Title: An Historical Account of the British Trade over the Caspian Sea with the Author's Journal of Travels from England through Russia into Persia: and Back through Russia, Germany and Holland. Author: Jonas Hanway. Publisher: T. Osborne et al. London. 1754. First Edition. Volume 1 of 2 volumes. 460pp plus index at the back. Quarto: 4to. 255mm tall; 205mm wide; 45mm thick. English language text.

Description: Includes a history of English commerce in the Caspian area from 1553 to 1743. Hanway was a partner in an English commercial firm in St. Petersburg; in representing the firm's interests he traveled to Persia by way of the Caspian Sea in 1743-1746, reporting his own travels and quoting from others as well. The "Plain Chart of the Caspian Sea was presented to Hanway by John Elton and Thomas Woodroofe, both Englishmen who surveyed the sea in the early eighteenth century as part of the British trade in the area."

Condition: Rare. Original brown leather boards much warn with some loss & front board detached. The spine has faded gilt print & decoratives with compartmentalized 5 raised bands with wear and some loss. Title pages all present & Vol 1 has full frontispiece of Britannia and Persia. There are 5 fabulous folded maps and a number of other full page engraved copper plates all present and clean. Pages clean with no foxing or staining. Pencil writing on preliminary page. Joints, gutters, text block all tight except partial split at page 234.

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