Description
Lisbon, Na Imprensa Nacional, 1843.. FIRST EDITION. 2 volumes. 8°, contemporary black full morocco (very lightly worn and rubbed, corners slightly bumped, some light spotting to endleaves), richly block-stamped in gilt on spine and covers, gilt inner dentelles, watered silk endleaves, all text-block edges gilt. Wood engraving of a ship in volume I, wood-engraved vignettes. Some foxing and occasional browning to plates; scattered light foxing to text. In most desirable, fine condition. Neat contemporary ink signature of J.C. da Costa on each half-title. (8 ll.), 245 pp., (2 ll.); (5 ll.), 235 pp., (4 ll.), 12 chalk-manner lithographic portraits with tissue guards. *** FIRST EDITION, rare. Written in the form of 100 cartas, or chapters, this correspondence from husband to wife discusses the history, customs, and present state of India (especially Calcutta), Macao, and China, based on the author's travels there and on his wide-ranging reading. Particular emphasis is given to the history of Portuguese discoveries, settlement and trade in the Far East, Chinese dynastic history, Chinese social life, culture, and institutions, tea, and Portugal's long rivalry with England in Asian commerce and colonial affairs. The lithograph plates include portraits of Chinese emperors and some of Andrade's Chinese friends, and portraits of the author and his wife after works by the noted Portuguese painter Domingos António de Sequeira (1768-1837). The Cartas opens and closes with two commendatory poems by Andrade's friend Francisco Antonio Martins Bastos, sometime poet, professor of Latin, and translator of much Latin poetry into Portuguese. José Ignacio de Andrade, born on the Island of Sancta Maria in the Azores in 1780, devoted his life to overseas commerce, making numerous voyages to India and China. After many years he became a director of the Bank of Portugal and the Bank of Lisbon. This first edition was distributed only to his friends, and is rare. A second, fairly common edition, also with 12 lithograph portraits and with many corrections and additions, came from the same press in 1847 and is as elegant as the first. *** Innocêncio IV, 370-1: without collation. Cordier, Sinica 2114: without collation. Lust, Western Books on China Published Up to 1850, 109: calling for only 10 lithographs. Cf. Gomes, Bibliografia macaense 49: the second edition. Scholberg CD4: without collation. Palha 4187: without collation. Not in Azevedo-Samodães; cf. 147 for the second edition. Not in Ameal, which lists (nº 106) only the second edition. Not in Avila-Perez; cf. 200 for the second edition. Not in Monteverde, listing (nº 197) the second edition only. Porbase locates a copy at the Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, another at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa-Biblioteca João Paulo II, four copies at the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, and two at the Universidade Nova Lisboa-Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas. Jisc locates copies at the British Library, the London School of Economics, and the School of Oriental & African Studies. NUC: DLC, ICU, MH.
