Search Results: MALAYSIA from John Randall (Books of Asia)

London: Oxford University Press, 1939. First edition, 8vo, pp.xvi, 259, 2 plates. A very good copy in lightly soiled original cloth. Corners and spine slightly bumped. John Desmond Gimlette (1867-1934) was encouraged to produce this work by his good friend Walter Skeat, author of Malay Magic and inspiration to Rudyard Kipling, as a more comprehensive and user-friendly English-Malaysian medical dictionary than the first attempt published by Dr. P.N. Gerrard in 1905. Gimlette died an untimely death in 1934 having completed only two-thirds of this dictionary and it was completed, according to his wishes, by H.W. Thomson. Gimlette was an active doctor who lived for years in the Malaysian Peninsula and was co-discoverer of Derris elliptica as an insecticide. He was described as "one of God's own" because of his kindness and friendliness alongside his expertise. He also had a deep personal interest in indigenous medical practices and authored Malay Poisons and Charm Cures. The plates show… Read More

Philadelphia : J.B. Lippincott, 1902. First edition, pp.xi, 197, complete with 88 fine Heliotype plates each with a descriptive tissue guard. One of only 500 copies issued. A very good copy in the original gilt-decorated cloth, top edge gilt. Stitching weak as usual due to the excessive weight of plates bound in. Very slight rubbing to extremities, light bumping to corners and spine, single crease to spine. Internally clean and unblemished. William Henry Furness III (1866-1920), an American physician, was one of the first Westerners to encounter the Kayan people of Borneo and the Wa'ab people of Yap. This work is the product of four expeditions Furness made between 1895 and 1901 accompanied by two like-minded physicians: Hiram M. Hiller, Jr. and Alfred C. Harrison, Jr. While their expeditions were primarily ethnographic, they also collected a considerable amount of biological and archaeological artefacts that became one of the founding collections of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of… Read More

London.: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans., 1855. First edition, Two volumes, pp.xii, 451, viii, 423, 24 (adverts). A good set in original green cloth, boards blind decorated. Lightly rubbed, corners bumped, spines bumped and faded. The head and foot of the spine of volume one has a few superficial tears to cloth, and rear inner hinge starting to separate. Previous owner's inscriptions to front end-papers. Ida Laura Pfeiffer (1797– 1858) was arguably the first full-time woman traveller: an adventurous Austrian, she dedicated the second half of her life entirely to travelling around the world, and published five works describing her journeys. This was her penultimate work and the last she would live to see, her final work being published posthumously in 1861. She was a budding amateur ethnographer and natural scientist, frequently sending samples back to European museums and discovered several new species. She would likely have become academically renowned had her membership to the Royal… Read More

London: Lloyds Greater Britain Publishing Company, 1908. First edition, folio (31 x 25 cm), pp.959, illustrated throughout. A superb copy bound in the original full gilt-decorated leather. A history of the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States together with details of every aspect of the colonies at the turn of the century and biographies of prominent citizens.

London: William Brown & Co., 1899. First edition, oblong 4to (22 x 28 cm approx), pp.60, many illustrations to text, 2 maps. A very good copy bound in somewhat soiled original cloth, rebacked with later cloth spine. An attractive illustrated account of what is now Sabah, compiled by the British North Borneo Company to promote investment in the state. The text details the Company's progress in North Borneo since 1882, with a brief history, geographical notes, and an outline of the region's resources and population. There is a detailed note on a proposed railway, with comparison to the railway recently constructed in Selangor. The final section lists all of the Company's officers, from the Court of Directors to the Protector of Chinese, N.B. Dennys and two postmasters, one at Sandakan and the other at Labuan. Letters took one month to reach Britain; telegrams could be sent more expeditiously. This directory of Company officers includes two pages of photographic portraits of the… Read More