A remarkable group of books from the library of Professor C.J.F. Dowsett will feature in our April Books, Manuscripts and Maps sale. The collection reflects a lifetime of scholarship in Armenian, Iranian and Near Eastern studies.
16 April 2026
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Rare books from the personal library of Professor Charles James Frank Dowsett (1924–1998), a pioneering British scholar of Armenian and Iranian studies, will be offered in our Books, Manuscripts and Maps auction, running from 24 April to 4 May.
Dowsett, the first Gulbenkian Professor of Armenian at Oxford, played a defining role in establishing the modern academic study of Armenian in the UK. Educated at Peterhouse, Cambridge, and SOAS, his scholarship ranged across medieval Armenian literature, Iranian philology and the transmission of Near Eastern texts to Europe. Assembled over decades of study and travel, his library reflects both a remarkable intellectual life and the wide-ranging interests of a dedicated scholar.
First Edn- BURTON, Richard F: Pilgrimage to El Medinah and Meccah, in THREE volumes. (£3,000-5,000)
The timing of the sale is especially poignant, coinciding with the official day of remembrance for the Armenian Genocide on 24 April. Proceeds from the auction will contribute directly to the preservation of the Armenian Institute Library and the core Dowsett Collection, supporting heritage preservation, digitisation, and public and academic programmes that advance understanding of Armenian history, culture and scholarship.
The 31 lots in the sale demonstrate the breadth of Dowsett’s teaching and research, spanning folklore and fairytales, comparative religion and mythology, philology and lexicography, ethnography, and travel writing from Crimea to the Hindu Kush. Carefully selected for deaccessioning following curatorial review, the group has been chosen to help support the Armenian Institute and its ongoing cultural work.
Among the highlights is a sought-after first edition of Richard Burton’s A Pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina (1855), offered with three other volumes estimated at £3,000–5,000. Burton famously undertook the pilgrimage in disguise as a Muslim traveller, and his account remains one of the most extraordinary travel narratives of the nineteenth century.
WITCHCRAFT, MAGIC, Etc: 1- Lenormant, Francois: Chaldean Magic: Its Origin and Development. (£400-800)
Another highlight is a first edition of Hero Tales and Legends of the Serbians, signed and inscribed by its author, Nikolaj Velimirović, the Serb theologian recently deemed Saint Nicholas of Zhicha. Preserving Serbian epic poetry and folklore, the book played an important role in sustaining cultural memory and national identity, and is offered with an estimate of £300–600.
Also of interest is a group of nineteenth- and twentieth-century books on witchcraft, led by a first edition of François Lenormant’s Chaldean Magic: Its Origin and Development (1877), offered with ten other volumes at £400–800.
The collection offers a rare opportunity to explore the working library of one of Britain’s most important scholars of Armenian studies, while helping to support the preservation and promotion of Armenian cultural heritage.
Timed Online Auction
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