Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$203.30 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: First edition; Octavo; Vol.I only with the very good folding map at the end; publisher's brown cloth, decorated in black and gilt, tight, some dampness stains on the cover; good end papers; title page half loosened; otherwise inside excellent, not opened after page 345; pp. xxvii, 528. Frontispiece with tissue guard, all plates present;
Seller: Magnus, Paris, France
Price: US$649.99 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Volumes 1 and 2. Half calf with green cloth, hubbed spine, TEG, gilt titles/decor, ribbon markers. Appears to be rebacked? Marbled endpages. Tissued frontis each volume. Folded map at rear of each volume. Additional 3 folding maps in volume 1. Minimal foxing, edges rubbed. Front hinge v. 1 is slightly loose else tight volumes. ; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 528;483 pages
Seller: curtis paul books, inc., Northridge, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$862.50 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 2 volumes. Large 8vo. xxvii, 528; x, 483pp. Index, Ads. Probably printed in England for Harpers at the same time as the Sampson, Low issue. Pagination is identical and the setting appears to be as well. Illustrated with over 100 full-page plates and in-text drawings, folding maps, large maps in the pockets of each volume. Original green cloth blocked in red, black, brown and gilt on the spines and upper covers in pictorial designs. Spines darkened, light wear to the hinges and edges, one map with some roughness along the edge, else a very good set. .
Seller: Thorn Books, ABAA, Tucson, AZ, U.S.A.
Price: US$935.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: 2 vol. 8vo. [5], vi-xxvii, [2], 2-528, [2]; [3], iv-x, [1], 2-483, [3] pp. Finely half bound in recent green Morocco over green cloth bordered with twin gilt rules, spine in six compartments bordered by twin gilt rules, black leather labels with gilt lettering, recent marbled endpapers and pastedowns. Illustrated by an engraved frontispiece in volume 1 with 23 additional wood-engraved plates, numerous smaller illustrations, and a large folding color map in the rear pocket (with a few tears and a split along the fold), and three additional folding maps. Volume two is illustrated by a photogravure frontispiece with 18 additional wood-engraved plates (note that p. 163 is a full page illustration, not a plate, but is often counted as such; all plates called for are present), numerous smaller illustrations, and a large color folding map in the rear pocket (with a few tiny tears). A detailed account of Stanley's expedition on the Congo River from 1879 - 1884 and his work to establish the Congo Free State on behalf of King Leopold II of Belgium (there is much recent scholarship on Stanley's views and approach to his work versus those of Leopold; see Jeal, Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa's Greatest Explorer for many new and interesting discoveries). An attractive set of this essential work in the history of the European coloinzation of Central Africa and the Congo Basin. Bindings are Fine with a tiny bump to the top corner of the board on volume 1, interiors are Very Good with some mild age-toning and scattered tears, but the leaves and plates are generally very clean.
Seller: Evening Star Books, ABAA/ILAB, Madison, WI, U.S.A.
Price: US$978.50 + shipping
Description: Octavo. In two volumes, 528, 483pp., 32 pages publisher's ads. A full account of Stanley's five years of prodigious industry in founding the Congo Free State and setting it on its feet for Leopold II of Belgium. Illustrated with over one hundred full-page and smaller illustrations, two large folding maps in rear pockets and several smaller maps, lacks the last page of the preface. Handsomely bound by Bayntun in 3/4 dark brown crushed morocco over brown cloth, raised bands with compartments lettered and decoratively stamped in gilt, top edges gilt. While it lacks the last page of the preface, this set is in remarkable condition. Very nice.
Seller: Alcuin Books, ABAA/ILAB, Scottsdale, AZ, U.S.A.
Price: US$1815.00 + shipping
Description: 2 volumes. First edition. Illustrated with a profusion of black and white illustrations throughout, both full-page and in the text as well as with fold-out maps including large folding maps in the pockets of the rear of the books. 8vo, publishers elaborately decorated pictorial brown cloth, lettered and decorated in gilt and black on the covers and spines. xxvii, 528; x, 483, Index, 32 ads. pp. A very handsome and bright set of this elusive first edition, very well preserved indeed. Some very minor evidence of age or use, but unusually pleasing set of these heavy well produced books. THE SCARCE FIRST EDITION OF STANLEYS IMPORTANT AND POPULAR WORK ON THE FOUNDING OF THE CONGO FREE STATE. This two-volume work of exploration, history, and socio-political-economy is the result of Stanley's expedition up the Congo River in1879-84 and his attempts to re-open the interior for King Leopold of Belgium. From this journey came the establishment of the Congo State, the first free commercial state in Equatorial Africa. Henry Stanley was one of the most popular figures of the 19th Century. Adventurer, explorer and rescuer-- the public could not get enough of this romantic figure. In true Victorian style, this volume highlights his greatest achievements, his rescues of LIvingstone and Emin Pasha and his aid in establishing the Congo Free State. Sets of this important work in original cloth have become exceeding difficult to obtain. First English editions are now especially elusive.
Seller: Buddenbrooks, Inc., Newburyport, MA, U.S.A.
Price: US$2145.00 + shipping
Description: 2 volumes. First edition, probably printed in England for Harpers at the same time as the Sampson, Low issue. Pagination is identical and the setting appears to be as well. Profusely illustrated with over one hundred full-page plates and in-text drawings, multi-folding maps, as well as with very large maps folded into the binding pockets at the rear of the books. 8vo, publishers original light green cloth, lavishly decorated with all-over pictorial designs in gilt, red, black, green and other colours on the spines and upper covers. xxvii, 528; x, 483. Index, 12 ads. About as fine a copy as one could hope to see. An unusually nice set of this scarce book. Very tight and clean copies, probably unused and as pristine, corners, covers, tips, all in excellent condition. Very rare thus. THE SCARCE FIRST EDITION OF STANLEYS IMPORTANT AND POPULAR WORK ON THE FOUNDING OF THE CONGO FREE STATE. This two-volume work of exploration, history, and socio-political-economy is the result of Stanley's expedition up the Congo River in 1879-84 and his attempts to re-open the interior for King Leopold of Belgium. From this journey came the establishment of the Congo State, the first free commercial state in Equatorial Africa. Henry Stanley was one of the most popular figures of the 19th Century. Adventurer, explorer and rescuer-- the public could not get enough of this romantic figure. In true Victorian style, this volume highlights his greatest achievements, his rescues of LIvingstone and Emin Pasha and his aid in establishing the Congo Free State. Sets of this important work in original cloth have become exceeding difficult to obtain. First editions are now especially elusive.
Seller: Buddenbrooks, Inc., Newburyport, MA, U.S.A.
Price: US$2244.68 + shipping
Description: Sampson Low, Maerston, Searle & Rivington. London. 1885. In Two Volumes. First edition. Large 8vo, xxvii, 528; x, 483pp., 2 large maps in pockets at end of volumes, 3 further folding maps, 44 full-page engraved plates, including frontispieces, numerous text illustrations throughout. Original brown pictorial cloth gilt, slightly rubbed to extremities. Paper to inner hinges at endpapers is partially split to both volumes but binding is sound. A lovely set. SCARCE.
Seller: Addyman Books, Hay-on-Wye, United Kingdom
Price: US$3206.68 + shipping
Description: First edition, scarce in the original cloth. Stanley's self-justificatory account of opening up the Congo for Leopold II of the Belgians documents one of the most appalling episodes in the European "Scramble for Africa". A work of official propaganda, it stands as a valuable record of the avowed motivations of the colonial enterprise. Stanley was "obliged by his original contract with Leopold to allow the king to prohibit publication, if he wished, and to make editorial changes to any book he might write about his work in the Congo. The king also had the right to approve the final text. The copy of the book's manuscript, which Leopold is known to have cut and altered, has disappeared and was probably destroyed by him" (Jeal). "Although it did not involve any significant geographical discoveries, Stanley considered his work on the Congo to be among the most important of his life. His book The Congo and the Founding of its Free State. promoted what he called the 'gospel of enterprise', emphasizing both the commercial potential of the region and the hard labour necessary to exploit it. He revelled in the name Bula Matari ['Breaker of Rocks' from his road-building activities] portraying his aim in the Congo as nothing less than the conquest of nature. The establishment of the Congo Free State, a territory of nearly 1 million square miles which Stanley had done much to secure, was one of the most significant events in the history of the so-called 'scramble for Africa'. Subsequent events were to show that Leopold's ambitions were not quite so philanthropic as Stanley represented them. But he denied to the last any responsibility for the atrocities that were to follow" (ODNB). There is a terrible irony in the choice of cover design, which shows a bust of Leopold, the plinth blazoned with the arms of Belgium, being crowned with a laurel wreath by the figure of "Africa", while two Congolese children look on admiringly. In his essay Geography and some explorers (1924), Conrad called the "opening" of Africa "the vilest scramble for loot that ever disfigured the history of human conscience". This work was also bound in decorated green cloth, with no priority established. Howgego IV S59. Joseph Conrad, Geography and some explorers, 1924; Tom Jeal, Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa's Greatest Explorer, 2008. 2 volumes, octavo. Original dark brown cloth, spines and front boards lettered and decorated in black, red, and gilt, black coated endpapers. Engraved frontispiece in vol. I, photogravure frontispiece in vol. II, 42 wood-engraved plates (most placed incorrectly in the pagination, as issued), 5 folding maps (2 in endpockets). Cloth slightly cockled with occasional marks, 2 corners bumped, very minor occasional foxing, partially unopened, neat repair to margin of Z3 in vol. I. An excellent copy.
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom