Art & Architecture / Islamic Art & Culture

BÉCHARD, Henri and Pascal SEBAH.

[Binding title:] Egypten.
[Cairo & Istanbul, ca. 1870-1880]. 3 oblong photo albums (31 x 45 cm), containing 112 stunning photographs of Egypt (mostly measuring: 20.5 x 26.5 cm, some slightly smaller: 20 x 25 cm and some slightly larger: 26.5 x 21 cm), all mounted paperdboard leaves measuring 30 x 42 cm. 49 photos are signed, in the negatives, by Béchard, 35 by Sebah and 28 are unsigned, and several have numbers and titles as well. The photographs in each volume are numbered in a later hand on the leaves (48, "19"[=21], 43). Near contemporary gold-tooled black half morocco; kept in matching half morocco boxes.

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BERBRUGGER, Louis Adrien. Algerie historique, pittoresque et monumentale, ou Recueil de vues, costumes et portraits faits d'après nature dans les provinces d'Alger, Bone, Constantine et Oran.
Paris, Delahaye (part-titles: printed by Dondey-Dupré), 1843. 5 parts in 3 volumes. Royal 1mo (57 x 42.5 cm). With chromo-lithographed general title-page, tinted lithographed frontispiece, 2 lithographed maps hand-coloured in outline, and 133 lithographed plates (image size up to 44.5 x 30.5 cm, nearly all non-botanical ones tinted and one with 2 chromolithographed and hand-coloured costume prints) by and after artists including Charles Bour, Eugène Flandin, Félix Emmanuel Henri Philippoteaux and Denis Auguste Marie Raffet. Also with lithographed views (and a few lithographed maps) printed in the tail margins at the ends of many chapters, and 45 white-on-black wood-engravings of coins (each with obverse and reverse) in the text. The 72 botanical illustrations on the last 10 lithographed plates are coloured by hand and highlighted with gum arabic. The non-botanical plates have the publisher's embossed stamp in the foot margin. Contemporary, uniform dark green half goatskin morocco with a gold-tooled spine. Full description

BRAECKLE, Jacques de. Memoires du voiage de Constantinople de Jacques de Bracle seigneur de Bassecourt.
[Various places, [1570 or very soon after]. 4to (main text & decorated paper) & 8vo (transcription & drawings) (21.5 x 14.5 cm). Manuscript in French, written in brown ink on paper in a Flemish bastarda gothic hand, with about 26 lines per page. With 8 contemporary half-sheet specimens of Turkish decorated "silhouette" paper (folded to make 16 leaves in 2 quires), a series of 28 drawings in brown ink and coloured gouaches, highlighted in gold (mostly costume figures, some showing the Sultan and other leading figures, others showing anonymous types from various ethnic and religious groups), plus a ca. 1800, transcript of the complete text and biography of the author (with his arms in colour). Modern sheepskin parchment. Full description

CLERGET, Charles Ernest. Mélanges d'ornements de tous les styles Persan - Mauresque - Arabe - Grec - Gothique [-] Renaissance principalement des XVIe et XVIIe siècles ...
Paris, Ducher & Cie (colophon: printed by Eugène Heutte & Cie), [ca. 1880 (engraved 1837-1838)]. Royal folio (45 x 31 cm). With 2 elaborately ornamented part-titles, 70 numbered ornament plates (all 72 plates "engraved" on litho stones, image area mostly 26.5 x 17 cm) and a letterpress list of the plates. With each plate printed in blue, green, violet, ochre, red, black or brown (several shades) and 9 printed in 2 colours. Contemporary half red cloth, rebacked and with new corners in red goatskin morocco. Full description

DICKSON, Harold Richard Patrick. The Arab of the desert. A glimpse into Badawin life in Kuwait and Sau'di Arabia.
London, George Allen & Unwin, 1951. 8vo. With a portrait of Sheikh Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah as frontispiece, numerous wood-engravings in text, including some maps, 46 pages with mostly reproductions of photographs, 9 colour plates (including 1 map), 12 maps (of which 8 folding and loosely inserted in the rear pocket), and 6 folding genealogical tables, also inserted in the rear pocket. Publisher's cloth. Full description

[KING, Helena Caroline or Adelaide Charlotte]. [Prominent Ottoman and entourage boarding boats before the Kilic Ali Pasha Mosque].
[Istanbul?, ca. 1830/50?]. Watercolour drawing on wove paper (29.5 x 45 cm) with highlights in shellac and a thin black border. Mounted on a larger sheet of paper in a passe-partout. Full description

LUYNES, Honoré d'Albert de. Voyage d'exploration à la mer Morte, à Petra et sur la rive gauche du Jourdain. ... Oeuvre posthume publiée par ses petit-fils sous la direction de M. le Comte de Vogüé.
Paris, Arthus Bertrand (on back of half-title: printed by E. Martinet (vols. 1-2) and Arnous de Rivière (vol. 3)), [1874]. 3 volumes of text and 1 atlas of plates. Imperial 4to (35.2 x 26.5 cm). With 14 numbered lithographed plates in volume 3 (4 double-page chromolithographed maps, views and geological sections; 2 further geological plates and 8 plates showing archaeological specimens), 85 plates in the atlas volume (including 65 photogravures and double-page chromolithographed maps) and numerous wood-engravings in the text. Set in roman and italic types with occasional passages in Greek and especially Arabic. Text volumes in original publisher's letterpress-printed light blue wrappers, atlas in half cloth portfolio with the original publisher's letterpress-printed paper sides, matching the text volumes; the 4 volumes preserved in 2 modern black half calf clamshell boxes. Full description

ROBERTS, David. The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt & Nubia.
Including: Egypt & Nubia.
London, Francis Graham Moon, 1842-1849. 2 complementary works in 6 volumes. Royal 1mo (62 x 47.5 cm). The Holy Land with a lithographic frontispiece portrait of David Roberts, 3 tinted illustrated lithographic title-pages, 60 tinted lithographic plates, 60 tinted half-page lithographs on text leaves; 1 plate with a stone-engraved map, and 1 stone-engraved armorial device on a text leaf. Egypt & Nubia with 2 double-tinted and 1 chromolithographic frontispiece views, 3 double-tinted illustrated lithographic title-pages, 56 double-tinted and 2 chromolithographic plates, 60 tinted lithographic half-page views on text leaves. All or nearly all 247 views also have highlights in white, apparently printed from an additional block. Uniform half red morocco (ca. 1875?), richly gold-tooled spine, gold-tooled rolls on sides, gilt edges. Full description