"A specimen of Persian humour, founded upon female customs"

[Khunsari, Agha Jamal] / Atkinson, James A. (transl.). [Kitab-e Kulsum Nani]. Customs and Manners of the Women of Persia, and Their Domestic Superstitions. Translated from the original Persian manuscript.

€ 3,500.00

First English edition: a prose version by the British oriental scholar James A. Atkinson (1780-1852). "This is a specimen of Persian humour, a jeu d'esprit, founded upon female customs and superstitions. It pretends to be a grave work, and is in fact a circle of domestic observances, treated with the solemnity of a code of laws" (preface). With a fine lithographic frontispiece drawn by Atkinson, faithfully depicting a "Persian Girl" in traditional dress, with a lute and hookah by her side, her hair adorned.

Provenance: 1) Wilberforce Eames, (1855-1937), U.S. bibliographer and librarian, known as the "Dean of American bibliographers" (his ink ownership to flyleaf); 2) pencil ownership "Wm. Berrian" (?) to flyleaf; 3) bookplate of the Wisconsin Consistory Library to pastedown; 4) Quaritch notation to pastedown (sold by them). A fine copy; scarce.