Recent Acquisitions

ARGENSOLA, Bartolome Leonardo de. Conquista de las islas Malucas.
[Madrid, Alonso Martin, 1609]. Small folio (22 x 30 cm). With an engraved architectural title-page showing an allegorical scene (the Moluccas represented by a native woman with feather headdress, cornucopia and sword, riding a crocodile, with the Spanish royal coat of arms in the sky) and a sleeping lion (representing the author?) in a separate cartouche below. Early 18th-century richly gold-tooled red morocco, each board with a large centrepiece a petit fers made partly with pointillé stamps. Full description

BELON, Pierre. L'Histoire de la nature des oyseaux, avec leurs descriptions, & naïfs portaicts retirez du naturel: escrite en sept livres, ...
Paris, Gilles Corrozet (colophon: printed by Benoit Prévost), 1555. 7 parts in 1 volume. Folio. With woodcut portrait (apparently of the dedicatee King Henri II), large woodcuts of the skeletons of a man and a bird on pp. 40-41, and 158 woodcuts (157 birds, 1 bat). All coloured by a contemporary hand.  Late 19th-century gold-tooled parchment, each board with the coat of arms of Count of Goblet d'Alviella, probably the Belgian lawyer, senator and professor at the University of Brussels, Eugène Félicien Albert, Count Goblet d'Alviella (1846-1925), in a frame of fillets, spine with gold fillets, gilt edges. Full description

[BIBLE - DUTCH]. Biblia, dat is: de gantsche H. Schrifture, vervattende alle de canonijcke boecken des Ouden en des Nieuwen Testaments.
Amsterdam, widow of Paulus Aertsz. van Ravesteyn, 1660. 3 parts in 1 volume. Large folio (47.5 x 32 cm). With an integral engraved general title-page, 6 double-page engraved maps, including a world map and a plan of Jerusalem, and 336 Bible-illustrations by Claes Jansz. Visscher (after Matthäus Merian?) on 42 numbered single-page plates. The maps and illustrations coloured by an early hand with extensive use of gold. 18th-century black so-called sharkskin over bevelled wooden boards (ca. 1770?), with 8 large silver corner-pieces and 2 large silver clasps with catchplates and anchorplates, all with matching stamped relief decoration, gilt and gauffered edges. The silver furnishings bear Amsterdam city hallmarks with year letter C and master's mark DF. Rebacked with most of the original backstrip mounted on the spine. Full description

BING, Valentijn and Jan BRAET VON UEBERFELDT. Nederlandsche kleederdragten, naar de natuur geteekend. | Costumes des Pays-Bas, dessinés d'après nature.
Amsterdam, Frans Buffa and sons, [1850-]1857. Large folio (58 x 42.5 cm). With 56 numbered tinted lithographed plates in fine publisher's hand colouring and highlighted with gum arabic, each 4 plates preceded by one leaf of explanatory letterpress texts in Dutch and French. Near contemporary mottled half sheepskin, gold-tooled spine. Full description

CASTELNAU, Francis de (botanical volumes by Hugh Algernon WEDDELL). Expédition dans les parties centrales de l'Amérique du Sud, de Rio de Janeiro a Lima, et de Lima au Para; exécutée par ordre du gouvernement Français pendant les années 1843 a 1847.
Paris, P. Bertrand, 1850-1859. 7 parts in 15 volumes. 8vo (6 vols.), 4to (7 vols.), folio (2 vols.). With 493 lithographed and tinted lithographed plates and maps, including 401 partly or completely hand-coloured. Later rust-red half morocco. Full description

[CHINESE WATERCOLOURS]. [Album with 12 Chinese watercolours].
[China, 19th century]. Oblong album (23.5 x 33.5 cm) with 12 delicate gouache and watercolour paintings on so-called rice paper (each ca. 19 x 28 cm), mounted on the album's leaves, each painting framed with strips of blue silk ribbon backed with paper attached at the corners. Embroidered binding (1917 or earlier), green braided ties. Full description

COMMELIN, Isaac. Fredrick Hendrick van Nassauw Prince va[n] Orangien zyn leven en bedryf.
Amsterdam, Jodocus Janssonius, 1651 (colophon: printed by Paulus Matthijsz., 1651). With an engraved title-page, a full-page engraved portrait of Frederik Hendrik, and 34 double-page (or in 2 cases larger folding) engraved plates. All beautifully coloured by a contemporary hand and most highlighted with gold.
With: (2) [ORLERS, Jan Jansz., and Isaac COMMELIN]. Wilhelm en Maurits van Nassau, Princen van Orangien, haer leven en bedrijf, of 't begin en voortgang der Nederlandsche oorlogen.
Amsterdam, Johannes Janssonius, 1651. With an engraved title-page, full-page engraved portraits of William and of Maurits, Maurits's full-page engraved coat of arms, and 46 double-page (or in 2 cases larger folding) engraved plates, mostly maps, plans and bird's-eye views of cities, fortifications and battles. All beautifully coloured by a contemporary hand and most highlighted with gold. 2 complementary works, each with 2 parts in 1 volume. Folio (32 x 21.5 cm). Uniform contemporary or near contemporary gold- and blind-tooled vellum. Ties lacking. Full description

CRUZ, Gaspar da. Tractado em que se co[n]tam muito por este[n]so as cousas da China, co[m] suas particularidades, [e] assi do reyno d[’]Ormuz.
Evora, André de Burgos, 1569 (colophon: 1570). Small 4to in 8s (18.0 x 14 cm). Title-page with woodcut Portuguese royal coat of arms and a 4-piece woodcut border, and further with some woodcut initials. Modern richly gold-tooled red morocco, boards gold-tooled in a panel design, with earlier brass clasps and catchplates. Full description

DESCARTES, René. Principia philosophiae: of beginselen der wysbegeerte [and other works].
With:
(2) Meditationes de prima philosophia of Bedenkingen van d'eerste wysbegeerte [and other works].
(3) Proeven der wys-begeerte; ofte Redenering. Om door bequame middelen de reden wel te leiden [and other works].
(4) Brieven, aan veele hoog-geagte personen, van verscheyde ampten, geschreven.
Amsterdam, Jan Claesz ten Hoorn, 1690-1692. 4 volumes. 4to. With an engraved frontispiece and engraved portrait of the author in volume 1, and about 200 woodcut diagrams and other illustrations (including about 5 full-page) plus repeats. Contemporary and largely uniform blind-tooled vellum. Full description

EXQUEMELIN (ESQUEMELIN), Alexandre Olivier. Historie der boecaniers, of vrybuyters van America.
Amsterdam, Nicolaas ten Hoorn, 1700. 3 parts (paginated as 2) in 1 volume. 4to. With an engraved title-page, a folding engraved map of South and Central America, and 7 engraved plates (1 folding). Red (goatskin) morocco (ca. 1920), with richly gold tooled turn-ins, double fillets on board edges, gilt edges, by the French Binders of Garden City, N.Y., a reincarnation of Robert Hoe's Club Bindery, arguably the finest bindery ever to operate in America. Full description