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SYKES, Sir Percy.
A History of Persia.
First edition. Sykes "had become interested in Persia and the 'great game' at a young age, undertaking his first intelligence-gathering trip in 1892, to Samarkand on the recently opened Trans-Caspian railway, and he made his first Persian journey in 1893, travelling through on horseback for six months. He returned to Persia in October, entrusted with the task of building friendly relations with local leaders, and spent until June 1894 surveying and mapping, and climbing the extinct 12,500 foot volcano Kuh-e-Taftan. Later in the year Sykes was appointed the first British consul for Kerman and Persian Baluchistan, areas of growing political and economic interest to the government of India to whom he was primarily responsible and for whom he undertook a variety of assignments … He and Colonel Thomas Holdich successfully demarcated 300 miles of the Perso-Baluch frontier in 1896 and over the course of the next year Sykes introduced polo to Tehran. In 1898 he founded the British consulate of Sistan and Kain, on the Afghan border, and he spent the next year mapping the area … He moved to Mashhad in 1905 and was appointed British consul-general and agent for the government of India in Khorasan. For the next eight years Sykes was responsible for producing annual trade reports, collecting intelligence about Russian activities across the border, and dealing with Shi'i pilgrims from India. He continued to travel widely, earning his reputation as an authority on Persian history, geography, and customs" (ODNB) Sykes's History was "highly influential" and was several times reprinted reaching a third revised edition in 1920, but this first edition is uncommon, far more lavishly illustrated than the subsequent editions, and is by far the most handsome.
2 volumes octavo. Original blue cloth, title gilt to spines, large gilt blocks of rulers of Persia - Cyrus and Shah Abbas - to the upper boards, top edges gilt. Frontispiece to each and 178 other plates in all, 4 of them coloured, one of these folding, 7 folding maps, 2 of them in end-pockets, title-page vignettes, head-pieces, illustrations to the text. Spines a little sunned, very slightly rubbed, a very good set.
