Pallegoix Description du Royaume Thai ou Siam Rare First Edition, Llewlyn Powys, Zoological Gardens, Powell Adventures in Nepal, Poe Tales Mystery Imagination

Pallegoix, Jean-Baptiste. Description du Royaume Thai ou Siam, comprenant la topographie, histoire naturelle, moeurs et coutumes, legislation, commerce, industrie, langue, litterature, religion, annales des Thai et precis historique de la mission.
Published: Se vend au profit de la Mission de Siam, Paris 1854
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Rebound with original wraps bound in.
Price: U.S.$750

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8vo., 2 volumes, First Edition, Sometime rebound in half blue cloth over marbled boards, gilt ruled and lettered spines, original blue paper covers bound in, half titles adhered to paper covers, pp. 488, 425, folding engraved map Carte du Royaume de Siam, dressee sous la direction de Monseigneur Pallegoix, Eveque de Siam ... par Charle, Geographe with inset map Environs de Bangkok and Plan de Bangkok (small fold tear taped), 15 engraved plates, vignettes, text spotting through-out, and a few small marks or stains here and there, but overall a good copy of a hard to find work on Siam.

Bishop Jean-Baptiste Pallegoix

Bishop Jean-Baptiste Pallegoix (1805 – 1862) was one of most distinguished vicars Apostolic of Siam and a well-respected Siamese scholar. He persuaded Napoleon III to renew the French alliance with Siam and to send an embassy under M. de Montigny to Siam in 1856. 

On 8 July 1856, King Mongkut signed a political-commercial treaty with France, by which the privileges granted to the Catholic missionaries by Phra-Naraï in the seventeenth century were renewed. 

Bishop Pallegoix was highly esteemed by the king, who personally assisted at his funeral and accepted from the missionaries as a token of friendship the bishop's ring

Pallegoix describes the daily life, manner and habits  of the Siamese in the early 1830s, both in the capital Bangkok and the provinces. He describes the judicial and political institutions of the Thai state, including its elaborate system of nobility, officials, serfs and slaves, the legal system, Siamese arts and crafts, industry, agricultural production, the Siamese language, its literature and religion etc.
As a Roman Catholic bishop he had a keen eye for the religion and history of the Thai people with respect to the likelihood of conversions to Christianity. 

Thai Buddhism and superstitions are treated in great detail, and the foundations and rules of this religion are provided for laymen. 

The book provides an elaborate account of important events in the history of the country starting with the arrival of the first French missionaries and concludes with an extensive description of the state of the Catholic Church in Siam around 1850.

Cordier 735; 128.

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Parker, E. H. Studies in Chinese Religion.
London. Chapman and Hall, Ltd 1910. 8vo., First Edition, original gilt lettered red cloth rubbed, spine faded, pp.xi + 308 incl. index, illustrated with 14 full page plates including frontispiece,bookplate on paste-down, some random spotting & browning, a good copy. U.S.$120

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A collection of scholarly essays covering; Old Chinese religion, Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity & other minor religions.

Parkes, Oscar. Ships of the Royal Navy
Published: London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co., Ltd. n.d. (c. 1924)
Binding: Original blue cloth
Edition: First Edition
Price: $65

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Oblong 8vo., (20 x 12cm), original blue cloth faded and worn, silver lettered spine faded, pp. 194 including 95 full page plates, index & 4 pages of averts, some plates loose, random foxing to text pages, but plates very good, a great little reference book for the "fighting Ships" enthusiast.

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Pepys, Samuel. The Diary of Samuel Pepys M.A. F.R.S.
Clerk of the acts and secretary to the admiralty. Transcribed from the shorthand manuscript in the Pepysian Library Magdalene college Cambridge by the Rev. Mynors Bright M.A. late fellow and President of the college: with Lord Braybrooke's notes. edited with additions by Henry B. Wheatley F.S.A. London. G. Bell and Sons Ltd. 1928-1935 mixed set but uniform binding. 8vo., 10 volumes, original blue cloth, spines gilt, top edges blue, illustrated through-out with tissue guarded engraved frontispieces and many tissue guarded full page plates and other plates some double page, titles in red & black, some pages carelessly opened, some spotting to fore-edge of four volumes, a firm and clean set, a very good copy. U.S. $675 plus postage!

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Phra Sarasas. My Country Thailand (its History, Geography and Civilization).
Published: 1942 Maruzen Company, Limited Tokyo
Edition: First Edition.
Binding: Original gilt ruled and lettered brown cloth
Price: U.S.$475

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8vo., First Edition of 1000 copies only, original gilt ruled and lettered brown cloth, spine gilt lettered, 1 or 2 small marks to binding, half title, pp. 2 + ii + 421 & 22 page index + 2 pages of Japanese script, illustrated with 10 full page photographic plates plus a large folding colour map in pocket a rear, age browning mainly to prelims, contents clean, a very good copy of the very rare First Edition limited to 1000 copies.

Phra Sarasas has been and remains an enigmatic, mysterious figure in modern Thai history, with a chequered career as a politician, economist, propagandist, journalist, writer, even "war criminal", that intertwined with many of the key events in the saga of Siam between 1910 and the end of the Pacific War.
He was born Long Sunthanon in 1889/90, presumably in Bangkok. The name "Phra Sarasas" by which he would eventually become known, and which he himself used when not using a pseudonym , was in fact a conferred title of bureaucratic rank in the pre-1932 system of absolute monarchy. The "Phra" element indicates the third highest rank then in use (coming below Chao Phya and Phya), while the "Sarasas" was part of a longer honorific that would be unique to a single individual at any one time.
His early official career was in the army, and it is as an instructor at the Military Academy, with the rank of Captain awarded in 1909,  that he first appears upon the stage of Thai history. This was in connection with the so-called "R.S. 130 [1911/12] Conspiracy", an abortive plan among mainly middle and lower ranking military officers to overthrow the absolute monarchy. Later Phra Sarasas, speaking through the pen of his second wife Claude , was to claim that he "was the man behind the first revolution of 1912.... It was he who had sown the seeds of reform in the minds of his pupil-officers who plotted the overthrow of the regime." If Phra Sarasas was indeed the intellectual father of the "R.S. 130 Conspiracy" his role does not appear to have been an active one and seems to have escaped the notice of the government; he was not among those arrested in connection with the plot, and indeed in 1913 and in 1916 he receiver further promotions in rank, to Major and then to Lieutenant-Colonel.

The author was minister of Economic Affairs of Thailand.

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Pocock, Constance Innes. Highways & Byways of The Zoological Gardens.
London. Adam & Charles Black. 1913. Small 4to., First Edition, original gilt lettered pictorial green cloth, pictorial spine, top edge gilt, pp. xii + 191 +pp.8 of publishers adverts, illustrated with 33 full page colour and b/w plates plus line drawings, prize bookplate on front paste-down, apart from very light rubbing to corners and edges, a fine copy in a bright binding.U.S. $255

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Poe, Edgar Allan Tales of Mystery & Imagination, Illustrated by Arthur Rackham
Published: London: George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd. 1935
Edition: First Edition Thus.
Binding: Original rare publisher's morocco binding.
Price: U.S.$850

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4to., First Edition Thus, original rare publisher's gilt tooled and lettered purple morocco binding, faded, rubbed at corners & edges, and a few small marks, also a small old worm hole to upper joint, and a one inch tear to lower joint, spine faded to brown, top edge gilt, pp. 318, illustrated by Arthur Rackham with pictorial title page, 12 full page colour plates with captioned tissue guards, 17 black & white plates plus chapter headings and tail pieces, decorated endpapers, one or two spots only to prelims, contents clean and fresh, apart from wear to binding a very good copy in the extremely rare publisher's morocco binding.

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Powell, Alexander. The Last Home of Mystery Adventures in Nepal......
Published: The Century Co. New York 1920
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Original gilt tooled black cloth
Price: U.S.$225

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8vo., First Edition, original gilt tooled black cloth, gilt lettered spine, fading marks to rear cover, pp. xv + 332 including index, pictorial endpapers, illustrated with a map and many photographic plates by the author, browning to frontispiece plate and title page, and sporadic light browning to other pages, otherwise a very good copy profusely illustrated.

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Powys, Llewelyn. A Baker's Dozen.
With an introduction by John Cowper Powys and decorations by Gertrude Mary Powys. London: John Lane The Bodley Head 1941. 8vo., First Edition, original orange boards with a slightly soiled d/w with a a few chips to edges and a half inch tear to lower joint & spine darkened, illustrated with a frontispiece of Powys and chapter heading drawings by Gertrude Powys, internally clean; a very good copy. U.S. $160

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Powys, Llewelyn, Earth Memories.
London. John Lane The Bodley Head. 1934. 8vo., First Edition, original gilt lettered green cloth, spine gilt, pictorial d/w chipped and rubbed at edges, pp. viii + 239 + pp.2 of adverts, illustrated with woodcuts by Gertrude Mary Powys, a few spots to first and last few pages but a very good copy. U.S.$145

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Powys, Llewelyn. Glory of Life.
London. John Lane The Bodley Head. 1938. 8vo., First Trade Edition, original brown cloth with a gilt ankh to upper cover, slight fading to upper joint and top edge, d/w with two x one inch tears to spine top & slightly soiled, name and date on ffep, pp. 44, frontispiece plate, a very good copy. U.S.$110

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Prescott, William H. History of The Conquest of Peru. With a preliminary view of the Civilization of The Incas.
Published:Philadelphia. J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1860.
Binding: Original gilt tooled black cloth
Edition:
Price: $225

8vo., 2 volumes, original black cloth blind tooled decoration, gilt spines with a tooled gilt coat of arms, Vol.1 pp.xi + 527, Vol.2 pp.xix + 547, illustrated with portrait tissue guarded frontispiece of Francisco Pizarro to vol. 1, and portrait tissue guarded frontispiece of Pedro de la Gasca to vol.2, plus a map of Peru in vol.1, & a facsimile of two signatures of Francisco Pizarro in vol.2, bookplates on front paste-downs, spotting to top edges otherwise a fine set.

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