder leaf, half-title bound in. Contemporary en- the Ruins of Babylon, Nineveh, Arbela, Ctesiphon, and
graved bookplate with Baron’s coronet and the monogram EVB to front
Seleucia. London: Henry Colburn, 1827
pastedown. Slightly rubbed and spotted, skilfully restored on the joints,

34 Peter Harrington 133

 54

Quarto (273 × 211 mm). Contemporary half calf, gilt-tooled raised bands Arcadian Library 11106; Atabey 163 for the first octavo edition (1827);
to spine, compartments ruled in gilt and blind, blue label, marbled sides, Blackmer 233; Burrell 128; Howgego II B69; Weber 146.
red-sprinkled edges. Engraved folding map, mounted on linen stub as
issued, 2 further maps, 27 wood-engraved chapter headings. Spine lightly £1,500 [117067]
rubbed at head and foot, short (25 mm) crack to head of each joint, pale
spotting to endleaves and maps, very occasionally to text, occasional pen- 55
cilled paragraph summaries in a contemporary hand to margins of first 50
pages or so, scattered marginalia elsewhere. A very good, tall copy. BUNBURY, Sir Edward Herbert. A History of Ancient
first edition, large-paper issue. Buckingham (1786–1855) Geography Among the Greeks and Romans from the
spent much of his early life as a merchant sailor. Between 1813 and Earliest Ages to the Fall of the Roman Empire. New York:
1814 he travelled in Egypt, meeting Muhammad Ali Pasha, who Dover Publications Inc., 1959
despatched him to Bombay to develop trade with India. There he 2 volumes, octavo. Original light brown cloth, spines lettered in blue, top
accepted a further commission from the Imam of Muscat, but was edges purple. With the dust jackets. 20 maps of which 2 folding. Extremities
forced to return to Egypt by the East India Company. From Cairo very lightly bumped. An excellent set in the slightly sunned dust jackets.
he travelled overland India through Syria, Iraq and Iran. Travels in Facsimile of the 1883 second edition of Bunbury’s “major piece of
Mesopotamia recounts the Aleppo to Baghdad leg of the voyage, scholarship and principal claim to fame” (ODNB), this copy from
undertaken in mid-1816. the collection of noted American Islamicist Nicholas Heer, with
In 1818 he established the Calcutta Journal, an antigovernment his ownership inscription dated “Stanford 1961” to the front free
periodical, and was expelled from India five years later, subse- endpaper of both volumes. Bunbury’s History of Ancient Geography
quently becoming a vocal supporter of the temperance and other was first published in 1879. Considered to “epitomise the achieve-
Liberal movements. He “spent far longer in the Arab world than ments and limitations of High Victorian classical scholarship” (P.
most other occasional visitors” (Hamilton, The Arcadian Library, G. Hall, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, Vol. 12, No.
p. 96) and his travel writings, which he wrote partly to fund 48, p. 342), Bunbury’s landmark work included a number of im-
legal battles in defence of his character, are “especially notable pressive maps purporting to reconstruct the world as perceived by
for the information they provide about social conditions in the ancient scholars such as Strabo, Homer and Ptolemy.
many countries he visited” (ODNB). Travels in Mespotamia is con-
sidered “full of lively descriptions and sympathetic characters” £125 [104017]
(Blackmer).

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk 35

 56 57

56 57
BURGOYNE, Michael Hamilton. Mamluk Jerusalem. An BURKE, John. Album of photographs from the Hazara
Architectural Study. With additional historical research Expedition, 1891. 1878–93
by D. S. Richards. [London:] on behalf of the British School of Landscape folio (380 × 300 mm). Contemporary black half roan, dark
Archaeology in Jerusalem by the World of Islam Festival Trust, 1987 green morocco-grained boards ruled in gilt, all edges gilt, white moiré-
silk effect endpapers. 39 albumen photographs each c.215 × 280 mm
Folio. Original crushed-morocco-effect blue cloth, spine lettered in
mounted to stiff card leaves, detailed inked captions on mounts iden-
gilt, calligraphic Arabic titles to front and rear covers, blue and grey
tifying location and personnel, discreet captions and Burke catalogue
decorative endpapers. With the dust jacket. Housed in the original blue
numbers in the plate where applicable (26 photographs labelled Burke,
cloth slipcase with calligraphic Arabic lettering gilt to sides. 10 colour
Burke and Baker or “B”; 2 with numbers only; 5 captioned “J. Winter”;
photographic plates; profuse half-tone photographs and architectural
remainder uncaptioned), contemporary tissue-guards laid in. Binding
line-drawings to the text; laid-in blue card portfolio with two large fold-
slightly rubbed, some light staining to boards, neat restoration of the
ing plans loose as issued. Number ink-stamped to front free endpaper, a
joints, head and tail of the spine and to the corners, a few very minor
few neat inked annotations to list of architects and surveyors. An excel-
spots of foxing to mounts, first photograph slightly oxidised and a few
lent copy in the dust jacket with a few small creases at extremities.
slightly faded along margins but prints in the main in excellent condi-
first and only edition, 3,000 copies printed, this copy tion, retaining their rich tonal contrasts.
from the collection of historian Greville Freeman-Grenville A collection of fine photographs largely originating from the
(1919–2005), with his ownership inscription dated 1987 to the Black Mountain, or Hazara, Expedition of 1891, with the owner-
front free endpaper verso and a publisher’s compliments slip, ship inscription of Captain C. J. H. H. Noble to the front free end-
inscribed “To Dr Greville Freeman-Grenville, Here is a copy of paper. The North West Frontier Province was highly unstable; res-
Mamluk Jerusalem for your kind attention and favours of review tive local tribes, in particular the Yusufzai, were a major problem
in the J.R.A.S., Alistair Duncan”, tipped-in between the con- for the British, who converged on the region from three directions
tents and acknowledgements leaves. Greville Freeman served with a total force of some 7,000 troops. From the photographs it
in Egypt in the Second World War and subsequently worked as is clear that Burke was attached to the Indus River column: there
a lecturer in Baghdad; he then married Mary, Lady Kinloss, and are views of Attock, Abbottabad, Rawalpindi, the Indus Valley
assumed the surname Freeman-Grenville, joining the Colonial and several of Murree, regimental photographs, camp views,
Service and holding posts in Aden, Tanganyika and Ghana various images including Sikh soldiers and a striking scene of
before returning to England. He wrote more than 20 books, “No. 1 Mountain Battery shelling Diliasi from Palosi” (Burke 81).
including architectural studies of the Church of the Nativity in The final two photographs – each of the 1st Bedfordshire Regi-
Bethlehem and the Basilica of the Annunciation in Jerusalem, ment – are puzzling: Charles John Herbert Hay Noble (b. 1870),
and served as vice-president of the Royal Asiatic Society from son of Col. C. S. Noble of Murrayfield, Edinburgh, received his
1997 to 2000. commission in the Yorkshire Regiment in September 1894 having
£350 [111996] after five years in the ranks. He was promoted lieutenant January
1897 and captain in the Manchester Regiment in June 1900. He
served with the Jsazai Expedition (1892) and as transport officer to
the 2nd Battalion Yorkshire Regiment in the Tirah Expeditionary
Force campaign on the North West Frontier Province, led by Sir
William Lockhart (1897–98). In 1900 he travelled from India to
South Africa on special service, where he distinguished himself
in reconnaissance, led a successful night raid on a Boer farm
56 and was mentioned in despatches (7 May 1901) before dying of

36 Peter Harrington 133

 57

wounds received in action at Schalkie Farm, near Bethlehem, in they won many of the top photography awards in competitions
November the same year. throughout British India”. Burke’s work was also far more widely
At around 17 years old John Burke travelled out to India as an published in Graphic and the ILN than that of any of his competi-
assistant apothecary to the Royal Artillery, but he spent very little tors. This excellence has not been lost on genuine connoisseurs
time in the service before forming a partnership with William of Indian photography, one of the first modern publications of
Baker, a retired sergeant of the 87th Regiment, in a photographic Raj photography Worswick and Embree’s The Last Empire – based
studio: “the first commercial photographers in Peshawar and in on Worswick’s pioneering collection, now at the Getty Research
the North-West Frontier . . . [ranking] among the earliest war, Institute – included more photographs by Burke and Baker than
news and landscape photographers in the Indian subcontinent by any of their contemporaries.
. . . [becoming] over the next decades the first photographers to “Burke accompanied the Peshawar Valley Field Force, one of
work in large areas of northern British India and the independent three British Anglo-Indian army columns deployed in the Second
feudal realms of Kashmir and Afghanistan” (Khan, From Kashmir to Afghan War (1878–80), despite being rejected for the role of of-
Kabul, p. 11). ficial photographer. He financed his trip by advance sales of his
Outside of the extensive archive of the photographs themselves, photographs ‘illustrating the advance from Attock to Jellalabad’
they left little record of their lives, taking a prominent place . . . Burke’s two-year Afghan expedition produced an important
“among the finest forgotten photographers of the British Raj”. visual document of the region where the strategies of the Great
Whatever the reason for the work of their studio so often being Game were played out” (British Library online cataloguing).
passed over in favour of better-known photographers (Bourne and
Shepherd for example), it is not due to any technical or aesthetic £8,000 [107517]
shortcomings: “The chemicals and procedures they used have
aged better than those of many others . . . [and] the rich com-
position of their images is immediately apparent. In their time,

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk 37

 58

combined with adventurousness, boundless self-confidence,

and a certain diplomatic guile earmarked him for delicate po-
litical duties” (ODNB). In 1831, following his successful mission
to Ranjit Singh he was commissioned by Lord Bentinck, the
governor-general, to undertake “a much grander expedition
across central Asia to Bokhara and beyond”, with the intention
of assessing the extent of Russian incursions into Central Asia.
58 When Burnes returned to England with his report in 1833 he
was greeted as a hero, he “received the gold medal of the Royal
“Bokhara Burnes” provides intelligence for the Russian expansion Geographical Society, was elected a fellow of the Royal Society
into Central Asia and honorary member of the Royal Asiatic Society, and enjoyed
a flattering audience with William IV”. Anticipating a sensa-
58 tion, the publisher John Murray “was quick to acquire Burnes’s
BURNES, Alexander. Putesestvie v Buharu: razskaz account of his journey . . . [It] brought to the reader for the first
time the romance, mystery and excitement of Central Asia. It
o plavanii po Indu ot morâ do Lagora s podarkami
was to prove an immediate best-seller, 900 copies being sold on
velikobritanskago korolâ i otcet o putesestvii iz Indii v the first day” (Hopkirk, The Great Game, p. 151).
Kabul, Tatariû i Persiû predprinâtom po predpisaniû This timely edition was prepared by the Russian Geographical
vyssago pravitel’stva Indii v 1831, 1832 i 1833 godah Society, which was founded in 1845. The failure of the 1839–40
(Travels into Bokhara, in Russian). Moscow: Universitetskoa Khivan Expedition, which had attempted to exploit Britain’s
tipografia, 1848–9 preoccupation with the First Afghan War, had not dimmed
3 volumes, octavo (199 126 mm). Recent green grained half calf to style, Russia’s ambitions in Central Asia; accurate intelligence on
marbled boards, red morocco lettering and numbering pieces, gilt the region was actively pursued from all available sources. The
devices in compartments, single gilt rules to spine and corner edges, present work was an expensive production, and publication was
edges sprinkled blue. 10 lithographic plates, 2 of them single-tint, and underwritten by Platon Golubkov, a merchant with significant
2 engraved plates, folding engraved map. Typical foxing and browning interests in Central Asia and one of the founding members of
throughout, together with occasional pale marginal hygroscopic damp- the Geographical Society. Golubkov was the only member with
ing, the third volume on slightly superior paper less affected, overall
a solely commercial background, and in the 1840s and 50s was
very good.
responsible for financing the publication of eight books on
first edition in russian of Burnes’s Travels into Bokhara, his Asia, all of them translations, mostly concerned with India and
account of his renowned reconnaissance into the region. Decid- Afghanistan. A handsomely presented copy of this historically
edly uncommon, just a single set found on OCLC in the Nation- influential and genuinely scarce work.
al Library of Poland. Burnes was the Great Game exponent par
excellence: he “excelled at political work. His linguistic ability £10,000 [116567]

38 Peter Harrington 133

 59 60

59 60
BURNES, James. A Narrative of a Visit to the Court of BURTON, Richard F. First Footsteps in East Africa; or, an
Sinde; A Sketch of the History of Cutch, from its First Exploration of Harar. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and
Connexion with the British Government in India till the Longmans, 1856
Conclusion of the Treaty in 1819; and some Remarks on the Octavo (210 × 130 mm). Recent dark red half morocco by Trevor Lloyd,
Medical Topography of Bhooj. Edinburgh: John Stark, 1831 spine richly gilt in compartments, marbled sides, edges sprinkled red,
marbled endpapers. Chromolithographic frontispiece and 3 similar
Octavo (210 × 130 mm). Recent half calf to style, raised bands and gilt
plates, 7 illustrations to the text and 2 full-page maps. Contents toned, a
fillets to spine, red label, marbled sides, edges sprinkled red. 2 folding
few trivial spots. An excellent copy with bright plates.
partial-colour lithographic maps (one as frontispiece), lithographed
folding genealogy. With the terminal errata leaf. Short closed tear to first edition, second issue, without Appendix IV on infibu-
map facing p. 145 affecting frame only. A very good, clean copy in an lation as usual. Following his “pilgrimage” to Mecca, instead of
attractive period-style binding. returning to Britain where he was guaranteed a hero’s welcome
first uk edition, published two years after the unprocurable at the Royal Geographical Society, Burton “lingered in Cairo until
Bombay edition of 1829, which was privately printed “for the pe- November 1853 . . . Even as he completed the manuscript of his
rusal of the author’s friends”. Uncommon, with three copies only Personal Narrative after returning to Bombay, he was planning
traced at auction, and nine in UK libraries (including copies with the penetration of another forbidden city. This time his objective
Robert Cadell, the publisher, substituted in the imprint for Stark, was Harar, an important religious centre and notorious base for
the printer). the slave trade in Somalia” (ODNB). The expedition was enthu-
Burnes (1801–1862) arrived in Bombay with his brother, Alexan- siastically supported by the Bombay Council, and the party of
der, in 1821. “He filled various minor posts in the Indian Medical four, Stroyan, Burton’s companion from Sind; Herne, a skilled
Service (IMS), and was successful in the open competition for the photographer and surveyor; and John Hanning Speke, a young
office of surgeon to the residency of Cutch. He volunteered to ac- officer who was taken on at the last minute following the death
company the force which, in 1825, expelled the Sindians who had of Assistant-Surgeon J. E. Stocks, assembled at Aden in October
devastated Cutch and forced the British brigade to retire to Bhuj. 1854. Burton revised his plans in response to the misgivings of
The amirs of Sind then invited him to visit them as ‘the most the political resident James Outram, reserving the inland trip to
skilful of physicians and their best friend, and the cementer of the Harar for himself. Speke was forced to return early to Aden from
bonds of amity between the two governments’, and on his return his trip to Wadi Nugal by the treachery of his guide; Burton spent
he was complimented by the government on the zeal and ability ten days in Harar, where he was “spied upon constantly, but . . .
he had displayed at Cutch and Hyderabad. His account of his visit learnt much from local scholars” (Howgego), meeting up with the
to Sind, written as an official report to the resident at Cutch, is an other two party-members at Berbera. Once back in Aden, Burton
excellent account of the country, and was a valuable contribution planned a further trip, a trek up the Nile from the Somali coast.
to the geography of India” (ODNB), offering “a number of obser- But on their return to Berbera in April their camp was attacked by
vations of court life in Hyderabad of which the most interesting Somali tribesmen, Stroyan being killed by a spear thrust, Burton
describes the high level of mutual suspicion displayed among receiving his famous facial wound, the party barely escaping. An
members of the ruling family” (Riddick). account of the skirmish is included in the Postscript.
Riddick, Glimpses of India 77. Abbey 276; Casada 35; Gay 2714; Howgego, II, B95; Penzer pp. 60–3

£1,500 [117154] £1,750 [117253]

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk 39

 61 62

61 Chatwin confessed to considering it “a work of genius” which

he had elevated to the status of “sacred text”. He stressed that it
BURTON, Richard F. The Book of the Sword. London,
remained an important book, as in between the “bravura pas-
Chatto and Windus, 1884 sages” Byron expounds a serious thesis about the significance of
Large octavo. Bound in recent full black morocco, titles and decoration Afghan influence on Persian civilization.
to spine gilt, rasied bands, original cloth used on pastedowns. With
numerous illustrations throughout the text. A beautifully bound copy in £7,500 [79781]
fine condition.
first edition. Burton intended this to be the first part of a 63
comprehensive three-volume work on the sword, but parts II
CAPPER, James. Observations on the Passage to India
and III, which are referenced throughout the book, remained
incomplete at the time of the author’s death in 1890 and were through Egypt, and across the Great Desert; with
never published. Occasional Remarks on the adjacent Countries, and also
Sketches of the different Routes. London: for W. Faden, J.
Penzer, pp. 108–9.
Robson, and R. Sewell, 1783
£1,500 [32011] Quarto (250 × 197 mm). Attractive recent half calf to style by Trevor
Lloyd, red morocco label, urn device gilt to compartments, marbled
62 sides. 2 engraved folding maps. List of errata verso of dedication leaf
struck through and the listed errors corrected in ink in a contemporary
BYRON, Robert. The Road to Oxiana. London: Macmillan hand, lightly browned, some spotting, but overall a very good copy.
& Co. Ltd, 1937 first edition. Capper was educated at Harrow and joined the
Octavo. Original blue cloth, titles to spine gilt, first issue binding. With army of the East India Company “in His Majesty’s Train of Artil-
the supplied dust jacket. Housed in a black morocco backed bookform lery in the East Indies, first as a soldier cadet and later as an offi-
folding case. Frontispiece and 15 plates. Spine slightly faded, some light cer. He was then for a while a free merchant in Bengal before be-
rubbing to extremities. An excellent copy in the rubbed, creased, and
coming in 1768 a captain in the Madras army and in 1769 senior
slightly marked dust jacket.
writer for the presidency of Bengal . . . [later] appointed the East
first edition. presentation copy, inscribed by the author India Company’s commissary-general upon the coast of Coro-
on the front free endpaper, “Anthony Jeffreys from Robert Byron mandel” (ODNB). In early 1777 he was sent home with despatch-
1937” and with the recipient’s bookplate to front pastedown. es, remaining in England until the autumn of 1778 when, “to
Jeffreys was a contemporary of Byron’s who entered the civil ser- explore the feasibility of opening a new channel for transmitting
vice and rose to become Clerk Assistant in the House of Lords. intelligence between Europe and India, he returned to Madras
Presentation copies of Byron’s works are uncommon and signed by way of Aleppo, the Arabian desert, and Basrah.” The present
examples of his masterpiece The Road To Oxiana are rare. work contains details of his journey from India to England in
“An enquiry into the origins of Islamic art presented in the early 1777, via Ceylon and Suez, and his return journey in 1778–9.
form of one of the most entertaining travel books of modern Given more or less in journal form, it is full of fascinating de-
times” (ODNB). In his introduction to the 1981 re-issue, Bruce tails of local life, offering numerous hints for the traveller in the

40 Peter Harrington 133

 64

region. As was so often the case, Capper felt himself badly treat- replaced by steam boats in the 1870s. Decidedly uncommon
ed by John Company, issuing a lengthy memorial detailing the commercially, Copac cites copies at six British and Irish institu-
abuses of the company’s lax and corrupt civilian management in tional libraries (British Library, Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh,
India. “Despite this he resumed his career in India in 1785, when Scotland, University College London), OCLC records around
he became comptroller-general of the army and fortification two dozen institutions worldwide.
accompts on the coast of Coromandel, charged with reducing Blackmer 287; Ibrahim-Hilmy I, 119.
expenditure in Madras. He resigned in 1791 and returned to
Britain. The East India Company twice thereafter refused him a £500 [117588]
pension.” He later made a name for himself as a meteorologist
and as a local philanthropist in south Wales where he settled. 65
Blackmer 282; Gay 206; Wilson p. 37; not in Atabey. CARLISLE, Earl of. Diary in Turkish and Greek Waters.
£2,500 [88377] London, Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1854
Octavo, original grey-brown cloth, title gilt to spine, blind panelling
to boards. Publisher’s ads to the pastedowns. Armorial bookplate of a
64 branch of the Browne family, motto “Suivez Raison” to front pastedown.
CAREY, M. L. M. Four Months in a Dahabëéh; or, A little rubbed and dusty, slightly cocked, light browning, else very
Narrative of a Winter’s Cruise on the Nile. London: L. good.
Booth, 1863 first edition. George William Frederick Howard, 7th earl of
Octavo (214 × 131 mm). Late 19th-century red half morocco, decorative Carlisle, Liberal politician of a mildly reforming bent, resigned
gilt spine, marbled sides & edges. Chromolithograph frontispiece and in 1852 when he failed to obtain a Cabinet position in the in-
5 similar plates. From the library of British Arabist and colonial agent coming Peelite-Liberal coalition. “In consequence of this he
Col. S. B. Miles (1838–1914), with printed bookplate noting his widow’s believed that he had failed in politics . . . and spent most of the
bequest of his collection to Bath Public Library in 1920, with associated next twelve months travelling on the continent” (ODNB). The di-
manuscript shelf-marks and blind-stamps as usual. Binding a little ary is written in quite informal and loquacious form – Blackmer
rubbed, plates with embossed stamp of Bath Public Library. A clean
notes his gossipy entries on life in Athens – but contains useful
copy handsomely bound.
material: “Nothing can exceed the neglected and squalid condi-
first edition of this attractively illustrated account by a wom- tion of these interesting buildings; the temple of the Winds was
an traveller in Egypt: “Ms. Carey recorded her travails in one of undergoing a systematic pelting from the ingenuous boyhood
the more readable and entertaining Nile travelogues” (Andrew of Athens. It can hardly have been worse in Turkish times, and
Humphreys, On the Nile in the Golden Age of Travel, 2015, p. 34). it certainly continues to afford the best justification to Lord
Humphreys also notes that “one of her fellow passengers was Elgin.”
Ferdinand de Lesseps, who the previous year had broken new
ground on his Suez Canal project”. The dahabëéh or dahabiyah – a Blackmer Collection, 835.
shallow-bottomed barge-like vessel with two or more sails – was £200 [44344]
the standard mode of transport for tourists on the Nile, until

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk 41

 66

66
CARLYLE, Joseph Dacre. Specimens of Arabian Poetry,
from the Earliest Time to the Extinction of the Khalifat,
with Some Account of the Authors. Cambridge: Printed by
John Burges Printer to the University, 1796
Large octavo (226 × 182 mm) Early 19th-century half calf, marbled
67
boards, neatly rebacked to style with the original red morocco label laid
down, gilt rolls forming compartments, edges sprinkled blue. Sheet of
musical notation, text in Arabic types, engraved head- and tailpieces. first edition of Carter’s own account of the most spectacular
Lightly rubbed on the boards, corners professionally restored, internally archaeological discovery of the 20th century. “In the summer
a lightly browned and with occasional spotting, but overall a clean and
of 1922 Carter persuaded Carnarvon to allow him to conduct
carefully refurbished copy, presenting well.
one more campaign in the valley. Starting work earlier than
first edition, second issue with a cancel title page; copies usual Howard Carter opened up the stairway to the tomb of
noted dated 1795. Carlyle was educated at Carlisle Grammar Tutankhamen on 4 November 1922. Carnarvon hurried to Lux-
School and Cambridge, and while at Queens “profited from the or and the tomb was entered on 26 November. The discovery
instructions of a native of Baghdad, who passed in Britain under astounded the world: a royal tomb, mostly undisturbed, full of
the name David Zamio. As a result, Carlyle became so proficient spectacular objects. Carter recruited a team of expert assistants
in oriental languages that he was appointed professor of Arabic to help him in the clearance of the tomb, and the conservation
on the resignation of Dr Craven in 1795” (Stanley Lane-Poole in and recording of its remarkable contents. On 16 February 1923
ODNB). In 1799 Carlyle was appointed chaplain to Lord Elgin’s the blocking to the burial chamber was removed, to reveal the
mission to Constantinople and made an extensive tour through unplundered body and funerary equipment of the dead king.
Asia Minor, Palestine, Greece, and Italy, collecting Greek and Unhappily, the death of Lord Carnarvon on 5 April seriously
Syriac manuscripts for a proposed new version of the New Testa- affected the subsequent progress of Carter’s work. In spite
ment, which he did not live to accomplish. On his return to En- of considerable and repeated bureaucratic interference, not
gland in 1801 he was presented to the living of Newcastle upon easily managed by the short-tempered excavator, work on the
Tyne, but his health had been undermined by the exertions of clearance of the tomb proceeded slowly, but was not completed
his expedition, and he died in 1804. Lane-Poole describes the until 1932. Carter handled the technical processes of clearance,
present translation as “well-respected”. conservation, and recording with exemplary skill and care. A
Hamilton, The Arcadian Library 8444; Gay 3436 popular account of the work was published in three volumes, The
Tomb of Tutankhamen (1923–33), the first of which was substantial-
£1,500 [95218] ly written by his principal assistant, Arthur C. Mace” (ODNB).

67 £3,250 [113870]
CARTER, Howard, & A. C. Mace. The Tomb of 68
Tutankhamen. Discovered by the late Earl of Carnarvon
and Howard Carter. London: Cassell and Company, Ltd, 1923–33 CAUDILL, William Wayne. Probes. Reconnaissance for
3 volumes, large octavo. Original brown diagonally-ribbed cloth, titles
the American Embassy, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. [Houston,
gilt to spines and enclosing gilt scarab device on black ground to front TX: Caudill Rowlett Scott, 1980]
covers, pictorial endpapers. Photographic frontispiece to each volume, Quarto (210 × 214 mm). Comb-bound between card covers, printed title
186 similar plates (many double-sided, and numbered accordingly). to front, 63 leaves of manuscript facsimile including a small number of
Spines gently rolled, headcaps and corners lightly rubbed and bumped, blank leaves for notes. Frequent sketches to the text. A few light mark-
mild spotting to edges, endleaves and very occasionally margins of vols. ings to the front cover, else very good.
2 and 3. A very good copy.

42 Peter Harrington 133

 68

An unusual booklet intended for circulation among the staff of

American architectural firm Caudill Rowlett Scott to encourage
ideas for the design of the new American embassy building in
Riyadh. The resulting design was approved in 1981; building was
completed in 1986. It was described in Aramco World (May 1988) as
a “fortress-like structure, with huge triangles framing a courtyard
set with palm trees and a fountain” and was by a distance the
69
largest site in Riyadh’s diplomatic quarter. Caudill’s notes and
sketches provide an idiosyncratic account of Arab history, culture,
architecture, and geography, and combine interesting abstract approximately p. 150 to end, short closed tears to stubs of folding tables,
similar tide-mark in vol. 2, a good set, with the half-titles.
reflections on the principles of Islamic design with specific exam-
ples from Saudi architecture. Caudill (1914–1983) was professor first edition of this “fundamental study of the history of
of architecture at the University of Texas A&M when he founded the Arab tribes before the advent of Islam” (Arcadian Library p.
Caudill and Rowlett in 1946. They became one of the first Ameri- 241), from the library of Samuel Barrett Miles (1838–1914), Brit-
can architectural companies to venture overseas when they began ish colonial officer and Arabist, with his black letter ink-stamp
work on the King Fahd University for University of Petroleum to each initial blank, his ownership inscription to the front
and Minerals in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, in 1965. In 1978 Saudi free endpapers of the second and third volumes, and printed
millionaire Ghaith Pharaon purchased a 20 percent stake in the bookplates noting his widow’s bequest of his collection to Bath
company, and their involvement in the kingdom continued with Public Library in 1920, with blind-stamps and manuscript shelf-
their provision of engineering services in the construction of King marks as usual. Miles spent a significant part of his consular
Saud University, Riyadh, completed in 1984. Uncommon, the career in the Arabian Peninsula, stationed mainly in Muscat,
only other copy traced being that in the personal papers of John whence he conducted numerous expeditions into the Arabian
C. West, US ambassador from to Saudi Arabia from 1977 to 1981, interior. A selection of his reports were published after his death
now held at the University of South Carolina; this copy is signed as The Countries and Tribes of the Persian Gulf (1919). The depth and
on an introductory leaf by William Caudill. variety of his writings, clearly informed by a deep knowledge of
Islamic history and literature and published in various period-
£750 [113437] icals including the Geographical Journal, reveal him to have been
“not a mere political agent or an observant traveller but a classi-
“A monument of erudition” – from the collection of an authority cal scholar and Arabist” (Al-Hajri, British Travel-Writing on Oman,
on the Arab tribes of the Persian Gulf p. 162).
This is a highly apposite association for this key text. Caussin
69 de Perceval’s “masterpiece took him between ten and fifteen
CAUSSIN DE PERCEVAL, Armand-Pierre. Essai sur years to write. He intended to set down a complete history of
l’histoire des Arabes avant l’Islamisme, pendant l’époque the pre-Islamic period, a task never previously attempted. Tak-
de Mahomet, et jusqu’à la rédution de toutes les tribus ing as source material a number of unpublished manuscripts
soul la loi musulmane. Paris: Firmin Didot frères, 1847–8 in the Bibliothèque royale, notably of Ibn Khaldun and the
Kitab al-Aghani, he painted a detailed tableau of Arab tribes and
3 volumes, octavo. Contemporary purple quarter morocco, flat bands
larger political entities . . . The resulting work, a monument of
gilt to spine forming compartments lettered and decorated in gilt,
marbled sides, and endpapers. 15 folding genealogical tables to rear erudition, is therefore a sort of ‘voyage among the Arab tribes
of vol. 1. Laid-in compliments slip from the librarian at the University and their poets’” (Pouillon, Dictionnaire des orientalistes de langue
of Leicester. Extremities rubbed, tips worn, vol. 1 rear board partially française, p. 201, our translation).
cockled, section of backstrip lifting, mild cockling to both boards of
Arcadian Library 16923; Gay 3459; Macro 700.
vol. 2, and small abraded section to front; vol. 1 front free endpaper and
initial blank of tipped in, pale tide-mark extending from top edge from £1,500 [117589]

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk 43

 70

70
(CENTRAL ASIA.) Russian Missions into the Interior of
Asia. I. Nazaroff ’s Expedition to Kokand. II. Eversmann
and Jakovlew’s Account of Bucharia. III. Capt. Mouraviev’s
Embassy to Turkomania and Chiva. Translated from the
German. London: Printed for Sir Richard Phillips and Co., 1823
Octavo (210 × 125 mm). Later tan glazed boards, unlettered spine. Litho-
graphic frontispiece. A little rubbed, light browning and a scatter of
foxing.
first edition of these English versions of three important
early Central Asian narratives, published as part of Sir Richard
71
Phillips’s New Voyages and Travels series. Uncommon, just five
locations on Copac, Oxford, Glasgow, Queen’s Belfast, Senate
House, and Natural History Museum. “The Russian government able paper figures). With a dedication to Don Pietro Borgia, Prince of
has, of late years, taken various measures to give more solidity Squillace (d. c.1624), dated 1587, and an accompanying sonnet. Contem-
porary limp vellum sewn on three cords. Some waterstaining through-
to its commercial relations with the countries in the interior of
out, possibly indicating practical use. Housed in a quarter morocco
Asia . . . efforts have been made to conciliate the independent solander box.
tribes . . . [Contents include] a short extract from an account of
an expedition to Kokand, in the years 1813–14, by Philip Nazaroff unpublished illustrated handwritten manual of nav-
interpreter to the Siberian Corps . . . the account of an embassy igation in the Levant as well as in the South Seas, representing
to Bucharia in 1820–21 head of which was Mr. Negri, Counsellor the state of Italian navigational art in the second half of the
of State . . . by Dr. Eversmann, physician to the Embassy, in 16th century. This is one of the best known Italian navigational
which we have inserted several interesting extracts from the let- manuals of the period. It is probable that Cesareo composed his
ters Mr. P. l. Jakolew, secretary to the embassy . . . [and] the nar- navigational treatise before 1567 and that several manuscript
rative of a Journey to Turcomania and Chiva by Captain Moura- copies were subsequently produced, of which this is one. Al-
view” (Introduction). Nazarov’s was the first Russian embassy to though it was approved for publication by the papal authorities,
Kokand, first published in Russian in 1821; Eduard Eversmann, no printed edition is known. This is precisely the kind of manu-
a German-Russian naturalist, joined Aleksandr Negri’s embassy al that would have been in the hands of the merchant navigators
as a merchant, but carried out important scientific work, as well on whose ships the Venetian jeweller Gasparo Balbi famously
as leaving this account published as Reise Orenburg nach Buchara travelled to India and Arabia during the years 1579–88, when he
in 1823: “intrepid Murav’ev”, described by Hopkirk as the first made the first European record of Bani Yas, as well as of Abu
Russian player of the Great Game, published his report on what Dhabi and Dubai by their modern names.
is now Uzbekistan in 1822. The present copy carries a dedication to Don Pietro Borgia,
Prince of Squillace, dated 1587. Squillace is on the east coast
£575 [106587] of Calabria, southern Italy. The modern town was founded as
a Byzantine fortress during the Byzantine reconquest of Italy
71 (sixth–eighth century ce). During the tenth century it was
subject to frequent raids by the Muslims of neighbouring Sicily,
CESAREO, Agostino. L’arte del navigare, con il regimento
who made it for a short time a strong military base. After Arab
della Tramontana e del sole; e la vera regola et osservanza rule, the city fell under Norman hegemony. In 1445, it reverted
del flusso e reflusso delle acque sotto breve compendio to the Aragonese Kings of Naples but passed by marriage to
ridotta. [No place:] 1587 the infamous House of Borgia, who ruled the city as Princes of
Manuscript, quarto; 66 leaves followed by 13 leaves with additions in a Squillace from 1494 to 1735. Don Pietro was lineal descendant of
different, looser hand. 8 full-page illustrations, 4 with volvelles (mov- Gioffre Borgia (1482–1516), son of Pope Alexander VI and young-

44 Peter Harrington 133

 71

er brother of Cesare Borgia and Lucrezia Borgia. The author’s with cosmography and navigation in general, navigation by the
surname, Cesareo, is of Sicilian origin. North Star (with a particularly evocative volvelle including a tiny
A few other copies of the text are known: a copy formerly in ocean-going ship that circles the globe from pole to pole); and
the National Maritime Museum and now MS 562 at the Beinecke navigation in the southern hemisphere, by the Southern Cross
Library (72 ff.) is dedicated to Giulio Colonna and dated 1567, and the south celestial pole. Part two describes navigation by
while the British Museum holds a copy (74 ff., MS Add. 25882) the altitude of the sun (with extensive examples and tables,
with a preface and sonnet to Paolo Sforza, dated 1570. Yet anoth- including the meridians throughout the Mediterranean), fol-
er copy is kept at the Vatican (De Ricci, Census, p. 1899: with the lowed by “la regola della navigatione di Levante in ponente per
ecclesiastical censors’ imprimatur, though no printed edition is longitudine”. Part three is occupied with the action of the tides,
known) and an anonymous manuscript is in the Library of Con- including details on the various hazards of the English Channel
gress (Ms. Ac. 4325). It is noteworthy that the majority of surviv- and the Strait of Messina, and contains a sketch of the man in
ing copies are dedicated to powerful Italian noblemen. the moon, controller of tides.
The text here is divided into three parts (other manuscripts
have the same material divided into six), the first of which deals £47,500 [92124]

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk 45

 72 72

72 Dakhlah oasis, which he proposes as an alternative to the route

established by the great Egyptian explorer Hasanayn Pasha.
CHAUVIN, Léon. Études de chiffres arabes, avec des
examples et un grand tableau autographiés par l’auteur. Cheesman: Macro 709, Howgego IV C32.
Paris: Librairie Dezobry, E. Madeleine et Cie., 1845 £150 [97812]
Quarto. Original blue paper wrappers, typographic title label to the
front panel. 19 lithographed plates, 10 of them with hand-colour. A little
rubbed, some splitting at the spine, light browning, a very good copy.
74
first and only edition, uncommon, OCLC locates copies CHICK, Herbert. A Chronicle of the Carmelites in Persia,
at BnF, Oxford, Tel Aviv, University of California, Swiss National and the Papal Mission of the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries.
Library, and Kunstbibliothek – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. An London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1939
interesting study of the morphology of Arab numerals with ref- 2 volumes, quarto. Original black cloth, title gilt to spine, blind panels
erence to calligraphy, illustrated with a series of elegant propor- to boards, Portrait frontispiece and 39 other plates, folding map. Slightly
tional studies lithographed by Villain, and hand-coloured. rubbed, spines relined, hinges repaired, endpapers browned, pale ton-
ing to the text, some inked marginalia in volume I, slight tide-marks at
£350 [90010] the fore-edge of both volumes.
first edition of this important contribution to the history of
73 the region based on extensive documentation from Archivio di
CHEESMAN, Robert Ernest. “The Deserts of Jafura and Propaganda Fide and Casa Generalizia dei Carmelitani in Rome.
Jabrin”; [with] KING, William Joseph Harding. “The “In 1604 Pope Clement VIII, with the support of Sigismund III
Vasa of Poland, dispatched a mission of Discalced Carmelite
Dakhla-Owenat Road”; In The Geographical Journal, Vol.
fathers to Persia; the embassy represented the culmination of
LXV, No. 2. London: The Royal Geographical Society, Feb. 1925 a policy of seeking alliances against the Ottoman empire that
Octavo. Original blue printed wrappers. Cheesman: 2 plates from the
author’s photographs; folding colour map of routes between ‘Oqayr and
Jabrin oasis in eastern Nejd [sic] to rear of volume (1:750,000) opening
to 510 × 610 mm with similar map of Arabia inset (1:14,000,000). King:
plate from the author’s own photographs. Spine lightly creased, small
closed tear to fold-out map with no loss to; very good overall.
first editions. “Cheesman’s geographical work began in 1921
when he was placed in charge of charting the western shore of
the Gulf of Salwah which divides the peninsula of Qatar from
the mainland. In 1923–24 he spent eleven weeks at Al Hufuf,
after which he proceeded south to become the first European
to reach the remote oasis of Jabrin, fixing its precise position,
mapping large areas of surrounding desert and identifying the
site of ancient Gerra. For his work, described in his book In
Unknown Arabia, he received in 1925 the Gill memorial medal
of the Royal Geographical Society” (Howgego). Harding King
relates his attempt to reach Jabal al-‘Uwaynat, “a most useful
base for the further exploration . . . of the Libyan desert”, from 73

46 Peter Harrington 133

 74 75

had been initiated by Pius V when he had attempted to formal- first edition, uncommon. Churi claimed to have been
ize relations with Shah Tahmasb . . . they received a very warm trained at the “Congregation of Propaganda in Rome from 1842
welcome from Shah ‘Abbas I (1588–1629) and were permitted to 1849. He was subsequently in London where he taught Ara-
to settle at Isfahan in 1608. As ambassadors, they were given a bic, Latin, Italian and Hebrew”. Among his pupils was Captain
royal residence near the Meydan-e Mir, where they established William Peel, third son of Sir Robert Peel, who had been plan-
a handsome monastery. For many years it sheltered a varying ning an expedition into the interior of Africa, and “proposed to
number of fathers from a wide range of national backgrounds. Churi that they should make a short tour to Egypt, Mount Sinai,
In 1752 the last Carmelite departed, only a short interval after Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Syria. They left England on 20 Octo-
the death of Philippe-Marie de St-Augustin, bishop of Isfahan, ber, and were back by 20 February 1851. On 20 August following
in 1749 . . . The primary importance of the Carmelites in Persia they left on the longer and more serious journey. They went up
was as witnesses to history; they were observers of political and the Nile, across the desert to Khartoum, and on to al-‘Ubayd,
social events through the reigns of ‘Abbas I and Safi I (1629–42), where they suffered a severe attack of fever and ague. Peel re-
the fall of the Safavids, and the subsequent period of troubles. In turned to England early in January” (ODNB). Both men wrote
addition, as great travelers, the Carmelite missionaries were of- accounts of their experiences during this second trip, Peel as A
ten reassigned to new posts and covered hundreds of kilometers Ride through the Nubian Desert (1852) and Churi the present work.
in order to join their provincial chapters” (Encyclopaedia Iranica). Not in Gay; Ibrahim-Hilmy I, 135, misspelled as “Chusi”.
The Chronicle was described on its recent reissue as “an unparal-
leled source of detailed information on the politics, diplomatic £1,500 [97449]
rituals, foreign policy concerns and matters of court ceremony
of the time”.
Not in Wilson.

£3,000 [95110]

75
CHURI, Joseph H. Sea Nile, the Desert, and Nigritia:
Travels in Company with Captain Peel, R.N. 1851–1852
. . . With Thirteen Arabic Songs, as Sung by the Egyptian
Sailors on the Nile. London: published by the Author, 1853
Octavo. Original brown cloth, title gilt to spine, elaborate panels with
large palmette corner-pieces in blind to boards, cream surface-paper
endpapers. Wood-engraved frontispiece of the homra tree. A little
rubbed on the boards, spine sunned and professionally repaired, joints
skilfully restored, contents lightly toned. A very good copy.
75

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk 47

 76

76
CLARK, Christopher (illus.) In the Land of the Shah –
Being a Series of Announcements Issued by the British
Petroleum Co. Ltd. from Britannic House, Moorgate, 77
London E.C. 2. London: British Petroleum Co. Ltd, Distributing
Organisation of the Anglo Persian Oil Co. Ltd, [1925] “Transporting Pipe Line in Persia”, on mule back, “150 Miles of
Folio (440 × 298 mm). Original buff light card wrappers, printed in Pipe Lines” – via picturesque travelogue – “Ferry-Boats of the
black, yapp edges. 12 finely-printed monochrome lithographic plates Tigris”, pitch waterproofed gufas, “A Persian Wedding”, as de-
(c.155 × 200 mm), imposed within a “plate-mark” above descriptive text.
Staples a touch rusted, a few minor splits to the edges of the wrappers, a
scribed by Sir Percy Sykes, “A Land of Leisurely Travel”, a heavily
scatter of foxing throughout, but overall very good indeed. laden camel caravan. The evocative artwork is by Christopher
Clark, a British commercial artist-illustrator best remembered
first and only edition, extremely uncommon, no other
for his work for British Railways, which often featured scenes of
copies traced either institutionally or commercially. Evidently
British pageantry. This is a fascinating early piece of promotion-
these “announcements” were in fact rather grand advertise-
al literature for the burgeoning oil industry, with a sheet of Brit-
ments for BP, which were gathered together and presented even
ish Petroleum Company stationery with roneoed compliments
more grandly still. Publication was noted at the time in the
message loosely inserted.
“Wheels of Industry” column of The Commercial Motor, the jour-
nal of the commercial vehicle industry: “An extremely beautiful £1,750 [103822]
production entitled ‘In the Land of the Shah’ has been issued
by the British Petroleum Co., Ltd. which is the distributing or- The foundation of all our knowledge of Islamic Spain
ganisation of the Anglo-Persian Oil Co., Ltd. The publication
forms a portfolio of some of the company’s announcements 77
which have appeared in the Press, but that Statement by no CONDÉ, J. A. History of the Dominion of the Arabs in
means does justice to it, for the ‘announcements’ take the form Spain. Translated from the Spanish by Mrs Jonathan
of delightful drawings of Eastern life, commerce, and customs
Foster. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1854–5
by Christopher Clark, R.I., and they are reproduced on special
3 volumes, octavo (174 × 109 mm). Contemporary half calf, red and
paper, so that the impression given is almost that of steel en-
green labels, low gilt milled bands, floral centre-tools, stylized foliate
gravings. Each drawing is accompanied by some interesting corner-pieces, marbled boards, edges and endpapers. Steel-engraved
text. The portfolio is one of those productions that most men frontispiece to volume I. A little rubbed, small gold inked pressmarks to
will take home. We believe that a copy will be sent to any reader the tails of the spines, light browning, but overall a very good set.
who mentions The Commercial Motor” (The Commercial Motor, 17
first edition in english, first published Madrid 1820–1;
Nov. 1925).
far from common in the market. Condé was the director of the
The images range from the ancient historical – “A Temple of
library of the Escorial. His work is “characterized by a strong
the Fire Worshippers”, “The Glories of Ancient Persia”, “The
sympathy for Arab culture. For the first time a complete survey,
Tomb of Khusru Pharviz” – to the contemporary industrial –

48 Peter Harrington 133

 78 78

based on Arab sources, was provided of the history of Islamic a) BRUCKS, G. B. “Draft Chapters for an unpublished Account
Spain from 711 to 1492, and a framework was established which of the Survey of the Persian Gulf ”, c.1835 (British Library:
has been followed ever since” (Hamilton, p. 271). Add MS 14382);
With the bookplates of Catholic scholar Joseph M. Gleason
b) MAUGHAN, Philip. “Plan for conducting the Survey of
to the front pastedowns, and his pencilled critique at the begin-
the South Coast of the Persian Gulf ”, 16 August 1821 (IOR:
ning of the text of volume I: “It has become the fashion to decry
F/4/676, collection 18677);
this work in our times, but most of the criticism is parrot-like.
Yet Gayangos [Spanish Arabist Pascual de Gayangos y Arce, au- c) HOUGHTON, M. “Account of Part of the Southern Coast or
thor of The History of the Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain] calls it the Arabian Side of the Persian Gulf between Ras Musandam
foundation of all our knowledge of Moslem Spain”. and Dubai”, 1822 (IOR: X/10309). Facsimile of the original
Hamilton, Arcadian Library 9214 manuscript followed by a transcript.
d) BRUCKS, G. B. “Memoir descriptive of the Navigation of
£1,750 [95147]
the Gulf of Persia”, c.1830; from Selections from the Records of the
Bombay Government, NS, vol. XXIV, Bombay 1856, pp. 531–634;
78
e) “Sailing Directions for the Gulf ”, 1836; from James Hors-
COOK, Andrew S (ed.) Survey of the Shores and Islands
burgh, India Directory, or Directions for Sailing to and from East
of the Persian Gulf 1820–1829. Prepared for publication Indies (London 1836), Vol. 1, pp. 305–77;
and with an introduction. [London:] Archive Editions, 1990
5 volumes, octavo, comprising one volume of text and 55 folding charts, f ) WHITELOCK, H. H. “Descriptive Sketch of the Islands
maps and tables in four book-form boxes. Publisher’s boards, spines and Coast situated at the Entrance of the Persian Gulf ”;
ruled and lettered gilt. Folding map in volume I, with 55 folding maps from Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, Vol. 8, 1838, pp.
and charts. In excellent condition. 170–188;
first edition of this important assemblage of texts and g) WHITELOCK, H. H. “An Account of the Arabs who inhabit
charts, reproduced from original material in the India Office the Coast between Ras-el Kheimah and Abothubee [Abu
Library and Records, London and in the Department of Manu- Dhabi] in the Gulf of Persia, generally called the Pirate
scripts, the British Library. “This is a publication of sea charts, Coast”; from Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society,
harbour plans, coastal views and topographical descriptions vol. 1, 1836–8, pp. 32–54.
produced during the survey of the shores and islands of the
Persian Gulf carried out between 1820 and 1829 by officers of £2,250 [92989]
the Bombay Marine on the orders of the Bombay Government.
Despite the long time that Europeans had sailed in the Gulf, the
1820s survey was the first systematic examination of its coastal
topography” (Introduction). Cook here reproduces seven arti-
cles, drawn from manuscripts and printed sources held in Brit-
ish institutions. The articles are:

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk 49

 79

79
CORYATE, Thomas. Coryat’s Crudities: Reprinted from
the Edition of 1611. To which are now added, His Letters
from India, &c. and extracts relating to him, From
Various Authors: being A more particular Account of his
Travels (mostly on Foot) in different Parts of the Globe,
than any hitherto published. Together with his Orations,
Character, Death, &c. With Copper-Plates. London: W.
Cater; Samuel Hayes; J. Wilkie; and E. Easton at Salisbury, 1776
3 volumes, octavo (200 × 120 mm). Nineteenth-century polished calf,
contrast labels, spine gilt in compartments, double-ruled panel with
floral corner-pieces to boards, plain single line edge-roll, marbled edges
and endpapers, milled roll to the turn-ins. 8 engraved plates copied from
17th-century blocks, engraved illustrations within text. Contemporary
armorial bookplate and early ownership inscription of H. C. Morewood to
first volume; later plates of Hardress Llewellyn Lloyd in all three. Joints,
headcaps and one tear to side very skilfully repaired, an excellent set.
first collected edition of the writings of Thomas Coryate
(1577?–1617). The Crudities, describing his tour from London to
Venice and back, is his best known work, with many points of
historical interest, including his admirable rendering of the sto-
ry of William Tell (cited as the earliest in English); it is also re- 79

50 Peter Harrington 133

 81

membered for the prefatory mock-panegyric verses by the most ken” (Elizabeth Cotton, General Sir Arthur Cotton, His Life and Work,
illustrious authors of the day, including Jonson, Chapman, Don- p. 522). Uncommon: ten locations on OCLC and only two in the
ne, Campion, Harington, and Drayton. The whole apparatus UK – British Library and Oxford.
of the book, including these verses, the plates and the original
spelling, is reproduced here. Coryate then set out on a second £300 [99992]
tour to Constantinople, visited Aleppo whence he walked to
the Holy Land and back (sending notes home which were first The history of Constantinople, in fine blue morocco for the Duke
published in Purchas his Pilgrimes, 1625), and then achieved the re- of Abercorn
markable feat of walking from Jerusalem to India. After further
wanderings within India, including a period living at the court
81
of the Great Moghul, he died at or near Surat in Gujarat. COUSIN, Louis. Histoire de Constantinople depuis
Howgego, I, C198.
le regne de l’ancien Justin, jusqu’à la fin de l’Empire.
Traduite sur les Originaux Grecs . . . Dediée a
£1,850 [75476] Monseigneur de Pompone Secretaire d’Estat. Paris: in the
shop of Pierre Rocolet, for Damien Foucault, 1672–4
80 8 volumes, quarto (238 180 mm). Near-contemporary dark blue moroc-
COTTON, Sir Arthur. Arabic Primer: Consisting of 180 co, covers with triple fillet border in blind, spines in six compartments
with raised bands, lettered in gilt in second and third compartments,
Short Sentences containing 30 Primary Words, prepared
gilt turn-ins and board-edges, marbled endpapers, edges gilt over old
according to the Vocal System of Studying Languages. marbling. Shelf-marks and ownership inscriptions of the Duke of Aber-
London: Trübner and Co., 1876 corn to front free endpapers. Spines lightly sunned, a fine set.
Octavo. Original blue cloth, title gilt to front board, blind panels to both first edition, a fine set of this abridged French translation of
boards, yellow surface-paper endpapers. Very lightly rubbed, pale ton- the Greek Corpus Byzantinae Historiae, by the French scholar Louis
ing, occasional annotations in pencil. A very good copy.
Cousin (1627–1707). The work was a significant influence on
first and only edition. Cotton (1803–99) was a soldier and Thomas Jefferson (his copy of the 1685 edition is in the Library of
engineer best remembered for his work on irrigation in south- Congress), who excerpted material from Cousin’s translation for
ern India. Retiring to Dorking with the rank of general, “he in- his own Notes on Religion, as part of his campaign for religious free-
vited an Arabic student, who could speak some English, to stay dom for the State of Virginia and the United States as a whole.
with him for several weeks . . . he spent hours every day in going
Cf. Atabey 295 (incomplete later edition); Brunet II 340.
through sentences of the languages, word by word . . . working
out the new Primer, which was to meet the needs of missionaries £4,500 [29307]
in Persia and Armenia, and other countries where Arabic is spo-

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk 51

 82 83

82 83
CUREAU DE LA CHAMBRE, Marin. Discours sur les CURZON, George Nathaniel. Persia and the Persian
causes du débordement du Nil. Paris: Jacques Dallin, 1665 Question. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1892
Quarto (252 × 183 mm). Contemporary full calf, raised bands to spine, 2 volumes, octavo. Original green cloth, title gilt to spine, blind frame
compartments gilt with floral lozenges within double ruled panels, to covers, Persian Lion and Sun gilt to front, black surface-paper end-
presentation gilt stamp to the front board, “Aux Capuchins de St. papers. 43 plates, numerous illustrations to the text, large folding
Honoré”. Engraved map of the topography of the Nile to the text, title linen-backed map at rear of volume I, 9 full-page maps in all. From the
page vignette, historiated initials, engraved head- and tailpieces. Light library of British Arabist and colonial agent Col. S. B. Miles (1838–1914),
browning, a little rubbed on the boards and chafed on the joints, but a with printed bookplates noting his widow’s bequest of the collection to
very good copy. Bath Public Library in 1920, and associated manuscript shelf-marks and
blind-stamps as usual; bookseller’s inkstamp of Combridge & Co., Bom-
first edition, for the first time published separately, previous-
bay, to the verso of front free endpapers. Extremities lightly rubbed and
ly included in his Pensées of 1634 and 1662; uncommon, just six bumped, a few superficial scuffs to covers, vol. 2 with a few pale mark-
copies on OCLC, three of them in the US. Cureau was Louis XIV’s ings to rear, and the rear inner hinge superficially cracked as a result of
doctor, the monarch apparently having been impressed by his the folding map, but firm, contents toned. A very good copy.
ability to judge character from outward appearance. A precursor
first edition of Curzon’s “magnum opus . . . By any standard
of Lavater, Cureau’s was indeed best known for his work in the
these two volumes, totaling some 1,300 pages, are a remarkable
area of physiognomy, but he also published on physics – the na-
achievement, the more so as Curzon knew no Persian and spent
ture of light, on rainbows – the occult, and philosophy, the final
paper here being a study of the divine in Platonic philosophy. The
critic Jean Chapelain, his contemporary, said of him: “C’est un
excellent philosophe, et dont les écrits sont purs dans le langage,
justes dans le dessein, soutenus dans les ornements, et subtils
dans les raisonnements.”
This could perhaps be a presentation copy, as in addition to
the gilt supralibros there is an inked inscripton, “Pour les Ca-
pucins de St. Honoré” to the title page. The Capuchin convent
adjoined the Tuileries gardens. The Blackmer copy with book-
plate to front pastedown.
Blackmer Catalogue 171; Ibrahim-Hilmy p. 351.

£4,000 [41178]

83

52 Peter Harrington 133

 84

only a short time in the country, of which he saw only a small 84

section. To prepare himself, he first read, either in the original
CURZON, Robert. Visits to the Monasteries in the
or in translation, virtually everything that had been written
about Persia in the West . . . The two profusely illustrated vol-
Levant. London: John Murray, 1849
umes embrace almost the whole of Persia, describing in fasci- Octavo. Later 19th-century green half calf, raised bands, compartments
lettered or decorated in gilt, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt, marbled
nating and profound detail its history, antiquities, institutions,
endpapers. Wood-engraved frontispiece, 15 similar plates including
administration, finances, natural resources, commerce, and one folding plan. From the library of British Arabist and colonial agent
topography with a thoroughness no single writer has achieved Col. S. B. Miles (1838–1914), with printed bookplate noting his widow’s
before or since. As a critical account of Qajar Persia, the work is bequest of the collection to Bath Public Library in 1920, and associated
unsurpassed” (Ency. Iran.) manuscript shelf-marks and blind-stamps as usual; bookseller’s ticket
“The period of Curzon’s great travels began in August 1887 of H. Cleaver, Bath, to front pastedown. Spine faded, free endpapers and
with a journey round the world followed by a visit to Russia and binder’s blanks browned, small ink-spot to fore edge, contents toned. A
central Asia in 1888–9, a long tour of Persia in 1889–90, an ex- very good copy.
pedition to the Far East in 1892, and a daring foray through the first edition, publisher’s presentation copy, “With the
Pamir to Afghanistan in 1894. A bold and compulsive traveller, publisher’s compliments” inscribed on the title page. “In 1833
fascinated by oriental life and geography, he was awarded the [Curzon] began those travels which have made his name re-
gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society for his exploration nowned. Setting out with his close friend Walter Sneyd, Curzon
of the source of the Oxus. Yet the main purpose of his journeys travelled through Europe before visiting, with George Joseph
was political: they formed part of a vast and comprehensive Palmer, Egypt and the Holy Land in 1833–4, on a tour of research
project to study the problems of Asia and their implications for among the monastery libraries, gathering many valuable manu-
British India. At the same time they reinforced his pride in his scripts. He returned to England in 1834, before setting out on a
nation and her imperial mission” (ODNB). His account of Persia, second tour in 1837–8, when he visited Mount Athos and bought
which he began shortly after his return to London and was ready five manuscripts from several monasteries there, before making
for the press two years later, helped establish his reputation as further purchases in Egypt. His experiences are recorded in his
“his country’s most knowledgeable politician on Asiatic affairs” Visit to the Monasteries in the Levant (1849). It immediately gained
(ibid.) popularity, running to six editions by 1881” (ODNB). “A valuable
and entertaining account . . . The plates . . . are after drawings
Ghani 87.
by Preziosi in the so-called Curzon Album commissioned by
£2,000 [117591] Curzon while he was resident in Turkey” (Atabey).
Atabey 301; Blackmer 436; Weber 415.

£750 [117592]

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk 53

 85 85

85 Dalrymple (1737–1808) first travelled east as a writer to the East

India Company, undertaking a number of reconnaissance voyages
DALRYMPLE, [Alexander.] Oriental Repertory. London:
across the region and, aged just 22, concluding a treaty with the
printed by George Bigg: sold by P. Elmsly, and Mr. Chapman, Sultan of Sulu for a grant of land at Balambangan, an island off
1791–[7] Borneo. In 1763 he returned to London and worked to promote
2 volumes, folio (315 × 233 mm), in 8 parts. Recent mottled calf to style, eastern trade and Pacific exploration, notably refusing to serve
smooth spines richly gilt in compartments, twin red and green morocco under a sea officer on the Transit of Venus expedition, and was
labels, decorative rolled borders gilt to covers, marbled endpapers. 22
consequently passed over in favour of James Cook.
engraved maps and plans, 13 of them folding, 7 engraved plates, 3 of
them folding, 3 double-sided folding letterpress tables. Blind-stamp of
In 1775 he rejoined the HEIC, for whom he “began to produce
the James B. Ford Library, Explorers’ Club, to title pages, vol. 1 sig. 6G2 a series of charts, navigational memoirs and coastal views for
and vol. 2 sig. 4H2. Lacking section titles, vol. 2 general title and index the East Indies navigation, from the Mozambique Channel to
leaves as usual (possibly never issued, see below); title leaf of the Plan China” (ODNB) based on an examination of the logs and journals
of Publication (the one-leaf prospectus found after the volume 1 title) in the Company’s archive, issuing almost 550 plans and 45 views
bound to front of volume 2 as often: “Introduction to the first number between 1779 and 1794. He was appointed hydrographer to the
of the Oriental Repertory Vol. II” bound after “Introduction to the third Admiralty in 1795, tasked with consolidating their collection of
number . . . ”. Vol. 1: small hole to lower outer corner of vol. 1 sig. 3N,
charts and plans, and died shortly after his acrimonious dismissal
the text unaffected; p. 375 slightly marked in fore margin, sig. 5Y2 very
lightly spotted, tape-repair to lower outer corner verso of the second
in 1808. Though largely remembered today for his disputes with
map of Colonel Upton’s Route from Poona to Bengal, facing p. 498, just the HEIC and Admiralty, he “led a life exemplifying service to his
touching border, small hole to fore margin of the Plan of Cannanore country during the age of Enlightenment. His influential role in
facing p. 578, not affecting image. Vol. 2: pp. 61, 449 and 561 lightly Britain’s maritime history makes him an outstanding historical
marked, a few gatherings slightly browned. Otherwise a few trivial figure” (NMS cataloguing of his portrait).
marks only. An excellent copy, internally very crisp and fresh indeed. Even with the founding of the Asiatick Miscellany by Francis
first edition, first issue, large-paper copy, from the Gladwin in 1785, and the publication of Asiatick Researches by the
stated print-run of 250 copies only, of this valuable compilation of Asiatic Society of Bengal, Dalrymple was clearly confident, on the
researches into the history, culture, topography, commerce and basis of his considerable experience and connections in the area,
natural history of the East Indies, consisting mostly of reports, that there was still a niche in the market. Botanist William Rox-
charts and translation produced by agents of the East India Compa- burgh offered papers on the cultivation of pepper in Travancore
ny, including Dalrymple himself, nearly all previously unpublished, and a description of the indigo tree for the first number; James
and which together reflect the rapid expansion of British influence Rennell submitted a map of the Ava River; and Charles Wilkins
in India, Burma, Cochinchina and China during the second half permitted the first publication of a portion of his translation of
of the 18th century. Copies of this bibliographically complex part- the Mahabharata to appear in the second volume. Other important
work are to be found at the expected institutions in various states of material, much of which Dalrymple appears to have obtained
completeness, but in commerce we trace only two first-issue copies through his own researches, include one Captain George Baker’s
containing all text and plates (both lacking the volume II general account of his embassy to Persaim (now Pathein, Burma) in 1755,
title as here) and one such copy of the 1808 re-issue (see below). “Ensign Lester’s Embassy to the King of Ava, 1757” and the text

54 Peter Harrington 133

 86

86

of the ensuing treaty, a 1753 report on tea-growing in Canton by

Frederick Pigot (probably a relative of George, twice president
of the Company), and all manner of further reports, either unat-
tributed or by various lesser-known HEIC agents, on the Hindu
caste system, Tipu Sultan, the Nair princes of the Malabar coast,
“Some account of Cohin-China, by Mr. Robert Kirsop”, cities such
Jaipur and Agra, imports and exports to and from Macao, Canton,
and Japan, and similar subjects.
Despite the evident importance of its contents, publication of
the journal was patchy. The first volume comprised four numbers
published at irregular intervals between 1791 and 1793; the sec-
ond of a further four, two issued in 1794, another in 1795 and the 86
fourth in 1797, when Dalrymple’s stamina seems to have failed in
the face increasing pressure of work from the Admiralty, to which Fine views in Jerusalem and the Middle East
he had been appointed chief hydrographer in 1795. A ninth part
was mooted, to include the index for the second volume, but it 86
was not issued until 1808, when the remaining sheets were bound DAPPER, Olfert. Naukeurige beschryving van gantsch
up with new title pages. The British Library sets are both made Syrie, en Palestyn of Heilige Lant. Amsterdam: Jacob van
up with volumes from the later issue. Dalrymple explains in his
Meurs, 1677
introduction to the first number that 100 of the 250 copies printed
Folio, in two parts. Contemporary mottled calf neatly rebacked, two-line
were to be held by the East India Company against a contribution
gilt border to edges, all edges speckled red. First title page printed in
of £200, 50 were for presentation to contributors, and 100 for sale, red and black, with engraved allegorical title, 8 maps, 30 plates (mainly
before adding that “of the early number I shall print 500 copies, double-page) and 34 plates in the text. Text printed in double-columns.
250 being at my own charge” should demand exceed 100 copies, A very good copy: clean, sound, with excellent impressions of the plates,
though his general introduction for the first volume as a whole, and complete with the Directions to the Binder.
issued on completion of the constituent four numbers, explains first edition. Dr Olfert Dapper (1636–1688), physician, geo-
that the HEIC only took 64 copies, leaving him short of funds. He graphical and historical scholar, was the author of a series of
appears never to have issued the promised index leaves for the works dealing with Africa, America and Asia; these were all pub-
second volume. In his general introduction to the first volume, lished in handsome folio format and are best known for their
Dalrymple qualifies his frustration with the “retrospective satis- fine double-page or folding views and panoramas. The extensive
faction of having . . . preserved many papers, which would other- panorama of Jerusalem in the present work had also been used
wise, probably for ever, have been lost to the world”. in Dapper’s book on Asia (Amsterdam 1672). There are fine
Goldsmiths’–Kress 15633.1. views of Damascus, Tripoli, Aleppo, Jaffa, Rama, the Temple of
Solomon, and a birds-eye view of Jerusalem (trimmed at sides).
£19,500 [115902]
£3,500 [13125]

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk 55

 87

the engravings, which ranged beyond the geographical interest

served by maps and views. Clothing, eating habits, religious be-
liefs, court ceremonies, and judicial practices were all subjects
discussed by travellers and missionaries in letters and travel
books and were reproduced by Dapper. The plates (which are
excellent strong impressions) include superb views of Baghdad,
Abydos, Ephesus, Smyrna, Magnesia, Muscat, and Mecca. Among
the half-plates are attractive botanical subjects, including the cof-
fee tree (p. 62 in the second part). The Atabey Library copy counts
16 plates but one of these is an additional botanical plate not
called-for in the collation.
87
Arcadian Library 8342; Atabey 322; this edition not in Blackmer; Macro
805.
87
DAPPER, Olfert. Naukeurige Beschryving van Asie: £6,000 [100075]
behelsende de Gewesten van Mesopotamie, Babylonie,
Assyrie, Anatolie, of Klein Asie: beneffens eene volkome 88
Beschrijving van gansch Gellukigh, Woest, en Petreesch DAUMAS, Eugène. The Horses of the Sahara, and the
of Steenigh Arabie. Amsterdam: Jacob van Meurs, 1680 Manners of the Desert. With commentaries by the Emir
2 parts bound in 1, folio (317 × 194 mm). Contemporary vellum, title inked Abd-El-Kader. Translated from the French by James
on spine, three-line blind tooled border on sides enclosing a large ara- Hutton. London: Wm. H. Allen & Co., 1863
besque blind stamp, red speckled edges. Letterpress title printed in red and Octavo. Original green pebble-grain cloth, gilt lettered spine, large pic-
black; engraved pictorial title, 12 double-page engraved view (2 also fold- torial gilt block on front cover, brown endpapers. Internal hinges neatly
ing), 3 double-page maps, 22 half-page plates. Bookplate of Heyse-Tak; front strengthened, spine a little rolled. A very good copy.
board has “sprung”, 19th-century repair to fore edge of engraved title. An
attractive copy in a contemporary binding. first edition in english of this scarce classic work on Arab
equitation, first published Paris, 1851; it is particularly uncom-
first edition of Dapper’s Asia Minor and Mesopotamia; a German
mon in the original cloth. Eugène Daumas (1803–1871) served
edition followed in 1681. In common with many of his contem-
for some 15 years in Algeria, he was made head of the North Af-
poraries such as John Ogilby, the Dutch physician Olfert Dapper
rica, Bureaux Arabes; became a personal friend of Abd-el-Kader,
(1639–1689) never travelled to visit the lands he wrote about,
the emir of Mascara, and was widely recognised as the French
instead compiling extant translations and other eye-witness ac-
Army’s leading expert on Arab culture. When he returned to
counts to produce lavish and encyclopaedic books for the north-
France in 1850 he was made director of Algerian affairs in the
ern European readership. His and others work thus both reflected
Ministry of War.
and directed growing public interest in distant places and foreign
peoples. Dapper was meticulous in using hundreds of published Podeschi, Books on the Horse and Horsemanship, 202.
sources and several unpublished ones for each of his books; he
did not lift whole passages from one book, but often based a sin-
£1,250 [99886]
gle paragraph on two or three different sources. In this sense his
work is indispensible to modern scholarship, as it reflects manu-
script sources that have since been lost.
Central to the contemporary appeal of Dapper’s works were

56 Peter Harrington 133

 88 89

89 Arabist and colonial agent Col. S. B. Miles (1838–1914), with printed book-
plate of Bath Municipal Reference Library to the front free endpaper and
DE CHAIR, Somerset. The Golden Carpet; The Silver associated manuscript shelf-marks and blind-stamps as usual. Small hole
Crescent. Published by Permission of the War Office. to series title, the text unaffected, light toning, a very good copy.
London: The Golden Cockerel Press, 1943 second edition, revised and greatly expanded, of de Goeje’s
2 volumes, quarto. Full green and full blue morocco by Sangorski & important study of the Qaramitah (Carmathians), a syncretic
Sutcliffe, titles gilt to spines, gilt edge-roll, single fillet gilt to the turn- Shi’ite sect which revolted against the ‘Abbasid Caliphate from
ins, top edges gilt, the others uncut. Each in the white linen slipcase as their Bahraini stronghold in the ninth century ce. It was origi-
issued. Photogravure portrait frontispiece to each and numerous similar
nally published in 1862 as the first volume of his four-part essay
illustrations to the text of the second, the majority full-page, maps to
the endpapers. Spine sunned as usual, narrow strip of tan-burn from the
series, Mémoires d’histoire et de géographie orientales; this iteration,
turn-ins to the free endpapers, slightly later gift inscriptions to both, but at some 232 pages, is almost twice the length of that edition. De
overall very good. Goeje’s Mémoires was his principal work resulting from original
research, as he is mainly remembered for preparing editions of
first editions, each in a signed edition limited of
Arabic texts. Here he prints the Arabic texts of important sourc-
300 copies of which just 30 were in the full binding
es including Ibn al-Jawzi and Ibn Durayd, which he read in man-
as here, copies 16 and 25 respectively. De Chair was Intelligence
uscript. Well-held in libraries, but rare in commerce, with no
Officer with “Kingcol”, a Flying Column of less than 1,500 men
copies listed in auction records (and none of the first edition).
under the Command of Brig.-Gen. Kingstone. This tiny force
was sent from Palestine to Baghdad to deal with the effects £750 [117603]
of the “Golden Square” coup amongst pro-Nazi Iraqi military
officers. Despite the air support extended to the Iraqis by the
German and Italian air forces, the operation was a complete
success, Baghdad falling on 30 May 1941; the books cover this
and subsequent operations in Syria. The books were reviewed in
the Spectator on the issue of the composite trade edition in 1944
as “a fascinating and well-told story . . . in the tradition of T. E.
Lawrence, and one worthy to take its place in the history of Brit-
ish soldiers’ heroic campaigns in the Near East”.
£1,500 [105498]

90
DE GOEJE, Michael Jan. Mémoire sur les Carmathes du
Bahraïn et les Fatimides. Leiden: E. J. Brill 1886
Octavo. Modern blue-green library buckram, gilt-lettered spine,
red-sprinkled edges, linen inner hinges. From the collection of British 90

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk 57

 91 92

91 92
DENHAM, Dixon, & Hugh Clapperton. Narrative of DE WINDT, Harry. A Ride to India. Across Persia and
Travels and Discoveries in Northern and Central Africa, Baluchistan. London: Chapman and Hall, Limited, 1891
in the Years 1822, 1823, and 1824 . . . extending across the Octavo. Original light blue cloth, spine lettered in silver, fire-dancer
Great Desert to the Tenth Degree of Northern Latitude, vignette to front board in black and copper, fore and bottom edges
untrimmed. Frontispiece, 11 plates and 10 illustrations to the text, all
and from Kouka in Bornou, to Sackatoo, the Capital of
by Herbert Walker after the author, and a folding area map to the rear.
the Fellatah Empire. With an Appendix . . . London: John Ownership inscription dated 1924 to front free endpaper, later book-
Murray, 1826 plate completed in manuscript to front pastedown. Spine gently rolled,
Quarto (266 × 213 mm). Contemporary calf, black morocco label to tips and spine-ends very lightly rubbed, front board faintly sunned
spine, flat bands with foliate decoration, gilt, triple fillet gilt panels to along top edge, short (25 mm) closed tear to map at fold costing one let-
compartments, and to boards with small floral corner-pieces, marbled ter, internally clean. An excellent copy with bright plates.
edges and endpapers, turn-ins milled in blind. Engraved frontispiece first edition. In 1889 De Windt rode on horseback from Tbili-
and 36 other plates and plans, one of them a hand-coloured aquatint, 6 si to Bombay, travelling through Baku, Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz,
vignettes to the text, folding map at the rear. A little rubbed, and with
Bushire, Baluchistan and Quetta. He served as aide-de-camp to
some stripping from the front board, some light browning throughout
and offsetting from the plates, a very good copy.
his brother-in-law Charles Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak, from 1876
to 1878, and also travelled widely across Russia, including a jour-
first edition of this account of the rather contentious expe- ney to Western Siberia in 1890 to inspect the region’s prisons.
dition to trace the source of the Niger. Relations between Dixon Scarce in this condition.
and Clapperton were not of the best. They “quarrelled bitterly”,
with “Denham secretly sending home malicious reports accus- Wilson, Bibliography of Persia, p. 246
ing him of having homosexual relations with an Arab servant £475 [110077]
– reports he had later to admit he had never believed” (ODNB).
However, despite failure in their primary aim, the expedition
did open up much of north central Africa to European knowl-
93
edge. Shortly after their return Clapperton resumed the his DIBA, Layla S., & Maryam Ekhtiar (eds.) Royal Persian
Niger quest, dying of dysentery at Sokoto in 1827, leaving Den- Paintings. The Qajar Epoch, 1785–1925. New York: I. B. Tauris
ham to be “fêted in London as the hero of the expedition” and Publishers in association with Brooklyn Museum of Art, 1999
to publish the present account in which he suppressed as much Folio. Original black boards, spine lettered in gilt, black endpapers.
as possible all mention of his companions. “Written in a lively With the dust jacket. Photographs throughout, black and white and in
style, and embellished with engravings of his own sketches, it colour. Spine very gently rolled. An excellent copy in the dust jacket.
became one of the classics of its genre”. first edition of this illustrated collection of essays produced
Howgego, C33; Lowndes I, p. 629. to accompany the exhibition of the same name at the Brooklyn
Museum of Art in 1999.
£1,250 [87084]
£150 [110836]

58 Peter Harrington 133

 94

94 95

94 by another Bengal Artillery officer, Lieutenant D. C. Vanrenen.

A fascinating and remarkably detailed account of British public
DIXON, Charles George. Sketch of Mairwara; giving
works in India.
a brief account of the origin and habits of the Mairs;
their subjugation by a British force; their civilisation, Abbey, Travel, 475.
and conversion into an industrious peasantry; with £2,500 [110460]
descriptions of various works of irrigation in Mairwara
and Ajmeer, constructed to facilitate the operations of 95
agriculture, and guard the districts against drought and
DOMBAY, Franz Lorenz von. Grammatica linguae
famine. London: Smith, Elder, and Co., 1850
mauro-arabicae juxta vernaculi idiomatic usum. Accessit
Quarto. Original green cloth neatly rebacked with green morocco, orna-
mental blind stamping on sides, gilt lettered on the front cover, yellow
vocabularium latino-mauro-arabicum. Vienna: at the shop
coated endpapers. 9 tinted lithograph plates (of which 8 are views), 19 of Camesina, 1800
detailed maps and plans of irrigation systems, large folding coloured Quarto. Later cloth-backed marbled boards, title gilt to spine, marbled
map of the region printed on linen, 3 wood engravings in the text. Con- endpapers. Engraved headpiece to the preface, engraved folding table
temporary ownership on front pastedown (dated 1851). Covers patchily at the rear. A little rubbed, small paper press-mark labels to spine and
faded, some wear to corners, light marginal dampstaining to plates front board, light browning and some mild spotting, a few neat pen-
(more noticeable on plate 13), nevertheless a clean, tall copy. cilled annotations in German and Arabic to the vocabularies, else very
first edition of this important record of the extensive ir- good.
rigation system established in the Ajmer-Merwara region of first edition of the first study of the dialect of the Maghreb,
south western Rajasthan; scarce, “according to the English considered by Johann Fück to be the “first scientific contribu-
Catalogue, the work was privately printed, and Smith, Elder may tion to the scientific study of Arab dialects”. Dombay (1756–
therefore only have published it on Dixon’s behalf ” (Abbey). 1810), an Austrian born at Vienna, studied oriental languages
Dixon (d. 1857) was a lieutenant-colonel in the Bengal Artillery at the Maria-Theresa College before being sent to Morocco as
and superintendent of Ajmer-Merwara (part of North-Western an interpreter, subsequently serving in Madrid and Zagreb. He
Provinces) and oversaw the creation of the irrigation system finished his career as a councillor of the secret chancellery and
outlined in this book. Marwar lies partly in the Thar Desert. As interpreter to the Emperor’s court.
mentioned on the title page, the British had intervened in 1839 Brunet II, 800; Chauvin, I, p. LXIV; Gay 3386; Schnurrer 139.
to quell an insurrection. The attractive tinted lithograph views
are largely the work of William Gauci, after Lieutenants Burgess £1,250 [96768]
and Herbert; Gauci, of Maltese extraction, came from a family
of distinguished lithographers working in London. The map is

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk 59

 97 98

96 origins of the Arabic script, a hypothesis for which “Doughty’s

book remains an invaluable mine of source material. [He] had the
DOMBAY, Franz Lorenz von. Grammatica linguae persicae.
advantages of a slow pace, almost unlimited time, an amazingly
Accedunt dialogi, historiae, sententiae, et narrationes observant eye, and, perhaps most of all, the compulsion to record
persicae. Vienna: at the shop of Albert Camesina, 1804 without omissions every fact observed” (Tabachnick, ed., Explora-
Quarto (258 × 205 mm). Contemporary dark red half morocco, tions in Doughty’s Arabia Deserta, p. 17).
comb-marbled sides, spine separated into compartments by single A preliminary report of Doughty’s observations appeared in the
rules gilt, paper label with manuscript title over third and fourth, black
periodical Globus, in German translation, in 1881. He first met the
morocco label to centre of front board with titles enclosed by foliate roll
and triple rules gilt. Later bookseller’s ticket to front pastedown. Slight-
great French orientalist and writer Ernest Renan early in 1883, and
ly rubbed, surface splitting to tail of front joint, head and tail of rear it was in Paris, after the failure of an attempt to sell his copies of the
joint cracked, two small sections of wear to morocco label with no loss inscriptions to the Royal Museum in Berlin, that Doughty’s copies
of text, pencil markings to front endleaves, front free endpaper creased, of the inscriptions at Mada’in Salih finally saw the light of day.
occasional foxing as usual. A very good copy.
Macro 855.
first and only edition. For Dombay, see previous item.
£1,750 [117565]
Not in Blackmer, Burrell or Atabey.

£450 [100510] Lawrence’s guidebook – from the library of a colonial agent with
an “unrivalled knowledge of the Arab”
Doughty’s “first fruits of Arabia”
98
97 DOUGHTY, Charles M. Travels in Arabia Deserta.
DOUGHTY, Charles. Documents épigraphiques recueillis Cambridge: at the University Press, 1888
dans le nord de l’Arabie. Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1884 2 volumes. Original dark green cloth, titles to spines gilt, gilt blocks to
Quarto (269 × 213). Contemporary maroon quarter morocco, marbled front boards, edges untrimmed, black surface-paper endpapers, Por-
boards, sprinkled edges, marbled endpapers to front. 57 plates includ- trait frontispiece, 8 plates, 5 of them folding, numerous line drawings
ing 37 heliographs of inscriptions of which 9 folding, 20 wood-engraved to the text, several full-page, large colour lithographic map folded in
including maps and elevations. Bound with the half-title. Spine sunned end-pocket. Spines very gently rolled, sides a trifle rubbed, lower outer
and rolled, tips rubbed, binder’s blanks browned, initial blank and corners rubbed, vol. 1 with a scattering of pale marks to spine and rear
half-title lightly oxidized, text-leaves very faintly creased, occasional board, and a closed marginal tear to pp. 239/40, the text unaffected,
light spotting to plates. A very good copy. Bath Reference Library issue slips to rear free endpapers (see below). An
excellent copy.
first edition, first issue, of the first publication in English of
any account of Doughty’s travels in Arabia, predating Travels in Ara- first edition, an unusually well-preserved copy of this “unri-
bia Deserta by four years, with a preface in French by Ernest Renan. valled encyclopaedia of knowledge about all aspects of 19th-cen-
In 1865 the German orientalist Theodor Nöldeke proposed that tury and earlier Arabia” much valued by T. E. Lawrence (ODNB),
the Nabataean rock-carvings in what is now Jordan contained the with an exceptional provenance, coming from the collection of

60 Peter Harrington 133

British Arabist and colonial agent Colonel Samuel Barrett Miles
(1838–1914), with bookplates noting his widow’s bequest to Bath
Public Library, and associated manuscript shelf-marks and blind-
stamps as usual. Miles was appointed political agent and consul
at Muscat in 1872, a position he held on and off until 1887, with
intervening postings as political agent in Turkish Arabia, con-
sul-general in Baghdad, political agent and consul in Zanzibar,
and political resident in the Gulf, his time in Arabia coinciding
with Doughty’s own sojourn, which lasted from 1875 to 1878,
during which time Miles was occupied with intelligence-gath-
ering in the Omani interior, as a result of which he became “the
most extensively travelled European” in the region since James
Wellsted in 1834–5 (Marshall, “European Travellers in Oman and
Southeast Arabia”, in New Arabian Studies 2, p. 31). His only book,
The Countries and Tribes of the Persian Gulf, published posthumously
in 1919, was praised by Sir Thomas Holdich, the leading military
surveyor of his day, for demonstrating an “unrivalled knowledge
of the Arab” (Geographical Journal, LV, 4, April, 1920, p. 316).
Doughty’s activities in western Arabia and their significance bear
a remarkable similarity to Miles’s simultaneous achievements in the
east. Doughty (1843–1926) arrived at Ma’an and Petra, modern-day
Jordan, in May 1875, and spent a year in Damascus learning Arabic
in preparation for what was intended to be a short journey south 99
to study the Nabataean rock inscriptions at Mada’in Salih, mod-
ern-day Saudi Arabia. He set out in November 1876 with the pilgrim man Douglas, in hope of a piece of soap in due course (not new
caravan and ended up wandering for two years, his adventures mown hay) and of her not borrowing too many of my matches,
including a sojourn with nearby Bedouin, a visit to Mohammed ibn although it points to a good house-wifely spirit. 26 August 1926”,
Rashid, ruler of northern Arabia, a period of imprisonment by a and with the bookplate of the receipient, Myrtle A. Crummer; one
Turkish commandant at Khaybar, a series of dangerous episodes at of 300 copies numbered and signed by the author.
Buraydah, ‘Unayzah, and Mecca, a stay with the sharif of Mecca at Douglas was almost certainly introduced to the bibliophiles
Ta’if, and his final emergence at Jiddah on 2 August 1878. Leroy and Myrtle Crummer (who were busy forming an import-
His famous account, which comprises almost 1,000 pages of ant medical library) by the publisher Pino Orioli, who ran an an-
painstaking detail, much of which has been confirmed by later tiquarian bookshop by the Ponte Vecchio and later published a
travellers, was much favoured by T. E. Lawrence, who used it as number of Douglas’s books (see Barbara C. Morden’s biography
his main guidebook to the region nearly 30 years later. Lawrence of the painter Dame Laura Knight). “Douglas says in Late Harvest
was instrumental in convincing Cape to publish a second edition (p. 51) that publishing Experiments ‘was in itself an experiment, a
in 1921, to which he contributed an introduction. “In a notable trying one’. It was his first serious attempt at publishing his own
contemporary review in Academy, Sir Richard Francis Burton work. In a letter (dated May 30, 1925) to Charles Scott-Moncrieff,
praised [Arabia Deserta’s] scientific knowledge and its style . . . So he writes: ‘The printers let me down dreadfully over that book;
reliable was the book’s anthropology of the Bedouin peoples and so that over 60 copies were not fit to send away’” (Woolf ). This
its topography, that British intelligence mined it for information collection of pieces includes Douglas’s review of Doughty’s
during the First and Second World wars. Doughty’s contributions Arabia Deserta, an essay on Edgar Allan Poe and a short story en-
to all areas of Arabian knowledge continue to be praised by schol- titled “Queer!” a reworking of a story originally composed over
ars” (ODNB). This is an excellent association copy, bringing into 20 years earlier but which had appeared in different guises: as
relief the achievements of author and owner. “Something from the Beyond” (1921) and “A Mystery” (1901).
Arcadian Library 11438; Macro 859. Woolf A24a.
£6,250 [117594] £475 [97972]

“The printers let me down dreadfully”

99
DOUGLAS, Norman. Experiments. [Florence:] Privately
printed, 1925
Quarto. Original cream paper boards, white paper spine label, unopened
and untrimmed. With the dust jacket. Spine of jacket toned, some nicks
and chips, a few scuffs to boards, some offsetting to endpapers.
first edition. presentation copy, playfully inscribed by the
author on the title page, “To his friend Miss Crummer from Nor- 99

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk 61

 100

100
DOZY, Reinhart. Essai sur l’histoire de l’Islamisme.
Traduit du hollandais par Victor Chauvin. Leiden: E. J. Brill,
1879
Octavo (220 × 132 mm). Contemporary green half morocco, raised bands
between blind rules to spine, title to second compartment and date to
foot gilt, marbled sides, edges sprinkled red, green endpapers, original
printed wrappers bound in to rear. From the library of British Arabist
and colonial agent Col. S. B. Miles (1838–1914), with printed bookplate
noting his widow’s bequest of the collection to Bath Public Library in
1920, and associated manuscript shelf-marks and blind-stamps as usual.
Lightly sunned along top edge of front board, faint spotting to end-
leaves. An excellent copy.
first edition in french of one of the most influential, and
controversial, books on Islam published in the 19th century,
considered “one of the first academic portrayals of Islamic
history” (Schäfer, A Muslim who became a Christian, p. 218) and 101
equally “a fervent attack on Islam and its Prophet” (Hanioglu, DRUMMOND, Augusta. Three original watercolour
Preparation for a Revolution: The Young Turks 1902–1908, p. 308). A views of the coast of Arabian Peninsula near Aden and
Turkish translation by Ottoman reformer Abdullah Cevdet was
Suez. At sea on SS Sindh: 1878
published in 1908 and almost immediately banned, with all
Three watercolours on paper, between 150 × 220 mm and 100 × 175 mm,
existing copies confiscated. Mustafa Kemal, later Atatürk, is
mounted on album leaves 255 × 330 mm, all initialled “A.D.” in the lower
known to have read Chauvin’s French translation “with fascina- corner, and captioned and dated in ink in the lower margin of the mount
tion” (Hanioglu, Atatürk: An Intellectual Biography, p. 54), underlin- – “Approaching Aden from on board S.S. Sindh, Oct. 20th 1878”: “Aden
ing sections concerning the claim that Muhammad’s prophecy from S.S. Sindh, Oct. 21st 1878”: “Suez from S.S. Sindh, Oct. 26th 1878”.
resulted from muscular hysteria, an idea first suggested by Aloys Minor mild foxing of the mounts, remains of linen hinge to each leaf,
Sprenger. Dozy’s account was first published in Dutch as Het otherwise very good.
Islamisme in 1863. Three attractive watercolour views of Aden and Suez, with
mountainous shorelines and dhows sailing in the foreground.
£500 [117595]
Dated October 1878, the views were taken from the deck of SS
Sindh, one of the elite steamers of the French “Compagnie des
Messageries Maritimes” during the height of French colonial ex-
pansion in the Middle and Far East. The artist was Irish waterco-
lourist Augusta Drummond (1848–1908), an acquaintance of re-
nowned poet and artist Edward Lear (1812–1888). She was born

62 Peter Harrington 133

 102

in Kilberry, Kildare, Ireland daughter of Robert and Catherine

Verschoyle. On 5 July 1878 she married Captain Alfred Manners
Drummond, nephew of the sixth duke of Rutland, captain of the
Rifle Brigade, discriminating art collector, acquaintance and cli-
ent of Edward Lear. The couple made a honeymoon trip to India
in 1878, and subsequently travelled to continental Europe and
Australia; Augusta recording her impressions in these excellent
watercolours. One of her images of Tasmania, entitled “Browns
River near Hobart Town”, is now in the collection of the Nation-
al Library of Australia.
£1,500 [91557]

102
101
DUGUET, Marie-Louise-Firmin. Le pèlerinage de la
Mecque. Au point de vue religieux, social et sanitaire.
Avec une préface de Justin Godart. Paris: Les Éditions Rieder,
1932
101 Octavo. Original printed card wrappers. 8 plates, maps and tables to the
text. Lightly rubbed and soiled on the wrappers, pale toning, else very good.
first edition, one of 12 copies hors commerce (“sur papier
Alfa mousse des papeteries Navarre, non mis dans le com-
merce”), of this detailed study of the hajj with particular empha-
sis on medical aspects. In 1928 the author had been appointed
inspector general of the Conseil sanitaire, maritime et quarante-
naire d’Egypte, or International Quarantine Board. Duguet had
already spent several years in the Levant as inspector general of
health services of the states under French Mandate, responsible
for the medical supervision of the pilgrimage to Mecca.
Macro 871.

£1,650 [105496]

101

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk 63

 103
[EASTWICK, Edward Backhouse.] Dry Leaves from
Young Egypt. By an Ex-Political. Second Edition. London:
James Madden, 1851
Octavo, original blue cloth, gilt, title gilt to spine on decorative bande-
rolle with palm and palmetto leaves, portrait of the Khan of Khypore
within decorative borders gilt to front board and in blind to lower.
Coloured lithographic frontispiece and 12 tinted lithographic plates, 2
folding genealogies, tables to text. Bookplate of C. E. Rusbridge to front
pastedown. A little rubbed, light browning, but overall a very good copy.
second edition, with a new preface; first published in 1849,
a further edition was published in 1851. Eastwick had been a
moderating influence on Company conduct in Sindh, but af-
ter he was invalided home, control of policy had fallen to Sir
Charles Napier who was opposed by Outram, the dedicatee of
the present work. “Open antagonism was growing between the
two men, partly perhaps because Outram had lost his indepen-
dent status and been brought under Napier’s control, but within
it there was also a fairly clear policy dispute over the nature of
British rule in India and the place of former rulers, such as the
amirs of Sind. Napier believed that the amirs were feudal relics,
oppressors of the poor, and were opposed to all change that
would bring prosperity at the loss of their power. While he may
not have deliberately goaded the amirs into making war against
the British, he certainly did not regret that their actions gave
him an excuse for abolishing their power” (ODNB). Eastwick
states the case of the amirs with some force: “When we say that
Mir Rustam Khan was wronged, we do not, like Sir W. Napier,
assert a thing at second-hand, on hearsay. We know it. We saw
this wrong committed with our eyes – we heard it with our ears –
and what is more, we can prove it.”
£450 [46516]

103 104
EDDY, William A. F.D.R. meets Ibn Saud. New York:
American Friends of the Middle East, Inc., 1954
Octavo. Original green combed cloth, lettered in gilt on the spine and
front board. Very lightly rubbed, pale toning, a very good copy.
first edition, presentation copy, inscribed on the title
page: “For Toni and Don Fullerton with grateful memories of
Jiddah from their devoted friend Bill Eddy”. William Alfred
“Bill” Eddy (1896–1962) was the son of Presbyterian missionar-
ies, born in Sidon, Syria, and after graduation from Princeton
served in the US Marine Corps during the First World War.
He then entered academia, teaching literature at Dartmouth
College and the American College in Cairo, president of both
Hobart College and William Smith College (1936–42). Re-en-
tering the services in the Second World War with the rank of
lieutenant-colonel he was naval attaché and naval attaché for
air in Cairo, with significant intelligence roles. From 1943 his
work as “Special Assistant to the American Minister” based at
the American legation in Jeddah was crucial in forging bonds
between Saudi Arabia and the Allies. Post-war Eddy was crucial
in the creation of the CIA, and retained his special relationship
at the Saudi court. This privately-published volume contains his
account of the circumstances surrounding the meeting held on
the Great Bitter Lake of the Suez Canal in Egypt on board USS
103 Quincy in February 1945 between King Abdul Aziz Al Saud (Ibn

64 Peter Harrington 133

 104 105

Saud) and Franklin Roosevelt, which Eddy organized and at 106

which he acted as interpreter. It was the first time that the king
(EGYPT, PALESTINE, & ARABIA.) Kriegskarte von
had left Saudi Arabia.
Ägypten, Palästina und Arabien. Vienna: G. Freytag &
£575 [110614] Berndt, [c.1914]
Octavo. Original sand-coloured printed wrappers. Folding coloured map
105 (800 × 550 mm, folding down to 145 × 240 mm). A few discreet pinholes
but in very good condition.
EDEN, Frederic. The Nile without a Dragoman. London:
Rare: only two copies located in OCLC (Library of Congress
Henry S. King & Co., 1871
and Hannover). The map is centred on the Arabian peninsula
Small octavo (180 × 117 mm). Contemporary half calf, spine gilt-tooled
and the coverage includes: Gulf of Aden (E), Bab el Mandeb (S),
on the raised bands, green label, pinkish pebble-grain cloth sides,
marbled edges and endpapers. Gilt stamp of New South Wales Library Libyan Sahara Desert (W), and Damascus and Baghdad (N);
of Parliament on front cover. Spine darkened and a little worn, some inset map of the Nile Delta and Sinai. Details include railways,
scrapes to binding, light browning, some foxing front and back, bound caravan routes, telegraph lines, roadblocks, ruins and a few Ara-
with the half-title. bic topography terms given in German. The wrappers advertise
first edition; a second edition followed the same year. Un- a range of Freytag & Berndt’s Kriegskarten; our copy carries the
common: Copac registers just four copies in British and Irish contemporary bookseller’s label of Max Bretschneider, a well-
institutional libraries (British Library, Oxford, Cambridge, Na- known German bookseller based in Rome.
tional Library of Scotland), and although OCLC adds a gaggle of £650 [102336]
copies it is a difficult book to find. A dragoman was an interpret-
er, guide, and general factotum between Turkish, Arabic, and
Persian-speaking countries. Frederic Eden (1828–1916) was the
nephew of the distinguished geologist and political economist
George Poulett Scrope, to whom the book is dedicated. It was
favourably reviewed in its day, The Times commenting “should
any of our readers care to imitate Mr Eden’s example . . . and
shift for themselves next winter in Upper Egypt, they will find
this book a very agreeable guide”.
Speake I p. 390.

£250 [94790]

105

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk 65

 107 108

107 rect descendants of Genghis Khan, and possessed of distinct

geopolitical ambitions. “A clever, affable man with a weakness
ELIOT, William Gordon Cornwallis, The Hon., later
for practical jokes involving severed heads”, he aspired to an
4th earl of St Germans (trans.) Krim-Girai, Khan of the alliance with Frederick the Great against the Russians, and con-
Crimea. Translated from the German of Theodore Mundt. spired to similar ends with the baron de Tott, becoming a “close
London: John Murray, 1856 personal friend”, who, under Tott’s influence, developed “an en-
Octavo. Original red linen-grained cloth, title gilt to spine, elaborate thusiasm for French cuisine (especially its wine-based sauces),
panelling in blind to boards, light green surface-paper endpapers. A and requested that Tartuffe be translated into Turkish for perfor-
little rubbed overall, bumped at the corners, head and tail of the spine mance by the court buffoons . . . The two spent long evenings
crumpled and with minor chipping, pale toning, some light foxing, but
talking politics inside the crimson-lined tent, Qirim delivering
overall a very good copy.
his ‘opinions on the abuses and advantages of liberty, on the
first edition, a very pleasing association copy, in- principles of honour, or the laws and maxims of government,
scribed “With the Translator’s love” on the first blank and with in a manner which would have done honour to Montesquieu
the bookplate of Lord Raglan to the front pastedown. Richard himself ’” (Reid, Borderland: A Journey through the History of Ukraine,
Henry FitzRoy Somerset, second baron Raglan, was married to internal quotations from the Memoirs of the Baron de Tott). The
Eliot’s cousin, Susan Caroline. His father, recently deceased at author of this work, Theodor Mundt, was a German philologist
the time of presentation, had famously commanded the British and librarian, best known for his writings on aesthetics, and for
forces in the Crimea, being responsible for the victories at the his advocacy of the emancipation of women, who compiled the
Alma and at Inkerman, and considered by some to be culpable memoir “on account of its intrinsic interest as well as the rela-
for the disaster at Balaklava. The first baron had died at Sebas- tion it bears to the present war” (Preface).
topol of a “broken heart” (ODNB) just ten days after the bloody An attractively-provenanced and well-preserved copy of this
failure of the assault of 18 June 1855, and in 1858 his successor seldom seen and interesting biography. Uncommon, just eight
was gifted Cefntilla Court in Monmouthshire by “1623 of the copies on Copac.
‘friends, admirers, and comrades’ of his father . . . as a mark
of gratitude and to enable the family to maintain the port of £950 [109183]
the ennobled” (Newman, Gwent/Monmouthshire; Buildings of
Wales series, p. 272). The modern Cefntilla bookplate is mount- 108
ed beneath Raglan’s on the front pastedown.
ELPHINSTONE, Mountstuart. An Account of the
The translator joined the diplomatic service from Eton, and
Kingdom of Caubul and its Dependencies in Persia,
from 1849 to 1859 served as attaché at Hanover, Lisbon, Berlin,
Constantinople, and St Petersburg. Subsequent postings took Tartary, and India. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and
him to Rio de Janeiro, Athens, Lisbon, and finally Washington. Brown, & J. Murray, 1815
He resigned in 1865 and was elected MP for Devonport in 1866, Quarto (285 × 208 mm). Contemporary calf, neatly rebacked with origi-
holding the seat until 1868. He entered the House of Lords nal spine laid down, flat spine, title gilt direct. Hand-coloured aquatint
in 1870, dying in 1881. The association gains poignancy from frontispiece and 12 other similar plates, one uncoloured aquatint, large
folding engraved map (opening 637 × 789 mm) coloured in outline, and
the fact that Eliot’s elder brother, the Hon. Granville Charles
one similar full-page map. Contemporary armorial bookplate of Abra-
Cornwallis Eliot, a captain in the Coldstream Guards, had been ham Caldecott, former Accountant General to the Bengal Presidency, to
killed, shot through the head, at Inkerman. front pastedown, together with the slightly later plate of William Wood-
Qirim Giray (d. 1769), was one of the most influential rulers ville Rockhill, American adventurer and diplomat. A little rubbed, with
of the Crimean Khanate, a scion of the ruling Giray clan, di- some judicious restoration and refurbishment at the extremities and

66 Peter Harrington 133

 established an embassy in the Persian capital, and to persuade
Shah Shuja into a defensive alliance.
“Elphinstone’s mission to Kabul was formally a failure. Sus-
picious of the British, the Afghan court refused to allow the
embassy to proceed beyond the border town of Peshawar. Shah
Shuja was only prepared to make an alliance in return for sub-
stantial British aid which the envoy was unable to offer. Mean-
while, a revolt in Kashmir had made the shah’s tenure of power
increasingly precarious. Elphinstone did, however, return to
India with a mass of new information about the Punjab and the
north-west . . . Elphinstone’s subsequent Account of the Kingdom of
Caubul continued to inform British policy on the north-western
frontier until the 1840s” (ODNB).
Elphinstone remained in India for the next 20 years, “first as resi-
dent at Poona, then as lieutenant-governor of Bombay. As a civil ad-
ministrator he served with distinction, and is often regarded as the
founder of the system of state education in India. He twice refused
the offer of the governor-generalship of India” (Howgego).
Abbey Travel 504; Colas 960; Howgego, II, E10; Lipperheide 1483; Tooley
209

£5,750 [105235]

109
EMERSON, L. H. S., & Seiyid Muh[ammad] Abdoh
Ghanem. Aden Arabic Grammar; [and] ­— Aden Arabic
Exercises. [Aden:] Al-Maaref Press, 1943
2 works, octavo. Original brown light card wrappers printed in black.
Grammar: wrappers marked overall, surface splitting to front hinge
sometimes reinforced with adhesive, pale finger-marking to title-page
108
and last few leaves. Exercises: faint crease to lower outer corner of rear
panel, contents browned, f. [17] torn to no loss. Overall a good set of
on the joints, light browning throughout, the occasional spot of foxing, two fragile publications.
some offsetting from the plates, the large map with professional repairs first and only editions of these extremely uncommon in-
at the folds and to an old tear, formerly stub-mounted, but now laid in
for ease of opening, overall a very good copy.
troductions to the colloquial Arabic of Aden, Yemen, intended
as textbooks for students at the city’s British Institute, with just
first edition of this superbly detailed regional study, well one copy of the Exercises in libraries worldwide (Edinburgh) and
illustrated by the series of costume plates – “of excellent quality” four copies of the Grammar (National Library of Israel, Exeter and
(Abbey) – which are closer to individuated portraits than the two in Edinburgh).
“types” usually encountered in such works.
Elphinstone stands out as one of the most remarkable figures £250 [107951]
in establishment of British hegemony in India in the early 19th
century. The son of the 11th Baron Elphinstone, he went out to
India in 1795 at the age of 16 as a writer in the service of the East
India Company. In 1801 he was appointed assistant to Sir Barry
Close, resident at the court of Baji Rao the Peshwa at Poona.
The Peshwa was virtual head of the Mahratta confederacy and
is described in the first DNB as “an avowed poltroon”. He was
overthrown by Holkar at the Battle of Poona. Holkar refused
British requests to reinstate the Peshwa which led to the Second
Mahratta War.
Elphinstone was attached to Wellington’s staff in the Deccan
and saw action at the Battles of Assaye and Argaum and the
Siege of Gawilarh. The general remarked of Elphinstone then
that he had “mistaken his profession and ought to have been a
soldier.” Advanced to the important post of resident at the court
in Nagpur in 1804, in 1808 he was favoured further with the
position of ambassador to the Afghan court at Kabul where he
was to assess the extent of French penetration, who had already
109

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk 67

 114460

110 111

110 book illustration. This copy is from the collection of noted Ira-
nian bibliophile Cyrus Ghani, with his ownership inscription
EMPSON, Robert Horatio Woolnough. The Cult of the
dated March 1983 to the front free endpaper.
Peacock Angel. A Short Account of the Yezidi Tribes of
Kurdistan. With a Commentary by Sir Richard Carnac £75 [110793]
Temple. London: H. F. & G. Witherby, 1928
Octavo. Original black cloth, title gilt to spine, blind panelling to front 112
board, bottom edge untrimmed. Frontispiece and 5 plates from pho- EUTING, Julius. Tagebuch einer Reise in Inner-Arabien.
tographs. Publisher’s ticket to front pastedown. Upper outer corners
lightly bumped, small mildly abraded patch at foot of front board, edges Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1896 & 1914
lightly dust soiled. A very good copy. 2 volumes, octavo (233 × 155 mm). Later white quarter cloth, sand cloth
boards, tan morocco labels to spines, orange top-stain. Portrait frontis-
first edition of this uncommon anthropological study, “the
piece to volume II, profusely illustrated throughout line-drawings and
outcome of curiosity aroused in myself as to the ancient faith plans to the text, some full-page. Dampstain to the top edge of volume II,
of the little known Yezidi tribes, based on a visit to their strong- no encroachment into the margin light browning else, a very good set.
holds and amplified by a little research amongst the existing lit-
first editions, surprisingly uncommon institutionally with
erature on the subject” (Preface). Empson’s “visit” would seem
OCLC showing perhaps nine locations. An orientalist based at
to have taken place while he was serving with No. 1 Squadron
Strasbourg University, Euting had previously travelled exten-
in Iraq. Empson remarks that in his commentary the respected
sively in the Mediterranean and Levant, and had spent time in
orientalist Sir Richard Temple “has not always adopted my own
Constantinople. “In 1883 Euting left Strasbourg to embark on a
or my authorities’ explanations, but I do not look on this as a
two-year expedition to the Middle East and the Arabian Penin-
misfortune, as the object before us is to get at the truth, which is
sula, his intention being to trace the pre-Islamic history of Ara-
often accomplished by noting and eventually reconciling differ-
bia through the study of its inscriptions and stone monuments”
ence of views on matters still but imperfectly known”.
(Howgego). Having made some inroads in Egypt, Palestine and
£500 [114460] the Lebanon, he met up with the Alsatian travelled Charles Hu-
ber, and together they “struck out across the desert to the south-
111 east”. After considerable adventures the two “who had never
really liked each other” separated, Euting “crossed the Hijaz
ETTINGHAUSEN, Richard. Treasures of Asia. Arab mountains to arrive on the Red Sea coast . . . en route suffering
Painting. [Lausanne:] Albert Skira, 1962 an attack by Bedouin and only managing to escape by by killing
Large quarto. Original tan buckram, spine and covers lettered in brown. two of them”. He returned to Europe having completed a jour-
With the dust jacket. 89 tipped-in plates mostly in colour, many height- ney of 2,300 kilometres, mainly by horse and camel, with copies
ened with gilt. Publisher’s review slip laid in. An excellent copy in the of 900 Sabaean, Aramaic, and Nabataean inscriptions. For his
price-clipped jacket with a small chip to the head of the spine.
part Huber returned to Ha’il then set off on a pioneering trip
first edition of this handsomely illustrated history of Islamic to Mecca by a “route never before followed by a European” and
art up to the 15th century, covering mosaics, wall painting and was murdered by his guides on the way back to Ha’il. Euting’s

68 Peter Harrington 133

 112 114

account of their year-long Arabian journey – the second volume 114

of which was published posthumously edited by Enno Littmann
FARLEY, J. Lewis. Modern Turkey. London: Hurst and
– provides the best early descriptions of the petroglyphs at Jabal
umm Sanaman. A well-presented set of of an important and un-
Blackett, Publishers, 1872
common account. Octavo (220 × 132 mm). Original red-brown cloth, gilt-lettered spine,
sides decoratively panel-stamped in blind, yellow surface-paper endpa-
Henze II, 186; Howgego IV, E20; Macro 907. pers. Spine darkened and a little marked, a few pale spots to fore edge,
half-title lightly foxed, and discreetly tape-repaired at foot, shallow chip
£950 [92408] to top edge of front free endpaper, contents otherwise clean, a very good
copy.
113 second edition, the same year as the first, of this valuable
FARIS, Nabih Amin. The Antiquities of South Arabia, survey of Turkey in the mid-19th century, including a wide-rang-
being a Translation from the Arabic with Linguistic, ing economic overview, and accounts of Empress Eugénie’s visit
Geographic, and Historic Notes of the Eighth Book of to Constantinople and the health benefits of living in Syria. Both
editions are uncommon, especially in good condition, and there
Al-Hamdani’s Al-Iklil. Reconstructed from Al-Karmanli’s
appear to have been no further printings after 1872.
Edition and a MS in the Garrett Collection, Princeton Farley (1823–1855) helped establish the Beirut branch of the
University Library. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1938 British-run Ottoman Bank, established after the conclusion of
Octavo. Original black cloth, title gilt to spine. Plate, full-page map, the Crimean War. “In 1860 [he] was appointed accountant-gen-
illustration in the text. A little rubbed, ink-stamps of the British Institute eral of the state bank of Turkey at Constantinople, which subse-
at Amman for Archaeology and History to the endpapers, light toning, quently became merged in the Imperial Ottoman Bank, which
touch of foxing to the fore-edge, else very good.
was set up in 1863 with British, French, and Ottoman sharehold-
first edition; institutionally inevitably well-represented, but ers and directors, under the protection of the sultan and his gov-
uncommon on the market. An important publication. Al-Ham- ernment. It was the government bank with sole rights of note
dani (893?–945?) was an Arab geographer, poet, grammarian, issue. British and French government involvement was also con-
historian and astronomer “whose chief fame derives from his siderable, and the bank was a political as much as a financial in-
authoritative writings on South Arabian history and geography stitution” (ODNB). He was notably on intimate terms with Fuad
. . . His encyclopaedia Al-Ikul (The Crown; Eng. trans. of vol. 8 by and Ali pashas. From 1870 to 1884 he served as Ottoman consul
N. A. Faris as The Antiquities of South Arabia [the present volume]) at Bristol, in which capacity he is credited on the title page, and
and his other writings are a major source of information on Ara- made substantial (though not overly successful) attempts at in-
bia, providing a valuable anthology of South Arabian poetry as creasing Bristol’s trade with the Levant.
well as much genealogical, topographical, and historical infor-
mation” (Ency. Brit.) £450 [117089]
Macro 917.

£650 [94791]

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk 69

 116

115 wrapper; “Music, the Priceless Jewel” with wrappers slightly separating
at foot, faint soiling to front, and mild crease to upper outer corners,
FARMER, Henry George. A History of Arabian Music still both very good copies.
to the XIIIth Century. London: Luzac & Co., 1929; with two first edition of this pioneering study of Arab music from the
offprints of articles by Farmer in the Journal of the Royal pre-Islamic period to the extinction of the ‘Abbasid caliphate
Asiatic Society: “Music, the Priceless Jewel” (1941) and “The in 1258, uncommon in the dust jacket, this copy accompanied
Music of the Arabian Nights” (1945). by two interesting offprints, and with a nice association, con-
Octavo. Original red cloth, gilt-lettered spine. With the dust jacket. taining the ownership inscription of American Arabist Robert
Frontispiece from a manuscript of Farabi’s Kitab al-Musiqi, 2 similar Brenton Betts, author of The Druze (1991) and other works, to the
plates. With the errata slip. Corners very lightly bumped, light toning, front pastedown (dated Cairo 1987) and also to the inside wrap-
but an excellent copy in the dust jacket with a sunned, chipped and per of one of the offprints, “Music, the Priceless Jewel” (dated 31
dampstained spine panel and a few other shallow nicks or chips. Off-
January 1994).
prints: octavo, wire-stitched in original printed wrappers, both with
the recent bookseller’s ticket of May and May, Shaftesbury, to the inside
Farmer (1882–1965) played in the Royal Artillery orchestra
until 1911 and became an authority on military music before
enrolling at the University of Glasgow in 1918, completing a PhD
which formed the basis for the present work. For each era Farm-
er describes the “general musical life of the period, together
with details of the theory and practice of music” (Preface), and
provides biographies of contemporary musicians and writers on
music; the chapter on the pre-Islamic era notably discusses the
music of Himyar and of the Nabataean and Palmyrene Arabs.
Farmer was the only British representative at the inaugural Con-
gress of Arabian Music in Egypt in 1932, and “for almost half a
century defined and dominated this field of research and took
full advantage of the known sources” (Shiloah, Music in the World
of Islam, p. xiv).
115 £250 [115062]

70 Peter Harrington 133

116
FERRARIO, Giulio. Descrizione della Palestina. O Storia
del Vangelo. Illustrata coi Monumenti. Milan: Società
Tipographia de’ Classici Italiani, 1831
Royal octavo (265 × 175 mm). Contemporary Italian tan morocco, covers
elaborately blind-stamped with floral corner- and centrepieces, diced
central panels, gilt-tooled vine-leaf borders, flat spine richly gilt in com-
partments, marbled endpapers. Engraved folding area map and 32 aqua-
tints by Bramati, Angeli and others of which 31 hand-coloured. Slightly
rubbed overall with a couple of small superficial holes to front joint,
folding map foxed and with tear skilfully repaired on verso, pencilled
captions in Italian to fore edges of plates, rear free endpaper recto anno-
tated in pencil, the very occasional marginal spot, but an excellent copy,
internally crisp and fresh, with wide margins and notably bright plates.
first separate edition, revised and significantly expanded;
originally published as part of Ferrario’s immense Il costume antico
e moderno, issued simultaneously in French and Italian in 143 parts
from 1816 to 1834, forming a total of 17 volumes. In the preface
Ferrario claims to have corrected the errors of the first edition
from various accounts, including those of Mayer and Chateaubri-
and. Remarkably uncommon in this form, with just ten copies in
institutional libraries worldwide and just three seen at auction in
over 50 years; this is a particularly handsome copy. 117

Hamilton, Arcadian Library 8859; Blackmer 588 for Il costume antico e moder-
no, vol. I only & Atabey 427 for the first edition in French; not in Abbey, awarded with the Order of the Lion and Sun. His military mis-
Burrell or Howgego. sion soon revealed itself purposeless”.
Ferrier returned disappointed to France to only discover that
£1,500 [107964] Franco-Persian diplomatic relations had been reopened offering
the chance of further service, and he immediately took himself
117 to Baghdad. Receiving a meagre subsidy from the French gov-
FERRIER, J. P. History of the Afghans. Translated from ernment, he decided to undertake the perilous overland journey
the Original Unpublished Manuscript by Captain William through Persia and Afghanistan to join the group of French of-
Jesse. London: John Murray, 1858 ficers at Lahore in the service of Ranjit Singh’s burgeoning Sikh
empire.
Octavo (217 × 133 mm). Recently bound in half calf, to style, marbled
“After the Anglo-Afghan war of 1838–42, conditions in Af-
boards and edges, red morocco label, low bands with milled gilt roll,
floral lozenges to compartments, double rule in blind to spine and ghanistan were much disturbed. Having reached Herat with
corner edges, grey-brown endpapers. Folding engraved map at the rear, many difficulties, Ferrier was suspected by Yar Mohammed to
full-page map. Armorial book plate of Cyril Flower, Baron Battersea, be an English spy. After a long and perilous itinerary in Afghani-
reimposed to front pastedown, that of Monier Williams, noted oriental- stan, where he fell prey between rival local rulers [sic], he would
ist, Boden Professor of Sanskrit facing on the front free endpaper, and return to Herat and reach Tehran. During his voyage, and partic-
the attractive collector’s plate of Gerald Sattin to the first blank. Light ularly at the end, he sent reports on the British in Central Asia to
browning, else very good. Henry Rawlinson at Baghdad and to Justin Sheil at Tehran. He
first edition. “This book concentrates attention on the pe- brought to Sheil a manuscript from Alexander Burnes. He also
riod from about 1700 until 1850 and includes critical comments reported to Sartiges on the political situation in Afghanistan”.
on British policy. Travelling extensively from Iran across Afghan- An account of his trip was published in an English translation
istan and Central Asia into India Ferrier developed a masterly in 1857, only being issued in French in 1870. He subsequently
knowledge of the history, geography, and languages of the area” served similarly ill-fated results in Persia, France and finally
(Yakushi). India, having in between times bankrupted himself with an agri-
Joseph Philippe [or Pierre, but not Pierce pace Yakushi] Ferrier, cultural project on Rhodes. He died in Marseilles in 1886.
author, “diplomat”, explorer, and soldier of fortune (1811–1886), In his preface Jesse makes the point that Ferrier’s writings
served with the chasseurs d’Afrique in the late 1830s, being invalid- “can be more thoroughly appreciated here [in England] than
ed back to France around 1837. “In 1839, while being prosecuted in France; and that they must prove of real value in England is
by his creditors, he developed a feeling for adventure” (Encyclo- evident when we consider how great are the interests involved
paedia Iranica) and signed up to serve as an instructor with the in the development – commercial, social, and religious – of that
Persian army. A rather ramshackle, unofficial mission to Persia vast continent which Providence has permitted to fall under our
was formed, which in the way of such freelance adventures rule”. Uncommon, and a well-presented copy.
imploded. “Only Ferrier had learnt Persian, and he imposed
Yakushi F32.
himself on the remaining officers . . . Ferrier was appointed
adjutant-general and ‘chef d’état major’ with an eight-year con- £850 [102592]
tract. He was sent to Zanjan to train cavalry battalions and was

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk 71

 118

118
FINATI, Giovanni. Narrative of the Life and Adventures of
Giovanni Finati. Native of Farrara; who, under the Name
of Mahomet, made the Campaigns against the Wahabees
for the Recovery of Mecca and Medina; and since acted
as Interpreter to European Travelers in some of the Parts Tarabah and subsequent victory at Bissel. Returning to Cairo, he
least visited of Asia and Africa. Translated from the met English traveller and antiquary William Bankes (1786–1855),
Italian as dictated by himself, and edited by William John with whom he travelled to Upper Egypt. He also visited Senna
Bankes. London: John Murray, 1830 and Dongola in the Sudan, and later Syria and Kurdistan, before
2 volumes, small octavo (165 × 98 mm). Later 19th-century half calf, making his way to England in 1828.
spines lettered and ruled in gilt and blind, gilt titles, marbled sides, top His narrative was described at length by Burton in his Pilgrim-
edges sprinkled red, orange endpapers. Folding map. From the library age (1855–6). “Of all the Western Travellers to Mecca, Giovanni
of British Arabist and colonial agent Col. S. B. Miles (1838–1914), with Finati is the only out-and-out scoundrel – as the two-volume
printed bookplates noting his widow’s bequest of the collection to Bath account of his travels, published in 1830, makes perfectly clear.
Public Library in 1920, and associated manuscript shelf-marks and
Even Burton, by no means a prude, disapproved of Signor Finati
blind-stamps as usual. Extremities rubbed in places, folding map lightly
foxed, a few trivial spots. A very good copy.
. . . But even scoundrels, apparently, are not immune to the im-
pact of the Hajj” (Lunde).
first edition of this sought-after Arabian travel account.
Finati enlisted in the French army in 1805 but deserted to the Ibrahim-Hilmy I p. 232; Howgego II F6; Macro 954; see further Peter
Albanians in Dalmatia, converting to Islam and taking the name Lunde, “The Lure Of Mecca”, in Saudi Aramco World 1974/6, pp. 14–21; not
in Atabey, Blackmer, Cobham-Jeffery, Röhricht or Weber.
Muhammad. Having seduced the wife of his Turkish officer, he
fled to Cairo and enlisted in the army of Egyptian wali Muham- £4,500 [117599]
mad ‘Ali Pasha, witnessing the massacre of the Mamluks in Cai-
ro’s citadel and the ensuing campaign against Mamluk remnants 119
in Upper Egypt. He then served in some of the major engage-
ments of the Ottoman–Wahhabi War (1811–1818), including the FONTANIER, Victor. Voyage dans l’Inde et dans le golfe
capture of Yanbu’ and Al Qunfudhah, after which he temporarily Persique, par l’Egypte et la mer Rouge. Paris: Paulin,
deserted and visited Mecca, which he describes at length. He 1844–6
then rejoined the army and witnessed Tusun Pasha’s defeat at

72 Peter Harrington 133

 120

(1819–20), which led to the formation of the Trucial States. Early

in 1838 Fontanier was appointed consul to Bombay. On his way
to India he stopped at Muttrah and Muscat, and describes at
length Muscat’s commerce and relations with Europe. Most of
the second volume is devoted to Bombay; the third describes
further travels in China, Indochina, and Afghanistan. Fontanier
had previously served as naturalist to the French embassy at
Constantinople, during which time he travelled extensively in
the Ottoman Empire in both Europe and Asia, and writing a
similar account entitled Voyages en Orient (1829–34).
119
Not in Atabey or Blackmer; Gay 3322; Howgego G2 refers; Ibra-
him-Hilmy I p. 236; Macro 461; Wilson p. 73.
2 volumes in 3, octavo (210 × 129 mm). Near-contemporary tan half
calf, marbled boards, edges sprinkled red, green endpapers. Engraved £7,500 [117600]
folding map, 2 folding tables. From the library of British Arabist and co-
lonial agent Col. S. B. Miles (1838–1914), with printed bookplates noting 120
his widow’s bequest of the collection to Bath Public Library in 1920, and
associated manuscript shelf-marks and blind-stamps as usual. With the FORSTER, E. M. The Government of Egypt.
original front wrapper bound in to the rear of vol. 3. Front board of vol. Recommendations by a Committee of the International
1 very lightly bowed, light abrasion to backstrip on vol. 3 front board, a Section of the Labour Research Department, with
few leaves to rear of vol. 2 roughly opened, the text unaffected, other-
wise contents clean throughout. An excellent copy. Notes on Egypt. London: Published by the Labour Research
Department, [1920]
first edition of one of the most detailed treatments of the
Persian Gulf in the 19th century; scarce, with just a handful of Octavo. Original grey paper wrappers, white paper label printed in black
to front wrapper. Housed in a custom-made card binder. Edges of wrap-
copies traced at auction in the last 50 years. Fontanier (1796– pers a little browned and with a few small chips Top edge browned, with
1857) was appointed French envoy to the Persian Gulf in 1834. some creasing, edges with some chipping, else fine.
From France he sailed to Egypt and crossed the Red Sea, before
first edition of this pamphlet which outlines the historical,
travelling overland through modern-day Saudi Arabia (visiting
social, and political background of the relationship between
Jeddah) and then sailing from Mocha, in what is now Yemen, to
Egypt and Great Britain. Forster served as a volunteer with the
Bombay. In November 1835 he left Bombay for Basrah, stopping
Red Cross between November 1915 and January 1919: while
at Bandar Abbas, Hormuz, Kharg Island, and Bushire. Chapters
some of the material is “the result of personal experience . . .
7 to 18 of the first volume (excluding chapter 15, which concerns
[his time in Egypt was generally] not under conditions that were
Baghdad) are entirely devoted to the Persian Gulf, and are con-
favourable for observation” (p. 3).
cerned mainly with trade, notably in pearls from Bahrain and
horses from the Nejd, and the strategic manoeuvrings of Brit- Kirkpatrick A7.
ain and France, including the British siege of Ra’s al-Khaymah
£320 [21613]

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk 73

 2 volumes bound as 1, quarto (270 211 mm). Contemporary calf, tan
121 double labels, low broad bands with a gilt palmette roll, single fillet gilt
panel to boards, gilt edge-roll, all edges gilt, brown silk page-marker
still intact. Double folding strip map of “the Route of Mr. Forster from
121
Loldong to Petersburg”. Bound with both half-titles. A little rubbed at
FORSTER, E. M. Alexandria: A History and A Guide. the extremities, some minor scuffing on the boards, spine slightly dry
Alexandria: Whitehead Morris Limited, 1922 and darkened, front joint just started at the head, endpapers lightly
foxed, the folding map a little more heavily so, light browning of the
Octavo. Original buff paper boards, titles to spine and front board in
text-block with the occasional spot of foxing, overall a very good copy.
black. Engraved frontispiece, 16 engraved maps and plans to the text,
double-page genealogical table, 2 folding maps, coloured folding map in first edition thus; the first volume was published in Cal-
pocket on rear pastedown. Spine rolled and sunned, front joint and rear cutta in 1790, the year before Forster’s death, the whole being
inner hinge skilfully repaired, front board slightly marked, with small published for the first time as here. Forster, (c.1752–1791), was
bump to top edge, commensurate section of rubbing to rear board, front an officer of the HEIC on the Madras establishment, and be-
free endpaper browned, half-title slightly marked. A very good copy. tween 1782 and 1784 undertook “a remarkable overland journey
first edition, presentation copy, inscribed by Forster from Calcutta to Europe, travelling through Jammu to Kashmir,
“AJB, from the author” on the front free endpaper, and with the Kabul, Herat, Persia, across the Caspian Sea, and thence to
ownership inscription of the recipient, A. J. Butler, on the front Russia. This journey traced back, to a large extent, the route of
board. This is Oxford historian Alfred Joshua Butler (1850–1936), Alexander in his pursuit of Bessus. It also took Forster through
whose work The Arab Conquest of Egypt (1902) Forster cites as his districts of considerable commercial and political interest to the
main source for the period, and describes it as “a monograph British. Adopting various disguises on his route . . . he travelled
of the highest merit, brilliantly written, and practically recon- in the company of local merchants. This clandestine mode of
structing the episode” (p. iii). He also acknowledges Butler’s travel, through regions completely unfamiliar to contemporary
Ancient Coptic Churches (1884) as his source for the passage on the Europeans, made it impossible for him to use any instruments
monasteries of Natrun, and reproduces two of his plans at pages to survey his route, although he was later described as an acute
202 and 203. Butler appears to have then used the guide for his observer with a good knowledge of the languages of central
own purposes, the section on the Greco-Roman Museum (pp. Asia” (ODNB).
107–21), bearing his inked underlinings and marginal summa- In Russia he had “sailed up the Volga to Russia, and then
ries of the exhibits described by Forster. Copies of the first edi- proceeded to St Petersburg” (Cross), his travels there occupying
tion are rare, as most of the print run was destroyed by fire. just under 100 pages of volume II. On his return to England he
Kirkpatrick A8a. was encouraged by Henry Dundas to to write a general study of
the political state of India, and “in 1785 he published Sketches of
£2,250 [112539] the Mythology and Customs of the Hindoos, a work which attracted
considerable attention” (ODNB). On his return to India he was
122 employed by Cornwallis to negotiate the conclusion of defensive
alliance against Tipu Sultan with Mudhoji Bhonsla and the Ni-
FORSTER, George. A Journey from Bengal to England
zam Shah, reaching Nagpur in July 1788. He died there in 1790 as
through the Northern Part of India, Kashmire, resident to the court of Raja Raghoji Bhonsla.
Afghanistan, and Persia, and into Russia, by the Caspian- The completion of the present work was attained “from
Sea. London: R. Faulder, 1798 papers found in his possession” and on publication quickly ob-

74 Peter Harrington 133

 compilation of the memoirs of George Thomas, the military
adventurer in India; translations from Persian; archaeological
remarks on the plain of Troy, seeking to corroborate the exis-
tence of an ancient city there; historical, political, geographic,
economic, and religious essays on parts of India. His religious
writings include a discussion of the worship of the serpent in
various parts of the world. He also maintained a learned cor-
respondence with William Vincent . . . and was one of the few
people to whom Dean Vincent acknowledged obligations in the
preface to the Periplus” (ODNB). Francklin was a member, librar-
ian, and member of the council of the Royal Asiatic Society, and
was also a member of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Ghani notes
that “Francklin’s book was read by Byron . . . [and that it is] also
important because of the retelling of comments the author had
heard about Karim Khan Zand [who ruled Iran 1751–1779] . . .
[he also] saw a full cycle of Ta’zie during his stay in Shiraz”.
Ghani, Iran and the West, p. 138; Howgego, Exploration to 1800, p. 339;
Lowndes III p. 833 (“much valuable and interesting information”); Wil-
son, Bibliography of Persia, p. 74.
122
£1,250 [117707]
tained a high reputation, being “valued by contemporaries for
its contribution to the geographical knowledge of central Asia”. 124
It was swiftly translated into French by the prominent orientalist FRASER, David. Persia and Turkey in Revolt. London:
Louis-Mathieu Langlès, being published in 1802 as Voyage du William Blackwood and Sons, 1910
Bengale à Pétersbourg. A very pretty copy of an important text. Octavo. Original dark red linen, pictorial black-stamped cover, spine
Cross D41; Ghani p. 136; Henze, II, pp. 262–3; Riddick 39; Wilson p. 73; lettered in gilt. With the dust jacket. 120 black and white illustrations
Yakushi F95. and maps. Jacket nicked, chipped along extremities. A fine copy in the
rare jacket.
£3,000 [113335] first edition. Fraser spent 1909 as special correspondent
for The Times. He devotes several chapters to experiences and
An important book in the growing interest of Orientalism thoughts about Mesopotamia and Syria. “The author’s trip
takes place after the shelling of Parliament by Colonel Liakhoff
123
as ordered by Mohammed Ali Shah. There was considerable
FRANCKLIN, William. Observations made on a Tour from encouragement from M. de Hardwig, the Russian minister who
Bengal to Persia, in the Years 1786–7. With a short account soon left Iran, but later, from his post as minister to Hungary,
of the remains of the celebrated palace of Persepolis; and encouraged Mohammed Ali Shah to invade the country in 1911
other interesting events. London: T. Cadell, 1790 when the latter had been deposed and was living in Europe”
Octavo (256 × 125 mm). Early 19th-century diced calf by J. Painter of
(Ghani, pp. 139–40).
Wrexham (with his ticket), decorative gilt spine, burgundy-coloured £625 [91085]
twin labels, speckled edges, marbled endpapers. Early 19th-century
armorial bookplate of J. W. Dod (of Cloverley Hall, Shropshire). Spine
rubbed and a little worn at extremities of spine, boards darkened at in-
ner edge, paper flaw at Z6 (not affecting letterpress), scattered foxing. A
very good copy.
first london edition; originally published Calcutta 1788,
Lowndes notes that a French edition followed in 1797. “An im-
portant book in the growing interest of Orientalism” (Ghani).
Francklin (1763–1839) was the son of the classical scholar and
dramatist Thomas Francklin. He was educated at Westminster
and Trinity College, Cambridge, before being commissioned
ensign in the Bengal Army and posted to the 19th Bengal Native
Infantry in 1783, rising by 1814 to lieutenant-colonel both in his
regiment and in the Army. “A distinguished officer, Francklin
also enjoyed considerable reputation as an oriental scholar. In
1786 he made a tour of Persia, in the course of which he lived at
Shiraz for eight months as the close friend of a Persian family,
and was thus able to write a fuller account of Persian customs
than had before appeared . . . His publications also include a 124

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 125

125

125 36 larger albumen prints. Some typical spotting throughout, guards re-
newed, hinges repaired, binding rubbed. Some marks to the margins of
FRITH, Francis. Sinai and Palestine. London: William several plates not affecting the photographs. A very good copy however
MacKenzie & Co., [1863] the photographs excellent.
Folio. Original half tan morocco, red cloth sides, titles to spine gilt, Volume I of the second, enlarged edition of the work originally
marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Mount albumen print to half title and published in two volumes in 1859. “The prints in this edition

76 Peter Harrington 133

 126 127

are of a much stronger quality than those in the first edition Stuart-Glennie tended to preface and gloss her work. She was
having been gold-toned” (Gernsheim). The complete set of this particularly interested in the lives and status of women, and
publication comprises four volumes each with 37 mounted pho- took advantage of her access to the women’s quarters of remote
tographs. However the parts were available separately and each Christian and Muslim communities to supplement the accounts
is compete in itself. of earlier travellers for whom, as she noted, ‘the female sex may
Gernsheim, Incunabula of British Photographic Literature 1839–1875, pp.
be said not to have existed . . . at all’ (The Women of Turkey, 1,
216–20. 1890, lxxvii)” (ODNB).

£5,000 [59138] £1,250 [109714]

126 The Graeco-Arabic translation movement

GARNETT, Lucy M. J. The Women of Turkey. And Their 127
Folklore. With an ethnographical map and introductory GÄTJE, Helmut. Die arabische Übersetzung der Schrift
chapters on the ethnography of Turkey; and folk- des Alexander von Aphrodisias über die Farbe. Göttingen:
conceptions of nature, by John S. Stuart-Glennie. [Vol. 1] Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1968
Christian Women. [Vol. 2] Jewish and Moslem Women. Octavo. Stapled in the original printed card wrappers. Unopened. 2
London: David Nutt, 1890–1 plates from photographs of Arabic manuscript in the Maghribi style.
2 volumes, octavo. Original blue cloth, spines lettered in gilt, single (vol. Slight irregular tanning to wrappers, corners lightly bumped. A very
1) and double (vol. 2) frame to boards in blind, front boards with winged good copy.
swastika and sun vignettes gilt, black (vol. 1) and brown (vol. 2) coated Offprint from Nachrichten der Akademie der Wissenshaften in Göt-
endpapers, fore and bottom edges untrimmed. Folding ethnographic tingen, examining Abu ‘Uthman al-Dimashqi’s transation of
colour map. Vol. 1 with publisher’s presentation ink-stamp to half-title,
Alexander of Aphrodisias’s treatise on colour theory; this copy
vol. 2 with bookplate of Edward and Ruby Thalmann to front pastedown
and rear pastedown with later bookseller’s ticket and library label. Ex-
from the library of American Islamicist Nicholas Heer though
tremities bumped and worn, a few nicks to spine-ends, covers lightly not marked as such. Alexander was a noted commentator on Ar-
rubbed and marked; vol. 1 spine sunned with a few faint dents to rear istotle who flourished in Athens around 200 ad: “Abu Uthman
board, vol. 2 half-title tanned. A very good copy. Sa’id b. Ya’qub al-Dimashqi (d. after 302/914–15) was a physician
first edition, uncommon in the original cloth. “Lucy Garnett and a translator of Greek scientific and philosophical works into
travelled extensively in the Balkans and Middle East, recording Arabic. As one of the leading physicians of his time, he enjoyed
the customs of the people among whom she lived. In Smyr- the favour of the wazir ‘Ali b. ‘Isa b. al-Jarrah (d. 334/946–47).
na, and later in Salonica, she learned Greek and Turkish; her When the latter endowed a hospital in the Harbiyah quarter of
familiarity with demotic Greek led to a collaboration with the Baghdad in 302/914–15, he appointed Abu ‘Uthman as chief phy-
folklorist John Stuart Stuart-Glennie . . . Her most important sician, with the added responsibility of supervising the hospitals
achievement was the documentation and comparative study of Baghdad, Mecca, and Medina” (Encyclopaedia of Islam).
of Balkan folk literature, which is still valuable when detached £65 [104040]
from the dubious theories of ‘scientific’ folklore with which

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk 77

 128

128

78 Peter Harrington 133

 128

128 portrait of Abdelkader, leader of the Algerian resistance, taken in

1852, and of Léon Roche, son of the mayor of Oran, interpreter
GIRARDOT, Alexandre Antoine. Two albums compiled
to General Bugeaud, and “renegade” confidante to the emir,
from an artist’s sketchbooks recording nearly 40 years of perhaps suggests a military or diplomatic context for Girardot’s
life in Algeria. Algeria: 1830–67 presence in Algeria, a suggestion that is reinforced by his interior
Two oblong folio albums (360 × 280 mm). Dark green shagreen, con- views of the English and Spanish consulates. It is a possibility that
centric panelling in blind, AG monogram gilt to the centre of the front he originally travelled out à la suite of either his father or another
boards. Accompanied by a photographic portrait of the artist c.1860. A
patron. He certainly was to spend a large part of the next three de-
total of 420 pages with more than 1,000 mounted drawings of various
sizes, most of which are captioned, monogrammed and dated between
cades travelling the country, accumulating this remarkable visual
1840 and 1867. The albums just a little rubbed, some light restoration record. His death is a mystery, the putative date inferred from the
to head and tail of spines, to joints and board edges, the contents clean last recorded work by his hand. The albums are accompanied by a
and sound, overall very good indeed. photographic portrait of the artist, depicting a well-dressed, sol-
An exceptional visual document, two albums painstakingly and idly-built bourgeois gentleman with a beard, who addresses the
thoughtfully assembled from the observational sketch-books of a camera with an open, frank and perhaps slightly amused expres-
little-known, but highly-talented first generation French Oriental- sion. He is apparently missing his right arm. Examples of his oils
ist painter. are held in the collections of the Musée de l’Armée in Paris and
Alexandre Antoine Girardot (1815–c.1877) has left but few traces the Musée Marey et des Beaux-Arts in Beaune.
of what must have been an unusual and adventurous life. Born Largely comprised of highly-finished pencil drawings – some
in Paris in February 1815, he enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts with expressive dashes of body-colour, and a good number com-
on 6 October 1836. A student of Blondel, he exhibited regularly at pleted in watercolour – these two albums, which remained in the
the Salon between 1841 and 1848, submitting views of Algeria and painter’s personal collection, clearly represent the result of autho-
other “oriental” subjects. It is very possible that Girardot may have rial selection and organisation. Retrospectively, Girardot gathered
made his initial trip to Algeria at the time of the French invasion together the most accomplished of his sketch-work and arranged
in 1830; the first album opens with a group of panoramic views it by theme and by region, sometimes combining on the same
of Algiers, including one “as it appeared in 1831”. Girardot would page drawings produced decades apart.
have been just 16 years old at the time, so it is unlikely that he re- A fuller description of the artwork in this albums is available via our
tained any youthful sketches, but here he confidently reconstructs website or on request.
an early vision of the city to offer in contrast to its appearance
in 1842, when the sketches were made. The inclusion of a rare £95,000 [110595]

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk 79

 129

129 first edition. “Gladwin was a man of wide intellectual inter-

ests – he accumulated a remarkable library – and with a passion
GLADWIN, Francis. A Dictionary Persian, Hindoostanee
for learning languages and for making translations, above all
and English; including Synonyma. Calcutta: Printed at the from Persian. He published a large number of his translations.
Hindoostanee Press, by T. Hubbard, 1809 In 1775 he produced a specimen of a ‘vocabulary’ of words in
2 volumes, quarto (234 151 mm). Contemporary streaked calf, new red various Asian languages, a project that he was later to realize in
morocco labels to style, compartments formed by single gilt rules. A several different formats . . . [this] stream of publications mak-
little rubbed, particularly at the extremities, now with some judicious
ing him the most frequently published author in late 18th-cen-
restoration at the joints, corners and headcaps, light tan-burn to the
endpapers, pale browning else, a very good set.
tury Calcutta. Gladwin was responsible for dictionaries and
vocabularies, translations of Persian histories, collections of sto-
ries and revenue accounts, treatises on medicine and rhetoric,
and a Persian version of an abridgement of the biblical history
. . . None of this activity is likely to have been lucrative. Gladwin
confessed to spending heavily in acquiring manuscripts. Publi-
cation costs in India were notoriously high and the market was
very restricted. Success depended largely on the willingness of
the East India Company to purchase multiple copies” (ODNB).
With the armorial bookplates of physicist and university ad-
ministrator Coutts Trotter (1837–1887) to the front pastedowns.
Trotter had studied experimental physics under Helmholtz and
Kirchoff in Germany, but is best known for “the indubitable
improvements effected the administration of Cambridge during
his short academic career. ‘In fact, what was sometimes called
in jest “the Trotterization of the University” was so complete
that he had come to be regarded as indispensable’. Besides
129

80 Peter Harrington 133

 130 131

pamphlets on university topics, he published little, though his confessed to spending heavily in acquiring manuscripts. Publi-
researches were extensive” (ODNB). cation costs in India were notoriously high and the market was
Decidedly uncommon, Copac recording just five copies (Brit- very restricted. Success depended largely on the willingness of
ish Library, Royal Asiatic society, Oxford, Cambridge and TCD), the East India Company to purchase multiple copies” (ODNB).
OCLC adding eight more world-wide; just two sets recorded at
auction. £650 [106228]

£5,000 [108205] 131

GLUBB, Sir John Bagot. The Story of the Arab Legion.
130
London: [ for ex-officers of the Legion,] 1980
GLADWIN, Francis. The Persian Moonshee. Abridged by Octavo. Publisher’s full tan calf, title gilt direct to spine, raised bands,
William Carmichael Smyth. London: sold by J. M. Richardson single ruled panels to compartments with quatrefoil devices to the first,
and J. Sams, 1822 third, fifth and sixth, single fillet panel to both boards, badge of the
Arab Legion gilt to the front board, all edges gilt, in the original poly-
Octavo in half-sheets (215 × 130 mm). Late 19th-century green half
thene jacket. Frontispiece and 50 other plates, maps to the endpapers,
calf, raised bands to spine with ropework fillets gilt, tan morocco label
and 5 full-page maps to the text. Short split in the jacket, else very good
lettered in gilt to second compartment, marbled sides, edges speckled
indeed.
red, pink endpapers. Folding verb table. Two contemporary ownership
inscriptions to title-page and one later to front pastedown. Extremities First published in 1948, this commemorative edition limited to
slightly rubbed, spine sunned, contents lightly toned with occasional 100 signed and numbered copies (this number 28) “was pro-
faint spotting as usual, tan-burn to endpapers from turn-ins, infrequent duced by some retired British officers who once served in the
interlinear annotations in pencil. A very good copy. Arab Legion to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Glubb Pasha’s
second london edition of Gladwin’s Persian grammar, and entrance into the service of the Jordan Government in 1930”
the first edited by Hindustani scholar Carmichael Smyth; scarce, (author’s foreword). Glubb’s personal account of “the most in-
with just three copies in British and Irish institutional libraries fluential years” (Perkins) of this regiment formed help to protect
(Oxford, Cambridge and Aberdeen). Part II comprises a series the British mandate in the Trans-Jordan: “In the circumstances
of illustrative “Hikayati Luteef ” (“sweet stories”), with Part III, then prevailing in the region, it was vital to have a force capable
“Phrases and dialogues in Persian and English”, excised for this of operating in desert areas inhabited by quarrelling Bedouin
edition. The Moonshee (from the Persian munshi, an honorific giv- tribes . . . in later years [the Legion] gained a fine reputation for
en to skilled linguists and clerks) was first published in Calcutta dash, smartness, and fierce loyalty”.
in 1795. “The most frequently published author in late 18th-cen- Enser p. 425; Perkins p. 225, this edition not noted.
tury Calcutta, Gladwin was responsible for dictionaries and
vocabularies, translations of Persian histories, collections of sto- £125 [104509]
ries and revenue accounts, treatises on medicine and rhetoric,
and a Persian version of an abridgement of the biblical history
. . . None of this activity is likely to have been lucrative. Gladwin

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 128

132 Crimea, “and during the [Indian] mutiny he distinguished him-

self in various dangerous missions.”
GOLDSMID, Sir Frederic John. Eastern Persia An
In 1861 “he was assigned to the Indo-European Telegraph proj-
Account of the Journeys of the Persian Boundary ect, the purpose of which was to construct a telegraph line from
Commission 1870–71–72. Vol. I. The Geography with British India, along the coast of Persia and what is now Pakistan,
Narratives by Majors St. John, Lovett and Euan Smith then through central Persia and Asia Minor to connect with the
and an Introduction by Major-General Sir Frederic John European network at Constantinople” (Howgego), in 1865 suc-
Goldsmid. Published by Authority of the Government of ceeding Colonel Patrick Stewart, on his death, as director general.
India. Vol. II. The Zoology and Geology by W. T. Blanford. Having successfully negotiated the intricacies of the required
London: Macmillan & Co., 1876 treaties, he “personally superintended the construction of the
2 volumes, octavo (220 × 148 mm). Recent half calf by Trevor Lloyd, red and
telegraph line across the whole extent of Persia” leaving “a charac-
green contrasting labels, flat bands with single rule, double fillet panels teristically modest account of his adventures” (ODNB).
to compartments, arabesque corner-pieces, central lozenge tool, marbled When the government of India’s attention was drawn to the
sides, top edge gilt. Volume I with steel-engraved frontispiece and chromo- “political revolutions in the lands of the immediate neighbours
lithographic plate, 3 folding coloured maps, illustration and genealogical on the West” (Goldsmid’s Introduction), his experience of the
tables to the text; volume II, hand-coloured lithographic frontispiece, territory and superior negotiating skills made him the the obvious
heightened with gum arabic, printed by Mintern Bros. after drawings by
Keulemans and 17 other similar plates, birds and mammals, together with
10 other uncoloured plates of reptiles after G. H. Ford, illustrations to the
text, folding coloured map. A narrow tidemark of hygroscopic damping at
the head of the frontispiece of volume II, image unaffected, light browning
to the text and plates in general, but overall a clean set, handsomely bound.
first edition of this highly important account of the region
compiled from the records kept by the members of the Com-
mission sent to establish the delimitation of the disputed border
between Persia and Baluchistan.
Goldsmid, the commissioner, had established a reputation for
himself as an officer of considerable intelligence and resource.
While serving in the First Opium War (1840–1) as a soldier of the
army of the East India Company, Goldsmid had begun study-
ing oriental languages “for which he showed a marked faculty”
(ODNB). He was subsequently involved in the settlement of the
annexation of Sind; attached to the Turkish contingent in the 128

82 Peter Harrington 133

choice as boundary commissioner for the delimitation of this dis-
turbed borderland.
“His award was eventually accepted by the shah’s government.
In the same year Goldsmid was entrusted with the even more del-
icate task of investigating the claims of Persia and Afghanistan to
the province of Sistan. The arbitral award was published at Tehran
on 19 August 1872; Persia was confirmed in the possession of Sis-
tan, while a section of the Helmand was left in Afghan territory.
The impartiality of the award satisfied neither party, but it had the
desired effect of keeping the peace. Goldsmid was created a KCSI
in 1871, and received the thanks of the government of India.”
A significant contributor to the geographical section was Major
Oliver B. St John, whose “maps of Persia and Persian Baluchistan
. . . remained for decades the standard authority” and who also
assisted W. T. Blanford in the zoological and geological portion
of the work, a survey commended by the Encyclopaedia Britannica
for its “great care and minuteness.” An excellent set of this model
regional survey.
Anker, Bird Books and Bird Art, 45; Ghani, p. 153; Howgego, IV, G31; Nis-
sen ZBI 405 for Blanford’s Zoology and Geology comprising volume II;
Wood, p. 362.

£2,750 [78611] 135

133 would form the subject of a chapter on the development of the Is-
GOLDZIHER, Ignaz. Beiträge zur Geschichte der lamic sects in his Vorlesungen über den Islam (see following item).
Sprachgelehrsamkeit bei den Arabern. Vienna: in £150 [100558]
Commission bei Karl Gerold’s Sohn, 1871–3
3 offprints bound in 1 volume, octavo (221 × 142 mm). Recent brown pat- 135
terned boards, patterned endpapers. Text in German with frequent Arabic
types. Two neat ink inscriptions to title. Spine rolled, surface splitting to GOLDZIHER, Ignaz. Vorlesungen über den Islam.
inner hinge, edges tanned, text lightly toned and creased with occasional Heidelberg: Carl Winter’s Universitätsbuchhandlung, 1910
faint dampstaining to top and fore edges. A very good copy.
Octavo. Original blue cloth, titles to spine gilt, white and tan endbands,
Rare offprints from the periodical Sitzungsberichte der Wiener Akade- frame to boards in blind, purple endpapers. Negligible rubbing to ex-
mie der Wissenschaften (Proceedings from the Vienna Academy of Sciences), tremities, minor abrasion to rear board, very occasional underlining in
together collecting Goldziher’s important essays on the history pencil. An excellent copy.
of Arabic philology, which he begun shortly after submitting first edition of Goldziher’s influential writings on Islam,
his doctoral dissertation on Judaeo-Arabic biblical exegesis at which were originally intended to be read over the course of a
Leipzig in 1870 at the age of 20. His findings proved influential lecture tour to the United States in 1907. However, Goldziher
in the 20th-century revisionist studies of the Qur’an and Muslim was suffering from ill-health and never made the journey, de-
origins, which examined in particular the works of the early Arab ciding instead to publish his lectures in book-form, with a few
philologists. Goldziher is considered the father of modern Islamic alterations. The subjects covered include Muhammad and his
studies and is best remembered for his path-breaking Muhammed- relationship to Islam, Sufism, the emergence of Islamic law,
anische Studien (Muslim Studies, Halle: 1889–90), a radically sceptical kalam (dogmatic theology) and the sects. It was reprinted several
approach to the hadith literature, the corpus of sayings and deeds times, translated into English as The Development of Islamic Theol-
attributed to the Prophet Muhammad. ogy and Law, and remains a highly influential work: along with
his Muhammedanische Studien (Halle, 1889–90), it helped establish
£150 [100556] Goldziher’s reputation as the father of modern Islamic studies.

134 £200 [100453]

GOLDZIHER, Ignaz. Beiträge zur Literaturgeschichte der
Sî‘â und der Sunnitischen Polemik. Vienna: in Commission
bei Karl Gerold’s Sohn, 1874
Offprint, octavo (222 × 143 mm). Recent marbled boards, patterned end-
papers. Text in German with frequent Arabic types. Spine gently rolled,
text-block a touch creased and very faintly toned with occasional faint
dampstaining to top and fore edges. A very good copy.
Rare offprint from the periodical Sitzungsberichte der Wiener Akademie
der Wissenschaften, no. LXXVIII. Goldziher’s findings in this article

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk 83

 136

136 Syria, Lebanon, Alexandria, Suez and Petra, a series of his views
being published by Frith who had essentially underwritten the
GOOD, Frank Mason. Views in Upper Egypt. London: W.
trip. The second trip was to Egypt during 1868–9, “from Alexan-
Mansell, 1871–2 dria to Abu Simbel on the second cataract . . . between these two
Landscape quarto (260 × 50 mm). Brown contemporary morocco over places, Good photographed about everything of interest” (p. 48);
bevelled boards, title in gilt to front board within a broad panel in blind,
and the third in the winter of 1871–2 included Egypt, Constantino-
the same panel to rear board, paired bands to spine, broad gilt roll to
each, panels in blind to compartments with quatrefoil centre-tool, all
ple and Malta – “the Egyptian part being a repetition of the 1868
edges gilt, zig-zag roll gilt to the turn-ins, white moiré effect endpapers. tour” – from which expedition this selection dates; evidenced by
58 original albumen prints (157 × 205 mm), photographer’s number- the presence here of an image of the great temple at Abu Simbel
ing in the negative, images mounted rectos only on linen-hinged card showing the facade following Mariette’s clearance operations of
leaves. The album a little rubbed, some judicious restoration at the 1869 (Lazard p. 49). During his fourth and final tour of 1875 he
extremities; variable, but mainly light, foxing of the mounting leaves, visited Palestine, Syria and Lebanon.
some marginal fading of the prints, one or two a little spotted, overall Good joined the Photographic Society in 1864, in 1880 serving
very good, the majority with excellent contrast and tonal range.
as a judge of its annual exhibition. He is probably best known
Attractive album of archaeological images from Egypt taken by one for his Near Eastern stereograph series, but it is very likely that
of Francis Frith’s closest associates. The album contains a won- many notable images of the region from the 1860s and 1870s
derful selection of Good’s archaeological views including Heliop- previously credited to Frith, should in fact be attributed to
olis, Abu Simbel, Karnak, Luxor, Philae, with the party’s dahabieh Good (see Phoenix, “Preparing an Acquisition Report for the
moored at the island, and the Memnomium at Thebes. Albums Portfolio, F. Frith’s Photo-Pictures of the Lands of the Bible
concentrating solely on Good’s work are decidedly uncommon. Illustrated by Scripture Words”, Ryerson University, theses and
Frank Mason Good (1839–1928) was born in Deal, Kent, the son dissertations, paper 1181, 2008). Lazard is certainly correct in
of a chemist and druggist, which “probably explains his skill in his “conviction . . . that Good was an outstanding ‘landscapist’,
the manipulation of chemicals” (Lazard p. 47). He first travelled acclaimed by his contemporaries” but sadly “afterwards, for
to Egypt as Francis Frith’s assistant in late 1857. Subsequently he reasons I do not understand, completely forgotten by the photo-
made four photographic tours of the Middle East on his own be- historians of today” (p. 46).
half. His first trip was made in 1866–7, taking in Greece Palestine, With the gift inscription to the front free endpaper verso,

84 Peter Harrington 133

 137 138

“Wm. Irving Page from his friend A. M. Sandbach, 1873”. The 138
recipient Walter Page (1840–1904), sometime house surgeon at
G[REEN], J[ohn.] Journey from Aleppo to Damascus:
St George’s, was a respected astronomer, a fellow of the Royal
Astronomical Society and of the RGS, who was “fond of travel-
With a Description of Those Two Capital Cities, and
ling and had visited nearly all parts of the globe”. the Neighbouring Parts of Syria. To which is added, an
Account of the Maronites inhabiting Mount Libanus, etc.
See Gernsheim, Incunabula 584; Lazard, “Frank Mason Good and his
Middle East Photographs”, in The Photohistorian, no. 93, summer 1991.
Collected from their own Historians. Also the Surprising
Adventures and Tragical End of Mostafa, a Turk, who,
£12,500 [108084] after professing Christianity for for many Years in Spain
and Flanders, returned to Syria, carrying with him his
137 Christian Wife. London: for W. Mears [and 3 others], 1736
GRANT, Johnson. Arabia: a Poem. Leeds: Printed at the Octavo (194 × 120 mm). Nineteenth-century half sheep, marbled sides,
Intelligence-Office by Griffith Wright, and sold by J. Hatchard, raised bands gilt to spine, black morocco label, edges sprinkled red.
Folding map frontispiece, woodcut head- and tailpieces and figurative
London; Robinson, Leeds; and other Booksellers, 1811 initials. From the library of British Arabist and colonial agent Col. S. B.
Octavo. Sewn in original marbled wrappers with letterpress label with Miles (1838–1914), with printed bookplate noting his widow’s bequest of
price to front panel. Wrappers a little rubbed, light toning of the text, the collection to Bath Public Library in 1920, and associated manuscript
else very good. shelf-marks and blind-stamps as usual; 20th-century bookseller’s ticket
first edition; extremely uncommon, Copac with just three of William George, Bristol, to rear pastedown. Joints and tips very lightly
locations – British Library, Oxford and Cambridge – OCLC adds rubbed, front inner hinge superficially split at foot, browning to endpa-
pers, very short tear to folding map stub, the image unaffected, contents
University of Victoria, BC, and Library of Congress. A graduate
crisp and clean. An excellent copy, bound with the terminal advertisement
of St John’s, Oxford, Grant (1773–1844), was an evangelical, and leaf.
“a hard-working clergyman” with several livings in Leicester-
shire and London: “his considerable literary output included first and only edition. “Part I, the journey Aleppo to Da-
A Summary of the History of the English Church, a memoir of a girl mascus, was communicated to [the author] by a friend, and the
parishioner, and occasional poetry, notably Arabia inspired by map illustrates this route. The descriptions of Aleppo and Da-
travels to the Holy Land” (ODNB). mascus are taken from the Nouveau mémoires de missions de la Com-
The author’s footnotes include descriptions of Mecca, Medi- pagnie de Jésus. Part II is a translation from De La Roque’s Voyage
na, and Socotra, and a summary of the life of Muhammad; in to Mt. Lebanon . . . Green is much concerned with the effect on
his final note Grant directs readers to Waring’s Tour of Sheeraz for the Levant trade of the Russian-German attempt to dismember
an account of the Wahhabis, and stresses that “in the descrip- Turkey” (Blackmer). Green (c.1688–1757) also published maps
tions of the trade of Moorish Spain, the productions of Arabia under the name of Braddock Mead: his “erratic personal life
Felix – the Caravanseras [sic] of the Desert, and in other parts ended in a leap from a third-storey window while attempting to
of the Poem, I have adhered to approved authorities”, noting in elope with a 12-year-old heiress” (University of Michigan, The
particular Shaw, Pococke and Niebuhr. A second edition was President’s Report for 1767–77, p. 6).
published in 1815. Blackmer 745; Weber 494.

£350 [104667] £2,000 [117604]

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk 85

 “The zenith of Persian lyric poetry”
140
HAFIZ, Shams al-Din Muhammad. Specimen Poeseos
Persicae, Sive Muhammedis Schems-Eddini notioris
agnomine Haphyzi Ghazelae, sive odae sexdecim ex initio
Divani depromptae, nunc primum latinitate donatae,
cum metaphrasi ligata & soluta, paraphrasi item ac notis.
Vienna: Typographeo Kaliwodiano, 1771
Octavo (187 × 106 mm). Contemporary blue morocco, gilt fillets to spine
forming compartments, title to second and date to foot gilt, single-fillet
border gilt to covers, board-edges ruled in gilt, all edges gilt, hatched
roll gilt to turn-ins, marbled endpapers. Persian types, 5 woodcut head-
and tailpieces. Armorial bookplates of Mathew Wilson to the front free
endpaper and Frances Mary Richardson Currer to front pastedown.
Near-contemporary inked manuscript note to the second blank, prais-
ing “this admirable work” and mentioning Hindley’s edition of Hafez
(published 1800). Spine lightly rubbed and faded, mild rubbing to
extremities, corners bumped, a few light markings to covers, the front
unevenly sunned, small stain to sig. A2r, these flaws minor: an excellent,
crisp copy, complete with the errata leaf.
139 first edition of any substantial part of the Hafiz corpus in the
original Persian, compiled by Austro-Hungarian diplomat and
Persianist Count Karl Emmerich Reviczky (1737–1793). With the
139 bookplate of Frances Mary Richardson Currer (1785–1861), “En-
GRIERSON, James Moncrieff. The Armed Strength of gland’s earliest female bibliophile” (ODNB), whose famous library
Russia. Prepared in the Intelligence Branch of the War at Eshton Hall, Yorkshire, Dibdin judged to place her “at the head
Office. London: HMSO, 1886 of all female collectors in Europe” (ibid.) and to be surpassed only
Octavo (234 × 137 mm). Modern red half calf, matching cloth boards, by the collection of Earl Spencer, who acquired Reviczky’s libary
title gilt to spine, edges sprinkled red. 2 folding lithographed maps, co- en bloc in 1768. Currer was a neighbour of the Brontës and her
loured in outline, 5 lithographed plates. Light toning, else very good. surname provided Charlotte with her pseudonym, Currer Bell.
first edition, with a print run of 300 copies only and conse- Mathew Wilson, he of the second bookplate, was the name of
quently uncommon, with four copies only on Copac. This highly both Currer’s maternal grandfather and her mother’s cousin (who
detailed analysis of every aspect of the organization of the Russian in 1800 also became her father-in-law).
army, which superseded far slighter issues of 1873 and 1882, was In this “pioneering work” (Ginter-Frolow), Revickzy provides
compiled by the British Army’s foremost expert on the subject and the Persian text of 16 ghazals by Hafiz, with parallel Latin trans-
published at a time when tension between the two empires was lations, a lengthy introduction with a life of the author, and a
reaching crisis point in Asia. detailed commentary. English orientalist John Richardson pub-
Grierson was one of the period’s most intellectually brilliant lished an English translation of Revickzy’s work entitled A Speci-
soldiers. He had passed out fourth in his class from the RMA and men of Persian Poetry in 1774.
joined the Royal Artillery in 1878. “In 1879 he accompanied the Aus- European readers had their first glimpse of Hafiz in a brief
trian armies in the occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and in reference found in the Viaggi of Pietro della Valle (1650). Franz
1880 went to the Russian manoeuvres at Warsaw as correspondent Meninski included one ghazal by Hafiz in his Thesaurus linguarum
for the Daily News. In 1881 Grierson joined his battery in India, but orientalum (4 vols, 1680–7), as did Thomas Hyde in his Synatgma
soon after his arrival became attaché in the quartermaster-general’s dissertationum (1767). “The next steps in discovering Hafiz’s poetry
department at Simla. He was employed on intelligence work, and were made by an amateur orientalist, the young Austrian diplo-
his pen was busy; besides contributions to The Pioneer, he produced mat count Rewiczski [sic], and a British scholar, the learned and
a volume of notes on the Turkish army, an Arabic vocabulary, and a versatile William Jones . . . they enthusiastically exchanged their
gazetteer of Egypt” (ODNB). views about oriental poetry in general and Hafiz in particular in a
He served in the Egyptian Campaign of 1882, and on his return correspondence that lasted from 1768 to 1770” (Dynes, Asian Ho-
to India passed first into the Staff College. “At the Staff College mosexuality, pp. 264–5).
he finished his translation of Grodekoff ’s work, which he entitled In 1770 Jones published his Histoire de Nader Chah, to which he
Campaign in Turcomania and passed out with honours in French and appended French version of ten Hafiz odes and two of Reviczky’s
Russian. On leaving he served for a time in the Russian section of Latin translations. The following year, in his Grammar of the Persian
the intelligence division under General Henry Brackenbury. He was Language, Jones included a translation of the Shirazi Turk ghazal,
promoted captain in 1886, and in the following year joined a battery which he entitled “A Persian Song”. The book’s huge success “ef-
in India . . . In 1889, at Brackenbury’s request, Grierson returned to fectively marked the birth of Romantic Orientalism” (Encyclopaedia
the intelligence division and became head of the Russian section.” Iranica), precipitating a flood of European translations and edi-
tions of Persian literature, and original works by the likes of By-
£850 [59456] ron, Thomas Moore, and Goethe, whose West–östlicher Divan was

86 Peter Harrington 133

 140

inspired directly by Hammer-Purgstall’s German translation of

Hafiz. But it was only after Reviczky had explained the meaning of
the first couplet of the Shirazi Turk ode that Jones was able to pro-
duce a satisfactory English rendering of the emblematic poem.
The first Persian edition of the collected poems of Hafiz was
published in Calcutta in 1791: that edition is now unobtainably
rare. There was no complete edition in English until Clarke’s
translation in 1891. Reviczky’s edition is uncommon, with five
copies only traced in British and Irish libraries, some 25 scattered
across North America and Europe, and only three appearances
141
in auction records since at least 1975. “Hafiz is the most popular
of Persian poets. If a book of poetry is to be found in a Persian
home, it is likely to be the Divan (collected poems) of Hafiz . . . “Although the majority of the book is about her travels in Rus-
No other Persian poet has been the subject of so much analysis, sia, it is packaged as harem literature, using the words ‘harem’
commentary, and interpretation. Nor has any poet influenced the and ‘Circassian’ in the title to attract readers. Offering a mix of
course of post-14th-century Persian lyrics as much as he has . . . harem and travel account, the descriptions of harems and Ot-
by common consent he represents the zenith of Persian lyric poet- toman women are combined with Harvey’s careful observation
ry” (Encyclopaedia Iranica). of landscape, towns, street scenes, and aspects of domestic life
such as food traditions and cooking . . . Like Lady Brassey’s
Magdelana Ginter-Frolow, “From Armchair Literates to Art Historians: books that had their origins in letters written home, Harvey’s
The Polish Collections of Persian Manuscripts” in The Shaping of Persian
work was apparently based on diaries entries made during her
Arts, ed. Kadoi and Szanto, p. 54.
travels. Unlike Brassey’s limited interest in the lives of women
£2,750 [114406] abroad, Harvey positioned herself to write extensively about
the Turkish women that she met” (Lewis & Micklewright, Gen-
141 der, Modernity and Liberty: Middle Eastern and Western Women’s Writ-
ings, p. 101). Harvey had previously published a similar account
HARVEY, Annie Jane. Turkish Harems and Circassian of a cruise to the Levant, and subsequently wrote a travelogue
Homes. London: Hurst & Blackett, 1871 on Spain. She published fiction under the pseudonym of An-
Octavo (210 × 134 mm). Recent red half morocco on old marbled boards drée Hope.
by Trevor Lloyd, black morocco label, wavy gilt roll to the bands, floral
device to compartments, marbled edges and endpapers. Chromolitho- Blackmer 791.
graphic frontispiece and title page, after drawings by the author, lithog-
raphy by Hanhart. A little rubbed on the boards, slight foxing front and £1,500 [86936]
back, light browning, else very good.
first edition of this uncommon and illuminating account
of a yacht cruise to Constantinople, the Crimea, and Circassia.

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk 87

 142 143

142 twin labels, concentric gilt rule and roll tool border on sides, large
central onlaid red morocco panel titled and decorated in gilt, all edges
HASSAN, Hafiz Ahmed. Pilgrimage to the Caaba and gilt, richly gilt turns-ins, marbled endpapers. Decorative photochromo-
Charing Cross. London: W. H. Allen & Co. 1871 lithograph title page, photochromolithograph portrait of Mangal Singh
Octavo. Original green cloth, bevelled boards, title to spine, and to within ornamental gold border, plates numbered I–LXXIX: 59 photo-
the front board within decorative panel, edges stained red, brown sur- chromolithograph plates (2 double-page), 19 other plates (including
face-paper endpapers. Mounted photographic portrait frontispiece. A photogravures from photographs, 3 plans & maps), one plate with one
little rubbed, lower fore-corner showing mild signs of damp, hinges photochromolithograph and one photogravure; nine of the ten chapters
starting, half-title browned, else very good. with coloured pictorial initial letter and either colour pictorial or pho-
togravure head-piece. A few old wormholes with small area of worming
first edition. The author held a position equivalent to chan- near foot of front cover and affecting inner morocco joints but binding
cellor of the exchequer at the court of the young Nawab of Tonk, sound, internally clean and the plates bright.
a small Muslim kingdom in Rajasthan, hedged on all sides by
first edition of this lavish volume, a pioneering study of Mu-
Hindu-ruled states. After the death of the Thakoor of Lawa, the
ghal art treasures in the collection of the Maharajah of Ulwar
largest tributary of Tonk, and a number of his retainers at the
(present day Alwar) in Rajasthan produced, as Hendley explains
home of the prime minister of Tonk, the local political agent
in his preface, “at the sole cost” of the Maharajah. He goes on to
Lieutenant-Colonel Eden supported Lawa’s claims in the inci-
say: “the photographs are, unless otherwise noted, the work of
dent and deposed the Nawab.
Mr. G. Wyatt of Ulwar, and the coloured illustrations are, almost
Hassan was a key member in a deputation that set out for
without exception, reproduced from copies made from the orig-
London to appeal against the local agent’s findings. He gives a
inals by Budha, a talented artist in the employ of H.H. the Ma-
highly-detailed account of the voyage from Bombay to Jedda via
harajah”. The subjects covered are wide-ranging, from miniature
Aden and Hodyda, and of the journey on camel-back to Mecca,
painting to arms and armour, clothing, bookbinding, textiles and
where they complete the hajj, and on to Medina to see the Proph-
jewellery. The Spectator’s review was glowing: “here is a superb vol-
et’s tomb. The party then returned to Jedda, from where Hassan
ume” (27 April 1889).
set out for London via Suez and Marseilles. Hassan’s appeal was
The publisher was the printing pioneer William Griggs (1832–
unsuccessful, and the Nawab’s son continued in his stead.
1911). In the late 1860s Griggs developed the technique of photo-
Not in Macro. chromolithography, whereby multiple negatives with the colours
separated by varnishes were carefully registered and printed to
£600 [93964] produce full colour images of quite startling realism. He was hired
by the South Kensington Museum, now the V&A, in the 1880s to
“Here is a superb volume” photograph and produce plates of items in their collection, which
143 were published in sections under the general title Portfolios of
Industrial Arts. He had a special association with Indian art that be-
HENDLEY, Thomas Holbein. Ulwar and its Art gan when, at the age of 18, his interest was piqued by working at
Treasures. London: W. Griggs, 1888 the Indian court of the Great Exhibition of 1851. “As well as being
Quarto (370 × 275 mm). Publisher’s deluxe binding of dark green mo- a British pioneer of colour photolithography, Griggs was a leading
rocco over bevelled boards, decorative gilt spine, red and olive green

88 Peter Harrington 133

 144

Best edition of “the first encyclopaedia of Islam” (Stroumsa)

144
HERBELOT, Barthelémy d’. Bibliothèque orientale.
Ou Dictionnaire universel, contenant tout ce qui fait
connoître les peuples de l’Orient . . . The Hague: J. Neaulme
& N. van Daalen, 1777–9.
4 volumes, quarto (257 × 200 mm). Contemporary marbled boards,
rebacked to style, old labels laid down, edges dyed yellow and sprinkled
red, grey-brown endpapers. Portrait frontispiece by Houbraken, title
pages printed in red and black, 4 folding tables in volume 4. Shelf-marks
inked and stamped to spines (see below), front pastedowns with ink
stamps of Thacker & Co., Bombay. Extremities lightly rubbed, a few triv-
143
ial spots to contents. An excellent set.
First published in 1697, this revised and expanded edition of
exponent of the art for the last quarter of the 19th century. He was d’Herbelot’s monumental work is “generally considered the
one of the first to practise halftone block making and collotype best” (Arcadian Library, p. 238), containing supplements by J. J.
and helped to bring about rapid printing using cylinder presses. Reiske, “undoubtedly the best Arabist in Germany” (ibid.), Leiden
He was also a more than competent photographer” (ODNB). professor H. A. Schultens, and other pre-eminent 18th-century
Colonel Thomas Holbein Hendley (1847–1917), was a surgeon orientalists. Much of the Bibliothèque orientale is in fact translated or
in the Bengal Medical Service. “He had no war service, but was adapted from the Kashf al-Zunun, a 17th-century Arabic work by Ot-
well known as an authority on Indian art. In 1883 he organized toman scholar Katip Çelebi considered “the first comprehensive
the Jaipur Exhibition, and afterwards the Jaipur Museum; he was dictionary of bibliography of the Islamic world”, describing some
one of the founders of the Quarterly Journal of Indian Art and was the 15,000 books in Arabic, Persian and Turkish (The Oxford Encyclo-
author of several works on that subject . . . Colonel Hendley led a paedia of Philosophy, Science and Technology in Islam, p. 440). The Kashf
very strenuous life, and will rank among those who have really un- al-Zunun did not appear in print until a multivolume Arabic and
derstood India and the true signification of mid-Eastern ideas and Latin edition was published in the mid-19th century (1835–58). As
art” (obituary in the British Medical Journal, 10 Feb. 1917). such d’Herbelot’s work has been recognised not only as “one of
This copy is interesting in that Griggs’s imprint has been neatly the landmarks in Arabic studies” (Atabey) but also “the first ency-
excised from the title page and final leaf of letterpress, perhaps clopaedia of Islam” (Stroumsa, A New Science, p. 131).
implying that this copy may have been intended for presentation This copy comes from the library of British Arabist and colonial
under the guise of a non-commercial publication. There are some agent Col. S. B. Miles (1838–1914), with his ownership inscription
light indecipherable pencillings on these two leaves. There is also to the front pastedowns, and printed bookplates noting his wid-
a printed slip pasted below the caption of the portrait of Mangal ow’s bequest of his collection to Bath Public Library in 1922, with
Singh noting his accession as Maharajah on 1 January 1889. associated manuscript shelf-marks and blind-stamps as usual;
Decidedly uncommon: Copac locates copies at six British and loosely inserted is sheet of copy typescript with Miles’s pencilled
Irish institutional libraries (British Library, V&A, Cambridge, translation of the entry on Oman. A superb association for this
Oxford, Guildhall, National Trust) and we have traced another cornerstone text.
at the Royal Collection (a presentation copy from the Maharajah
of Ulwar to Queen Victoria, held at Osborne House); OCLC cites Arcadian Library 8345; Atabey 574 refers; not in Blackmer
some 28 locations worldwide; only five copies have appeared at
£3,500 [117606]
public auction since 1976 and only one of those in the “original
morocco gilt”.
£4,500 [117685]

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk