Asher Rare Books

Detailed and lavishly illustrated memoirs of travels in the Caribbean

LABAT, Jean-Baptiste. Nieuwe reizen naar de Franse eilanden van America.
Amsterdam, Balthasar Lakeman, 1725. 4 volumes bound as 2. 4to. With 2 engraved frontispieces, 11 folding engraved maps and plans, and 83 full-page plates. Contemporary polished half calf. [2], 18, 350; [1 blank], [1], 404; [2], 235, 254; [1 blank], [4], 200, 167, [32] pp. Full description

€ 7,500

Anthropology & Ethnography Caribbean Islands Charts & Maps Faunas & General Zoology Gastronomy Latin America Middle America Slavery South America Technology Travel & Voyages South America West Indies

Preventing people from drowning: on the practical use of a newly invented life jacket

LA CHAPELLE, Jean Baptista de (Cornelis van ENGELEN, transl.). De scaphander of de konst om in de diepste wateren dryvende te gaan en allerhande werk te verrigten.
Amsterdam, G. Warners & Harlingen, Volkert van der Plaats, 1777. 8vo. With 4 engraved plates on 2 large folded sheets by B. de Bakker after the plates in the original French edition, charmingly illustrating the water-jacket and water-pants discussed in the text. Contemporary brown sprinkled paper wrappers. [2], VIII, 139, [1] pp. Full description

€ 3,000

Armory, Military Science & Technology Games & Sports Military History (18th Century) Naval History Technology

Very rare work about a remarkable invention for the military

[LA CHAPELLE, Jean-Baptiste de and Cornelis van ENGELEN (translator)]. De zee tot land gemaakt, of, alle landing zeker gesteld, bevattende een onfeilbaar middel, om niet alleen alle drenkelingen, en als men 't ongeluk heeft van in 't water te vallen, zich zelven, te redden, maar ook om gehele armeën, door een rivier, ja door een zee heen, tegen een vijandlijk land aan te voeren.
Amsterdam, J. W. Werlingshoff, 1805. 8vo. With 4 engraved plates on 2 folding leaves. Later quarter vellum, blue decorated paper sides. IV, 139, [1] pp. Full description

€ 2,500

Armory, Military Science & Technology Military History (18th Century) Military History (19th Century) Naval History Technology

Proposal for reinforcing the dykes of West-Friesland

LAKENMAN, Seger. Ontwerp van een onkostbaar en zeker middel, om de Westvriesche zeedyken... te stellen buiten eenig gevaar van doorbrake...
Amsterdam, heirs of Johannes Ratelband and company and Hendrik de Leth, 1733. Folio. With 2 folding engraved plates, including a map of North-Holland. Contemporary marbled paper wrappers, preserved in a blue cloth chemise. [4], 23, [1] pp. Full description

€ 1,875

Netherlands Technology

Well-illustrated treatise on sundials, by a Dutch defender of Copernicus

LANSBERGE, Philip van. Horologiographia plana: in qua omne genus sciotericorum horologiorum, quae plano cuilibet inscribi possunt, certis evidentibusq[ue]; . . .
Middelburg, Zacharias Roman, 1663. Small folio (28.5×17.5 cm). With 61 woodcuts in the text (1 repeated on the title-page, illustrating a sundial), many more than half-page, including both sundials and diagrams illustrating how they work. With extensive 19th-century manuscript notes on the back of the title-page. Lacking 2 leaves containing Roman's dedication. Modern paper-covered boards. [2], 53 pp. Full description

€ 3,500

Astronomy & Cosmography Instruments & Microscopy Technology

Best manual for architectural stone cutting, with 121 large plates plus 37 repeats

LA RUE, Jean Baptiste de. Traité de la coupe des pierres, ou methode facile & abregée, pour aisément se perfectionner en cette science.
Paris, Imprimerie Royale, Pierre-Alexandre Martin, 1738. Large folio (43.5 x 29.5 cm). With engraved allegorical frontispiece by Thomassin after Bertin and numerous architectural plans and views (in orthographic projections and in perspective) and designs for stone cutters printed from 97 engraved copper plates (96 full-page and 1 larger than double-page on a folding sheet of larger format). A. Coquart signed or initialed most of the plates. Further with 3 engraved headpieces (plus 3 repeats) showing putti cutting and hauling stone at building sites and 2 engraved decorated initials. Contemporary calf, richly gold-tooled spine; rebacked with the original backstrip laid down. [16], 185, [1 blank] pp. plus plates. Full description

€ 9,500

Architecture Technology

On the art of dyeing cotton

LE PILEUR D'APLIGNY, [Placide Auguste]. L'Art de la Teinture des Fils et Etoffes de coton, précédé D'une Théorie nouvelles des veritables causes de la fixité des couleurs de bon Teint, suivi Des Cultures du Pastel, de la Gaude et de la Garance, à l'usage des Cultivateurs et des Manufactures.
Paris, Chez Serviere, An VI - 1798. 12mo. Contemp. boards. XXXIII, 261 pp. Full description

€ 450

Art & Art History Technology

Rare work on the dykes of Holland with large folding plates

[LISTINGH, Nicolaas]. Incitamentum & adiumentum. Dat is Opweckinge ende aanleydinge, tot het uytvinden van bequaame middelen en gronden om de zee-dycken, in Hollandt en West-Vrieslandt, tegens het soo dickwils doorbreecken en geduyrig afspoelen beter, als tot nog toe te beschermen en te bevreyden.
Amsterdam, Paulus Matthijsz., 1702. 2 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With 10 large folding engraved plates on dykes and dyke construction.
With: (2a) [IDEM]. Incitamentum & Adiumentum Secundum, dat is een tweede opwecking en aanleiding tot (...) van de oude magteloose Muyder-Zeedyk (...) nu ontdekt en wederlegt door N.L.
Amsterdam, 1705.
(2b) [IDEM]. Na brief.
Amsterdam, August 25, 1704. Contemporary vellum [6], 86; 40, 4 pp. Full description

€ 3,500

Netherlands Technology Water Management

A proposal for stationing mortars along the coast, to save shipwrecked persons

MANBY, George William. Papers relating to Captain Manby's plan for affording relief in cases of shipwreck: viz. Copies of instructuions, given by His Majesty's Secretary of State for the Home Department, for the purpose of carrying into effect the plan of Captain Manby, for affording relief in cases of shipwreck.
[London, House of Commons, 1816]. Folio. With several woodcuts and wood engravings of the inventions in text. Sewn. 37, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 850

Law & Politics Mutiny, Piracy & Shipwrecks Technology

Important work on geometry and military fortifications,
copy from the collection of Ludwig Rudolph, Duke of Brunswick and Lüneburg

MAROLOIS, Samuel. Geometrie, contenant la theorie, et practicque dicelle necessaire a la fortification.
The Hague and Arnhem, Henricus Hondius and Jan Janz., 1616. Oblong 1mo (ca. 30 x 39 cm). With an engraved title-page and 47 numbered full-page engraved plates, with a few decorated initials and ornamental head-pieces, and with geometric formulas in the text. Late 17th- or early 18th-century(?) gold-tooled vellum, remnants of closing ties, gilt edges. [1], [1 blank], [92] pp. and 47 engraved plates. Full description