CHARDIN (Jean). Lot n° 33

Diary of Knight Chardin's journey to Persia and the East Indies, via the Black Sea and Colchis. First part which contains the journey from Paris to Isfahan. London, Moses Pitt, 1686. In-folio of (5) ff. 323 pp. (badly numbered 349), (3) ff., frontispiece, portrait and 22 plates, 18th century marbled calf binding, decorated spine, gilt fillets on the covers, marbled edges. First edition. Only this first part was published in this format. Title vignette, three headbands, two initials, a cul-de-lampe, a frontispiece, portrait and 22 folding plates including a map of the Black Sea. Sent by his father to the East Indies for diamond-trading operations, Chardin made his first trip in 1665, then in 1671 travelled through Persia to Surat and settled in Esfahan for six years, where he was appointed the king's merchant. His official position with Schah Abbas II and his connections enabled him to gather a wealth of information on the government, customs, antiquities, monuments and history of Persia. In Constantinople, Chardin became friends with the artist Claude Grelot, who accompanied him on his travels and whose drawings inspired the engravings in this volume. Returning to Europe in 1681, he published five years later this first part of his diary, devoted to the period 1671-73. Restorations to the bits and caps, a few pencil annotations and underlining, a few freckles, three very slightly damaged plates in the outer margin, brown spot and two small holes with lacks in the penultimate plate, a good copy nevertheless, nicely bound in the 18th century.