Comprises: Nieuhoff, Jan. An Embassy from the East-India Company of the United Provinces, to the Grand Tartar Cham Emperor of China, Delivered by their Excellencies Peter De Goyer, and Jacob De Keyser, at his imperial City of Peking. Wherein the Cities, Towns, Villages, Ports, Rivers, &c. in their Passages from Canton to Peking, are Ingeniously Describ'd by Mr. John Nieuhoff, Steward to the Ambassadors. Also, An Epistle of Father John Adams, their Antagonist, concerning the whole Negotiation. With an Appendix of several Remarks taken out of Father Athanasius Kircher. Translated by John Ogilby. [2], 431 pp. With added pictorial title-page (signed in the plate by Wenceslaus Hollar) & 17 copper-engraved plates; double-page plan of Canton; double-page map of China; 94 copper-engravings in the text. Second Edition in English. London: Printed by the Author, 1673. * Montanus, Arnoldus. Atlas Chinensis: Being a Second Part of a Relation of Remarkable Passages in Two Embassies from the East-India Company of the United Provinces, to the Vice-Roy Singlamong and General Taising Lipovi, and to Konchi, Emperor of China and East Tartary… [4], 723 pp. With added copper-engraved title; double-page copper-engraved map of China; 38 copper-engraved plates, 32 of them double-page; 57 copper-engraved illustrations in the test. First Edition in English. London: Printed byTho. Johnson for the Author, 1671. Together, 2 volumes. Originally issued separately, but here uniformly bound and issued as a set, with spines gilt-stamped Ogilby’s China, Vol. I & Vol. II. (Folio), 16½x10¼, late 19th/early 20th century half calf & marbled boards, spines gilt, raised bands.
Superb set of the two great works on China translated and published by John Ogilby, noteworthy not only for text, bringing notice of the mysteries of the East to English readers, but for the magnificent engraved illustrations and plates. The Atlas Chinensis is particularly choice, with contents very clean and the plate impressions crisp. All the plates called for in the list at front are present, and also the general map of China, but some copies seem to have been issued with an additional map, though there are no signs of ir ever having been bound into the present copy. Cox. I, pp.325-326; Wing N1153 & M2484. With the bookplates of Alexander Dewey Calhoun, and the earlier armorial bookplates of Leeds; Calhoun, Shanghai, is written on Atlas Chinensis front pastedown. Calhoun was a banker in Shanghai in the 1920’s, and the books have remained in the family until the present offering.
Condition:
Minor rubbing to covers, spines a little faded and dry, some scuffing, ends chipped; the Nieuhoff with some mild marginal darkening and occasional minor soiling or spotting; Atlas Chinensis with one plate slightly discolored, a few leaves with marginal loss not affecting text; both have a few plates with ill-creases, several with short marginal splits at centerfold; very good to fine condition, rarely found so nice, large and full-margined.