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Asia / Japan & Far East

A Dutch commander's description of Japan, with a large lithographed map

HUYSSEN VAN KATTENDYKE, Willem Johan Cornelis. Uittreksel uit het dagboek van W.J.C. Ridder Huyssen van Kattendyke, Kapitein-Luit. ter zee, gedurende zijn verblijf in Japan in 1857, 1858 en 1859.
The Hague, W.P. van Stockum (printed by Giunta d'Albani), 1860. 8vo. With a large folding lithographed map (67 x 54.5 cm) depicting the west coast of Japan and Kiusiu. Original printed publisher's boards. [2 blank], [10], 236 pp. Full description
€ 4,000
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Critical survey of Dutch mercantile activities in Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka

[INDONESIA - INDIA - SRI LANKA]. Nederlandsch India, in haaren tegenwoordigen toestand beschouwd; of waar en gronding berigt van haare regeering, derzelver bestier en handelingen; haare bezittingen; haare militie; haar kwijnenden handel, zeevaart, enz.
Batavia [= Amsterdam?], [1780?]. 8vo. With a decoration on the title page, headpiece and factotum all built up from rococo typographic ornaments. Contemporary marbled paper wrappers. 80 pp. Full description
€ 2,950
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Sights of Nagasaki, including Japanese views of the Dutch: the famed arts of Edo find a new market

ISONO BUNSAI (BUNSAI MADAKI). Nagasaki miyage [= Souvenir of Nagasaki].
Nagasaki, Yamato-ya Yoshihei juo, Koka 4 [= 1847]. 23 x 15.5 cm. Text and illustrations printed from 42 woodblocks, probably on kozo (mulberry bark) paper (vertical chainlines about 34 mm apart), with an astrological figure and constellation on the title-page (the Mao Xiu lunar mansion?), 12 double-page and 6 full-page illustrations (a few with Dutch titles as well as Japanese) including a map of Nagasaki harbour (showing the Dutch and Chinese trading factories and three ships), two Chinese merchants at a table in the factory library while their servant unpacks a chest of books, a bedroom with a VOC captain(?) and merchant(?), the latter with his pocket watch and Indonesian servant, a cluster of Japanese ships making a dense forest of masts, a landscape with dozens of kites, another with many people on a bridge over a river, a Dutch VOC ship in great detail, a VOC merchant at dinner with an Indonesian servant and two Japanese geishas, a Dutch woman, an elephant, festivals (one with a dragon and drums), and other landscapes, city views, etc. The texts show a wide variety of writing styles (kaisho, gysho and sosho) with the blocks for many texts (and one illustration) including seals of authors or artists, mostly in tensho (seal characters). Original publishers blue paper wrappers in the traditional Japanese fukurotoji manner, publishers manuscript title-label on front wrapper. [1], 40, [1] double ll. Full description
€ 3,250
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An exquisite example of a "Nanban Byobu" (or "Southern Barbarian screen");
a beautiful visual record of the encounter between the Japanese and the Portuguese

[JAPANESE FOLDING SCREEN - NANBAN BYOBU - THE PORTUGUESE IN JAPAN]. [A Japanese folding screen, specifically a nanban byôbu, depicting the arrival of a Portuguese ship in Japan].
[Japan, late Edo period (1615-1868)]. 104 x 272 cm (each illustrated panel: ca. 90.5 x 44.5 cm). Ink, watercolours, gold paint, and gold leaf on paper. The image is surrounded by a frame of silk brocade (a narrow frame in burgundy and gold and a wider frame in yellow, gold, and black, with a clear floral pattern; together the frame is 5 cm wide), the whole is mounted on six roiro (black) lacquered wood panels, with gilt metal fittings on the outer corners of the outer panels. The panels are backed with decorative paper. [6 panels]. Full description
€ 85,000
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24 Japanese colour drawings of lilies, with their romanized Japanese names, and prices of the bulbs

[NURSERY CATALOGUE - JAPAN]. Yuri hana shashin [= Drawings of lily flowers, from life].
[Yokohama?, ca. 1875?]. Very large 4to (39.5 x 27.5 cm). 24 Japanese flower drawings in black and grey ink with watercolour and gouaches, on Japanese (kozo/paper mulberry?) paper, with the romanized Japanese name, and the price of the bulbs (in francs and centimes) and sometimes colours or other information in French. Contemporary brown Japanese paste-paper wrappers with a bird and flower motif, stab-sewn at the head. [24] ll. Full description
€ 4,950
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16th-century Jesuit letters from Japan

[JESUITS - JAPAN]. Cartas que los Padres y Hermanos de la Compañia de Iesus, que andan en los Reynos de Iapon ...
Alcalá [der Henares], Spain, Juan Iniguez de Lequerica, 1575. 4to in 8s. With woodcut of the Crucifixion on verso of the colophon (2R4v), woodcut Japanese characters in the text (I8v), and woodcut decorated initials throughout. Contemporary limp vellum, with ties. [6 (of 8)], 315, [5] ll. Full description
€ 18,000
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Japanese plants depicted for the first time in the West

KAEMPFER, Engelbert (Sir Joseph BANKS, ed.). Icones selectæ plantarum, quas in Japonia collegit et delineavit.
London, [Library of the British Museum], 1791. Folio (42 x 26.5 cm.). With 59 etched plates, (8 are double-page), by Daniel Mackenzie. Slightly later half calf, marbled sides, gold-tooled monogram AL on spine. [4], 3, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 38,000
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An essential language guide for Japanese-Dutch trade relations

KANO RYO. [Title in Japanese:] Rangaku hitori annai. [= Guide to Dutch studies].
[Tokyo?], Shimogakudo, [ca. 1856]. Small 8vo. Japanese introduction to the Dutch language, comprising 37 printed and 1 blank double leaves (with the fold at the fore-edge) printed from 37 woodblocks (35 double-page plus the first and last single-page), with the first double leaf (with the title page) and the last double leaf (blank) serving as a pastedowns. With a second copy of the double-leaf with the title page, loosely inserted. Side stitched and oversewn, with the original publishers yellow wrappers (without any label) and a contemporary wrap-around sleeve (fukuro), preserved in a brown cloth slip-case in Japanese style. [1], 15, 10, 10, [1], [1 blank] ll. Full description
€ 7,850
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