New Account of East-India and Persia, in Eight Letters: Being Nine Years Travels, Begun 1672, and Finished 1681. Illustrated with Maps, figures, and useful Tables.

London: Ri[chard] Chiswell, 1698. Full Description:

FRYER, John. A New Account of East-India and Persia, in Eight Letters. Being Nine Years Travels, Begun 1672, and Finished 1681. London: Ri[chard] Chiswell, 1698.

First edition. Small folio (12 5/16 x 7 1/2 inches; 312 x 191 mm). [8], xiii, [1, errata], 427, [1, blank], [xxiv index] pp. With a total of nine engraved plates, including the engraved frontispiece, four engraved plates, three of which are double page, one small folding plan, and three engraved map plates (one of which is page 60 with the printed key over-slip). Numerous other engravings in the text. Title-page in red and black. Without free endpapers. Half-title printed on the verso of the frontispiece portrait. With a separate title-page for Collections of the coins, weights, and precious stones, usual in those places of trade within the charter of the Honourable East-India-Company which is part of the pagination.

Full period paneled calf. Spine printed in gilt. Red morocco spine label, lettered in gilt. Edges speckled red. Some restoration to joints. A bit of rubbing to corners, edges and spine extremities. Some light dampstaining to outer margins. Remnants of torn back free endpaper still intact. Overall a very good copy.

"On 9 December 1672 Fryer left from Gravesend for a lengthy tour of India and Persia undertaken in the interests of the East India Company. He did not return to England until August 1682. Sixteen years later he published A New Account of East India and Persia ... being Nine Years' Travels, Begun in 1672, which he had been prompted to write in the wake of criticism of English expeditions in French guides. A book rich in details of natural history and local medical practice, Fryer's account was republished in Dutch in 1700." (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography).

ESTC R23401 .

HBS 65188.

$4,000.