?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
LE GENTIL DE LA GALAISIÈRE, GUILLAUME-JOSEPH-HYACINTHE-JEAN-BAPTISTE. Voyage dans les Mers de l'Inde.Fait par Ordre du Roi, à l'Occasion du Passage de Vénus, sur le Disque du Soleil, le 6 Juin 1761, & le 3 du même Mois 1769. 10 engraved plates; 17 maps. xvi, 707, [1]; xvi, 844, xvi, [3] pages, including 2 leaves of errata at end. 2 volumes. 4to, 251x197 mm, modern calf preserving worn contemporary calf covers with gilt arms of Louis XVI, additionally blind-stamped HOME OFFICE; occasional light to moderate foxing minimally affecting the engraved matter. Bookplates of Frank S. Streeter (sale, Christie's, 17 April 2007, lot 320). Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 1779-81
first edition of a work based on material collected during Le Gentil's travels in the East in between his frustrated attempts to observe the Transit of Venus in 1761 and 1769 from the French colonial settlement of Pondicherry in India. The first volume of his book deals with Indian customs, religion, and astronomy; the second, with the geography, population, and natural history of the Philippines, Madagascar, and Mascarene Islands. DSB VIII, 143-45.
