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The start of the Great Game
Publication: G. Sidney for Sir Richard Phillips, London, 1823.
Important booklet showing the British interest in new Russian ‘missions’ in Central Asia, with the first translation of Russian accounts of the region. A lovely copy.
£295
In stock
Fine example of this booklet which includes the first appearance in English of important early Russian missions to Central Asia, at the very beginning of the ‘Great Game’.
The publication gives abridged accounts of Nazaroff’s ‘Expedition to Kokand’, Eversmann and Iakovlev’s ‘Account of Bukharia’ and Muravev’s Embassy to Turkomania and Khiva, which had been published shortly before in Russian, with a fine atlas of plates.
Provenance
Prof. Philip Longworth (1933-2021, historian and writer, esp. on Russian history).
Item number
3196
Octavo (21.4 x 13 cm). 112 pp. including title, with one aquatint plate.
Binding
Later beige boards, flat spine lettered in black, marbled edges.
Condition
Binding in fine condition, minor occasional soiling internally, a pleasant copy.
An excellent example of the first edition of this travel account in nowadays Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan - inscribed by the author to Henri Cordier. Richly illustrated, with a folding map of the region.
LEVCHINE, Alexis de [Aleksei Iraklevich LEVSHIN, also LIOVSHIN]
Description des hordes et des steppes des Kirghiz-Kazaks ou Kirghiz-Kaïssaks
The first extensive study of the people of Kazakhstan: first French edition, with the same illustrations as the original Russian edition; including a folding map of the area, which was very rare at the time. This is the copy which belonged to 'Le Baron de Barante', the dedicatee of the translation.
Remarkable photographic record of nowadays Uzbekistan and neighbouring regions - a beautiful, luxury production, and a fine example of the deluxe version, in beautiful, fresh condition.
KAULBARS, Aleksandr Vasilevich
Drevneishiia rusla Amu-Dari [Ancient Beds of the Amu Darya River].
First edition, very rare, of this geographical and historical study of the Western part of present-day Uzbekistan. Complete with its impressive map of the region.
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