Maritime History / Naval History

[EAST INDIA TRADING COMPANY - THE SWIFT]. East India Company "Swift" - account of a voyage to India and Malaysia 1794-5.
[Various places, including Saudi Arabia and Yemen, ca. 1796]. Small folio (ca. 19 x 30.5 cm. English manuscript on watermarked paper. With a loosely inserted manuscript map titled "A Chart shewing the Track of HMS Ship Myrtle" of the Bay of Biscay and Portugal, and a hand-coloured manuscript signal chart. Contemporary or slightly later half black morocco, marbled boards. 48 ll. Full description

ELWES, Alfred and A.A. DEENIK (translator). De zee en hare beheerschers, of beknopte geschiedenis der voornaamste zeemogendheden uit vroegeren en lateren tijd.
Sneek, Van Druten and Bleeker, 1861. 8vo. Contemporary red half sheepskin. XXV, 368 pp. Full description

[ENGLAND & SPAIN - TREATY OF MADRID]. [Gaspar de BRACAMONTE] and William GODOLPHIN. A treaty for the composing of differences, restraining of depredations, and establishing of peace in America, between the crowns of Great Britain and Spain. - Concluded at Madrid the 8/18th day of July, in the year of our Lord 1670. Translated out of Latin.
[London], in the Savoy, printed by the assigns of John Bill and Christopher Barker [= Thomas Newcombe], printers to the Kings most excellent Majesty, 1670. Small 4to. With a woodcut factotum and decorative bands built up from typographic ornaments (the crowned rose, harp, leak - depicted by a fleur-de-lis - and thistle representing England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland). Sewn. [1], [1 blank], 11, [1] pp. Full description

ESPINOSA, Antonio de. Copia de una carta que ha escrito desde la ciudad de Argel el padre procurador Fray Antonio de Espinosa, religioso calzado del Orden de la Santissima Trinidad, redencion de cautivos, y administrador de los cinco reales hospitales, que su sagrada religion tiene en aquella ciudad.
(Colophon: Madrid, Sebastian de Armendariz), 12 October [1688]. Small 4to (19 x 14 cm). With a large woodcut initial with a parrot. Disbound. 6 ll. Full description

FER, Nicolas de. Les forces de l' Europe, ou description des principales villes; avec leurs fortifications. ... Premiere partie[-dixième partie].
Paris, "chez l'auteur" [= Nicolas de Fer, a false imprint], 1695-1696 [printed in Amsterdam, for Pieter Mortier, 1695-ca. 1702].
With: (2) FER, Nicolas de. Costes de France, sur l' ocean & sur la Mer Mediterranée &c. avec leurs fortifications. ... Tome I[-II].
Paris, "Nicolas de Fer" [a false imprint], 1695. [printed in Amsterdam, for Pieter Mortier]. 2 works in 12 parts or volumes, bound as 1. Oblong 1mo (30 x 37 cm). Ad 1 with 10 letterpress title pages in red and black for the 10 parts; 5 engraved titles for parts 1-5 (that for part 5 repeating that for part 2); plus 234 beautifully engraved plates (a few folding) with 366 maps and views of fortified cities. Ad 2 with an engraved title page, 2 letterpress title pages in red and black and 40 engraved plates (including 2 folding), labelled A-S in part 1 and T-Oo in part 2. Contemporary tanned sheepskin, sewn on 5 cords, gold-tooled spine with the title in the 2nd of 6 compartments. Full description

FISHER, Alexander (J. LEHMAN DE LEHNSFELD, transl.). Dagboek eener ontdekkingsreis naar de Noorderpoolstreken, met de schepen Zijner Grootbrittanische Majesteit Hecla en Griper, in de jaren 1819 en 1820. Uit het Engelsch naar den vierden verbeterden druk door J. Lehman de Lehnsfeld.
Dordrecht, Blussé and Van Braam, 1822. 8vo. With a folding map of the Northwest Territories or Nonavut (Canada), including the Melville Island, and 2 engravings in the text of a musk ox and an Eskimo. Modern sprinkled orange paper over thin boards with a modern spine label with printed title. [4], 364 pp. Full description

FORBIN, Claude, comte de. Mémoires du comte De Forbin.
Amsterdam, François Girardi, 1748. 2 volumes. 12mo. With engraved author's portrait as frontispiece. Contemporary mottled, tanned sheepskin, gold-tooled spines. [4], 383, [1 blank]; [4], 344 pp. Full description

[FORTIFICATION PLAN - DEN HELDER - WILLEMSOORD]. KRAG, Rasmus. Kort over en deel af provindsen Nordholland med befestningen af de Helder, maritime & etablissementet Willemsoort samt en deel af den nye Nordhollandske Canal.
[The Netherlands?], 1825. Double Elephant 1mo sheet (92 x 63 cm). With a pen and ink-drawn fortification plan (ca. 85 x 55 cm) of the Den Helder fortifications and the marine shipyard Willemsoord, coloured by a contemporary hand, with a manuscript title, scales and a key in Danish, written in a fine and legible 19th-century hand surrounding the plan. On Whatman wove paper. Folded. [1] sheet. Full description

[FRENCH ROYAL NAVY]. [Binding title:] Abregé de la marine du Roy 1732.
[Paris?, 1732]. 13.5 x 19 cm. Manuscript in brown-black, red and blue ink on vellum, some of the lettering and borders gilt. With a beautiful frontispiece painting in coloured gouaches (14 x 9.5 cm) pasted on the page facing the opening of the text Contemporary gold-tooled red goatskin morocco, gold-tooled blue-black goatskin morocco pastedowns, gilt edges. Frontispiece plus [2], 26 ll., including 2 double and 1 larger folding. Full description

GIUSTINIANI, Agostino de. Castigatissimi annali con la loro copiosa tavola della eccelsa et illustrissima Republica di Genoa, da fideli et approvati scritti accuratamente racolti.
Genoa, Antonio Bellone, 1537. Folio. Title-page in red and black with a woodcut device incorporating the coat of arms of Genoa supported by angels (the cross in the arms also printed in red), a large woodcut showing Saint George slaying the dragon on the back of the title-page; beautiful woodcut decorated initials (some pictorial) in the text (at least 5 series). Set in roman type, with the privilege line on the title-page in a larger rotunda gothic, and with 5 different vine-leaf ornaments. Gold-tooled strong ivory vellum (ca. 1674/89? ), bound by Albert Magnus for the Dutch book collector Paulo van Uchelen, sewn on 5 supports, each board gold-tooled with an outer frame of double fillets with very small, square cornerpieces, an inner frame of 2 double fillets with small cornerpieces within the 2 double fillets and a crown in each of the four corners of the inner frame. The gold-tooled spine contains a black label with a gold-tooled elephant at the head and just below a manuscript title. Red and brown sprinkled edges. [14], 282 ll. Full description