[ASIA] BELL, JOHN of Antermonny. Travels from St. Petersburg in Russia, to diverse parts of Asia ... Containing a journey to Is.

Description:

[ASIA]
BELL, JOHN of Antermonny. Travels from St. Petersburg in Russia, to diverse parts of Asia ... Containing a journey to Ispahan in Persia ... part of a journey to Pekin in China, through Siberia. Glasgow: Printed by the author for Robert and Andrew Foulis, 1763. First edition. Two volumes, period mottled calf rebacked, all edges mottled red. 9 1/4 x 7 1/8 inches (23.5 x 18 cm); xviii, [iii], 457, [1], 2 pp. ads listing works brothers by the Foulis brothers; [iv], 426 pp., [2] pp. errata.; folding map of the route from Moscow to Peking. Boards with evidence of restoration, neatly rebacked in calf, new endpapers, generally a clean copy internally, the map (frequently lacking) toned but sound.

A handsomely printed work prepared at the Foulis Press. John Bell was a career diplomat, who undertook the journey recounted here shortly after graduating as a medical doctor. DNB states: "...He obtained letters of recommendation to Dr Areskine, chief physician and privy councillor to Tsar Peter I, and left London in July 1714. The tsar was at this time planning a diplomatic mission to the sophy of Persia, and on Dr Areskine's advice Bell was engaged in the tsar's service and included in the mission. He left St Petersburg on 15 July 1715 and proceeded to Moscow, and from there to Kazan and south along the Volga to Astrakhan. The mission then sailed down the Caspian Sea to Derbent and travelled on to Esfahan in Persia, where they arrived on 14 March 1717. They left Esfahan on 1 September and returned to St Petersburg via Saratov on 30 December 1718.
On his return Bell learned of another mission, to China, on which he was included following the recommendation of the British ambassador. Bell's account of his remarkable journey is recorded in his one publication, Travels from St Petersburg in Russia to Various Parts of Asia (1763). Despite the tedium of the sixteen-month expedition, Bell's account of the journey to Kazan and through Siberia to China is the most complete and interesting part of his travels. Of particular note are his descriptions of the Dalai Lama and the Chinese wall, and his residence in Peking (Beijing). The embassy left the capital on 2 March 1721 and arrived at Moscow on 5 January 1722. In the same year Bell accompanied an expedition into Persia as far as Derbent, but returned to St Petersburg in December 1722." (Ghani, p. 36). Blackmer 111; Cordier Sinica 2093; Gaskell Foulis Press 415.

C Property of a Massachusetts Gentleman
Estimate $800-1,200

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