Antiquariat Dasa Pahor

16/06/2022

Gilty pleasures

11/04/2022

Late 19th century Ottoman endpapers. From the books for our upcoming catalogue.

21/02/2022

EXPLORATION OF AFRICA BY A SLOVENIAN MISSIONARY

Exploration of Africa: Reise auf dem weissen Flusse. Aus den Original-Maniscripen des General-Vicars von Central-Africa Dr. Ignaz Knoblecher

[Travel on the White River. Based on the Original Manuscripts of the General-Vicar for Central Africa Dr. Ignaz Knoblecher]


A rare first edition of the description of the exploration of the White Nile by a Slovenian missionary Ignacij Knoblehar, also known as Abuna Soliman

8°, VIII, 39 pp., contemporary marbled spine (Very Good, old pencil annotation on the cover).

Ignacij KNOBLEHAR (Ignatius KNOBLECHER, also Abuna Soliman 1819-1858), author; Vinzenz Ferrer KLUN (Vincenz Ferrerius KLUN) (1823-1875), author of the introduction.

Ljubljana: Ignaz Alois von Kleinmayr 1850.

A rare first edition of a text on the exploration of the White Nile by Ignacij Knoblehar was published in German language in Ljubljana, today Slovenia. The author of the introduction was Vinzenz Ferrer Klun (Vincenz Ferrerius Klun), a Ljubljana-born editor, historian and geographer, who later worked in Vienna.

A Slovenian translation was published later in the same year.

Ignacij Knoblehar – Abuna Soliman

Ignacij Knoblehar (Ignatius Knoblecher, 1819-1858), known by his nickname Abuna Soliman (Father Solomon) was a missionary in Africa and one of the first explorers of the White Nile Basin.

Knoblehar was born in a village Škocjan in south Austrian region, in what is today Slovenia, and after studies of languages, natural science and theology in Ljubljana and Rome, travelled to Sudan as a missionary to the Vicariate Apostolic of Sudan, which was established the same year, in 1846. At the end of 1947 Knoblehar left Cairo in company of the Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa, and four other missionaries, and arrived at Khartoum, Sudan, in February 1848. There they established a school for young Africans whom they had purchased at the slave-market. Through these boys Knoblehar learned the language and they accompanied him on his later missions.
.. PLEASE SEE OUR WEB PAGE FOR A LONGER DESCRIPTION

05/02/2022

Almost two years have passed, sicne we have last exhibited at a fair, the New York Antiquarian Book Fair, in March 2020.

Although we miss the real fairs and all the fun, that goes with them, we will in the next months continue participating at the virtual fairs.

Please join us at our virtual booth next week at the On-Line California Fair.

29/01/2022

CALLIGRAPHY DRAWING - FRENCH REVOLUTION.

A highly decorative politically motivated calligraphy darwing in the immediate run-up to the French Revolution, made by the French ‘Master Calligraphers’ during the era, and one of the early images of spectacles, in the form we know today.

Anon.

[France, 1780s].

Ink on paper (Very Good, slightly age-toned and stained, originally mounted on old paper) 34 x 45 cm (13.4 x 17.7 inches).

This highly deatiled calligraphy drawing depicts the careless joie de vivre at the end of the 18th century, just before the French Revolution, with people in ridiculous costumes and wigs overeating, playing music, dancing with dogs and enjoying themselves, as the ominous political creatures and angry crowds with poles are approaching from the sides.

The man on the right-hand side, dancing with dogs, is wearing spectacles, what is one of the earliest images of the eyewear, as we know it today. Only in the beginning of the 18th century did spectacles as we would understand them start to appear.

The Dating & Attribution of the Work

While the work is undated, extensive evidence indicates that it dates from the 1780s, the period in the immediate lead-up to the French Revolution. First, the piece is composed in the mature artistic style consistent with the French maîtres écrivains in the circle of the Bureau académique d’écriture. This style was practiced for only brief period, during which the 1780s marked the apogee.

The clothing, hairstyles and wigs are all consistent with the period in question. The subject matter, showing the common people being corrupted and turning upon themselves, also reflects the mood as expressed in literature and art in immediate pre-Revolutionary France, imagery that was not common before or after that period.

The ink and paper used is also consistent with the period.

During the period in question there were very few artists who were capable of drafting such an elaborate work of penmanship, and virtually all of these individuals were either members of the Bureau, or independent practition... SEE OUR WEB PAGE FOR A LONGER DESCRIPTION

25/01/2022

HABSBURG - BROADSIDE

General-Gemaelde des Österreichischen Kaiserstaates, in geographische-statistischer, genealogischer, wissenschaftlicher & artistischer Hinsicht.

Prague & Berlin: C. Henning 1898.
Technique

Lithograph (profesionally restored, slightly dusty, repaired tears in margins, flattened soft vertikal and horizontal fold repaired with japanese paper verso and with repaired tiny tears and pin size...

A large separately issued lithography celebrates the reign and family of Habsburg. The central portrait of Ferdinand I of Habsburg (1793 – 1875) is surrounded by a flower of 11 crownland of the Habsburg Monarchy: Austria, Styria, Illyria, Tyrol, Lombardy-Venice, Galicia and Lodomeria, Silesia, Bohemia, Dalmatia, Transylvania and Hungary. Each petal of the flower describes one of the countries and gives the statistic of the country.

The upper part is decorated with the Austrian eagle, a map of the Austrian Monarchy, portraits of Rudolph I and Franz I of Habsburg, lists of the names from the house of Habsburg left, and Lotharingia right, and with views of the fort Habsburg, Lemberg (Lwów), Trieste, Prague, Budapest, Innsbruck and Vienna.

The whole central image is surrounded with decoration of small leaves carrying the names of the members of the house of Habsburg and a chain of medals with personifications of industry and science.

The author of the draft is not signed, but it is possible the image is based on a drawing by Anton Zelinka with a same title and dimensions, today held at the Austrian National Ligrary (http://aleph21-prod-acc.obvsg.at/F?func=direct&local_base=ACC01&doc_number=003781668).

19/01/2022

Ottoman Trade Catalogue / Blueprints

اناطولى بغداد دميريوللرى... آلات وأدوات آلبومى Album d‘outillage. Werkzeug-Album

[Anatolian-Baghdad Railways … Album of Tools and Machines. 1st part A-L]

Large 4°: 69 pp. blueprints with illustrations, recto only, contemporary mounted corrections in Ottoman in black ink on white paper, original illustrated blueprint wrappers, original black spine (minor staining, spine with small chips and loss of material, otherwise in a good and clean condition).

T. Ismail Hakki

Istanbul – Haydarpaşa: Anatolian-Baghdad Railways, July 16th 1924.

This fascinating and highly decorative firm catalogue, entirely made in the technique of a blueprint, includes 599 drawings of metal and wooden tools and accessories for metal workers, tanners, carpenters, bookbinders, printers, engineers, also for medical staff and other professions. The offer contains drawings of unusual items such as fire extinguisher, parts for machines, pots, furniture for printers and other workshops, scales, cans, brushes, medical stretcher, transporters etc. The descriptions are made in Ottoman, French and German, and sporadically contemporary corrected with black manuscript on white paper.

The image in the vignette at the end represents a female technical drawer.

The catalogue was a part of the offer by Anatolian-Baghdad Railways and was drawn and translated by a technical drawer Ismail Hakki in 1924 in Haydarpaşa, a part of the Istanbul, known for its massive railway station with the same name, built by the Anatolian Railways by 1909. The building represented the end of the Baghdad and Hijaz railways.

This is the first part (of 2? – if published). We could not find any other examples of the catalogue.

18/01/2022

Bible in Persian Language

كتاب مقدس : يعني كتب عهد عتيق و عهد جديد كه از زبانهاى اصلئ عبرانى وكلدانى ويونانى ترجمه شده است

[Kitāb-i Muqaddas, yaʻnī kutub-i ʻAhd-i ʻAtīq va ʻAhd-i Jadīd kih ʼaz zabānhā-yi ʼaṣlī-i ʻIbrānī va Kaldānī va Yūnānī tarjumah shudah ʼast]
[Bible: The books of the Old and New Testaments, translated from the original Hebrew and Greek languages]


A fine example of a rare first edition of the first translation of the Bible to modern Persian, printed in London in 1895.



8°, [4 pp.] title and introduction, 1388 pp., [4 pp.] title and introduction,421 pp., [6 pp.] index and blank, original calf with debossed lines on the covers and spine, gilt title on the spine (binding slightly rubbed on the spine and edges, tiny, hardly visible tears in the margins of the front endpaper and title page, edges slightly scratched, otherwise in a good, clean condition).

London: بريتش وفورن بيبل سوسائيتى [British and Foreign Bible Society]. Printed in Leipzig, 1895

A fine example of a rare translation of the Bible into modern Persian language was published by the British and Foreign Bible Society. The text is based on the translation of the Bible to Persian from Hebrew by William Glen and Mirza Mohammad Jafar Shiraz, published in 1846.

In 1895, after two decades of hard work, Robert Bruce’s revised and corrected text in order to approach it to modern Persian. The Old Testament was almost entirely a new translation and the New Testament was heavily revised.

The Bible was sold by already translated chapters before its publication in 1895 and the contemporary advertisement describes the news publication with the following words:



The version of the Bible for which Dr. Robert Bruce got his commission from the late Rev. H. Venn in 1871, and on which he worked almost incessantly for over twenty years, is now published, and in the hands of the people; and it is interesting to note, that this great achievement has been recognized at Oxford, from which Sr. Bruce has received the degree of Doctor of Divinity.

(A year of Bible Work. The Ninety-First Report of the British and Foreign Bible Society, 1895, p. 422)



We could find approximately six institutional example on Worldcat. Other examples appear to be electronic copies or later reprints.

References: OCLC 73491361; Roberto Gulbenkian, Nouvelle R***e de science missionnaire. The Translation of the Four Gospels Into Persian, 1981, p. 77.

London: بريتش وفورن بيبل سوسائيتى [British and Foreign Bible Society]. Printed in Leipzig, 1895

12/01/2022

BRITISH ISLES - SEPARATELY PUBLISHED MAP BY DE JODE WITH A STUNNING ORIGINAL COLOUR

Angliae Scotiae et Hiberniae Nova descriptio.

A stunning example of a separately issued de Jode map of the British Isles was coloured in the late 16th century in the style of the frescoes of the Gallery of Maps in Vatican.

Gerard DE JODE (1509-1591).

[Antwerp, circa 1578].

Copper engraved map sheet with full contemporary colour, with no text on verso, recently remounted upon a larger sheet of paper with added French lines in gilt and blue (Very Good, excellent original colour, map trimmed to neatline as it was once bound in a contemporary atlas factice), map proper: 35 x 50 cm (13.8 x 19.7 inches).

This is a beautiful example of a great classic map of the British Isles by Gerard de Jode, based on the George Lily’s (died 1559) draft.
This example, corresponding the 1578 state, was published separately without text on the back and bound in an atlas factice. It was originally coloured with a magnificent late 16th full hand colour, close to the frescoes of the Gallery of Maps in Vatican, which were made between 1580-1583.

Such colouring, which is more typical for the murals, and is seldom seen on works of paper. It is amongst the most decorative 16th century colouring we have encountered.



Separately Published Maps by de Jode

This ia a separately issued edition without text on the back, corresponding to the state, published in 1578 atlas Speculum Orbis Terrarum by Gerard de Jode.
As most of the 1578 de Jode maps were issued with text on the back in an atlas, examples were also sold by the author separately without the text (Shirley, p. 51, no. 119; KOEMAN, Atlantes Neerlandici, vol. 2, p. 206). De Jode’s grand project to make an elaborate atlas was namely extremely costly, time consuming and unlucrative, and the author would, as it was normal at the time, sell maps separately on demand to pay his daily costs. Only a small number of atlases was actually sold.

The survival rate of de Jode’s separately published maps is extremely low due to their large format. They would, like our map, usually survive in privately composed atlases...

08/01/2022

AUSTRALIA AND OCEANIA:
يكى اوقيانوسيا [New Oceania]

A very rare, large format, separately issued map of Australia and Oceania that is perhaps the last great map of the continent to be printed in Ottoman Turkish script, with attractive colours and adorned with the flags of major African states and colonies, published in Istanbul for the Kitabhane-yi Sudi bookshop.



Colour off-set print (Good, some light staining, wear and some very minor loss along old folds, with some loss to upper blank margins) 63 x 94 cm (25 x 37 inches).

AUTHOR
كتابخانه سودى [KITABHANE-YI SUDI], BAB-I ALI CADDESI (ISTANBUL).

PLACE AND YEAR
Istanbul: Aladdin Matba-sı, 1927.

A very rare, large format, separately issued map of Australia and Oceania, that is perhaps the last great map of the continent to be printed in Ottoman Turkish script, with attractive colours and adorned with the flags of major Asia and Middle Eastern states. This very rare and highly attractive large format map of Asia was printed as one of series of separately issued maps of the continents made for the Kitabhane-yi Sudi, a bookshop located at the Bab-ı Ali Caddesi in Istanbul. Published in 1927, it is perhaps the last great map of Africa to have been printed in Ottoman script (which would be abolished by President Atatürk in early 1929, henceforth mandating that Latin letters be used for the Turkish language).

The map is beautifully adorned on both sides with flags, including (on the left, top to bottom:) Chile, France, New Zealand; (on the right, top to bottom:) Australia, United States, Japan.

All of the maps from the Kitabhane-yi Sudi series of the continents are today very rare, as due to their large size and separate issue they have a low survival rate.

A very rare, large format, separately issued map of Australia and Oceania that is perhaps the last great map of the continent to be printed in Ottoman Turkish script, with attractive colours and adorned with the flags of major African states and colonies, published in Istanbul for the Kitabhane-yi S...

03/01/2022

Ottoman Book of International Naval Flags

دولت عليه عثمانيه سنجاقلريله دول اجنبيه بانديره لرينى حاوي البومدر

[Devlet-i Âliye-i Osmaniye Sancaklarıyla Düvel-i Ecnebiye Bandıralarını Hâvi Albümdür / Album of the Flags of the Sanjaks of the Ottoman Empire and Foreign Countries]

A rare and lavishly illustrated Ottoman folio book depicting the naval flags, jacks and standards of 50 nations as they appeared on the eve of World War I, published in Constantinople by the Ottoman Navy Office.

Folio: [1] title and [129 pp.] starting on the title page verso, with odd page numbers (right-side) blank, except of page no 1, two pages numbered with 19, after that every even page blank, page 63 followed by p. 70, 67, 66, 71, 68, 69, 74, 71; p. 86 instead of 90; after 94 pages wrongly numbered starting with 91. IRREGULAR PAGINATION, BUT COMPLETE, featuring 66 full-page colour lithographed plates, some with details heightened in gold and silver (pages printed single-sided with blank versos, save for first plate which is printed on verso of title), modern red calf with gilt debossed decoration and title, mimicking the printed title from the title page (Good, minor staining, title page slightly stained with old repaired tears, glue stains and two mounted printed annotations, irregular pagination corrected with mounted page numbers).

OTTOMAN NAVY OFFICE

Istanbul: Matbaʻa-i Bahriye 1328 (Rumi Calendar) [1912].

This Ottoman folio work features 66 resplendently-coloured full-page plates depicting the naval flags, jacks and standards of 50 nations as they appeared on the eve of World War I. It was published in Constantinople in 1913 by the Ottoman Navy Office. In addition to being affine decorative work, the book would have been of vital practical use to Turkish mariners during the upcoming global conflict, where it would have been critical to distinguish friend form foe at sea.

The work depicts the naval flags of the Ottoman Empire, Argentina, German Empire, United States of America, Austro-Hungarian Empire, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Ecuador, Great Britain, Uruguay, Italy, Persia, Brazil, Belgium, Bulgaria, Bolivia, Peru, Paraguay, Portugal, Tunis, Chinese Empire,...

02/01/2022

MAPPING THE TOKYO FIRE AND EARTHQUAKE

Japan – Tokyo – Great Kantō Earthquake & Fire: 大正十二年九月 帝都大震火災系統地図

[Map of the Fire of Tokyo. Edited by the Relief Information Bureau of the Tokyo Imperial University]

A very large and impressive map chronicling how the Great Kanto Earthquake (1923) and the resulting inferno, that was the greatest urban fire to date, destroyed much of Tokyo, based upon analysis conducted by academics at the Tokyo Imperial University, it is one of the most sophisticated and engaging ‘disaster maps’ of the 20th Century.

Colour print on ephemeral newsprint-like paper (Good, some wear along old folds with some old repairs from verso, very tiny chip of loss centre right filled by facsimile, some small stains), 78.5 x 109 cm (31 x 43 inches).

THE RELIEF INFORMATION BUREAU OF THE TOKYO IMPERIAL UNIVERSITY.

PLACE AND YEAR
Tokyo & Osaka: Tōkyō Nichinichi Shinbunsha and Ōsaka Mainichi Shinbunsha, Taishō 12 [1923].

The Great Kanto Earthquake (1923) was one of the most horrific and destructive natural disasters of the modern era. At 11:58 AM on the morning of September 1st, a quake of 7.9 on the Richter scale stuck the Kanto Plain, home to the Tokyo-Yokohama region, one of the most densely populated urban areas on the globe. The quake rocked the plain, casing tremendous damage, but that was only the beginning of the nightmare. In what can only be described as a coincidence of outrageous misfortune, a typhoon off the coast whipped up unusually high and constant winds which fueled the many fires that were sparked by the quake. The fires quickly became firestorms, and even a ‘fire tornado’ was reported. Tokyo was poorly prepared, as while a modern and vibrant city, it was composed of a hodgepodge of building styles with no consistent safety codes. The traditional wooden Japanese houses went up like tiki torches, while many of the modern high-rises collapsed and were consumed by the fames. Whole neighbourhoods were totally leveled as if they were carpet bombed. In the end, at least 142,800 people were killed, 50 % of Tokyo was destroy...