Chardin, Jean

Estimate

3,000 - 5,000 USD

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Description

Travels of Sir John Chardin into Persia and East Indies through the Black-Sea and the country of Colchis. London: Moses Pitt, 1686
paper, ink, leather

Folio (12 1/8 x 7 3/4 in.; 310 x 200 mm). Portrait (dated 1643), engraved title, one folding map, 14 plates (of 15), 3 head-pieces, 2 tailpieces and 3 initials; washed, lacking general title-page and one plate, plate 7 (Irivan) in two leaves, upper margin of Hhhh2 torn (affecting one letter). Modern calf in the style of an seventeenth-century binding.

Literature

Wing C2043; ESTC R12885; Cox I, pp. 249–250; Nordenskiold 388; Boghossian, Iconographie Armenienne 96, 97, 121, 124, 169; Ghani, pp. 70–72

Catalogue Note

First English edition published concurrently with the French edition.

Chardin was driven from France by the persecution of the Protestants. Settling in London he soon became court jeweler to Charles II. The present account describes his travels as agent for the purchase of jewels to Shah Solyman III, and his journeys to Russia and India in 1664–1669 and 1671–1677. In pages 242–54 the authors describes his travels in Armenia, with views of Yerevan and Etchmiadzin.