Burckhardt, Johann Ludwig (John Lewis). Travels in Syria and the Holy Land.London, 1822.

First edition. Posthumously edited by William Leake, these journals describe Burckhardt's various journeys between 1810 and 1816. It was at Aleppo that he studied Arabic in preparation for his later travels (clandestinely, in Arab guise under the cognomen Sheikh Ibrahim) and he toured Syria, the Lebanon and Palestine. Burckhardt had been recruited by Sir Joseph Banks on behalf of the African Association to carry out these explorations, but unfortunately he died in 1819 before he was able to complete the entire project.

Binding somewhat rubbed along extremeties; hinges and upper spine-end repaired. A little browning and foxing near the beginning, otherwise internally fine. The portrait shows Burckhardt "in his Arab Bernous, sketched at Cairo Feb. 1817 by H. Salt, Esq.".

Burckhardt, Johann Ludwig (John Lewis). Travels in Arabia, comprehending an account of those territories in Hedjaz …London, 1829.

First edition (the second of the same year was in two volumes, octavo). Burckhardt travelled disguised as an Arab, making his notes clandestinely. This work deals primarily with his travels to Mecca and Djidda, Medina and Yembo. The Lausanne-born Burckhardt (1784-1817) was a remarkable character, the first Westerner to visit the Holy Cities. In the guise of a pilgrim "he proceeded to perform the rites of pilgrimage at Mekka, go round the Kaaba, sacrifice, &c., and in every respect acquitted himself as a good Muslim. No Christian or European had ever accomplished this feat before; and the penalty of discovery would probably have been death. [...] Burckhardt possessed the highest qualifications of a traveller. Daring and yet prudent, a close and accurate observer, with an intimate knowledge of the people among whom he travelled, their manners and their language, he was able to accomplish feats of exploration which to others would have been impossible" (Stanley Lane-Poole, in DNB VII, 293f.).

Extremeties quite severely rubbed and bumped. Spine shows traces of early repairs, using the original material. Several tears to the half-title, light foxing to beginning and end, otherwise internally a very good copy from the library of the Rev. Thomas Thurlow (1788-1874), Rector of Boxford, Suffolk, with his engraved bookplate to the front pastedown. Rare.

Burckhardt, Johann Ludwig (John Lewis). Notes on the Bedouins and Wahabys, collected during his travels in the …London, 1830.

First edition, posthumously edited by William Ousely. With this work, Burckhardt submitted what was at the time the fullest and most thorough account of the various nomadic tribes of Arabia, including a history of the Wahhabis from their first appearance until 1816 (cf. Henze). A two-volume octavo edition followed immediately, as did a German translation.

The Swiss explorer Burckhardt (1784-1817) travelled through Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Nubia, and the Arabian Peninsula. Under the name "Sheikh Ibrahim", he crossed the Red Sea to Jeddah, passed an examination on Muslim law, and participated in the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina. He died in Cairo and is buried there in the Muslim cemetery. He left his 350-volume library to Cambridge University; his diaries were acquired by the Royal Geographical Society.

Light waterstain to the lower corner of the map, otherwise a very good, wide-margined copy of this rare work.

Coverley-Price, Arthur Victor, Maler, Schriftsteller und Diplomat (1901-1988). Ms. Brief mit eigenh. U. ("A. V. Coverley-Price").Berlin, 1 Feb 1926.

An den Historiker und Übersetzer Frederic Lewis Dunbar von Kalckreuth (geb. 1888) mit der Mitteilung der Anschrift des Politikers und Philosophen Richard Burdon Haldane, 1. Viscount Haldane (1856-1928).

Geboren in Winchester, Hampshire, studierte Coverley-Price mehrere Gegenwartssprachen und trat 1925 in den diplomatischen Dienst, der ihn – nebst privaten Reisen – u. a. in den Mittleren Osten, nach Südafrika, Kanada, Südamerika und Kaschmir führte, wo er überall reiches Material für sein malerisches Schaffen vorfand. 1932 nahm er als Übersetzer an einer Expedition in die Peruanischen Anden teil, in deren Verlauf der Geologe und Entdecker John Walter Gregory (1864–1932), der das Unternehmen anführte, ums Leben kommen sollte. Nach seinem Ausscheiden aus dem diplomatischen Dienst im Jahre 1946 war Coverley-Price als Schriftsteller und Maler tätig und schuf u. a. mehr als 600 Zeichnungen für die Zeitschrift „The Sphere”. – Auf Briefpapier mit gepr. Briefkopf der Britischen Botschaft in Berlin, wo Coverley-Price zu jener Zeit Sekretär war. – Leicht angestaubt, die Verso-Seite von Bl. 2 etwas fleckig.

[National Liberal Club]. Correspondence archive.Various places, 1879-1937 and undated, the bulk between 1906 and the 1920s.

A collection of letters by writers, politicians and other figures, the majority responding to invitations from John Henderson (1862-1938) as secretary of the National Liberal Club, a few others addressed to secretaries Samuel James and Charles Geake. The correspondents form a veritable Who Is Who of Liberal society in Edwardian and wartime Britain, including the writers Lewis S. Benjamin (Lewis Melville, 1874-1932) [2], Edmund Gosse (1849-1928), Alexander Ireland (1810-1894), W. W. Jacobs (1863-1943), A. P. Herbert (1890-1971), and Andrew Lang (1844-1912); the poet and government adviser Sir Henry Newbolt (1862-1938) [2]; the Liberal politicians Sir Arthur Dyke Acland (1847-1926), Christopher (1st Viscount) Addison (1869-1951), Sir Cecil Beck (1876-1932), Norman (1st Baron) Birkett (1883-1962), Augustine Birrell (1850-1933), Thomas (1st Earl) Brassey (1836-1918), James (1st Viscount) Bryce (1838-1922), Sydney (1st Earl) Buxton (1853-1934), George Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll (1823-1900), John Clifford (1836-1923), Bernard (2nd Baron) Coleridge (1851-1927), Richard (1st Viscount) Haldane (1856-1928), John Hamilton-Gordon, 7th Earl of Aberdeen (1847-1934), Leonard Henry, 1st Baron Courtney of Penwith (1832-1918), Percy Illingworth (1869-1915), David Lloyd George (1863-1945) [a small quantity of autographs], William Lygon, 7th Earl Beauchamp (1872-1938), Robert Reid, 1st Earl Loreburn (1846-1923), John (1st Viscount) Simon (1873-1954) [2], Samuel Smith (1836-1906), Charles Robert (6th Earl) Spencer, Viscount Althorp (1857-1922), Alexander Ure, 1st Baron Strathclyde (1853-1928), Charles Wynn-Carington, 1st Marquess of Lincolnshire (1843-1928); the Labour politicians George Nicoll Barnes (1859-1940) [2], William (1st Baron) Beveridge (1879-1963), Arthur Henderson (1863-1935), and Sidney Webb, 1st Baron Passfield (1850-1947); the classicists Gilbert Murray (1866-1957) and W. H. D. Rouse (1863-1950; not signed); the civil servant Edward Marsh (1872-1953); the shipbroker John Foster Howe; the actress Dorothea Baird Irving (1875-1933); the clergyman Reginald John Campbell (1867-1956); the General Sir Francis Lloyd (1853-1926); the illustrator Will Owen (1869-1957); the costume designer Alice Comyns Carr (1850-1927); as well as the industrialists William Lever (1st Viscount) Leverhulme (1851-1925) and Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919, writing jointly with Margaret Lauder of Inverkeithing). Also, the typescript of an address given by Lord Bryce at the NLC, 29 March 1917.

A few items showing the odd edge flaw, but altogether a well-preserved ensemble.

Clark, Dick / Bronson, Fred / Smith, Ray. Dick Clark's American Bandstand. Extensively signed.New York, 1997.

Ray Smith's personal copy of Dick Clark's American Bandstand, autographed and inscribed by over one hundred musicians, dancers, and radio personae, including Aretha Franklin, Jon Bon Jovi, Billy Joel, Cher, Carlos Santana, Elton John, Sting, and Dick Clark himself.

American Bandstand ran on American television from 1952 to 1989, and featured teenagers dancing to Top 40 hits; it was credited with bringing rock music to a wider American audience, and provided a platform by which many young musicians and dancers got their start in the industry; those featured in it appeared at one time or another on American Bandstand, starting with the earliest performers, who were largely just local teenagers in Philadelphia.

Autographs from early performers are featured as well, such as Jerry Lee Lewis (most famous today for "Great Balls of Fire") and Little Richard (of "awop bop a lu bop, alop bam boom!" fame). Moving into the music of the sixties, autographs feature Judy Collins, Diana Ross of The Supremes, several of the Beach Boys, and TV and film star Patty Duke. From the seventies are Donna Summer (known for the 17-minute "Love to Love You Baby"), and two actors from the Brady Bunch, who appeared on the Bandstand in 1972: Florence Henderson and Barry Williams. Representing the eighties are the likes of Cyndi Lauper (of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun") and Gloria Estefan ("Conga"). Altogether, a tour de force of American music history. Because so many artists appeared on Bandstand early in their careers, a wide range of genres, into which they later branched, are represented in the autographs and inscriptions, from punk to rap to rockabilly.

In excellent condition.

Downie, David, Goldschmied (ca. 1736-1816). Antrag auf Einbürgerung mit eigenh. U.Augusta, Georgia, 24 May 1803.

Ein Stück schottisch-amerikanische Geschichte: Ein Gesuch vor dem Obergericht von Richmond County um Zuerkennung der amerikanischen Staatsbürgerschaft durch die Goldschmiede David Downie und dessen Sohn Charles aus Schottland, eingereicht nach Ablauf der vorgeschriebenen fünf Jahre nach der 1796 erfolgten Einwanderung. Enthält die Vereidigungsformel der Antragsteller und Bürgen, welche den tadellosen Charakter der Petenten bezeugen: "The petition of David Downie and Charles Downie, Humbly Sheweth, That they are natives of Scotland and subjects of his Britan[n]ic Majesty, and are desirous of becoming Citizens of the United States [...] Wherefore your petitioners pray that they may be admitted Citizens of the said United States [...], and each for himself maketh Oath and saith, that he will support the Constitution of the United Sates and that he doth absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign Prince, Potentate, State and Sover[e]ignty [...]. [T]hey have behaved as men of good moral character, attached to the constitution ot the United States and well disposed to the good order and happiness of the same [...]".

David Downie, den liberalen Whigs zugehörig und während der Französischen Revolution Verfechter eines Friedens mit Frankreich, wollte als einer der wenigen Katholiken der Edinburgher Goldschmiedezunft Reformen in der Stadtregierung durchsetzen, was zu Zerwürfnissen innerhalb der mächtigen Gilde und mit den konservativen Torys führte. Da friedliche Interventionen scheiterten, plante er 1794 gemeinsam mit dem Weinhändler Robert Watt und weiteren Gesinnungsgenossen einen gewaltsamen Aufstand ("Pike Plot"), wurde jedoch zuvor verhaftet. Im Gegensatz zu Watt entging Downie der Todesstrafe wegen Hochverrats, wurde begnadigt und nach einjähriger Haftstrafe in die Vereinigten Staaten abgeschoben, wo er weiterhin das Goldschmiedehandwerk ausübte und 80-jährig als angesehener Bürger verstarb. Der Ur-Ur-Großvater des späteren Präsidenten Ronald Reagan, Claud Wilson, heiratete 1807 David Downies Tochter Peggy.

Mit zweifacher Unterschrift David und Charles Downies sowie Gegenzeichnung des Gouverneurs von Georgia, George Walton, einem der Unterzeichner der Unabhängigkeitserklärung der Vereinigten Staaten. Ferner mit zweifacher Gegenzeichnung des Kanzlisten, Joseph Hutchinson, und weiteren Unterschriften der Bürgen, darunter der Politiker und Kurator der University of Georgia, Dennis Smelt, ein Kaufmann namens John B. Lary, ein Lewis Harris und zwei weitere Unterschriften. Rubrum verso, einige längere Einrisse entlang der Faltlinien, wenige kleine Tintenflecken und kleine Papierdurchbrüche.

Fremont, John Charles. Map of an exploring expedition to the Rocky Mountains in the year 1842 …Baltimore, 1845.

Interesting and beautifully lithographed map of previously almost entirely uncharted parts of America still inhabited by the Utah, Sioux and Pawnee Indians, considered one of the most important maps of the western United States issued in the first half of the 19th century. Wheat noted that "John Fremont's map of 1845 represented as important a step forward from the earlier western maps of the period as did those of Pike, Long, and Lewis and Clark in their day".

At the top is an inset of a "Profile of the route from the Mouth of the Kansas to the Pacific by Capt. J. C. Fremont in 1843" (horizontal scale: 1:3,000,000).

The map includes parts of the States of Oregon and California in the West, via parts of Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming and Colorado, to parts of Nebraska and Kansas in the East; from the west coast the mouth of the Columbia River, Fort Vancouver (Portland) in the Northwest, via San Francisco to St. Barbara, Ventura and the outskirts of today's Los Angeles in the Southwest, through the Rocky Mountains, the areas of the Utah, Sioux and Pawnee Indians, in a kind of triangle to the Missouri River and Fort Leaverwood near today's Kansas city and Westpoint in the East (an area of approximately 1,300 x 2,600 km).

The map is from Fremont's "Report of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains", which includes the first accurate depiction of the Great Salt Lake. "Though the Oregon Trail and the Spanish Trail had been regularly used for a few years there were no dependable maps. For other parts of Fremont's route, much of the recording of his map was new, including the whole extent of the Sierra Nevada Range, the California rivers from the American River south, and the three Colorado rivers" (Streeter). It is therefore hard to overestimate the influence of this map, which left only minor areas unmapped or unexplored with the exception of the Great Basin. Wheat states that it "radically and permanently altered western cartography".

John Charles Fremont (1813-90) was a young and ambitious lieutenant in the Corps of Topographical Engineers. Together with the Frenchman Joseph N. Nicollet he completed the first truly scientific survey of the interior during 1838-39. He was the son-in-law of the powerful Senator Thomas Hart Benson from Missouri and under his influence he undertook three further expeditions to the west. Arriving in the United States in 1834, Fremont hired Charles Preuss as a cartographer and draughtsman. Preuss would go on to draw both of Fremont's other highly important maps of the west.

Some soiling and spotting, otherwise in good condition.

Rosen, Robert, Australian fashion, social and fine art photographer (born 1953). The Rosen archive of autographed polaroids, containing unique vintage portraits …London, Sydney and other places, 1980-2001.

The present collection, predominantly featuring portraits from London in the early 1980s, is an exceptional chronicle of an era and its cultural icons. A photographer for Rolling Stone and other music magazines, Robert Rosen was as much a part of the elite social circles as the celebrities he captured. His journey into vintage portraiture began with Andy Warhol: Rosen recounts meeting Warhol in 1980 at a London party, where he was inspired by Warhol's use of polaroids. This encounter (from which Warhol gave Rosen a lift home) prompted the young photographer to approach Polaroid in London with a proposal to create a collection of signed polaroids of famous personalities. The company equipped him with a camera and unlimited film, leading to a two-decade-long project, preserved here in its entirety. Rosen, today renowned as Australia's pre-eminent social photographer and recently celebrated in an exhibition in Sydney, amassed over 300 celebrity portraits at parties and nightclubs. He had each subject sign their portrait on the spot, using one of the various coloured pens he always carried for that purpose. These portraits stand out for their naturalness and spontaneity, in stark contrast to the rigid poses more typical of society photographs. As a collection they not only capture the glamour and charisma of the social scenes in London, Paris, and Sydney, but also serve as an important record of key figures from diverse fields - actors, rockstars, and other luminaries.

The collection contains the now-famous photo of Paul and Linda McCartney kissing, as well as signed portraits of both, in one of which Linda is holding up the very snapshot of the pair taken by Rosen a minute earlier. In the vibrant setting of Regine's nightclub, Rosen snapped a memorable Polaroid of David Bowie. Amidst garden greenery, Bowie, amused by Rosen's distinct mirror bowtie, remarked, "Robert Rosen with the looking glass bowtie". The developed Polaroid had Rosen's nervous fingerprints on it. Suggesting a retake, Bowie instead declared, "No, I like it, it's art", and signed it. The only unsigned Polaroid in the collection is of Charlie Watts: when asked by Rosen to sign it, Watts declined, explaining that John Lennon had passed away that very day.

[Royal Geographical Society]. The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society.London, 1831-1880-1881.

Complete set of all periodical publications of the Royal Geographical Society 1831 through 1948, comprising 203 volumes with thousands of plates and maps, many folding.

Founded in 1830, the Royal Geographical Society spearheaded efforts to accurately map and describe every corner of the known world. As lesser-known regions of the globe such as Africa and the Middle East began to emerge as major centres of global trade in the 19th century, the Society funded thousands of European expeditions to these areas in an effort to promote British commercial and scientific interests. Explorers of the Arabian Peninsula such as Henry St. John Philby (aka "Sheikh Abdullah"), Percy Cox, Theodore Bent, Gertrude Bell, Wilfred Thesiger (aka "Mubarak bin London"), and Bertram Thomas all reported directly to the Royal Geographical Society, and their accounts, often with accompanying maps, contributed enormously to the western interest in the economy and geography of these regions. Macro's "Bibliography of the Arabian Peninsula" - the only major attempt to date to itemize the most important publications on the Arab World - draws heavily on the papers published in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, especially for 19th century descriptions of the Arabian Gulf and its inhabitants.

Collected here is the entire run of publications issued by the Royal Geographical Society up to the mid-20th century - a full 203 volumes containing thousands of seminal articles, plates, and maps chronicling the modern mapping of the world. Its importance for the Arabian Peninsula is well-reflected in Macro's bibliography. Wilson's 1833 "Memorandum Respecting the Pearl Fisheries in the Persian Gulf", James Wellsted's "Observations on the Coast of Arabia between Rás Mohammed and Jiddah" (1836), and Felix Haig's "Memoirs of the Southeast Coast of Arabia" (1839) are among the earliest reports on those regions. Georg Wallin delivered a valuable report on the Hajj to the Society in 1854 in his "Narrative of a Journey from Cairo to Medina and Mecca"; William Palgrave is today regarded as one of the most important European explorers of the Peninsula, and his "Observations made in Central, Eastern and Southern Arabia, 1862-3" is found in the 1864 volume of the Journal. A lesser-known figure is Lewis Pelly, who in the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society (1863) delivered a remarkably prescient lecture, "On the Geographical Capabilities of the Persian Gulf as an Area of Trade" - highlighting the future importance of the tribes and territories of the Gulf as global commercial centres, from Kuwait down to the coasts mainly controlled by "Arab pirates". He also contributed "A Visit to the Wahabee Capital, Central Arabia" (1865) - a fascinating, early account of Riyadh.

The 1890s saw a spurt of accounts of the Gulf in the Journal by Theodore Bent including "The Bahrein Islands, in the Persian Gulf" (1890), "Expedition to the Hadhramaut" (1894), and "Exploration of the Frankincense Country, Southern Arabia" (1895). Also of note was an important study of the historical importance of Gulf ports such as Bahrain, discussed in Arthur Stiffe's 1897 article "Ancient Trading Centres of the Persian Gulf". From this point on contributions on the Peninsula become too numerous to list: among them are Frank Clemow's "A Visit to the Rock-Tombs of Medain Salih and the Southern Section of the Hejaz Railway" (1913); Sir Percy Cox's "Overland Journey to Maskat from the Persian Gulf" (1902) and his fascinating account of Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud, "The Wahabi King" (1928); Gertrude Bell's "A Journey in Northern Arabia" (1914); Lees's "The Physical Geography of Southeastern Arabia" (1928); Holt's "The Future of the North Arabian Desert" (1923); Harry St. John Philby's "Account of Explorations in the Great South Desert of Arabia" (1933); Cheesman's description of the Arabian coastline between Qatar and Bahrain, "From Oqair [Al Uqair] to the ruins of Salwa" (1923); Bertram Thomas's "A Journey into the Rub' al-Khali" (1931) and "The Southeastern Borderlands of the Rub' al-Khali" (1929); Lees's "The Physical Geography of Southeastern Arabia" (1928); and Cochrane's early aerial surveys of Southern Arabia ("Air Reconaissance of the Hadhramaut", 1931). We also find several papers by R. E. Leachman - "the second Lawrence", murdered in Iraq in 1920 - including his "Journey Across Arabia" (1913) and "A Journey through Central Arabia" (1914). Wilfred Thesiger, who drew attention to the borderlands between present day UAE and Oman, contributed "A New Journey in Southern Arabia" (1946); "Journey through the Tihama, the Asir and the Hijaz Mountains" (1948); and "Across the Empty Quarter" (1948) to the Journal, and we also find K. C. Jordan's "adjustments" to Thesiger's map of Southeastern Arabia in Vol. 111 (1948).

[Reflections on Mohammedism]. Reflections on Mohammedism, and the conduct of Mohammed. Occasioned by …London, 1735.

Only edition; rare: an apology of Islam and its Prophet, influenced by the writings of Pococke and Reland, and published a year after George Sale's "Koran", the first English Quran to be translated directly from the Arabic. The anonymous author counts among those "interested in revising 'imposture' theories by recasting Mahomet in a positive, Greco-Roman republican mold - a wise 'Arabian legislator' [...]. [This work,] occasioned by Sale's translation of the Qur'an, suggests that Islam anticipates the Protestant Reformation: Mahomet 'laid the foundations of a general and thorough Reformation, Conversion, and Re-Union in ages to come'" (H. Garcia, Islam and the English Enlightenment, 1670-1840 [2011], p. 256). From the beginning the author cautions that "no disputes ought to be conducted with more temper and moderation than those about religion, but, unluckily, none have been managed with such warmth, bitterness, and inequality" (p. 1); he defends the Prophet against unjust accusations levelled against him by his Christian detractors and closes with the admonition that young British scholars of theology would do well "to apply themselves, among their other exercises, to the study of the oriental tongues, which, upon an impartial survey of the present state of religion, seems to claim much of their attention" (p. 53f.).

Bound with this are eight other English theological works (all first or only editions) concerned with hell-fire and heresies, several written with a decidedly free-thinking slant. Binding severely rubbed and bumped; hinges cracked. Variously browned throughout with occasional staining; contemporary handwritten table of contents on loose flyleaf; second flyleaf clipped with a handwritten title "A Vol. of scarce & curious Tracts" on verso; first title page has 19th century ownership stamp "R. Blackwell".