Travels & History: Russia, Siberia, Asia and Pacific

Extremely rare and very long view of a Black Sea port

Panorama of Tuapse

[Southern Russia, ca. 1911]. £1,950

A small Russian port on the Black Sea with railway works and development: an informative and very rare photographic panorama, impressively long: almost 1.9 metre!

Image for H. BRINDLEY. Notes on the Boats of Siberia. First edition (offprint), London 1920. #2

On one of the longest rivers in the world

BRINDLEY, Harold Hulme

Notes on the Boats of Siberia

Reprinted from 'The Mariner's Mirror', [London], [1920]. £395

Fine essay on Siberian boats, their history, construction, use etc., with illustrations. Very rare offprint.

Image for P. RYCHKOV. Essay on the History of Kazan. First edition, in original Russian, St. Petersburg, 1767. #2

First edition of a groundbreaking work on one of Russia's major regions

RYCHKOV, Petr

Opyt kazanskoi istorii drevnikh i srednikh vremian [Essay on the History of Kazan in Ancient Times and the Middle Ages]

Akad. Nauk, Skt. Peterburg, 1767. £10,000

A major work in Catherine the Great's active discovery of her empire: the first printed book on Kazan, its history and the Tatar region. First edition, in contemporary binding. Rare: the last copy at auction in the West was 50 years ago.

Image for W. SIMPSON. The Seat of War in the East. First edition, hand-coloured, London, 1855-56. #2

The preferred hand-coloured version - here with the rare text volume

SIMPSON, William

The Seat of War in the East

Day & Son for Colnaghi, London, 1855-56. £17,500

A most famous plate book on the Crimean War. First edition, a very good example complete of the deluxe version, with the smaller text volume.

Image for [ROMANOVS] P. LEBEDEV. Historical album; Portraits of the Royal House of the Russian Land. First edition, very rare. St. Petersburg, 1875. #2

Early photographic album

[ROMANOVS] – P. LEBEDEV (artist)

Istoricheskii albom tysiacheletiia Rossii. Portrety tsarskogo doma zemli russkoi s 862-1862 g [The Millenium of Russia Historical Album. Portraits of the Royal House of the Russian Land 862-1862]

K. Solovev, Skt. Peterburg, 1875. £3,500

Very rare: no copy traced on the Russian market, no copy traced oustide Russia. A luxury celebration of the Russian rulers, with the use of photography, and fine chomolithography. In an impressive full-leather binding.

Image for BENNER. Portraits of the Romanovs. First edition, complete copy. Moscow & St. Petersburg, 1817. #2

Fine stipple-engraved portraits

[ROMANOVS] – Henri BENNER

Sobranie 24-kh portretov imperatorskoi familii. Collection de vingt-quatre portraits de la famille impériale

Saint-Florent, Skt. Peterburg, and Rosenstrauch, Moskva, [1817]. £12,500

Attractive example of these famous portraits, kept here in their original portfolio and complete with both titles and subscribers' lists. Possibly from the Duchesse de Berry collection.

Image for I. MARCHENKOV. Plan of Moscow. First printing, 1789. #2

"The first truly modern map of Moscow" - with contemporary hand-colour

MARCHENKOV, Ivan

Plan stolichnago goroda Moskvy [Plan of Moscow the Capital City]

[Timofei Polezhaev, Moskva], 1789. £12,500

An important and decorative plan of the Russian capital, printed the year of the French Revolution. A fine hand-coloured example. Very rare.

Image for ALEXANDER I. Grand Manifeste. First edition in French; Paris, 1816. #2

In copper-gold wrappers

[NAPOLEON] – ALEXANDRE I

Grand manifeste d'Alexandre 1er, Empereur et Autocrate de toutes les Russies

Tiger, Paris, 1816. £350

First edition in French of this political speech by the Tsar who vanquished Napoleon. Attractively bound.

Image for N.B. [BOGATOV] and PEROV. Russian Types. Chromolithographs, first edition; Moscow, 1889. #2

No other set traced

N.B. [presumably Nikolai Alekseevich BOGATOV] and Vasilii PEROV (artists)

Russkie tipy [Russian types]

Kushnerev i Ko, Moskva, [ca. 1889]. £375

Lovely set of depictions of various peoples of the Rusisan empire, most probably published for the Paris 'Exposition Universelle'. Of great rarity, as we couldn't find any other example. With (most of) the original printed envelope.

Image for GEISSLER, GRUBER & RICHTER. Russian Folk Amusements. First edition, Leipzig 1801. Complete with hand-coloured plates #2

Partying in late 18th-c. Russia

GEISSLER, [Christian Gottfried Heinrich], J.G. GRUBER and J. RICHTER

Russische Volke-Vergnügungen [Russian Folk Amusements]

Leipzig, Im Industrie Comptoir, [1801]. £5,750

Very rare large-format plates in striking colours, by a master of the genre. Last copy traced on the market: in 1931, incomplete.

Image for [ROMANOVS] Childhood, Education and Young Years of the Russian Tsars. First edition, in the original Russian. Skt. Peterburg, 1914. #2

With the gilt cover in fine condition

[ROMANOVS] – Ivan Nikolaevich BOZHERIANOV

Detstvo, vospitanie i leta iunosti russkih imperatorov [Childhood, Education and Young Years of Russian Emperors]

Benke, Skt. Peterburg, [1914]. £4,250

Pleasant and attractive example of this great book, a luxurious, richly illustrated production presenting the childhood of the Romanov tsars over 200 years. First edition, scarce in such condition.

Image for CRULL & BOUVET, Moscovy and China, first edition. London, 1699. #2

In a binding with deer tools

[CRULL, Jodocus] (editor) and J[oachim] BOUVET

The Present Condition of the Muscovite Empire, till the Year 1699. In Two Letters: the First from a Gentleman, Who Was Conversant with the Muscovite Ambassadour in Holland: the Second from a Person of Quality at Vienna, Concerning the Late Muscovite Embassy, His Present Czarish Majesty; the Russian Empire; and Great-Tartary. With the Life of the Present Emperour of China

F. Coggan, London, 1699. £3,750

Russian and China at the end of the 17th century, in a lovely binding with deer tools. A fine example of the first edition, the Macclesfield copy.

Image for N. CHAKIROV. Tsars' coronations & history of the Russian empire. First edition, New York, 1971. #2

In bright condition

CHAKIROV, Nikita (editor)

Tsarskie koronatsii na Rusi iz Istorii Derzhavy Rossiiskoi XVI-XX vv. The history of the Russian Empire

Printed in Japan for the Russian Orthodox Youth Committee, New York, 1971. £950

Fine, fresh example of this luxurious book, which covers the Romanovs' dynasty with an impressive array of illustrations. First edition.

Image for MORNAY, DUBOURG & CLARK. A Picture of St. Petersburg. First edition, London, 1815. With original hand-colour and finely bound. #2

Saint Petersburg in colours

MORNAY (artist)

A Picture of St. Petersburg, represented in a Collection of Twenty interesting Views of the City, the Sledges, and the People. Taken on the Spot, at the twelve different Months of the Year: and accompanied with an Historical and Descriptive Account

Howlett and Brimmer, and Dove for Edward Orme, London, 1815. £14,500

A finely bound copy of this cornerstone of any Russian, or indeed colour-plate collection, showing the Northern Capital in colours and in all seasons, as Napoleon would have seen it if....

Image for MARTOS, Letters on Eastern Siberia, first edition,Moscow, 1827 #1

With a view of the British mission

MARTOS, Aleksei [Ivanovich]

Pisma o vostochnoi Sibiri [Letters on Eastern Siberia]

Universitet. Tip., Moskva, 1827. £3,950

A fine, uncut copy of the first edition of this uncommon Russian book on Siberia and the Chinese border, illustrated, and giving an account of the second British mission in Russia. Praised by Gogol among others.

Image for [CUSTINE] M. ERMOLOV. Encore quelques mots sur l'ouvrage... First edition, Paris, 1843. #2

Rare anti-Custine booklet

[CUSTINE] – M[ikhail ERMOLOV]

Encore quelques mots sur l'ouvrage de M. de Custine : La Russie en 1839

Lacour et Maistrasse for Ferra, Paris, 1843. £225

First edition of this 'comment' on Custine's celebrated description of Russia, part of a counter-propaganda campaign by the Russian empire. Very rare: no copy traced on the market nor in Americas.

Image for C. S. HARDINGE. Sketches in the Camp before Sebastopol. First edition, London, 1855. #2

Uncommon folio views

HARDINGE, Charles Stewart

Sketches in the Camp before Sebastopol

Henry Graves, London, 1855. £2,950

Attractive and quite rare lithograph work showing scarce scenes of the Crimean War. First edition, in its first binding.

Image for N. GEKKER [HECKER]. Yakut Physical Type, first edition, in Russian. Irkutsk, 1896. #2

Siberian people in photography

GEKKER, Naum Leontevich [HECKER]

K kharakteristikie fizicheskago tipa iakutov : antropologicheskii ocherk. Zur Charakteristik des physischen Typus der Iakuten [On Characteristics of the Yakut Physical Type]

Irkutsk, Makushin, 1896. £3,500

A shot in the head, gold mining in Siberia, ethnography of the locals, and the use of photography: an interesting and unsual work on these people of deep Siberia. Scarce first edition of the original Russian, complete with its photographic plate.

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