sir marc aurel stein (5 Ergebnisse)

PAP. Zustand: New. New Book. Shipped from UK. Established seller since 2000.

First edition. First edition. 3 folding colored maps, 8 colored plates (each with a printed tissue guard), 339 photographic illustrations on 212 plates (6 folding panoramas). xxxviii, 546, [2]; xxii, 518, [2] pp. 2 vols. 8vo. The classic account of Stein's 1906-08 second expedition to Chinese Central Asia, incuding his discovery of the "Caves of the Thousand Buddhas" near Dunhuang. Ghani p.694; Yakushi (1994) S716 Publisher's russet cloth, upper cover with embossed design in gilt, minor darkening to spines and very light wear. Custom slipcase. Provenance: Edward W. Bodman (bookplate) 3 folding colored maps, 8 colored plates (each with a printed tissue guard), 339 photographic illustrations on 212 plates (6 folding panoramas). xxxviii, 546, [2]; xxii, 518, [2] pp. 2 vols. 8vo.

First edition, first impression, in the scarce jacket. On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks details the findings of Stein's first three Central Asian expeditions and research undertaken between 1900 and 1916. This is an especially fresh copy of a work produced in the handsome style common to Stein's monographs. The work originated as a series of lectures given at Harvard University in December 1929. "The First Expedition had proved Stein to be as brilliantly effective a fieldworker as the Rajatarangini showed him to be a scholarly Orientalist - a pioneer in a vast new field of research; the Second, extending his investigations to Tun-Huang and the Aksai Chin, made him a hero and brought him knighthood; the Third, extending his field of operations still further into Mongolia on the east and Iran on the west gave substance to his role as 'Archaeological Explorer'" (Mirsky, p. 461). Howgego IV S65; Yakushi S338. Jeannette Mirsky, Sir Aurel Stein: Archaeological Explorer, 1998. Octavo. Coloured frontispiece with captioned tissueguard, 15 similar plates, 78 half-tone photographic plates, 8 extensive folding panoramas, folding colour map. Two pages of publisher's advertisements at end. Original reddish-brown cloth, spine lettered in gilt, front cover with embossed gilt roundel after Stein's personal emblem, top edge gilt, others untrimmed. With dust jacket. Two recent Japanese bookseller's tickets on front pastedown. Cloth a little rubbed but still bright, text and illustrations fresh: jacket price-clipped and lightly soiled, a few chips and closed tears: a near-fine copy in very good jacket.

First edition, first impression, of this handsomely produced account of Stein's second expedition to Central Asia between 1906 and 1908, where he acquired a copy of the Tang Dynasty Chinese version of the Diamond Sutra. Found in Dunhuang (Tunhuang), it is widely recognized as the first complete printed book, dating back to 868CE. The find furthered the understanding of trade routes along the Silk Road. "The city of Dunhuang in north-west China, is situated at a point of vital strategic and logistic importance, on a crossroads of two major trade routes within the Silk Road network. The remarkable Mogao Caves, a collection of nearly 500 caves to the south of the city, contain the largest depository of historic documents along the Silk Roads and bear witness to the cultural, religious, social, and commercial activity that took place in Dunhuang across the first millennium" (UNESCO). "Stein's great achievement. was to establish the existence of a hitherto lost civilization along the Silk Route in Chinese central Asia. [He] was the first archaeologist to discover evidence of the spread of the Graeco-Buddhist culture of north-west India across Chinese Turkestan and into China itself. Stein's best-known find came at Tunhuang in 1907, during his second expedition (financed by the government of India and the British Museum), when he reached the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas. Discovering thousands of manuscripts, paintings, and textiles walled up in a room in one of the caves, he bribed the custodian to part with many of them. Experts later found them to date from the fifth to tenth centuries AD. They included votive banners, Buddhist texts, and early secular works in a wide variety of scripts and languages, and a large, block-printed roll, dating from AD 868, which proved to be the world's oldest known printed book, a copy of the popular Buddhist work The Diamond Sutra" (ODNB). Howgego IV, S 65; Yakushi S 331; "Dunhuang", UNESCO, accessible online. 2 vols, octavo. Numerous plates, maps and plans including 8 coloured plates and 6 folding uncoloured panoramas, 3 folding coloured lithographic maps. Original reddish brown cloth, title gilt to spines, front cover with embossed gilt roundel showing Athena with arm outstretched brandishing the aegis incorporating the gorgoneion (Stein's personal emblem), top edge gilt, others uncut. Extremities rubbed with short tears to spine ends, corners slightly bumped, stain to front cover of vol. 2, scattered foxing, plates fresh; overall a very good copy.

"Cheaper Edition", one year after the first, and comprising first edition sheets with a cancel title. "A general narrative of his first exploration to Central Asia of 1900-1901. Crossing the Karakoram and the Pamirs he entered Chinese Turkestan, and explored archaeologically the sand-buried ruins of Khotan and its neighbourings [sic]" (Yakushi) Howgego IV, S65; Yakushi S328a. Octavo. Photogravure frontispiece and numerous illustrations to the text, folding coloured map at the rear. Original ochre cloth, title gilt to the spine, and to the front board in yellow with pictorial design in black and yellow. A little rubbed and slightly spotted, free endpapers lightly browned, light foxing to the fore-edge and to first few leaves, but overall very good.