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Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
KAEMPFER, ENGELBERT. The History of Japan, giving an Account of the Ancient and Present State and Government of that Empire. 44 (of 45) engraved plates and maps; lacks plate 6 (large pyramid in the second court of Berklam's temple). [20], lii, 391, [5]; [4], 393-612, 75, [1], [2], 11, [5] pages, including engraved additional title dated 1727. 2 volumes. Folio, 347x221 mm, contemporary panelled calf, rejointed, Volume 1 front cover detached; text leaves generally clean, blank corner of 6R1 restored, minor stains on some plates, repair in outer margin of plate 21 slightly affecting rule border. London: for the Publisher and sold by Thomas Woodward and Charles Davis, 1728
Second edition, enlarged, of a posthumous translation of the author's manuscript in German first published the year before, " . . . for more than a century the chief source of Western knowledge of the country. It contains the first biography of Kaempfer, an account of his journey, a history and description of Japan and its fauna . . . and six appendices, on tea, Japanese paper, acupuncture, moxa, ambergris, and Japan's seclusion policy"--DSB VII, 205. Garrison-Morton 6374.11 note; Howgego I, K1; Landwehr VOC 530 note.
