Alexander Exquemelin

First edition in English of Exquemelin's illustrated history of famous pirates, the central primary source on the subject during its most famous era, with the continuation by Ringrose.

• Sold as a set of 2.
• Alexander Exquemelin (French).
• Continuation by Basil Ringrose (English).
• Bucaniers of America: Or, a true account of the Most remarkable Assaults Committed of the late years upon the Coasts of The West Indies, By the Bucaniers of Jamaica and Tortuga, Both English and French [...] Written originally in Dutch, by John Esquemeling.
• London: William Crooke, 1684; 1685.
• Two quarto volumes.
• 6 full-page and 2 double-page engravings of pirates and scenes of piracy, 2 folding maps and 1 double-page map, and 14 full-page engraved maps/plans.
• Prefaces at front and tables (indices) at rear of both volumes, 1 page of ads at end of part II, 7 pages of bookseller ads at rear of volume II.
• Bookplates from the Fox Pointe collection on front pastedowns.
• Bound in nineteenth-century full calf, rebacked with original brown morocco spine labels laid down, Cambridge-style boards ruled and corner-stamped in gilt, raised bands, spine ornamented in gilt, gilt dentelles, navy blue coated endpapers, all edges gilt. 

Once the surgeon to Captain Henry Morgan, Exquemelin offers first-hand accounts of buccaneering in the West Indies in the late-seventeenth century; his is one of the few works of documentary evidence for their exploits. It formed the mythology around many of the now-infamous pirates – Morgan himself successfully sued the author for defamation. Ringrose's work brings the history of pirates up to date with the travels of Captain Cook and other voyagers to the South Sea. The magnificent engravings depict battle scenes, maps of the Caribbean, and portraits of major leaders like Morgan. First published in Dutch in 1678, it is rare complete in both volumes with all maps and plates.

"It has provided the basis for all serious histories of the buccaneers and, in spite of some inaccuracies, remains the standard work on the subject" – David Cordingly

Sabin, "Bibliotheca Americana", 23479.