Search Results: Authors starting with C from Hordern House Rare Books

Nangazaki [Paris]: de l'imprimerie Klnporzenkru," in the year 59749, 1749. Very good copy.. Two volumes in one, duodecimo, first title lightly stained and with an early ms attribution to 'Cahusac'; in old dark blue paper boards, red leather label. Rare: a minor classic, this is the wonderfully-contrived "Nagasaki" edition (actually Paris, of course) of this popular and inventive fiction, a work which enraged the authorities in France, presumably because this "true history" of the adventures of Grigri and the Portuguese missionaries to Japan was patently a satire on the shortcomings of contemporary France. Louis de Cahusac (1706-1759) was a successful playwright, famous as the long-suffering librettist for Rameau, specialising on highly exotic themes (Zoroastre; La naissance d'Osiris, and so on). De Cahusac was very in demand at mid-century, contributing articles to the Encyclopédie and being elected to the Academy of science and literature in Berlin, which presumably explains why this witty utopia… Read More

Amsterdam: Louis Elzevir, 1653. A very attractive copy.. 24mo., engraved title, all edges gilt; in nineteenth-century full red morocco, gilt arms of Henry J.B. Clements on front cover, spine banded and gilt. Attractive small Elzevir edition of this utopian work by the famous Dominican friar Campanella. Chapter XXXI (pp. 274-288) is explicitly concerned with discoveries and settlements in the New World, and he recommends building forts at the mouths of all rivers and harbours "lest the English should break in and bring heresy." Written in 1598 or 1599, and rewritten soon after, this work prophesies the coming of a universal Christian monarchy (said to be the fifth such great monarchy in history) by the Spanish King. Curiously, it was first published in German in 1620, translated, probably by Besold, from Campanella's original manuscript: such an involved publishing history is not unlike many books in Campanella's oeuvre, testament to his unfailing trouble with ecclesiastical authorities; orthodoxy… Read More

London: T. Osborne [etc], 1761. Four volumes, octavo, with a number of oval portraits of naval figures, and six folding engraved maps, contemporary calf binding, spines gilt in compartments between raised bands, red edges. Third edition: a really attractive set of a good early edition of this standard work, a comprehensive naval history of Great Britain first published in the 1740s, which remained in print in various forms until the late nineteenth century. Campbell was quite admired by Dr. Johnson. He told Boswell that he once drank thirteen bottles of port at a sitting (hard to imagine him standing), and Johnson commented approvingly that 'he has not been in the inside of a church for many years; but he never passes a church without pulling off his hat. This shows that he has good principles.' Most copies of Campbell's Lives were read to bits, to judge by the poor condition usually ecountered. The maps by Thomas Jefferys comprise the following: Europe, Africa, Madagascar & Zanzibar, Asia, North… Read More

Edinburgh: Archibald Constable [and others], 1816. Octavo, [3]-288pp. (lacking half-title). Large engraved folding map (tinted). Old half calf, marbled boards, rebacked retaining original backstrip. First edition. A scarce Pacific narrative, published in aid of a crippled seaman, remarkable for its descriptive accounts of the Northwest coast, Alaska and Hawaii. Archibald Campbell, a Scot of humble origin, was already an experienced seaman when in 1806 he signed on the Thames Indiaman. In China in 1807 (using an assumed name), he signed on the Eclipse from Boston, and made stops at Nagasaki, Kamchatka and Alaska. The ship was wrecked at Sannack, and Campbell continued in the long boat to Kodiak. He describes his sufferings (ultimately losing both feet from frostbite), spending almost a year on Kodiak, and meeting Baranov, and he includes a good description of that island. His lengthy account of Hawaii in 1809-1810 is of the greatest importance, being the first narrative from the viewpoint of a… Read More

London: for the author; and sold by Richardson and Urquhart, and others, 1774. Upper joints of both volumes just starting, a little inoffensive wear to the extremities. Fine set.. Two volumes, large quarto, in a lovely contemporary tree calf binding, flat spines featuring gilt foliate ornament with green and crimson morocco labels. Redolent of the 1770s in its strictly contemporary binding, Campbell's Political Survey is more than dry political economy: the survey contains a wealth of information regarding the trades, agriculture, transportation, fisheries, seaports, markets and natural resources of Britain. The author was appointed the King's agent for the province of Georgia in 1765; accordingly this survey is rich with reference to the American and West Indian colonies. The subtitle itself says much of the author's aspirations for national self-sufficiency: the book is 'intended to shew That we have not as yet approached near the Summit of Improvement, but that it will afford Employment to many… Read More

[Canton], 1863. Watercolour on paper, 210 x 300 mm; signed in pencil; mounted. Charming and atmospheric watercolour of the Guangzhou area, depciting the Pearl River at sundown, looking towards old Canton, with the Chigang Pagoda and the Temple of the Six Banyan Trees seen in the distance. The German painter Eduard Hildebrandt had studied in Berlin and Paris and was a friend of scientist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt. Under Humboldt's influence he took a voyage around the world in 1862-64, making watercolour views of the many places he visited. "Fantasies in red, yellow and opal, sunset, sunrise and moonshine, distances of hundreds of miles like those of the Andes and the Himalaya, narrow streets in the bazaars of Cairo or Suez, panoramas as seen from mast-heads, wide cities like Bombay or Pekin, narrow strips of desert with measure-less expanses of sky all alike display his quality of bravura" (Wikipedia). A note on the verso explains that the drawing's title was written on the old passepartout… Read More

London: Alexander Bassano, 1878. The card in very good condition.. Cabinet card, measuring 165 x 110 mm., early manuscript annotation. Charming cabinet card photographic portrait of the Honourable Cecilia Margaret Harbord, around the time of her 1878 marriage to the future governor of New South Wales, Sir Charles Robert Wynn Carington, 1st Marquess of Lincolnshire. After her marriage she was styled Baroness Carington of Upton (or "Lady Carington" as has been added in an early hand here). Her husband, a captain in the Royal Horse Guards, was appointed to the governorship of New South Wales in 1885. Although this image is not apparently recorded in any Australian collections, comparison with a similar image confirms her identity (see State Library of Victoria, Accession No: H2005.34/1186). Bassano was the leading society photographer of his day, and one of his many studios was at 72 Piccadilly. This particular studio was said to have been open between 1870 and 1881, which would accord with the… Read More

London: Chapman and Hall, 1872. Recased with new endpapers; in good condition.. Octavo, with a folding frontispiece map and six full-page steel-engraved plates on tinted paper; original russet cloth, lettered in gilt and decorated in black. First English edition, translated from the French edition of the same year. Louis de Carné was nominated as a member of the Mekong River Expedition to represent the interests of the French Foreign Ministry. His relations with other members of the expedition, particularly Garnier, were poor, and following the completion of the expedition he vigorously criticised Garnier for not giving sufficient credit to the deceased Doudart de Lagrée. This is a significant alternative account of the Mekong expedition of 1866-68 in which the French searched unsuccessfully for a navigable waterway from Saigon to China. Carné, like so many other explorers of the region, died of tropical disease. The book was compiled from his letters, papers and journals by his father; it also… Read More

London: J. and W. Cary, Strand, 1821 (terrestrial); G. & J. Cary, 86 St James's Street, 1816. Light crack at top of terrestrial globe (as is common) and another barely visible crack at centre neatly made good; the pair of globes in excellent overall condition with good original colour showing some occasional age browning.. Pair of 12-inch table globes (305 mm diameter; overall diameter 430 mm and height overall 635 mm); each made up from twelve sets of gores; complete with graduated brass meridian circles and hourly dials; within wooden baluster brackets, each with calendar and zodiac markings, on original mahogany stands with turned mahogany columns and tripod cabriole legs, original compasses mounted at bases. A most attractive matched pair of original Regency period table globes, terrestrial and celestial, made by the leading London cartographic firm. The Cary family of cartographers and globe makers produced some of the greatest globes of the late Georgian era. The firm was started in London in… Read More

Angers: Lachese et Dolbeau, 1889. Octavo, 60 pp.; neatly bound in old quarter cloth, leather label. Scarce offprint from the Revue libérale: a discussion of the early history of Vietnam, and in particular China's attempts to gain control of the country. Fosses concludes that Vietnam would fare much better under "l'influence française". .

Leiden: Van D. Noothoven Van Goor, 1860. In good condition.. Single printed leaf, 440 x 310 mm., simply handcoloured. Scarce news-sheet publication for Dutch children. One of a long series (this is number 78), this is devoted to information about Java, with a map and three views including one of the governor-general's Palace in Batavia. .

Edinburgh: William Blackwood, 1875. Very good, slight foxing to half title, otherwise crisp.. Small octavo; in a handsome vellum binding, boards with black morocco onlays, decorated ornately with gilt Greek key motif, morocco label and tailpiece, gilt dentelles, marbled endpapers. A beautifully bound copy of the second edition, revised and corrected, of this attractive nineteenth-century version of the poems of Catullus. This selection was translated into English verse with an introduction and notes by the Scottish poet Theodore Martin (1816-1909). An attractive aspect of this collection is the "Envoi" to Dr Charles Badham (1813-1884) an English Professor of Sydney University and old school friend of Martin. .

London: R. Royston, 1676. Preliminaries thumbed, a bit foxed and a few scattered stains; binding scuffed and worn at extremities, with some loss of the headband, rear board stained.. Folio, with a frontispiece and double page 'Tree of Faith' plate (trimmed and mounted on plain paper), several other cuts in the text, title-page printed in black and red; contemporary English crimson calf gilt, unlettered spine with ornately gilt-decorated panels between raised bands. The second of several editions of this history of the early church, illustrated with remarkable cuts depicting the apostles persecuted in all manner of ways, including crucifixion, immolation and the dreaded 'cauldron of boyling oyl'. Each apostle is awarded a separate chapter, and is depicted both beatified and under duress. William Cave (1637-1713), was a minister and scholar of Church history who took his Doctor of Divinity at Cambridge before serving as vicar of Islington, and later in London. He was chaplain to Charles II and Canon… Read More

Melbourne: W.H. Glen & Co, 1888. Very good.. Octavo; modern marbled cloth-backed boards with original printed stiff wrappers bound in. A rare musical souvenir of the lavish opening of the Centennial International Exhibition, held in the Exhibition Building in Melbourne, to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the landing of the First Fleet. A demonstration of the wealth and cultural importance of Melbourne, the Exhibition ran for six months and attracted two million visitors. Written by the Rev. William Allen and arranged by Henry King, the Centennial Cantata was written expressly for the opening of the Exhibition in August 1888. This rare publication was not recorded by Ferguson. .

Paris: Chez les Libraires Associes, 1787. Boards rubbed, some chipping to spines.. Two volumes, duodecimo; contemporary French quarter calf. First and only edition: a rare account of a utopian kingdom reached by crossing Egypt to the south, one of the last such classical imaginary voyages published under the ancien régime. Unusually detailed and clearly the product of a thorough grounding in Greek literature, the novel recounts the African travels of young Azémor and his tutor Tiresias to a land where the vices of the world have never taken hold and where the people live in a state of harmonious peace, completely unlike the barbarous Americans. The title-page only gives the author's name as "M. de. P." now usually considered to have been the French soldier, historian and military tactician François Jacques Maximilien de Chastenet (1716-1782), marquis de Puységur. A career soldier with a small suite of tactical and political works to his name, his foray into imaginary voyaging comes as something… Read More

Paris: Henri Plon, 1871. A neat copy.. Duodecimo, quarter red-brown morocco. Early French edition of Chesney's electrifying tale of the German invasion of England. Its depiction of the humiliation of the English in battle, but also the crushing despair of life under German rule, positions this work as an important precursor to the dystopias of the twentieth century. Sir George Tomkyns Chesney (who founded the Royal Indian Civil Engineering College at Staines, later General Sir George Chesney and subsequently MP for Oxford) first published this short story in Blackwood's Magazine for May 1871. It quickly ran to many editions and commentaries on both sides of the Atlantic. Its basic premise is that following the defeat of the French in the Franco-Prussian war, the German armies take what was widely feared to be the inevitable step of invading, and quickly subduing, England. Published the same year as Chesney's original, and with a Preface which sketches out the early reception of the work, this early… Read More

London: John Nichols, 1800. Small tear affecting just five letters of text, a few spots but an excellent set, fresh and clean.. Four volumes, octavo; title pages with armorial ownership stamp; in a fine contemporary binding of tree calf, flat spines gilt, double morocco labels. A most attractive set of this famous book. Chesterfield (1694-1773) is chiefly remembered as the author of these famous Letters, begun in 1737 and written almost daily as a method of educating his (extraordinarily uncouth) son, and published after their writer's death by the son's widow, Mrs. Eugenia Stanhope. 'Recognised as the most brilliant aristocrat since the Restoration Wits', Chesterfield 'still lives as a synonym for polished manners and full assured worldliness', and the letters are replete with sensible, facilely expressed instruction, especially in terms of what constitutes good breeding (Day). This set is in remarkably good condition, looking much as it must have done when first published. .

London: Smith, Elder & Co, 1911. A good copy.. Octavo, black & white photographic illustrations; original green cloth. Day by day account of a missionary's life in Papua. The Archbishop of Brisbane, in his preface, says of the book "the freshness and humour, the varying moods, and the flavour of personal experience pervading the whole, make together a picture which grips the imagination". Chignell's observations, on everything from hunting to village wedding ceremonies, are illustrated with numerous black & white photographs. .

London: Harris, 1821. Head and tail of spine chipped.. Octavo with a folding frontispice map, 84 hand-coloured engravings on 28 plates (three on each); original printed boards. Second edition of this children's study of Asian lands. Each engraving is numbered and complimented by a corresponding description. The pictures and text cover a number of Asian countries, touching on their history, geography and culture. For example the the scenes which accompany the description of China include an image of the Great Wall, the gathering of leaves of a tea plant, and the feast of Lanterns. .

Yantai, Shandong Province, China , 1860. In good condition.. Watercolour, 230 x 380 mm, signed and dated ("Lindesay Brine fecit June 22 1860"); mounted. An attractive and skillfully executed drawing heightened with watercolour. Two Chinese figures carrying baskets have been sketched in the foreground but have not been finished. A European ship and numerous ships either sail or ride at anchor off a promontory hill, probably Tengchow (now Penglai), one of the treaty ports opened for foreign trade following the 1858 Treaty of Tianjin. Lindesay Brine, who entered the Royal Navy in 1847, was the author of "The Taeping Rebellion in China; a narrative of its rise and progress, based upon original documents and information obtained in China" (London: Murray, 1862). This watercolour was made on the spot during his service as commander in the China Seas. The painting is captioned in ink on the image: "HM Gunboat Opossum - Junk by Chefoo - The French Troops are Encamped on the Hill." "While serving in the Far… Read More