[Rarebooks] fa: JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY TO THE COURTS OF SIAM AND COCHIN CHINA - 1830

[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

John Crawfurd: Journal of an Embassy from the Governor-General of India to the Courts of Siam and Cochin China, Exhibiting a View of the Actual State of those Kingdoms. London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, 1830. Second edition. Two volumes, 8vo, in early half calf and patterned cloth, marbled endpapers and page edges; vii, 475, [1] pp.; v, [1], 459, [1] pp.; large folding map, folding table of vocabularies, 14 engraved plates (one folding, several double-page), and 11 woodcuts (complete per the list of illustrations). Goldsmiths'-Kress 26080.

Bindings with scuffs to the corners, some rubbing to the spines and joints, one spine label lacking; the contents are Near Fine, occasional light foxing and offsetting to the plates, else exceptionally clean and fresh, firmly bound. The very large (ca. 25 x 40 in.), fragile, folding map of Siam and Cochin China is in remarkably nice condition: one short tear at the central fold but otherwise very clean and crisp. From the Masonic library of the Wisconsin Consistory (Scottish Rite) with its fairly discreet library marks: bookplate, spine number, and pocket on rear paste-down; no markings to the text or plates.

A handsome copy of Crawfurd's account of his travels in what is now Thailand, Vietnam and the Malay Peninsula, considered one of the most important early nineteenth-century descriptions of the region and its people. In addition to the very large, detailed map, the plates include a striking, large foldout view of Singapore, a double-page view of Bangkok, maps and/or plans of both cities, and depictions of civil and military dress and costumes, racial types, a rickshaw, etc.