Our Notes & References

First edition in English of this celebrated guide to one of the most famous railways in the world. An attractive, fresh example, in the retailer’s binding boasting an imperial double-headed eagle.

Apart from the details of timetables and fares, the book includes a mass of geographical, economic, anthropological and historical data, such as data on crops and livestock, statistics on the number of exiles, and information about hotels, buffets, and drinking water. The illustrations include stations, native tribesmen, Chinese mandarins, paddle steamers and hunting falcons, and the generous volume also provides a range of maps, such as plans of the Siberian cities of Tomsk, Irkutsk and Vladivostok, maps of the railway connections between Samara and Zlatooust, Cheliabinsk and the Baikal lake, and then onto Vladivostok. Contains a wealth of wide-ranging and detailed information on Asian Russia and a great advertisement catalogue representing many major Russian and foreign companies at the turn of the century.

The guide was meant to be an yearly publication describing the cultural, economic and industrial impact of the Trans-Siberian railway. However, this endeavour was not fully brought to life, and only three issues were published (1900, 1901-1902, 1904).

This copy was retailed (and bound- in the UK by Edward Stanford’s company, as it shows “Stanford” to the spine foot as well as an ink stamp on the title page, below the Russian imprint, reading “Edward Stanford, 12, 13, & 14, Long Acre, London, W. C.”. Edward Stanford (1827–1904) was a British cartographer and successful publisher, who specialised in printing maps of London and other countries in the years of British colonial expansion. The company exists until today and still occupies the Long Acre London address.

Provenance

Ronald Grant, May 69 (pencil inscription to upper fly-leaf); Pr. Philip Longworth (1933-2020, historian, writer and book collector, esp. on Russian history).