Félix Bonfils | Souvenirs d'Orient. Album pittoresque ... de la Terre Sainte. 1877

Félix Bonfils

Souvenirs d'Orient. Album pittoresque des sites, villes et ruines les plus remarquables de la Terre Sainte. Alès: chez l'auteur, 1877'

FIRST EDITION, oblong folio (342 x 445mm.), 50 albumen prints (175 x 230mm., or the reverse) individually mounted recto only on lithographed card mounts, each with an accompanying leaf of descriptive text in French, English and German, extra-illustrated with a hand-coloured lithographed map of Palestine by H. Selves bound at the front, publisher's green roan-backed green cloth boards, upper cover titled and decorated in gilt, gilt edges, map rather spotted, scattered spotting, occasional light offsetting of text onto images, binding rather rubbed, wear to spine and edges

A RARE PHOTOBOOK OF PALESTINE BY FELIX BONFILS. "The collection of photographs of the principal places of the East, undertaken by Mr F. Bonfils, and carried out with an unparalleled perseverance, must be considered, in a pictorial, artistic and scientific point of view as the greatest work of the present day ... the amateur as well as the connoisseur, will derive both pleasure and profit in studying the wonderful collection of photographs contained in this unrivalled publication" (Preface).