Rangoon: American Mission Press. C. Bennett, 1869. First edition. Octavo (225 x 142 mm). Bound, as often, without single-leaf notice concerning plates. With 93 lithographed plates (some folding), 2 folding maps, tables in text. Contemporary brown half sheep (likely executed near Rangoon), spine lettered and decorated in gilt, brown pebbled cloth sides, yellow endpapers (bound without rear free endpaper), marbled edges, title page bound in on stub. Spine and corners worn, small gouge on front board, couple of old paper repairs on dedication leaf, short stub tears and couple of small holes in maps, first map a little nibbled at fore edge: in very good condition, typical for books printed in 19th-century Burma.

First edition of report on the 1868 Sladen Expedition, launched by the chief commissioner of Burma during a period of intense Anglo-French competition for political and economic influence in South-East Asia.

The expedition was the initiative of Major-General Albert Fytche, the chief commissioner of Burma, and led by Captain Edward Sladen, the British political agent in Mandalay. In addition to the author (d. 1887), participating as a trade representative of the Royal Naval Reserve, Sladen’s party included Clement Williams, whose 1863 search for a Burma-China trade route (recounted in his Through Burmah to Western China, 1868) had laid a foundation. Travelling from Mandalay to Tengchong (Yunnan Province, China), the group established that the Irrawaddy was navigable from Rangoon to Bhamo at all times of the year. “The mission reached Bhamo, on its return journey, on 3 September, having acquired much valuable information about an almost unknown country” (ODNB).

Bowers was born in London and worked in the China trade from a young age, captaining his first vessel aged just 20 and, later in life, earning election to the Royal Geographical Society. His report includes geographic, ethnographic, and economic observations. The delicate plates, printed in straitened circumstances in Rangoon, reproduce his sketches of places and peoples, as well as drawings of mosaic and arabesque patterns found in Burmese village kyaungs. The maps comprise an expedition route map and a large regional map.

Cordier 327. Very Good (Item #7969)