History of the Indian Archipelago. Containing an Account of the Manners, Arts, Languages, Religions, Institutions, and Commerce of its Inhabitants
Author: John Crawford "Crawfurd" (1783-1868)
Year: 1820
Publisher: Archibald Constable & Co
Place: Edinburgh
Description:
3 volumes. Volume I: viii+520 pages with frontispiece and thirteen plates (one in color). Volume II: vi+[2 directions for placing plates+563 pages with frontispiece and sixteen plates. Volume III: vi+554 pages with frontispiece, two plates, engraved folding map outlined in color and index. Octavos (8 1/2" x 5 1.2") bound in quarter brown buckram cloth with spine labels lettered in black over beige boards. frontispieces by W.H. Lizars. (Brunet II: 411; Cordier 1109; Lowndes, p.552) First editions.
Trained as a doctor, John Crawfurd went on to have a distinguished career in colonial administration with the East India Company. He held senior posts in Java from 1811 to 1816, including that of resident at the court of Yogyakarta. A talented linguist and ethnologist, Crawfurd acquired a sound knowledge of ancient Kawi and contemporary Javanese. Upon his return to Britain in 1817, he became a fellow of the Royal Society and published this three-volume work on the Indonesian islands, principally Java, to great acclaim. Following further service abroad, he published accounts of his various missions in south-east Asia and an encyclopedic sequel to the present work.
Condition:
Rebound with new end papers, offsetting to text from plates else very good.
