Search Results: Books from John Randall (Books of Asia)

London: Oxford University Press, 1939. First edition, 8vo, pp.xvi, 259, 2 plates. A very good copy in lightly soiled original cloth. Corners and spine slightly bumped. John Desmond Gimlette (1867-1934) was encouraged to produce this work by his good friend Walter Skeat, author of Malay Magic and inspiration to Rudyard Kipling, as a more comprehensive and user-friendly English-Malaysian medical dictionary than the first attempt published by Dr. P.N. Gerrard in 1905. Gimlette died an untimely death in 1934 having completed only two-thirds of this dictionary and it was completed, according to his wishes, by H.W. Thomson. Gimlette was an active doctor who lived for years in the Malaysian Peninsula and was co-discoverer of Derris elliptica as an insecticide. He was described as "one of God's own" because of his kindness and friendliness alongside his expertise. He also had a deep personal interest in indigenous medical practices and authored Malay Poisons and Charm Cures. The plates show… Read More

Bonn: H.B. Konig, 1838. First edition, pp.284. German text. A very good copy in paper covered boards, gilt leather spine label. Light rubbing and bumping to boards and spine, slight foxing scattered throughout. One of the earliest attempts to decipher Bactrian script using Bactrian, Indo-Greek and Indo-Scythian coins with Kharoshthi legend inscriptions. The author disagrees with the theories of, among others, Masson, Prinsep and Grotefend, and firmly propounds his own ideas. Christian Lassen (1800-1876), a German Indologist, understood a dozen languages including Sanskrit, Pali, and Arabic. His annotated edition of the Hitopadesa (1831), edited in conjunction with August Wilhelm von Schlegel, was the first critical study of Sanskrit literature. He was also the first to decipher Brahmi scipt in 1836, and one of the first to attempt to decipher Bactrian.

London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1904. First edition, pp.xxiv, 380, folding map, 202 illustrations (mostly plates). A very good copy in original gilt decorated cloth, top edge gilt. Slightly rubbed and bumped, cloth shows light soiling from age, edges lightly foxed. Map has a repaired 3cm tear at join, affecting only border. An account of the visit of husband and wife to archaeological and artistic remains through large parts of India, including the Punjab, Madras, Orissa, Bengal, Mysore, Hyderebad, and Rajputana, via bicycle, including important locations such as the Ajanta caves and Bhuvaneswara. The illustrations are black and white photos, of which 192 were taken by the authors themselves. The work is not academic but a first hand account of a journey, and thus includes numerous observations about wildlife, peoples, and ways of life alongside the temples and wall paintings. Fanny Bullock Workman (1859–1925) and William Hunter Workman (1847–1937) were American explorers and mountaineers who… Read More

London.: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans., 1855. First edition, Two volumes, pp.xii, 451, viii, 423, 24 (adverts). A good set in original green cloth, boards blind decorated. Lightly rubbed, corners bumped, spines bumped and faded. The head and foot of the spine of volume one has a few superficial tears to cloth, and rear inner hinge starting to separate. Previous owner's inscriptions to front end-papers. Ida Laura Pfeiffer (1797– 1858) was arguably the first full-time woman traveller: an adventurous Austrian, she dedicated the second half of her life entirely to travelling around the world, and published five works describing her journeys. This was her penultimate work and the last she would live to see, her final work being published posthumously in 1861. She was a budding amateur ethnographer and natural scientist, frequently sending samples back to European museums and discovered several new species. She would likely have become academically renowned had her membership to the Royal… Read More

London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1924. Fourth impression, pp.253, portrait, 6 illustrations, 2 maps. A very good copy in original cloth. Spine and corners lightly bumped. A fascinating account of the two expeditions made by Lilian Agnes Starr (1885-1977), a nurse of the Peshawar Mission Hospital, into Tibet and Afghanistan. The first, in 1922, was a vacation with her single servant to Leh, capital of Ladakh, reveals an immensely rich culture brought to life by Starr's frank and vivid descriptions. The second expedition, in 1923, was a far more dramatic affair which earned Starr no small amount of fame in England and elsewhere. In 1923 the British cantonment Kohat, near the Afghanistan border, was raided by Afridi tribesmen and British citizen Mollie Ellis was captured. It was Lilian Starr who was chosen to find Mollie Ellis and negotiate her return, and upon her successful return was lauded world-wide. The writing, directly from Starr's personal journal and diaries, is frank and lends a… Read More

Batavia: Volkslectuur, 1938. First edition, 4to, pp.545, 45 plates, 4 mounted and in colour. A very good copy in original boards, spine strengthened. A classic study of Javanese theatre, with many illustrations of masks.

Jena: Verlag von Gustav Fischer, 1911-12. First edition, three (of four) volumes, pp.xxiv, 413, 742, viii, 498, 20 plates, one in colour, 139 text illustrations, 4 folding maps. Text in German. A very good set in contemporary cloth, spines gilt, all edges speckled red. Light rubbing to extremities, neatly cancelled library bookplates on half-titles. Sijfert Hendrik Koorders (1863-1919) was a pre-eminent Dutch botanist who specialised on the flora of Java, and was authority for at least 648 taxa (a group of one or more populations of organisms). At the age of twenty-two he joined the Dutch East Indies Forest Service in Java, and by 1892 was curator at the Herbarium Bogoriense in Bogor, Java, where he was personally responsible for the acquisition of 40,000 specimens. In 1912 he founded the Dutch East Indies Association for Nature Protection. The separate volume of illustrations, published twenty-five years later in 1937, is not present here. This set weighs over 4kg, shipping price will be quoted… Read More

Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1947. First edition, 4to, pp.xl, 73, 169 plates. An internally very good copy in original cloth. Upper board creased and slightly finger stained, corners bumped. The scarce first volume recording the results of Janse's three archaeological excavations in Indo-China from 1934 to 1939. Robert Ture Olov Janse (1892-1985), a Swedish archaeologist, is widely lauded as the man who brought organisation and respectability to Southeast Asian archaeology. His excavations were largely focused on brick tombs of the Han period in Tonkin and North and Central Annam, particularly Dong-so'n. Of the dozens of tombs uncovered one was one of the largest subterranean brick buildings in Indo-China (tomb no.2 of Nghi-ve) and several were completely undisturbed, leading to rich funerary deposits. Some later tombs and locations were contemporary with the Sung and T'ang dynasty. The second and third volumes published several years later are not present.

Trevoux: Par La Compagnie, 1741. Nouvelle edition, augmentée d'une table des matieres, 12mo, pp.[ii], 512. A very good crisp copy bound in later full speckled calf, spine gilt, all edges red. The last few pages of the table of contents are bound out of order but all are present. The new edition of Choisy's account of his journey to Thailand with Chevalier de Chaumont, the first French ambassador for King Louis XIV, first published in 1687. François Timoléon, abbé de Choisy (1644-1724) was famous in his youth for being cross-dressed by his mother for the amusement of Louis XIV and his court. Madame de La Fayette convinced him to continue his use of women's clothes and make-up into adulthood, gaining a reputation for using androgyny to cause scandal at court, especially as he was an ordained priest. Modern historians have cast doubt over the extent of this reputation, suggesting it more likely that these were rumours invented by his opponents. Alexandre,… Read More

London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1899. First edition, pp.xxiii, 357. [C.-9131] A very good copy bound in later buckram. Lightly frayed original wrappers bound in. Some pencil annotation.

London: George Allen & Unwin, 1949. First edition, first impression, pp.648, many illustrations, some in colour, 9 folding maps on seven sheets, and 6 folding genealogical tables. A very good copy in lightly soiled original cloth. Corners bumped, occasionally very lightly foxed. One of the most important accounts of Bedouin nomadic life around the Arabian Gulf by British administrator Lieutenant Colonel Harold Richard Patrick Dickson (1881-1959). Dickson served as British official in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Kuwait from 1919 until 1941. This work was the first, and only biographic, book he wrote on the now endangered way of life of the northern Arab Gulf. This work is considered 'monumental' in preserving Bedouin life and history, especially because Dickson recounts the detailed family and tribe relations he witnessed and heard in the oral histories told over evening campfires. He credits his friendly relations with the Bedouins to the circumstances around his nursing. He was… Read More

Oxford: Privately printed., 1914. First edition, pp.35, frontis portrait. A very good copy in original boards. Paper spine professionally repaired. Theodore Duka (1825-1908), a Hungarian army officer, studied medicine in Britain, worked as a doctor in India and became fluent in several Indian languages. Erdelyi 1.079.

Allahabad: A.H. Wheeler, [1888]. Presumed first edition, second or third issue, pp.[viii], 114, vii [publishers adverts]. A good used copy, front section loose, but still held by stitching. Both wrappers worn and frayed. Text clean. This scarce early issue of the first edition has the apostrophe before "Rickshaw" in the title on front wrapper, and full stops after the A. and H. of publishers name. Livingstone 40

Cairo: Government Press, 1952-1951. First edition, three volumes, 4to, pp.xv, 188; xii, 95; x, 92 plates. Service des Antiquites dl l'Egypte. Limited to 500 copies. A very good set in later cloth with original wrappers bound in. Slightly rubbed extremities, original wrappers lightly soiled. One of the earliest professional archaeological accounts of the ancient settlements of Marib and El Gof in Yemen, and the second ever work to publish photographs of these important historical sites. One chapter describes all previous scientific journeys to Marib, to establish the new ground made in this work. Ahmed Fakhry (1905-1973) was an Egyptian archaeologist who broke new ground in Arabian and Egyptian archaeology. He is known for his excavation and study of the 'Bent Pyramid' at Dahshur. Gonzague Ryckmans (1887-1969) was a Belgian linguist who pioneered the documenting and deciphering of pre-Islamic languages from the Arabian Peninsula.

London: William Brown & Co., 1899. First edition, oblong 4to (22 x 28 cm approx), pp.60, many illustrations to text, 2 maps. A very good copy bound in somewhat soiled original cloth, rebacked with later cloth spine. An attractive illustrated account of what is now Sabah, compiled by the British North Borneo Company to promote investment in the state. The text details the Company's progress in North Borneo since 1882, with a brief history, geographical notes, and an outline of the region's resources and population. There is a detailed note on a proposed railway, with comparison to the railway recently constructed in Selangor. The final section lists all of the Company's officers, from the Court of Directors to the Protector of Chinese, N.B. Dennys and two postmasters, one at Sandakan and the other at Labuan. Letters took one month to reach Britain; telegrams could be sent more expeditiously. This directory of Company officers includes two pages of photographic portraits of the… Read More

[Hong Kong], 1962. Three volumes, folio typescript, pp.(114), (119), 45 maps, 16 folding. Bound by Sam Ying Company of Hong Kong. A very good set in contemporary cloth, spines gilt. Unique well preserved typescripts of a course of lectures on Chinese geographical discovery, delivered by Professor Frederick Seguier Drake (1892-1976), probably at the University of Hong Kong in the 1950s. Drake was an Englishman born in China. Early in life he was ordained and became a missionary, but quickly became more known as a scholar of China particularly of its archaeology. He became Dean of the Faculty of Divinity at Qiliu (Cheeloo) University in Shandong and later Chair of Chinese at the University of Hong Kong which he occupied for twelve years. He is best known for leading the archaeological excavation of the Lei Cheng Uk Eastern Han Tomb in 1955-7, now a national monument.

Sydney: The Cyclopedia Company of Fiji, 1907. First edition, 4to, pp.8, 332, [46], many illustrations. With, bound in, a typescript index of persons appearing, and a specimen part of the Cyclopedia for presentation to subscribers. A very good copy in modern buckram. Original wrappers of specimen part preserved within. This Cyclopedia was created by the publishers to serve as "a standard work of reference on Fiji" to "focus attention on the magnificent resources of the group and its tropic wonders". It provides detailed information, with copious illustrations, on the the history, the people, the industries and trade, the culture and the geography of the island group, including specific details such as marriage and funerary rites, and suspicions of cannibalism and child sacrifices. Much of the information was supplied by the Fiji Times and Western Pacific Herald. Perhaps the most important part of this work is the large set of 893 portraits that accompany the biographies of… Read More

London: Adam & Charles Black, 1907. First edition, 8vo (21 x 16 cm), pp.xiii, [1, blank], 275, [1], 95 plates, folding map. A very good copy in slightly rubbed original pictorial cloth, spine lightly bumped. Geraldine Edith Mitton (1868-1955), an English writer, visited Burma around 1905 and married Sir James George Scott (Shway Yoe) in 1920, collaborating with him on several novels set in Burma. She later wrote the account of his life Scott of the Shan Hills (1936). She provides an amusing impressionistic account of her first two months in Burma, where, starting from Moulmein, she travelled to Mandalay and Bhamo. She readily admits this is not a book "on Burma" but a recounting of her experiences and observation, refraining "from generalising on the basis of one example". She observes that as a 'holiday-land Burma is only just beginning to be known' but that this would soon change as the journey is 'extraordinarily cheap'. The illustrations are mostly from… Read More

Baghdad: The Government of Iraq, 1929. Revised and enlarged edition, folio, pp.(iv), 34, frontis, 8 folding maps. Together with 8 contemporary folding maps of the region loosely inserted. A good copy in rather worn original cloth. The maps are frayed at edges, several have tears to folds, one is annotated in pencil. Maps 1-4 are Roads of Northern Irag; Upper Central Iraq; Lower Central Iraq; [and] Southern Iraq. Map 5 is The Trans-Desert Routes and their connections. Map 6, The City of Baghdad and environs. 7, The environs of Basrah. 8, Ancient Sites. Additional maps: 1: Carte de la Syrie et d'Irak. Echelle 1: 1.150.000. Alexandrie. Egypte. Alexandre Nicohosoff. 40 x 70 cm. Folding to card cover. 2: Iraq, Syria, Turkey. Mosul Division. No J.38 M. Jazarat Ibn Omar. For Official Use only. 68 x 50 cm. Folded. May 1941. 1 inch to 4 miles. Surveyor General of India. 3: Iraq. Baghdad, Diyala, Dulaim. No.2.C. Baghdad. For Official Use only. 64 x 49 cm. Folded. 1931. Reprint of 1922… Read More

London: Printed for the author, 1816-18. First edition, two works in one volume, 4to, pp. [iii], viii, 164, [v], 4 engraved plates; [Second work] [viii], xvi, 222, [i], 2 engraved plates. A very good copy in contemporary half calf, marbled boards and end-papers. Professionally re-backed with gilt lettering piece. Lightly foxed throughout, not affecting legibility. The Rev. Thomas Maurice (1754-1824) was the Assistant-keeper of manuscripts at the British Museum and prolific author, most notably of Indian Antiquities (1793-1800). This book was privately published. The plates in the first work are: The supposed Ruins of the Tower of Babel; Ancient Inscription on the Walls of Persepolis, &c; The Great Pagoda of Tanjore; A Mexican Temple to the Sun and Moon, and in the second: Striking resemblance between the symbolic deities of Egypt & India, and the ancient Zodiac of Egypt.