Roberts, David
£14,340
Printed Books, Maps and Manuscripts
Auction: 11 July 2006 at 12:00 BST
Description
The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt & Nubia, from Drawings made on the spot by David Roberts, R.A. With historical descriptions by George Croly London: David Moon, 1842-1849, 3 volumes in 2, large folio, 3 pictorial titles, portrait, map and 60 full-page and 60 half-page tinted lithographs by Louis Haghe after David Roberts, tissue guards, contemporary half red morocco, spine gilt, gilt edges, slightly rubbed, some foxing
Footnote
Note: One of the most magnificent and costly travel books of all time. Robert's monumental work was a publishing sensation when it was first published in 1842, bringing to the Victorian public panoramic and topographically accurate views of the sites of the Holy Land and Syria that up till then had been known for the most part from crude engravings. Roberts, the son of an Edinburgh shoemaker and born in Stockbridge, was enormously proud that subscriptions from Edinburgh amounted to more than £1200, proportionally far greater than those in London. It is very likely that this copy has been in Edinburgh since originally subscribed for in 1842. Abbey Travel 385; Blackmer 1432.