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161 - [JAPAN – AFRICA]. A collection of two volumes on Japan and A…
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Estimate €800 - €1,000
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Description
[JAPAN – AFRICA]. A collection of two volumes on Japan and Africa. Published by Nepveu. A dual historical and artistic immersion in the Japan of the shoguns and the Africa of the kingdoms. Remarkably illustrated accounts featuring 27 engraved plates, finely coloured by hand with a brush at the time. TITSINGH (Isaac). Ceremonies practised in Japan for weddings, funerals, and the principal festivals of the year. Illustrated with 24 engravings, based on Japanese paintings. [Volumes One to Three]. Paris, Nepveu, 1821. 3 volumes in 2 quires, in-18 (135 × 84 mm). Well-made bindings in light-coloured half-calf, ribbed spine decorated with gilt and blind-stamped bands, with two mosaic panels - XXX, IV, 127pp., [1] bl.; 2 ff.n.ch., 139, [1] bl.; 2 ff.n.ch., 206 pp. and 23 plates (the title page lists 24 plates, by mistake?), of which 17 are folded. Second edition, following that of 1818, of Cérémonies usitées au Japon.
The Dutch scholar Isaac Titsingh (1745–1812), head of the Dutch trading post at Dejima, spent approximately 44 months in Japan (1779–1784).
He gathered a wealth of material for a monumental work on Japan, but published only a few short essays during his lifetime.
Nepveu published posthumously two accounts drawn from Titsingh’s papers, translated into French: - Ceremonies Practised in Japan for Weddings and Funerals (1819),
- Memoirs and Anecdotes of the Reigning Jogun Dynasty (1820). 
This second edition brings together these two works, but omits a few minor essays. The first volume deals with Japanese wedding ceremonies; the second, with funerals and other festivals, including a description of dosia, a powder used for recreational and medicinal purposes. The final volume offers a series of anecdotes about the shoguns and an account of the eruption of Mount Asama (1783). Next: McLEOD (John). Africa, or History, Manners, Customs and Traditions of the Africans. Dahomey (Guinea), by John McLeod. Paris, Nepveu, 1821. One volume in-18, comprising XIV, 148 pp. and 4 plates, including a frontispiece. A rare first edition of the translation of the Journey to Dahomey (now Benin) by the Scottish physician John McLeod (c. 1777/82 –1820), offering a valuable ethnographic account of local customs, society and traditions, written against the backdrop of the transatlantic slave trade. McLeod embarked as a surgeon on a slave ship, which lends his observations a unique historical and human significance. Provenance: From Sinety, with a heraldic bookplate in azure bearing a silver swan, its neck passing through an antique-style crown. Motto: ‘Virtute Nitet’. A copy in superb condition; the plates retain all the vibrancy of their original colours.
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About the sale Fine antique and collectible books, manuscripts and modern illustrated works
Auction location
Auction time 06/29/2026 at 2:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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