First edition, complete in four volumes of Henri-René d'Allemagne's (1863-1950) Du Khorassan au Pays des Bakhtiaris. It is one of the most important and richly illustrated French travel works on Persia produced in the early 20th-century. Published in 1911 and limited to a small print run, the work records the results of several scientific and ethnographic journeys undertaken by d'Allemagne in Persia and Transcaspian Central Asia, culminating in a three-month expedition through modern-day Iran in 1907.
D'Allemagne was a French historian, librarian and noted collector, best known for his studies of applied arts and material culture. As archivist at the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal and an experienced traveller in the Islamic world, he approached Persia not as a casual visitor but as a careful observer, combining first-hand fieldwork with scholarly research and informed local collaboration. His close association with prominent Persian figures, notably Serdare Assad, head of the Bakhtiari tribe, gave him rare access to social, political and ethnographic knowledge unavailable to most European travellers of the period.
The first two volumes form a comprehensive survey of Persia at the turn of the 20th-century, addressing geography, agriculture, commerce, industry, political and military organisation, religious customs, and social life. Particular attention is given to the decorative and industrial arts, including metalwork, ceramics, textiles, carpets, arms, woodwork and manuscript illumination. These sections remain of lasting value to historians of Islamic art and material culture, and are frequently cited in academic and museum contexts.
Volumes three and four present a detailed narrative of the 1907 journey, tracing a route from Ishqabad and Mashhad through Khorasan to Tehran, Qom and Isfahan, with an extended excursion into Bakhtiari territory in the Zagros Mountains, before returning via Tehran and the Caspian Sea. D'Allemagne's account is notable for its clarity, balance and good-humoured tone, avoiding the self-dramatization common in other contemporary travel literature while offering acute observations on landscapes, cities, tribal life, archaeology and the rapid destruction of Persian architectural heritage then under way.
One of the defining features of this monumental work is its illustration. The present work is illustrated with approximately 960 in-text photographic illustrations and 255 full-page plates, including 47 in colour, depicting architecture, costumes, carpets, miniatures, weapons, ceramics and daily life. Many of the plates are mounted and protected by captioned tissue guards. The photographs, largely taken by d'Allemagne's companion Dr Jean Vinchon (1884-1964), form an exceptional visual record of Persia before large-scale modernisation.
Published in a strictly limited edition of 510 copies, of which this is copy number 233, this work was produced as a luxury publication. Copies were published in elaborate decorative bindings inspired by Persian motifs, designed by Jean Tabourier, and is accompanied by publisher's boxes.
Some slight browning in all volumes, mainly in the inner gutter, the publisher's boxes and wrappers shown some wear. Otherwise in very good condition. Diba p.118; Jacqueton, "Du Khorassan au pays des Backhtiaris, trois mois de voyage en Perse", (1913), pp. 155-159; not in Ghani.