Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$500.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Burton was British Consul for the Bight of Biafra and Fernando Po and compiled this book of sayings from the West African Wolof, Oji, Kanuri, Accra, Yoruba, Efik, and Mpangwe languages. This book is bound in half leather and pebbled cloth with marbled endpapers and gilded top page edges. The binding is circa 1900. According to the Penzer bibliography of Burton, this title was produced in both a red cloth binding and a plum cloth binding. The red was rare in Penzer's day (1923) , but the plum was not. Because the text of both issues was identical, it is now impossible, or at least exceptionally difficult to tell if this particular book was orginally in red cloth or plum cloth. Leather binding worn. All corners rubbed with loss of leather. Spine titles badly rubbed. Title is present, but Burton's name has been rubbed off the spine. Binding is sound and not cracked at all. Interior is mostly clean - there is a little bit of age spotting and a very occassional margin note from the previous owner, but the notes are in pencil and can be erased. Ships same or next business day well protected in a box. ; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 455 pages
Seller: Good Books In The Woods, Spring, TX, U.S.A.
Burton, Richard. Wit and Wisdom From West Africa. Tinsley Brothers, London, 1865.
Price: US$3000.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: or, a book of proverbial philosophy, idioms, enigmas and Laconisms compiled by Richard F Burton, Lake HM's Consul for the Bight of Biafra and Fernando Po. First edition of this important work. 455 pp. Penzer p 75, 76 described this book as RARE especially if in good condition. Bound in brick red cloth with blind triple border enclosing design in blind on both covers. Burton wanted to give readers an insight into the Negro mind and thoughts. Clean and nice internally, orig. endpapers lightly soiled. Recased in orig. cloth, strengthened at spine tips. Orig. spine in fair condition with wear to gilt. Housed in a burgundy cloth case and then in a marbled paper slipcase with gilt leather spine label.
Seller: Trophy Room Books, Agoura, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$4050.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 455 p. Touch of wear to extremities else very good condition. Red 3/4 leather binding with marbled boards and end sheets. Small Bookplate. Top page edges gilt. Embossed gilt decorations on spine. A lovely collectible copy.
Seller: Jeffrey Blake, Willow Grove, PA, U.S.A.
Price: US$4508.92 + shipping
Description: First edition. 8vo. Original plum cloth, blind-stamped boards, spine gilt with figure stamped in gilt towards foot; cloth worn (esp. to extremities), spine faded, gilt dimmed. xxxii, 455pp. London, Tinsley Brothers, A good copy of a fascinating work, rarely found in such condition. Burton was a fine linguist and had served as Regimental Interpreter whilst in the Bengal Army, so it is hardly surprising that when posted as H.M. Consul at Fernando Po in 1861 he should pursue this great interest. Within two years he was able to write to his great friend Monkton Milnes from Dahome ?African proverbs nearly ready. I shall send them to Tinsley.? (Dahome, 31st May, 1863). Although not an original work, the material for this book had only existed previously in verbal forms. It is one of the rarest of Burton?s works, and comprises proverbs from seven languages (Wolof, Kanuri, Oji, Ga Yoruba, Efik and Fan), along with other miscellaneous material. According to Penzer, this copy, bound in plum cloth, belongs to the ?remaindered? second issue. The first issue, bound in red cloth, is exceedingly rare. Penzer, p75; Casati, p71.
Seller: Maggs Bros. Ltd ABA, ILAB, PBFA, BA, London, United Kingdom
Price: US$8250.00 + shipping
Description: The very rare first edition. 8vo, in the scarce publishers binding of full plum cloth lettered in gilt on the spine and stamped in blind on the covers. Housed in a handsome foldover box. xxx +[i]+[i] (blank), 455. A very nice copy with some expected age-wear and expert refreshinging to the cloth hinges. A RARE WORK BY BURTON, being a collection of proverbs and sayings from the Wolof, Kanuri, Oji, Ga or Accra, Yoruba, Efik or Old Calabar, and Mpangwe languages. His purpose in making this collection of literary and oral compositions available was to offer "a practical acquaintance with the language[s]" and to introduce "the reader to some extent into the inward world of Negro mind and Negro thoughts; and this is a circumstance of paramount importance, so long as there are any who either flatly negative the question, or, at least, still consider it open, 'Whether the Negroes are a genuine portion of mankind or not'.Such specimens may go a long way towards refuting the old-fashioned doctrine of an essential inequality of the Negroes with the rest of mankind, which now and then shows itself, not only in America, but also in Europe."
Seller: Buddenbrooks, Inc., Newburyport, MA, U.S.A.