PRISSE D'AVENNES, Achille Constant Théodore Émile.
Oriental album. Characters, costumes, and modes of life, in the valley of the Nile.
London, James Madden, 1848. Imperial folio (52.5 x 37.5 cm). With an additional decorative title-page, separately chromolithographed in black, gold and 7 colours, tinted and hand-coloured lithographed frontispiece portrait of the dedicatee, and 30 tinted and hand-coloured lithographs. Numerous wood-engraved illustrations in the text. Modern half calf, richly gold-tooled spine. [6], 60 pp.
€ 65,000
First edition of a splendid set of 31 large tinted and beautifully hand-coloured lithographed views of life in the Nile valley, showing Bedouins, Nubians, dancers, warriors, horses, buildings, local life and costumes, one of the earliest and most sought-after publications by the artist Émile Prisse d'Avennes (1807-1879). Only a small part of the edition was coloured by hand, adding detail and giving an opulent atmosphere to the fantastic plates.
Prisse d'Avennes spent many years in Egypt after 1826, first as an engineer in the service of Mehmet Ali. After 1836 he explored Egypt disguised as a Muslim, using the name Edris Effendi. During this period he carried out archaeological excavations in the Nile valley. It is augmented by a commentary by the renowned orientalist and Egyptologist James Augustus St. John.
Final plate with a few minor repairs to margins; final leaf creased and with marginal repairs. One or two other minor marginal defects, but otherwise in fine condition. Atabey 1001; Blackmer 1357; Colas 2427; Lipperheide Ma 30 (= 1599); not in Abbey.
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