Middle East 1 ABC of Travel 26 Henry Sotheran Ltd 2 Sackville Street Piccadilly London W1S 3DP tel: 020 7439 6151 email: [email protected] web: sotherans.co.uk MIDDLE EAST 3. AFLALO, Frederick G. An Idler in the Near East. London, John Milne, 1910. £198 8vo. Original red cloth, lettered in gilt; pp. xv, 279, 1. K. G. SERIES [publisher]. ABC of Travel. Printed in plates after photographs by Sebah and Joailler, England, c. 1945. £298 Bonfils of Beirut, Yermakoff of Tiblissi and the 4to, Illustrated self-wrappers and 12 pages, all printed Jerusalem photographer Reynolds, all with captioned in colour lithography on card stock; well preserved. tissue guards; wear to cloth, apart from light Extremely rare and beautiful alphabet book offsetting from endpapers, internally a very good illustrating means of transport, from aeroplane to copy. zebra cart. COPAC locates a single copy, at First edition of this delightful travel book by a Manchester University. - Not in the 2018 exhibition pioneer of sea angling, traveller and travel writer. with the title ABC of Travel at the Kunstbibliothek Aflalo travelled in the Ottoman Empire for one Berlin. The syle of the illustrations is reminiscent of summer season from the Caucasus to Egypt, keenly Tintin. observing country, society and natural history. In the Lebanon he took the train between Damascus and Beirut, with one wonderful photo of the mountain rail track. He continues to praise the city, after having complained about the disrepair of the streets, ‘yet, with the background of the Lebanon draped in snow, Beyrouth, seen from the grounds of the American College, makes a pleasing picture’ (pp. 108 f). 2. ADMIRALTY WAR STAFF INTELLIGENCE DIVISION. Handbook of Mesopotamia. Volume I. General. Second Edition. [London], Admiralty War Staff, 4. ANGLO-IRANIAN OIL COMPANY [the other Intelligence Division, November, 1918. £698 volume: BRITISH PETROLEUM COMPANY 8vo. Original black cloth, lettered in gilt; pp. 556; a LIMITED]. Our Industry … An introduction to the very good and clean copy. Petroleum Industry forn the use of the Members of Second, considerably enlarged edition (the first the Company’s Staff. Second Edition. [the other edition of 1916 had 360 pages). After Townshend’s volume: For private Circulation only]. London, Central catastrophic defeat at Kut in April 1916 the Planning Department and BP, [1947-58]. £298 Mesopotamia Commission of Inquiry was set up, and Two volumes, 8vo. Original green leatherette and the Admiraly was convinced that only good cloth, lettered in gilt; pp. [ii, illustration on title- verso], 368; [ii], 472, highly illustrated after intelligence about the available infastructure, man photographs and with maps and charts; cloth of and animal power, as well as mineral and agricultural volume II spotted and discoloured; the two latter resources in still Ottoman Iraq was vital for a volumes with damp-staining; a rare complete set with possible advance into these territories. These good provenance. handbooks correct existing sources of information The second and third edition of this in-house and maps, and analyze the country’s physical and publication, of which volume one is extremely rare, economic geography. Interesting in this considerably although it was printed twice, in October 1947 and enlarged second edition is the much extended January the following year. section on Oil and Bitumen. ‘In the southern and Provenance: Both volumes with the gilt-stamped name central parts of this area there are extensive belts of Alanbrooke on front covers. After a long and distinguished military career from 1902 to the end on country where the presence of oil is known or the Second World war Field Marshal Alan Francis suspected’ (p. 59). Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke was director of the COPAC lists only three complete sets in British Libraries, at Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. UCL, Nottingham University, and in the British Museum. COPAC locates only two copies of the first edition, at Aberdeen University and in the British Library. SOTHERAN’S, LONDON 2019 1 6. ARCHER, Thomas. The War in Egypt and the Soudan. An Epsiode in the History of the British Empire; Being a descriptive Account of the Scenes and Events of that Great Drama, and Sketches of the Principal Actors in it. London and Glasgow, Blackie, [1887]. £248 Four volumes in two, large 8vo. Publisher’s half-calf over cloth-covered boards, lettering-pieces renewed, all edges and endpapers marbled; tinted lithographic 5. [ANONYMOUS]. History of No. 30 Squadron portraits and wood-engraved plates; extremities a Royal Air Force. London, Printed by Macaire, Mould & Co. little rubbed, marginal affsetting from endpapers; a Ltd. 27 Crouch Hill, Finsbury Park, N. 4,[c. 1919]. £798 good set. 8vo. Original red printed card wrappers; pp. 311, Later printing (first, 1885) of this impressive summary wrapper lightly faded, otherwise very good. of the entire Gordon Relief Expedition, events that Very rare sole edition. ‘30 Squadron served in the led up to it, including chapters on the campaign Middle East theatre in the Great War after being agains the Wahabis, and a thorough descriptions of formed from different Flights in England, Egypt and Egypt and Sudan. Mesopotamia … The squadron helped supply the 7. ASHKANANI, Hasan besieged garrison at Kut -al-Asmara, dropping Jassim. Failaka Island in the supplies by parachute. It also fell victim to the Postcards. [Kuwait, The National capitulation of General Townshend’s army at Kut, Council for Culture, Arts & Letters where many of its records were lost … The squadron and Hasan Jassim Ashkanani, finally gained air superiority over the Turks, who [2018]. £198 were equipped with German Fokker and Albatros aircraft, when they were re-equipped with B.E2Cs, Small oblong 4to. Original Voisins, and later with 120 Martinsydes. The desert illustrated card wrappers; pp. climate presented special difficulties for flying, 153, [3], highly illustrated throughout, bilingual; new. including dust storms, engines overheating, and Very rare first edition of this archaeological and warping of spars and propellors, but the squadron pictorial documentation of the importance of the maintained daily patrols despite such arduous island just outside Kuwait City. The name of the problems. After re-entrenching following the fall of island seems to be derived from the Greek word Kut on April 29th 1916, the British went over to the fylakio, outpost. About 5000 years ago Failaka was offensive in December 1916, and by mid-March 1918 part of the Dilmun civilization; during and after the Turks had been cleared from the Tigris and Alexander it was hellenized. - 1000 copies were Baghdad had fallen. 30 Squadron supported the produced, 800 were kept by the Emir’s Office, 80 offensive with reconaissance, bombing and other copies were for the author, 120 for the General combat missions’ (promotional text for the Imperial Secretary of the National Council of Culture, Arts War Museum’s reprint of an original Air Ministry and Letters. This particular copy is inscribed by the Historical Branch manuscript by Major J.Everidge, author, an eminent Kuwaiti anthropologist, R.A.F., titled History of No.30 Squadron RAF. Egypt and archaeologist, collector and historian. Mesopotamia 1914 to 1918). We assume the rarity of this publication is due to its suppression by the War 8. ASHKANANI, Hasan Jassim. Office, as the subject it describes in detail, including Interregional Interaction and Dilmun bombing in the Middle East, something which was Power in the Bronze Age. A going on right up to the early thirties, and the tactics Characterization Study of Ceramics therof, had to be kept secret. from Bronce Age Sites in Kuwait and its Neighbors. Kuwait, National Council We were able to locate a single copy only, at the Australian of Culture, Arts and Letters, 2016. £198 War Memorial. 4to. Illustrated paperback; pp. 248, highly illustrated; fine, signed by the author. First edition of this detailed study of the Bronze Age in the upper Gulf region, masterly conducted by the Kuwaiti anthropolgist, archaeologist, collector and historian Hasan Ashkanani. 2 ABC OF TRAVEL 11. BEAUFORT, Francis. Karamania, or a Brief Description of the South Coast of Asia Minor and of the 9. BARTLETT, W.H. The Nile Boat; or, Glimpses of Remains of Antiquity … Collected during a Survey of that the Land of Egypt. London, Arthur Hall, Virtue, & Co., Coast, under the Orders of the Lords Commissioners of 1849. £498 the Admiralty, in the Years 1811 & 1812 … Second edition. 8vo. Original full black morocco, image of Nile boat London, Printed for R. Hunter, 1818. £895 within decorative panels blocked in gilt to covers, 8vo. School-prize binding of full polished calf blind-ruled borders, elaborate gilt decoration to (lettered and ruled in gilt) by Rugby School, awarded spine, lettered in gilt, all edges gilt; pp. vi, [2], 218, [8, in 1835 to Charles John Gibb (re-backed); pp. x, [2], advertisements]; 32 steel-engraved plates, single-page 309, [6], engraved folding map as frontispiece, 6 engraved map, folding panorama of Alexandria, 17 engraved maps and plates, 13 engraved headpieces wood-engravings to text; slight rubbing to (maps and views); plates and maps with foxing, tiny extremities, a bright and clean copy, rarely found in marginal flaw to title-page; otherwise a good copy. this condition, gift inscription to head of title, dated 1850. A very rare survey of the southern coast of Asia Minor, including the identification of ancient sites of First edition. The engraver Bartlett visited Egypt in cities, temples and fortresses, carried out by one of 1842 and again in 1845; the present volume is an the most important hydrographers of Britain. account based on the second visit. The Nile Boat proved extremely popular, largely due to its well- See Atabey 81 and Blackmer 103. executed illustrations; it had gone through five editions by 1862.