Arabic and Chinese Trade in Walrus and Narwhal Ivory.: With Addenda by Paul Pelliot. [Together with] Supplementary Notes on Walrus and Narwhal Ivory.

Leiden: Oriental Printing-Office & Librairie et Imprimerie,, 1913 & 1917. First editions in book form, first printings, Arabic and Chinese Trade a presentation copy inscribed on the front wrapper, "With kindest regards of Berthold Laufer". The author excelled at mining early Chinese sources for information on other cultures - an historical method which here allows him to trace links between China, central Asia, and the Middle East. A giant of early sinology, Berthold Laufer (1874-1934) devoted his career to anthropological and linguistic research. His investigations of the ivory trade first appeared in volumes XIV and XVII (issued in 1913 and 1916) of the Dutch sinological journal T'oung Pao. Building on the same inter-cultural approach, in 1919 he published Sino-Iranica: Chinese Contributions to the History of Civilization in Ancient Iran. Among his many other achievements, in 1901 and 1902, while in Beijing and Shanghai, he used wax cylinders to make the earliest known recordings of Chinese music. Two works, octavo. Original blue wrappers, front covers lettered in black, edges untrimmed. Text predominantly in English with pp. 6 Pelliot addenda in French; Chinese characters in text. Covers sunned with a few nicks and chips, contents mostly only lightly toned, Arabic and Chinese Trade needing careful handling due to splits at head of spine, Supplementary Notes with parts of spine neatly repaired and gatherings unopened. Very good copies.