antiquarian rare books: travel & exploration,
atlases, maps and others
(internet) antiquarian bookshop
Bronckhorst, Netherlands
mail to Rob van der Graaf
for orders, condition reports etc
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visits by appointment only
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Hundreds of adventurous travel stories outside Europe,
by land and sea, ego documents,
most in first published edition
and in original or contemporary binding.
recent additions:
Portlock, Nathaniel
Reis naar de noord-west kust van Amerika. Gedaan in de jaren 1785, 1786, 1787 en 1788 door de kapteins Nathaniel Portlock en George Dixon
Amsterdam, Matthijs Schalekamp 1795 first Dutch edition.
4to, modern artificial leather with marbled endpapers. xii, (4), 265, (1) pages with a large folding map and 9 (8 folding) engravings. Very good with minor marginal browning.
Translation of “A Voyage Round the World; but more Particularly to the North-West Coast of America”, London 1789. Dixon also wrote a book about this voyage with the same title. Both men served under Captain Cook. In September 1785 Portlock and Dixon left England and sailed together for most of their three-year voyage. They crossed the Atlantic Ocean, reaching the Falkland Islands in January 1786, and transited Cape Horn to enter the Pacific Ocean. They reached the Hawaiian islands on 24 May and anchored in Kealakekua Bay (where Cook had been killed in 1779), but did not go ashore and proceeded on to what is now Alaska. After two years of plying the waters, Portlock and Dixon departed North America, reaching Macao in November 1788.
€ 1.250
Stanley, Henry M.
The Congo and the founding of its free state
New York, Harper & Brothers 1885 first US edition 2 volumes
8vo, publisher’s decorated cloth with minor shelf wear. xxvii, 528; x, 483 (12 ad) pages with many illustrations, 5 folding maps, 2 of them –very large, coloured and detailed- loose in rear pockets. Contents near Fine, virtually unread.
In the service of king Leopold ll of Belgium, Stanley went to Congo in 1879 to open the country for trade and further colonization. The first step was the construction of a wagon trail around the Congo rapids and a chain of trading stations on the river. Within three years and many adventures, his work had resulted in the presence of steamships on the Upper Congo as far as Stanley Falls. But, having found Tippu Tip, the most powerful of Zanzibar's slave traders of the 19th century, the new ruler of the Upper Congo, Stanley had no choice but to negotiate an agreement with him, to stop Tip coming further downstream. To achieve this, he had to allow Tip to build his final river station just below Stanley Falls, which prevented vessels sailing further upstream. Casada 892.
€ 1.350
Busbecq, Ogier Ghislain de
Den kaizarlijkken gezant Aug. Gisleen Busbeeq, aan den grooten Soliman
Tot Dordregt, voor Abraham Andriessz 1652 first Dutch edition
12mo, full vellum. 471, [33] pages with frontispiece and 5 other engravings. Title page with small cut-out mounted. Very good copy of a rare edition, only 4 copies in Worldcat.
Four epistles of Busbequius concerning his embassy into Turkey, being remarks upon the religion, customs, riches, strength and government of that people. Added, his advice how to manage war against the Turks and the oration of Ebraim Strotschen, a Polonian, sent Ambassador by Solyman, Emperor of the Turks, to Ferdinand the First, Emperor of Germany. First published in Latin as “Legationis Turcicae epistolae quatuor”. In 1554 and again in 1556, Ferdinand named him ambassador to the Ottoman Empire under the rule of Suleiman the Magnificent. His task for much of the time he was in Constantinople was the negotiation of a border treaty between his employer (the future Holy Roman Emperor) and the Sultan over the disputed territory of Transylvania. He had no success in this mission while Rustem Pasha was the Sultan's vizier, but ultimately reached an accord with his successor Semiz Ali Pasha.
€ 1.100
