This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/12/2023
BURTON, Richard F. (1821-1890). A Mission to Gelele, King of Dahome. London: [Bradbury and Evans for] Tinsely Brothers, 1864.
2 volumes, 8vo. Half-titles, wood-engraved frontispieces. Original dark burgundy cloth, central devices gilt on upper covers (rebacked preserving original spines, spines sunned and showing remnants of library call numbers, renewed endpapers).
THE RARE FIRST EDITION, with the uncorrected page number on p. 181 in vol. II. An account of Burton’s last major expedition in West Africa in an attempt to establish trade relations with the Kingdom of Dahome and to protest the Kingdom’s involvement in the slave trade and to investigate charges that King Gelele participated in ritual human sacrifice. Casada 47; Penzer, p. 72-73; Spink 31.