Southeastern Europe in a signed full-morocco binding
Publication: Paris, E. Bourdin, 1840.
Appealing copy of this classic travel account, here in first edition.
£2,500
In stock
First edition of this celebrated illustrated travelogue, in a spectacular binding with the arms of the Russian Empire. This is the first of Demidoff’s travelogues to be published, with all plates printed on India paper.
In 1837 Count Anatolii Nikolaevich Demidoff, Prince of San Donato (1812-70), launched a geological expedition to Ukraine and Crimea at his own expense. He was accompanied on his travels by the artist Denis Raffet, who illustrated Demidoff’s account.
We have come across other examples of this impressive binding, sometimes without the double-headed eagle on the covers. This is the first we see in red morocco, and one of the rare ones with the binder’s label.
Bibliography
Atabey 337 and Brunet II, 583; not in Blackmer.
Item number
691
Tall 8vo. (26 x 16.7 cm). Half-title, wood-engraved frontispiece on India paper showing Tsar Nicholas I on horseback, title, vii, 621, [3 including errata and table] pp., with 23 wood-engraved plates after Raffet, all printed on India paper mounted and with tissue guards, one page of sheet music, numerous wood engravings in text.
Binding
Contemporary red morocco by Boutigny (with label), boards with richly gilt floral ornaments and Russian double-headed eagles, flat spine titled and decorated in gilt, all edges gilt.
Condition
Binding a bit rubbed; some occasional internal spotting.
Early Russian fables (and other poetical works) at the dawn of Russia's Golden Age of Literature - the authors only book, written and printed in Kharkov, nowadays Ukraine. No copy traced outside Russia.
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