[Rarebooks] fa: EMBASSY of THE DUTCH EAST-INDIA COMPANY to THE EMPEROR OF CHINA in 1794 and 1795

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auctions ending Sunday, October 29. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

http://tinyurl.com/y8tfnnwd

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA

Andreas Everardus van Braam Houckgeest: An Authentic Account of the Embassy of the Dutch East-India Company, to the Court of the Emperor of China, in the Years 1794 and 1795; (Subsequent to that of the Earl of Macartney.) Containing a Description of Several Parts of the Chinese Empire, Unknown to Europeans; taken from the journal of André Everard van Braam, Chief of the Direction of that Company, and Second in the Embassy. Translated from the original of M. L. E. Moreau De Saint-Mery. With a correct Chart of the Route. London: Printed for R. Phillips, No. 71, St. Paul’s Church-Yard, and sold by J. Debrett, Piccadilly; Lee and Hurst, Paternoster-Row; and by all other booksellers, 1798. Two volumes bound in one. First edition  thus; thick 8vo in early/period full calf; lii, 288 pp.; [2], 324 pp.; folding engraved map. Cordier BS 2351; ESTC T114817.

First English-language edition of this Dutch-American merchant's account of his travels in China as part of the Dutch East-India Company's  mission to the Qianlong Emperor. Translated from the Dutch of the author's journals, the work was originally published in French the year before, in Philadelphia. Despite his association with the Dutch mission, van Braam Houckgeest had retained his U.S. citizenship and was thus the first American to meet a Chinese emperor. He dedicated the work to George Washington.

Externally rough, but internally very good: binding well rubbed and worn, reinforced with old cellophane tape, front hinge cracked but holding; bookplate of the Wisconsin Consistory Library on the front paste-down (no other library markings), offsetting and browning to the  map and title-page, foxing to the last two leaves, a few light spots and touches of soiling elsewhere, one small ink correction in an early hand, else very clean and sound.