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Lot 305

HAMOND (WALTER)
A Paradox. Prooving that the Inhabitants of the Isle Called Madagascar, or St. Laurance, (in Temporall Things) are the Happiest People in the World. Whereunto is Prefixed, a Briefe and True Description of that Island

22 November 2011, 10:30 GMT
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £3,500 inc. premium

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HAMOND (WALTER)

A Paradox. Prooving that the Inhabitants of the Isle Called Madagascar, or St. Laurance, (in Temporall Things) are the Happiest People in the World. Whereunto is Prefixed, a Briefe and True Description of that Island, first edition, without blank A1, repair to margin of title and leaf B1, crushed morocco by George Bayntun [STC 12735], small 4to, Nathaniell Butter, 1640

Footnotes

In 1630 Walter Hamond spent four months on the island of Madagascar, whilst acting as surgeon in the employ of the East India Company. By 1637 Charles I was being advised that Madagascar was a convenient place stopping place en route to the trading stations of the Persian Gulf and the Far East. Hamond's treatise portrays an exaggerated prospect of the island, stating that "for wealth and riches, no Island in the world can be preferred before it. As for gold, silver, pearle and precious jems, questionlesse the Island is plentifully stored with them... great quantities of Aloes... the first fruits of a most plentifull harvest, which is better than the gleanings of America". "In his desire to present Madagascar and its allegedly primitive peoples as a semblance of the Garden of Eden, Hamond's writing can be seen as a precursor of the eighteenth-century salute to the noble savage" (ODNB).

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