Oct 27, 2015 - Sale 2395

Sale 2395 - Lot 270

Price Realized: $ 1,625
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
BRUCE, JAMES. Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, in the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773. 58 engraved plates of 43 natural history and 15 miscellaneous subjects; 3 folding maps. 4 leaves of texts in various Ethiopic languages between pages 400 and 401 in Volume 1. [12], lxxxiii, [1], 535, [1]; [4], viii, 718, [2]; [4], viii, 759, [1]; [4], viii, 695, [1]; [4], xiv, 230, [12] pages, including half-titles, final blank in Volume 2, and plate list at end of Volume 5. 5 volumes. 4to, 300x236 mm, contemporary calf gilt, worn, joints and hinges ineptly reinforced with electrical tape but most covers detached; occasional toning or foxing of text, gutter of last leaf in Volume 1 taped on verso, still an attractive set internally. Armorial bookplate of Sir Walter Rawlinson Knt. of Ston Hall on verso of titles. Edinburgh: J. Ruthven for G. G. J. and J. Robinson, London, 1790

Additional Details

first edition. "Bruce was only the second European to visit the isolated mountain kingdom of Abyssinia since the 1630s . . . His long and energetic narrative . . . remains one of the great travel accounts of the eighteenth century" (ODNB). Nissen ZBI 617.