first edition
1873 · London
by Cooper, Thomas Thornville
London: Henry S. King & Co, 1873. First edition, 8vo, pp. viii, 270, 36 (publisher's catalogue); frontispiece, folding map, 3 tinted lithograph plates; original pictorial red cloth stamped in gilt and black; rubbing to boards and joints, head and tail of spine neatly replaced, endpapers refreshed, tape repair in gutter at frontis and at map, text clean and sound, good. Inscribed by Cooper to an "old friend" William B. Hallied (?) Esq. Cooper made two, failed, expeditions, the first to reach India from Shanghai through Tibet in 1868, and the second in 1869 to push into Tibet from the India side. "Cooper was certainly courageous, and inspired affection among his friends. No mere traveller, he styled himself, even in his will, the 'Pioneer of Commerce', and the vision of opening a market for Assam tea and Manchester goods in Yunnan was a constant in his public and private utterances. He was a successful self-publicist (if a self-important one who habitually acquired official-sounding titles), but at root he was a freelance imperial activist, ever ready to solicit funds for his ventures, whose connections with the India Office were tenuous, and of whom officials were wary." (DNB) Yakushi C344.
(Inventory #: 67874)