Sir John Chardin's Travels in Persia by Chardin, Sir John. with an introduction by Sir Percy Sykes - 1927

London: Argonaut Press, 1927. Hardcover. 287p., illustrated (all present including two fold out illustrations [facing pages 212 and 216.] Number 126 of 975 copies, so noted at colophon. Covers soiled as is the somewhat dulled spine. Front cover has blind stamped decoration highlighted in gilt. Inward bend to corners. Front pastedown endpaper shows glue residue from bookplate removal. Pages show edge wear, foxing and age-toning. Rear pastedown endpaper has partially removed library label, stamped "CANCELLED," library markings in pencil around the label. Originally released in ten volumes in the seventeenth century, the first version of this two volume English language edition from 1720 was planned to have eight volumes, issued by subscription. "It seems quite obvious that the response did not merit its continuation. The publisher, Mr. J. Smith, must have had a large number of these first two volumes on his hands and tried every means to sell them. The first attempt was by erasing the word "eight" on the title page and substituting "two."...This 1927 edition, according to the preface, is the first reprint of that English edition.