The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, & Nubia. After Lithographs By Louis Haghe From Drawings Made on the Spot by David Roberts, R.A. With Historical Descriptions By The Rev. George Croly. London: Day & Son, 1855, 4tos, a.e.g.
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A beautiful set of David Roberts' Holy Land in excellent contemporary fine bindings with the full suite of the famous lithographs; the illustrations found in this edition have been referred to as "the apotheosis of tinted lithography". A highly desirable set, particularly bound in the original six volumes as intended rather than the usually encountered three.
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Provenance:
The H.R. Coulthard copy with his bookplate to front pastedowns and signature to front blanks. He was a book collector and the Vicar of Breage who authored a book on Breage, a village in Cornwall, England. This set was sold for £450 circa 1977 according to a pencil note to the front blank in the first volume.
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Size: 211 x 293 mm (approx., each)
Condition:
Complete with all six volumes. Contemporary (or very near) full pebbled calf bindings, richly tooled in gilt to spines and board edges with attractive gilt turn-ins. Bindings rubbed with shelf and edge wear. rubbed along joints, all boards securely attached, some wear at hinges in some of the volumes. Externally a very attractive set indeed. The set stands on the shelf without lean. Mildly toned throughout, particularly to the tissue guards as typical, scattered generally mild foxing/spotting throughout. Dampstain at the foot of the first few leaves of third and fourth volumes (pictured with the title pages of those two vols), generally confined to the the blank marginal space, and a larger one to the last two leaves and final blanks of the fifth volume. Uncollated, but appears to be complete.
