Nieuhoff, Jan (1618-1672).

Estimate

1,000 - 1,500 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

An Embassy from the East India Company of the United Provinces, to the Grand Tartar Cham, Emperor of China... wherein the cities, towns, villages, ports, rivers, &c., in their passages from Canton to Peking are ingeniously describ'd. [Translated by] John Ogilby. London: Printed by the Author at his house in White-Friars, 1673

folio (415 x 264mm.), [2], 431, [1 (blank)] pp., title printed in red and black, illustration: engraved allegorical additional title by W. Hollar (1668), double-page map of China by Hollar, 18 plates (including one double-page plan), and 94 quarter-page illustrations in text, woodcut head- and tail-pieces and initials, binding: contemporary panelled calf gilt (see footnote), spine in seven compartments with raised bands gilt, the second lettered on red morocco "Mr Ogilbys China Tom.I", marbled edges, Ss2 and Tt1 with short tears, Fffff2 with rust hole with loss of a couple of letters, joints split, spine chipped, binding somewhat rubbed

Literature

Wing N1153; Lust 536; Cordier, Sinica 2347; VOC 543

Catalogue Note

Second edition in English. It is possible that the illustrations of China, Tartary and Tibet provided readers with some of their first views of the Orient. This translation includes Athanasius Kircher's essay on China, together with costume plates.

The binding of this volume is very similar to the other volumes of Ogilby's "English Atlas" series in this sale and to others that we have sold from the same series. Presumably Ogilby used the same binder to give a uniform identity to his works and this style may be described as a "publisher's binding" (cf. sale in these rooms 9 May 2006, lots 65-67, illustrated in catalogue). This volume is lettered on the spine "Mr Ogilbys China Tom.I" and is a companion to Dapper's Atlas chinensis (see lot 3126).