Home / Browse / Travel & Exploration / Les Six Voyages de Jean Baptiste Tavernier … en Turque, en Perse, et aux Indes. Pendant l'espace de quarante ans …
TAVERNIER, Jean Baptiste.
Les Six Voyages de Jean Baptiste Tavernier … en Turque, en Perse, et aux Indes. Pendant l'espace de quarante ans …
Premiere … [&] Deuxieme Partie [together with] Recueil de plusieurs Relations Et Traitez singukliers & curieux de J.B. Tavernier …
Publisher: suivant la copie imprimée à Paris, 1679
Stock code: 70570
Price: £10,000 Currency Conversion
The first small format edition, following the quarto firsts of Les Six Voyages (1676) and Recueil (1678). Beautifully presented set of this highly desirable edition of the voyages of this "most famous among the 'business travellers" (Speake). Tavernier made six trips to Asia in search of fine jewels - the 112 carat diamond that he purchased at Golconda became Louis XIV's famous French Blue, and was later recut to reappear as the notorious Hope Diamond - and his records of business practices, commodities and currencies must have been carefully studied by all who were planning expeditions to the East. However, he was also a man of wide ranging interests and keen observation, studying the history, politics, religions and cultures of the countries that he visited, and giving excellent accounts of, among other things, the practices of Hinduism; the history of the Moghul empire; and the workings of the Ottoman court: "He has a straightforward style and makes no attempt to generalize or philosophize." Tavernier's was a direct and readable record, and was understandably extremely popular. Much enhanced by the plates, which are crisply cut and full of detail, covering all aspects of his narrative, including views of Baghdad and Kandahar; Tavernier's passeport, or firman, from shah Abbas II; a royal funeral procession in Tonkin; precious stones acquired in India; a fakir; the currency of India, Persia and Japan; an Indian katara, or push dagger; and the splendid map of Japan showing the Stations of the Tokaido.
3 volumes, duodecimo (153 × 92 mm). Late eighteenth-century crimson straight-grained morocco, title gilt direct to the spine, flat bands, triple fillet gilt panels to the compartments, French fillet panels with rosette corner-pieces to the boards, single rule edge-roll, all edges gilt, French blue and cream silk head- and tail-bands, French blue silk page-markers, marbled endpapers, gilt palmette roll to the turn-ins. Vol. I with engraved half-title and 9 plates, all but one folding; vol. II with 25 plates, of which 19 are folding, illustration to the text; Receuil with portrait frontispiece and 8 folding plates, double-folding map of Japan and folding map of Tonkin. (Copies have been recorded recently with 42, 44, and 45 plates, this copy has all of those listed in the plate lists, and a considerable number in addition, where multiple images on the same subject are indicated.) Some very slight rubbing to the joints, corners, head- and tailcaps, light toning, occasional spotting, a few small marginal tears, no loss of text, map of Japan slightly torn on a fold, but overall an extremely pretty set.
