A description of the empire of China and Chinese-Tartary, together with the kingdoms of Korea and Tibet: containing the geography and history (natural as well as civil) of those countries …

A$55,000 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

London : T. Gardner for Edward Cave, 1738-41. First complete English edition. Two volumes, folio, contemporary full calf ruled in gilt, expertly rebacked preserving the original labels; spines with raised bands and gilt rule; vol. 1 frontispiece portrait of Confucius, pp [4], xii, [1], xii, 678; vol. 2 pp [4], 388, [8]; with 51 engraved maps and plans (42 folding; map of China miscreased) and 13 plates; originally the personal copy of Thomas Percy (1729-1811), clergyman at Easton Maudit, Northamptonshire, later Bishop of Dromore, presented to him by the bookseller and writer Robert Dodsley (1704-1764), and inscribed on the front free-endpaper of the first volume The Gift of Mr. Dodsley to Th. Percy ; bound in at the rear of the second volume is Percy s own 8-page manuscript index, with a note at the foot, dated at Easton Maudit, 1762, expressing his frustration at the inadequacy of the error-riddled printed index; both pastedowns with the engraved armorial bookplate of Du Pre Alexander, second Earl of Caledon (1777-1839), politician and colonial administrator, and his blind library stamps on the title pages; [accompanied by] a signed autograph letter by Jean Baptiste Du Halde, dated 11 October 1729; [1] page, small quarto, with attached blank leaf; addressed to an unnamed correspondent; in the note, Du Halde mentions a gift and apologises for not being able to present it in person. The French Jesuit geographer and historian Du Halde s encyclopaedic work on China is considered

• Binding: Hardcover

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