KIRCHER, Athanasius (1602-1680)

Lot 134
13.07.2023 10:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Sold
£ 22 680
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 992988
Lot 134 | KIRCHER, Athanasius (1602-1680)
Estimate value
£ 20 000 – 30 000
KIRCHER, Athanasius (1602-1680)

Toonneel van China, Door veel, Zo Geestelijke als Werreltijke, Geheugteekenen, Verscheide Vertoningen van de Natuur en Kunst. Amsterdam: J. Janssonius van Waesberge and widow of E. Weyerstraet, [1668].

Supremely rare copy, coloured throughout by a contemporary hand and heightened with gilt, no coloured copies in auction records. The first Dutch edition of China Illustrata, 'one of the most influential books in shaping the European conception of China in its day' (B. Löwendahl, Sino-Western Relations... in Western Printed Books 1477-1877, 2008, I, p.68). This edition was published a year after the first two Latin editions. The plates include a fine portrait of Johann Adam Schall von Bell and eight of Chinese calligraphy, as well as finely-printed and richly coloured illustrations of plants and fruit including tea, rhubarb, papaya and pineapple. Bobins, IV, 1444; Cordier Sinica, 26; Löwendahl, I, 136; Lust 39.



Folio (381 x 245mm). Text in Dutch, translated from the Latin by J.H. Glazemaker. Additional engraved title, double-page map of China, folding map of Asia showing the trade routes to China, and 22 plates (2 of which folding), all as called for on list of plates on verso of final leaf, 60 engravings, mostly half-page, in the text (without the portrait as per some other copies, marginal tear to one text leaf). Contemporary mottled calf, panelled in gilt with foliate cornerpieces to inner panel on covers, gilt spine and edges (head of spine repaired, spine label worn, extremities rubbed).





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