De beschryving van Japan, behelsende een verhaal van den ouden en tegenwoordigen staat en regeering van dat Ryk.

The Hague, P. Gosse and J. Neaulme; Amsterdam, Balthasar Lakeman, 1729. Folio (37.5 x 25.0 cm). 500 pp. Half-title, title page explanation, frontispiece (engraved title) by I. C. Philips, letterpress title in red and black; 48 double-sized maps and plates (I-XVII, XXX-XLV, XXIV*, A-BXXVIII, A-BXXIX). Contemporary full mottled calf; spine with six raised bands; compartments rich gilt with fine, elaborate floral ornaments, and red morocco label with gilt title; boards with double gilt roll stamped border, gilt floral corner pieces and central vignettes. Mottled edges. = Beautiful large paper copy of the rare first Dutch edition, translated by Sir H. Sloane after J. G. Scheuchzer's English translation of the original edition. A most valuable and accurate account of 17th-century Japan in Dutch by Kaempfer (1651-1716), German physician to the Dutch embassy of Japan in 1690. It was first published in English in 1727. Depicts views, costumes, the alphabet, plans, temples, Japanese fauna and flora, ships, coins, etc., and includes maps of Meinam, Japan, Nagasaki. With the exceptional bookplate of Anselmus Van den Bogaerde (1776-1866), showing the owner in his study. Notes on Kaempfer and his publications in a very neat, old hand on the front free endpaper recto, and another note "superbe exemplaire sur grand papier..." on the front free endpaper verso. Plate VIII is a triple-folded, very large map of Japan. Plate XLV bound after p. 60; plate XXXIII after p. 322; XXIV* after p. 332, AXXVIII before XXVII. Leather slightly dried, some worn spots. Damp staining only to a few plate corners, otherwise text - and most plates - clean. In all, a very good, large paper copy in an exceptional contemporary Dutch binding. Cordier, Bibliotheca Japonica, 417-418; Landwehr VOC, 531; Thiele, 584.