London: [Simon Stafford and Felix Kingston] for Cuthbert Burby & John Flasket, 1601.. [1],58,[4] leaves. Woodcut vignette of sailing ship on... More

London: [Simon Stafford and Felix Kingston] for Cuthbert Burby & John Flasket, 1601.. [1],58,[4] leaves. Woodcut vignette of sailing ship on titlepage. Extra- illustrated with 19 engravings (numbered 1-3, 19, 4-18) from Van Neck's HISTORIALE BESCHRIJVINGHE (Amsterdam, 1619). Text and plates "inlaid to size," remargined to 9 1/4 x 6 3/4 inches. 19th-century mottled calf, double-fillet gilt border on boards, spine gilt in compartments, gilt leather label. Boards and spine slightly worn. Titlepage and extra- engraved plates fully attached to sheets; printed pages of text inserted in blank leaves in order to show recto and verso. Engraved plates annotated in ink with corresponding "page" (leaf, recto or verso) of text. Lacking the dedication leaf (paraph 2) and leaf Q4 (blank), pages shaved (with occasional slight loss of text in lower margin), rust hole in leaf P3 (affecting a few letters on recto), tear in leaf Q3 (repaired, not affecting text). Overall, a very good copy, with the 1860 engraved bookplate of the Library of the Earls of Macclesfield on front pastedown, shelf marks inscribed on verso of front free endpaper. Embossed stamp of the Earls of Macclesfield in upper extended margins of titlepage leaf and following two leaves of text. The first English edition of Van Neck's account of his 1598 voyage to the East Indies, translated from the 1601 Amsterdam edition of the author's HET TWEEDE BOECKE. The Dutch navigator, who represented the Verre Company, commanded three ships which were part of the first successful Dutch trading voyage to the region. The other two ships were commanded by Wybrand Van Warwijck and Jacob Van Heemskerk. Van Neck's vessel became separated from the other two after rounding the Cape of Good Hope, and the three did not reunite again until his arrival in Java in late December 1598. Unlike his Dutch predecessor, Cornelis Houtman, who three years earlier had seized the port of Bantam, Van Neck dealt diplomatically with the natives. "Rather than rejecting the inflated prices asked by the local ruler, he offered to pay over the odds in order to cement a lasting relationship...Van Neck's was the most profitable of the pre-VOC [Dutch East India Company] voyages. Despite the apparently high price paid for spices, he netted a profit of 300 per cent on his overall costs. In 1601, fourteen fleets comprising sixty-five ships sailed for the East Indies, but by that time competition between rival Dutch operators, as well as with the Portuguese, had inflated prices and none were as successful as Van Neck's first enterprise" - Howgego. While focused on activity in the East Indies, EUROPEAN AMERICANA notes that the text includes references to Brazil and tobacco from the West Indies. Van Neck's account was popular throughout the first half of the 17th century and was reprinted and translated into German and French as well as English. It also appeared in collections of voyages such as those by De Bry, Hulsius, and Colijn. This extra- illustrated copy includes nineteen engraved plates from the Amsterdam 1619 edition of Van Neck's HISTORIALE BESCHRIJVINGHE published by Michiel Colijn. The images are mounted on separate sheets and bound in the book at the appropriate portion of the text. The engravings are annotated in ink, indicating the appropriate page (i.e. recto or verso of a specific leaf) related to the image. A rare book on the market. Prior to this copy from the Macclesfield sale in March 2007, the last copy previously available was sold at the Boise Penrose sale in 1971. Both EUROPEAN AMERICANA and STC record only two copies in the U.S., at the Huntington and NYPL, the latter noted as imperfect. EUROPEAN AMERICANA 601/66. STC 18417 (noting quires A-G printed by Stafford, paraph 2 and quires H-Q printed by Kingston). TIELE-MULLER, p.144. HOWGEGO N13. Less

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With elaborate double-page engraved frontispiece, hand painted floral paste-downs, hand-painted maps. Calf with blue edges and gilded spine and... More

With elaborate double-page engraved frontispiece, hand painted floral paste-downs, hand-painted maps. Calf with blue edges and gilded spine and borders on covers. First edition of Zatta’s masterpiece of the eighteenth century, the most important world atlas of the period. All maps are hand-coloured, with each title in a decorative cartouche surrounded by the architecture, animals, and landscape one was thought to encounter in that particular environment. All known areas of the world are documented, along with celestial maps, diagrams of the universe, ancient empires, and a plethora of maps concentrated on the countries and provinces of Europe. Also included is Zatta’s celebrated version of “Le Colonie Unite delle America Settentrie” based on Mitchell’s map of America (1775). Many of the maps in this section were engraved during the Revolution, and include vignettes which reference military and naval engagements, along with other political and economic information. Another particularly important map is “La Nuova Zelanda,” which was one of the first published versions of Cook’s chart of New Zealand. Zatta (1757-1797) was the most prominent Italian map publisher of the late eighteenth century. Based in Venice, his maps marked a transition from eighteenth to nineteenth century cartographic styles. He updated and redefined the traditional title cartouche by replacing the mythic elements common to the earlier styles with more representative images. His maps contain magnificent details while striving for accuracy. In addition, Zatta’s published works were renown for their high artistic qualities and modern colours, especially the fresh tones of his pinks, greens and yellows. This atlas is considered his magnum opus, though he also produced a number of Italian classics. It is extremely rare to find this atlas complete. Bossi (1788-1870) was a friend and defender of Italian revolutionaries, including Federico Confalonieri (1785-1846). He took refuge in Switzerland after his exile from Milan following the 1821 Piedmont revolt against the Austrians. Less

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[Holland: seventeenth century]. Folio. (12 1/2 x 8 inches). 48 watercolours of tulips on vellum, interleaved with plain paper with horn and crown... More

[Holland: seventeenth century]. Folio. (12 1/2 x 8 inches). 48 watercolours of tulips on vellum, interleaved with plain paper with horn and crown watermark, each watercolour titled in ink below image, the first watercolour signed "Grein" at the lower right. Contemporary vellum over pasteboard, contained in a modern dark green morocco box, the covers with gilt-ruled borders, the spine in six compartments with raised bands, lettered in the second, the others with elaborate repeat pattern made up from flower-sprays and various small tools. A spectacular album containing finely-executed images on vellum of all the greatest 17th century varieties of tulips: a landmark in the history of botanical art in the Low Countries, and a unique record of the bulbs that inspired the speculative financial-madness called Tulipomania. The tulip, introduced to Europe in the middle of the sixteenth century from the Ottoman Empire, experienced a strong growth in popularity boosted by competition among the wealthy for possession of the rarest varieties. The tulip rapidly became a coveted luxury item, appearing in main-stream art as a symbol of wealth and as a decorative motif on ceramics and textiles. Special varieties were given exotic names or named after popular figures of the time: generals, admirals, etc. The most spectacular and highly sought-after tulips were the so-called "broken" varieties. These had two or more vivid colours: often a base colour of white or cream with red lines, or flames to the petals. The present album is devoted exclusively to these most expensive varieties. Tulipomania eventually reached a level where fantastic, unsustainable prices were being paid for individual bulbs. In 1637, the bubble burst and the over-heated market collapsed. For some years after this, the tulip's popularity remained at a low level but by the time the present album was produced its unique beauty was beginning once again to be appreciated. Tulip albums were produced for two principle reasons. First, as a selling tool for the bulb dealers: accurate images of what the bulbs they were offering were going to look like were obviously vital and the high prices of the tulipomania era set a precedent of employing artists of a very high quality to record the colours and details of the bulbs. These albums are almost exclusively made up of drawings on paper. One of the best known examples of this type of album is probably the 1637 tulip book of P. Cos, a nurseryman from Haarlem, Holland (now in the collection of the Wageningen Universiteit en Researchcentrum). Second, albums were produced as a collective record of the ephemeral beauty of the blooms grown by individuals, either professional growers or wealthy amateurs. The present album probably falls into this latter category: the original presentation of this album is on a much more luxurious scale than trade albums. The most obvious sign of this is the fact that each of the drawings is on vellum. Vellum, especially the prepared vellum used for the present album, was an expensive luxury material and an indicator that the drawings were commissioned by a wealthy individual (in France, for instance, King Louis XIV had all his botanical drawings executed on vellum: the so-called "velins du Roi"). Tulip albums, whatever their origin, are now very rare: according to Sam Segal (a world-renowned expert on tulips and the author of "Tulips in Visual Art",) there are now only about 50 of these albums extant. This includes albums with drawings on paper and also 18th century albums; thus, the actual number of seventeenth century albums with drawings on vellum is almost certainly no more than a handful. Most albums are in institutional collections, so the present album may well be the final example offered on the open market. Sam Segal offered the following information about the present album: the artist "Grein" is an unrecorded artist, but his name "is a Dutch name known since the early seventeenth century." The paper used for the interleaves is watermarked with a horn and crown, similar to paper known to have been made in Amsterdam and Leiden from 1665. The tulip types are from this period as well, before a relative great change in form and size during the eighteenth century. The flowers themselves carry names that "are known from the 1630s and 1640s, the period of and directly after the tulipomania ...they include the very expensive types of that period, like the 'Semper Augustus' and 'Viceroy.' As in many tulip books meant as a catalogue of a seller of bulbs, the illustrations show many related types. That might mean that they are tulips from one nursery or one collection from which the owner gave an order to the artist to paint his collection. The names of some of the tulips could point to a possible commissioner of the album, like 'General Doriszlav' and 'Grootvorst van Moscovicz.'" Dash,Tulipomania , London, 1999; Goldgar,Tulipomania , Chicago, 2007; Pavord,The Tulip,London, 1999; van der Goes (editor) Tulipomanie, Zwolle/Dresden, 2004; Wijnands,Tulips portrayed, Wageningen, 1987. Less

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