Books and Manuscripts

Bowdich, T. Edward
Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee, with a Statistical Account of that Kingdom, and Geographical Notices of other Parts of the Interior of Africa
London: John Murray, 1819. First edition. 4to. viii, (ii), 512 pp. Illustrated with a folding engraved frontispiece map, nine engraved plates (including five hand-colored full-page plates, two folding plates, one engraved map, and one hand-colored double-page plate), and five pages of engraved sheet music. Full contemporary brown calf, stamped in blind, gilt arms of the Royal Engineers Library on front board, rebacked, stamped in gilt, tips renewed, boards rubbed and scratched; marbled edges; endpapers renewed; foxing to frontispiece; offsetting to title-page, partially erased library ink stamp on same; scattered foxing and offsetting to text; same library ink stamp on most plates (verso map facing p. 211; folding plate facing p. 274, partially erased; plate facing p. 307, partially erased; plates facing p. 308, partially erased); fold repaired on place facing p. 274. Abbey, Travel 279; Tooley 95

First edition of Thomas Edward Bowdich's account of his travels on behalf of the African Company of Merchants to the Asante Empire in south-central Ghana, featuring detailed accounts of their customs, language, and the court of Asante King Osei Bonsu. Thomas's wife, Sarah Bowdich, later assisted and accompanied him on his other African expeditions, and following his death, established herself as a respected and groundbreaking naturalist (see lot 79).