Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - November - 2010 Issue
Islands from Helen R. Kahn
The first depiction of the game of golf.
We often think of Commodore Perry's journey to Japan in 1852 as being responsible for opening Japan to western eyes, but a German physician and naturalist visited the empire over a century and a half earlier, and won such friendship that he was allowed explore the island for two years unimpeded. Engelbert Kaempfer writes of his adventures in Histoire Naturelle, Civile, et Ecclesiastique de l'Empre du Japan… This is a first French edition, published in 1729 (his account was not published until almost three decades after his 1690 visit). Kahn notes that Kaempfer's work "was the chief source of Western knowledge of Japan for more a century." Item 47. $14,600.
Item 30 is A Voyage to the South-Sea, and along the Coasts of Chili and Peru, in the Years 1712…1714. Author Amedee Francois Frezier was an engineer sent out by France to help the Spanish build forts to protect their possessions from the Dutch and British. This work presents much about the history of explorations in the area as well as the country itself. However, what it may be most known for is the first illustration of what appears to be the earliest form of golf. A man is depicted swinging what looks like a cane at a ball, frustration undoubtedly just moments away. $4,750.
Helen R. Kahn and Associates may be reached at 514-844-5344 or hrk@hrkahnbooks.com. The website is www.hrkahnbooks.com.
