The Scarce First English Edition of a Study of Japan when the Country Was Closed to the West, Well Bound, with Hand-Colored Plates

ILLUSTRATIONS OF JAPAN; CONSISTING OF PRIVATE MEMOIRS AND ANECDOTES OF THE REIGNING DYNASTY OF THE DJOGOUNS, OR SOVEREIGNS OF JAPAN.

(JAPAN - CULTURE, 19TH CENTURY WESTERN ACCOUNTS OF). TITSINGH, ISAAC.

(London: Printed for R. Ackermann, 1822). 300 x 235 mm. (11 3/4 x 9 1/2"). xvi, 325, [1] pp.Translated by Frederic Shoberl. First English Edition.

Imposing contemporary crimson straight-grain morocco, gilt, covers with filigree frame with densely massed scrolling fleurons, raised bands, spine gilt in compartments with radiating viny scrolls surrounded by leaves and annular dots, marbled endleaves, all edges gilt. WITH 13 HAND-COLORED PLATES in etching and aquatint, many after Japanese artworks, one folding. Bookplate removed from front flyleaf. Bookseller's ticket of J. L. Thompson & Co, Kobe, Japan on front pastedown. Abbey Travel 557; Tooley 489; Martin Hardie, "English Coloured Books," pp. 113-14. See also E. F. Strange, "Japanese Illustration," pp. xxiii-xxiv. Spine and fore-edge of upper board slightly darkened, a few minute flakes to lowest spine compartment, but the binding extremely well preserved, with very lustrous boards. Final 10 leaves slightly creased, one repaired marginal tear, but still A FINE COPY INTERNALLY, exceptionally bright, smooth, and entirely fresh and clean.

This generously proportioned production, illustrated with 13 vibrant colored plates, is a rare European account of Japan during the period in which the country was "closed" to the west, offered here in its first English edition. Originally published in French in 1820, "Illustrations of Japan" is comprised of a history and description of the Tokugawa shogunate which Titsingh had translated from the Japanese, plus Titsingh's own observations on the language, customs, and ceremonies of the Japanese people. The present English edition is accompanied by plates in etching and aquatint, enhanced with hand coloring. Our author, Dutch diplomat Isaac Titsingh (1745-1812), spent 14 years in Nagasaki for the Dutch East India company, and between 1779-84, he served as trade director-cum-ambassador, travelling to Edo (now Tokyo) for audiences with the shogun and other high officials in the shogunate. Unlike most of his Western contemporaries, Titsingh was open-minded and curious about the people he encountered, engaging with their art and culture; in fact, art historian and Victoria & Albert Museum keeper Edward F. Strange tells us that Titsingh is the earliest known European collector of Japanese prints, of which a number appear in the present volume. Our publisher, Rudolph Ackermann (1764-1834), made his living issuing sumptuously illustrated books such as the present volume, and was an early adopter of color aquatint and lithography technologies; Hardie writes that he was "the great presiding genius, before whose magic wand so many pictorial books sprang into existence." In very attractive period morocco, this is a particularly appealing copy of the work, free of the foxing and offsetting that often plague copies of this and other large-format color illustrated books. (ST20877)

Price: $16,000.00