Some account of the public life, and a selection from the unpublished writings, of the Earl of Macartney; the latter consisting of extracts from an account of the Russian empire: a sketch of the political history of Ireland: and a journal of an embassy from the king of Great Britain to the Emperor of China : with an appendix to each volume
London: printed for T. Cadell and W. Davis in the Strand, 1807. First edition, 2 volumes. 4to, pp. xii, 608; [4], 531, [1]; engraved frontispiece portrait, contemporary full diced russia, wavy gilt borders on covers, gilt-lettered direct on gilt-paneled spines; front hinge and joint cracked on volume I causing some looseness to the preliminary leaves; the whole worn and rubbed and the text toned throughout, frontispiece offset and title page spotted; a good copy only. "Barrow accompanied Lord Macartney's mission to the court of China in 1792 as his private secretary, and his Travels in China (1804), accompanied by a number of fine plates, is one of the best illustrated English travels on China. The strict exclusion of Europeans by the Chinese Emperors had left China very much terra incognita to the western world well into the nineteenth century." Lust 501; Cordier, Sinica, 2391. Item #67732
Price: $350.00
