Voyage d'exploration à la mer Morte, à Petra et sur la rive gauche du Jourdain--3 Volumes plus Atlas

Paris, France: Arthus Bertrand, 1874. Voyage d'exploration à la mer Morte, à Petra et sur la rive gauche du Jourdain--3 Volumes plus Atlas, M. Le Duc De Luynes and M. le Comte de Vogüé, Arthus Bertrand, Paris, France, 1874. 10 7/8 x 14 1/4 inches.

Volume--I iii, 388 pp., appendices, index with numerous engravings. Uncut top edge. Blue wrappers with black imprint. Mild wear, chipping and soiling; spine is faded. Back wrapper has chipped corner. Periodic foxing. Tight binding.

Volume--2 222 pp., 2 tables and index. Uncut top edge. Numerous tables within. Blue wrappers with black imprint. Very mild wear and chipping; spine is faded. wrapper toned at bottom inch. Periodic foxing. Tight binding.

Volume--3 vi, 326 pp., with 14 plates. Uncut top edge. Blue wrappers with black imprint. Very mild wear; slight toning to top edge of wrapper. Periodic foxing. Tight binding.

Atlas Volume--Complete with 85 plates including 64 photogravures on steel by printer Charles Negre from photographs taken by Louis Vignes and 14 lithographs by Eugène Cicéri, plus 5 additional maps and two charts. Foxing to edges and periodic light foxing within plates. All plates laid loose in string-tied blue paper over boards folder with cloth spine. Bumping to corners. Interior creases to boards lightly chipped. In all, this set is in very good condition.

Report (in French) of the important 1864 expedition to Palestine, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, led by Duc de Luynes (1802-1867), an influential scholar and archaeologist. Of great importance are the 64 photogravures based on photos by Louis Vignes (1831-1896), a French marine officer. The photographic plates published here were lithographed by Charles Negre.

Negre spent years perfecting this printing process that he termed heliogravure resulting in printing plates capable of reproducing the entire gradation of tones but maintaining the fine detail of the photographic print.

A beautiful set.