A New Description of the World. Carpenter 1725. 1st ed. Canada interest RARE

  

A rare and curious volume published in 1725 and containing descriptions of various countries. Though the title claims to describe all of the countries of the world, the larger part of the text describes the countries of Europe. The last third of the text describes the rest of the world starting with the countries of the Middle East and Central Asia, moving on swiftly to Africa before jumping to the Americas (north and south) and West Indies.

A rare work with Worldcat locating only one copy in an institutional library anywhere in the world. This copy (now rebound) was owned by someone by the name of Miles Mayall who on the ownership inscription on the book's original flyleaf, described himself as'Canadian', with the inscription dated 1763. A New Description of the World. A New Description of the World: Being An Account of All the Empires, Kingdoms, States, Republics, and Principalities Contained Therein. Printed in London by and for Thomas Norris. A rare and curious volume containing descriptions of various countries. Each European country merits a number of pages which describe its individual states or provinces along with information on principal towns, population, produce, history etc. Apart from a brief mention of Ceylon and some of the islands in the South Seas, the existence of India and the Far East including China appears to have been completely ignored by the author!

A rare work with Worldcat locating only one copy in an institutional library (The Newberry Library in Chicago). As a curious aside, this copy (now rebound) was owned by someone by the name of Miles Mayall who on the ownership inscription on the book's original flyleaf, described himself as'Canadian', with the inscription dated 1763. The date has some relevance as it is the year that France acceded its territories in North America to Great Britain. Adding further curiosity, the country that we now call Canada didn't officially start using that name for itself until 100 years after the inscription on the flyleaf. The original flyleaf has been retained in this book's new binding.

Photographs of the inscription can be seen amongst the photographs above. COLLATION: Complete in one volume. Illustrated with an engraved frontispiece.

BINDING: Bound in recent'antique-style' full calf with laid paper endpapers. Gold lines and a gold-lettered label to the spine. Original flyleaf, frontispiece and title page laid down onto acid free paper. CONDITION: Frontispiece and title page slightly chipped at their edges with loss to the lower edge of the title page. A light water stain affecting the lower half of approximately the first 25 leaves.

A few headlines slightly shaved. Occasional spotting and marking throughout the text, the book having previously been a'well thumbed' copy. Otherwise, a complete copy of a rare title with the text block sound and the binding in very good condition.

The book measures 15cm by 9cm. All items offered for sale are described as accurately and honestly as possible. I also specialise in quality carte de visite portraiture mainly dating from the late 1850's to early 1870's with the occasional addition of daguerreotype, ambrotype and other photographic images. Get images that make Supersized seem small. Showcase your items with Auctiva's.