[Rarebooks] fa: ENGLISH ACQUISITIONS IN GUINEA & EAST-INDIA 1708 (Africa, Persia, India, China, St. Helena, and the "World in the Moon")

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, November 5. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

http://tinyurl.com/ychnzkto

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


[Nathaniel Crouch:] The English Acquisitions in Guinea & East-India: Containing First, The several Forts and Castles of the Royal African Company, from Sally in South Barbary, to the Cape of Good Hope in Africa… Secondly, the Forts and Factories of the Honourable East India Company in Persia, India, Sumatra, China, &c…. With an Account of the Inhabitants of all these Countries, their Religion, Government, Trade, Marriages, Funerals, Strange Customs, &c. Also the Birds, Beasts, Serpents, Monsters and other Strange Creatures found there. Intermixt with divers Accidents, and notable Remarks. With Pictures. Likewise, a Description of the Isle of St. Helena, where the English usually refresh in their Indian Voyages. By R. B. London: Printed for Nath. Crouch at the Bell against Grocers-Alley in the Poultry near Cheapside, 1708. Bound in early calf-backed boards, 12mo (15 cm); [4], 179, [7] pp. (bound without the last leaf of the publisher's advertisements at the end); with a frontispiece and four pages of woodcuts. ESTC T55471 (which makes no mention of the frontispiece or illustrations).

Binding rubbed and worn, joints cracked but secure; bookplate of the Wisconsin Consistory Library and light numeral ink-stamped on the verso of the title-page (no other library marks); browning to the title-page and frontispiece (which are laid down), intermittent lesser browning to the rest of the text; top edge trimmed a bit close, occasionally touching or clipping the running titles and page numbers; small burn hole to the last 13 leaves affecting some letters of the text, one leaf with a short closed tear to the fore-edge, else sound, securely bound. Quite uncommon: of this edition, ESTC locates only one copy in the UK (BL) and one in the U.S. (Newberry).

Nathaniel Crouch, who often used the pseudonym "Richard (or Robert) Burton," or "R.B.," was a printer, bookseller and popular historian. In addition to providing a sweeping survey of Britain's colonies in the Near and Far East and Africa, and descriptions of the people and customs to be found therein, Crouch regaled his contemporary readers with depictions of (imaginary) beasts and monsters, grisly accounts of  executions and modes of torture, and a retelling of the "admirable Voyage of Domingo Gonsales, the Little Spaniard, to the World in the Moon, by the help of several Gansa's or Large Geese."