[Rarebooks] fa: THE WORLD IN MINIATURE - NORTH AMERICA Mexico PERU Brazil WEST INDIES &c. - 1741

[ArCh]

Auction ending Sunday, October 9. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

https://tinyurl.com/5n827ram

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


John Fransham: The World in Miniature: or, The Entertaining Traveller. Vol. II Containing America, and the Isles thereof. To which is added, an Account of England, Scotland, and Ireland; with the Isles adjacent. With several curious and useful Tables. The Second Edition, enlarg'd, with the Addition of a New Sett of Cutts. London: Printed, and Sold by John Torbuck, in Clare Court, near Drury Lane, 1741. Large 12mo (16.5 cm) in nineteenth-century calf, front cover with the gilt-tooled arms of the Royal Engineers Library, recased and rebacked, modern gilt-lettered spine label (misspelled); 275 + [20] pp.; with tables, an index, and 5 engraved plates, including a folding frontispiece. ESTC T113410.

Volume two (of two) only, but the most desirable volume, containing: Mexico, Terra Firma [Panama, Surinam], Peru, Chile, Paraguay, the Amazons, Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and Brazil; Virginia, Maryland, New England, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Scotland [Acadia], New Britain [Hudson Bay], New York, New Jersey, North and South Carolina and Georgia; Jamaica, Barbados, the Islands of St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Dominica, Tobago, Barbuda, Anquilla, Antego, St. Christophers, Nevis, and Montserrat, the Bahama Islands, Bermudas or the Summer Islands, and the Island of Newfoundland; England, Scotland and Ireland.

The folding frontispiece trimmed and silked, the title-page with a previous owner's signature, faint ink stamp (no other library marks), and a small paper repair at the gutter, contents age-toned with some browning and scattered light spotting, else clean and sound, firmly bound.

The plates include depictions of the Habits (native attire) of a Spaniard, a Negro, a Mexican, a Virginia Indian, Florida Indian, etc.; Aztec and Incan temples and rites; New England whaling ships. A breezy survey of much of the Western Hemisphere (along with the British Isles), necessarily cursory in nature, but nevertheless filled with fun factoids and observations, e.g.: "The Chilesians... look upon it as a sort of Imprisonment to be confin'd in one Place, esteeming it the greatest of all Earthly Blessings, the Liberty of rambling where they please. —— [In Peru] there is a kind of large Carrion Crow, which devour Flesh to that degree, that they cannot fly till they have disgorg'd it; and it is one of the Diversions of the Country to pursue them on Horseback, when they spue up the Flesh all the way they run till they are light enough to fly. —— The [Virginians] are very courteous to Travellers, who need no other Recommendation but their being human Creatures. —— Ambergris... is bred in the Body of the Sperma-Ceti Whale, and consists of Balls of various Sizes, from 3 to 12 Inches Diameter, and will weigh from a Pound and a half to 20 Pounds, lying loose in a large oval Bag, of three or four Foot long and two or three deep, and is placed length-wise at the Root of the Penis; there is a deep Orange-coloured Liquor in this Bag, of the same Scent with the Balls that swim in it; the Balls consist of several distinct Coats, somewhat like those of an Onion...(etc.)."