PURCHAS, Samuel (c. 1575-1626) - photo 1
PURCHAS, Samuel (c. 1575-1626) - photo 2
PURCHAS, Samuel (c. 1575-1626) - photo 3
PURCHAS, Samuel (c. 1575-1626) - photo 4
PURCHAS, Samuel (c. 1575-1626) - photo 5
PURCHAS, Samuel (c. 1575-1626) - photo 6

PURCHAS, Samuel (c. 1575-1626)

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£ 37 800
Auction dateClassic
13.07.2022 10:30UTC +01:00
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CHRISTIE'S
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United Kingdom, London
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ID 794518
Lot 214 | PURCHAS, Samuel (c. 1575-1626)
PURCHAS, Samuel (c. 1575-1626)

Purchas his Pilgrimes. In five bookes. London: William Stansby for Henrie Fetherstone, 1625. -- Purchase his Pilgrimage. London: William Stansby for Henrie Fetherstone, 1626.

Purchas's important collection of travel and exploration narratives from ancient times to the recent accounts of John Smith. The first edition of Purchas his Pilgrimes, with the engraved title-page in the rare first state dated 1624, the map of Virginia in vol. IV in Verner's 10th state, and with the fourth edition of the Pilgrimage, issued concurrently as a supplement. ‘This great geographical collection is a continuation and enlargement of Hakluyt's The Principal Navigations. At the death of Hakluyt there was left a large collection of voyages in manuscript which came into the hands of Purchas, who added to them many more voyages and travels... Purchas followed the general plan of Hakluyt, but he frequently put the accounts into his own words... The main divisions of the work fall into two parts: the first covering the world known to Ptolemy, the second coming down to Purchas' own day. This fine collection includes the accounts of Cortés and Pizarro, Drake, Cavendish, John and Richard Hawkins, Quiros, Magellan, van Noort, Spilbergen, and Barents, as well as the categories of Portuguese voyages to the East Indies, Jesuit voyages to China and Japan, East India Company voyages, and the expeditions of the Muscovy Company. The fifth volume of this set of the Pilgrimes is in reality the fourth and best edition of the Pilgrimage' (Hill).



This set has been through the hands of three distinguished collectors. Firstly, Henry Perkins (1778-1855), a bibliophile brewer, whose library included two Gutenberg Bibles, was dispersed at auction at Hanworth Park, Middlesex, 3-6 July 1873; the present set was lot 826, described as ‘very fine’, and fetched £86. It then entered the family library of the banker, philanthropist, and book collector, Joseph W. Drexel (1833-1888), with the present set bearing the bookplates of his daughter, Lucy Wharton Drexel (1867-1944). Finally, the set belonged to Joseph Drexel’s grandson, Boies Penrose (1902-1973), the traveller, book collector and author of Travel and Discovery in the Renaissance, 1420-1620 (Harvard, 1952). He loaned the set for the exhibition Travel in the Old World from 1250 to 1650 held at the Free Library of Philadelphia in 1945. It appears in the exhibition catalogue under entry 14, described as ‘a book of extreme importance’.



Alden & Landis 625⁄173; Arents 158; Borba de Moraes II, pp.692-693; Burden I, 164 (map of Virginia); Church 401A; JCB (3) II:196-197; Hill 1403; Sabin 66682-66686; STC 20509 and 20508.5.



Together 5 volumes (the supplemental Pilgrimage comprising the fifth volume), folio (324 x 211mm.). Engraved additional title to vol. I, 88 engraved maps, of which 7 double-page or folding and 81 half-page in the text, many of them with partial old colour, numerous illustrations, mostly woodcut, but some engraved (vol. I: engraved additional title window mounted, tiny marginal tear to upper corner of E1, F3 with lower margin and corner skilfully repaired just affecting a couple of letters in side note, without blank R4, 2T1 recornered, tiny marginal chip to 3C1, short marginal tear to 3L1, map Insulae Indiae orientalis trimmed close just into printed border; vol. II: tiny marginal holes to 5E6 and 5H5, tiny rust spot running through 6C5-6D1 affecting a few letters, map of Germany on p.1244 trimmed close into left-hand border and latitude scale, tiny hole and stain in 6Q1 and 6T6 the latter affecting 4 letters, horizontal tear to 6Y1 along lower plate mark of the map of Europe with old expert repair with one line of text affected on verso, 7K with two tiny holes with rust stains, 8C1 with very short marginal tear, leaves 8P6 and 8Q1 misbound between 8P1 and 8P2, old marginal repair to aa2; vol. III: complete with first blank, tiny hole in H5 with loss of a few letters, R1 lower margin repaired, tiny marginal hole to 3D3, some light staining to 3Q1r obscuring several letters and words, tiny marginal tear to 3T6, tiny rust hole to 4S1 with loss of 2 letters; vol. IV: tiny marginal tear to 5L5, repair in fore-margin of 6R1, short marginal tear repairs to 6R5 and 4c4, Virginia map cropped at top just into plate mark and with a tiny tear at upper creasefold and tiny hole with loss with repair on verso, vol. V: second leaf with tiny marginal hole, very small marginal chip to C4, world map on E2r trimmed into right-hand margin touching right-hand hemisphere, map of the Holy Land on I4r with small misprinting of right-hand border due to paper flaw, tiny tear on R1 due to paper flaw, tiny rust marks on 2H2-3 and 4N2 obscuring a couple of letters, map of the East Indies on 3F4 cropped just into right-hand border, very small marginal rust hole to 3T1, faint browning to gatherings 3B-3C). Late 18th-century / early 19th-century russia, covers panelled with borders of triple gilt fillets and foliate cornerpieces, expertly rebacked to style by Aquarius, gilt turn-ins and edges (extremities faintly rubbed). Provenance: W.M. Westley (ink ownership inscriptions on titles of vols III and IV dated 5 November 1672) – contemporary ink annotation 5H5r – Henry Perkins (armorial bookplates) – Lucy Wharton Drexel (engraved pictorial bookplates) – Boies Penrose engraved pictorial bookplates).





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