Author: NIEUHOF, Johan :
Title: Het gezantschap der Neerlandtsche Oost-Indische Compagnie, aan den Grooten Tartarischen Cham, den tegenwoordigen Keizer van China. waar in de gedenkwaerdighste geschiedenissen, die onder het reizen (...) sedert den jare 1655. tot 1657. zijn voorgevallen, (...) verhandelt worden. Benevens een naukeurige beschryving der Sineesche steden, dorpen (...). Verciert met over de 150. Afbeeltsels, na 't leven in Sina getekent...
Description: Amsterdam, Jacob van Meurs boekverkoper en plaatsnijder, 1665, 2 parts in 1 vol., in- folio, engraved title + typographical title printed in red & black + engraved coat of arms ( C. Witsen) + engraved coat of arms ( H. Dirksz.) + (8)nn pp (dedication) + author's portrait + folding map of China + 208 pp + 31 double page illustrations outside the text ; 258 pp + (8)nn pp (index) + (1)(list of plates) + (1)(bl) + 3 double page illustrations outside the text. With 110 text-engravings. Complete copy. Bound in old calf, raised gilt spine with red leather title label. Binding with some wear and some restorations at the extremeties ( corners and top turn-in). Fine/good copy with only the first pages with some thumbing and staining, the map with some false creases, two heavier stains on pp.1/2, further a crisp copy with nice clear imprints of the plates. With the manuscript ex-libris of the Belgian Art Nouveau poster designer Gilbert Combaz. First edition of this famous description of the first trade mission undertaken by the V.O.C. ( Dutch East-Indian Trading Company) to the emperor of China. Richly illustrated and one of the very few 17th-century descriptions of China not made by Jesuits. (See Lust 539 ; Cordier, Sinica p.2344).. .

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