Beschreibung:

Luynes (Honoré Paul Joseph d'Albert, duc de). Voyage d'exploration à la mer Morte, à Petra, et sur la rive gauche du Jourdain. Œuvre posthume publiée par ses petits-fils, 4 volumes (including atlas), 1st edition, Paris: Arthus Bertrand, [1868-74], text volumes: [4] iii [1] 388, [6] 222 [5], [4] vi 326 pp., each with half-title, volume 3 with 14 plates (wood-engraved or lithographic, including 2 folding colour maps and 2 folding colour plates of geological profiles; numbered 1-14, series title ‘Géologie’), all with occasional spotting (mainly light and to outer leaves), all untrimmed and unopened in original printed wrappers (a few nicks, faint crease to volume 3 front wrapper), 4to (36.2 x 27 cm), atlas volume: half-title and title-page (conjugate), 2 folding colour maps, folding engraved plate of Luynes’s vessel, 64 photogravures by Charles Nègre mainly after Louis Vignes and a suite of 18 numbered plates titled ‘Voyage de M. Mauss’ (including 4 maps and plans, one folding, the rest tinted lithographs by Eugène Ciceri after photographs by Vignes or Sauvaire), the 2 folding maps spotted, light marginal spotting to a few photogravures (e.g. 37, 52), all loose as issued in original portfolio of fine-diaper cloth-backed boards, cloth ties intact, 4to (36.2 x 27 cm) (Qty: 4) Hannavy, Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography I pp. 982-5 (Nègre); Parr & Badger I p. 33; Röhricht 2824. First edition, an excellent copy in original condition of one of the most sought-after books of 19th-century Middle Eastern travel, and a pioneering work of photographic book illustration. 'This rare book is closely connected with an important event in the development of photobook production, and with a unique photograhic competition. In 1856 Honoré Albert, Duc de Luynes, archaeologist, scientist and connoisseur, initiated a competition ... to find the best method of photomechanical reproduction ... Rather than choosing the eventual winner of the competition [Alphonse Lousi Poitevin] to make the photomechanical reproductions of [Louis Vignes's] negatives [from the Dead Sea expedition], the Duc selected Charles Nègre who had also been shortlisted for the prize. Nègre had developed a photogravure method that produced beautiful prints ... [and] improved [Vigne's negatives] considerably ... The book ... remains one of the finest photomechincally printed books of the era' (Parr & Badger).