J. Chardin | Voyages du Chevalier Chardin en Perse et autres lieux de l'Orient, 1811, 11 vols (including Atlas)

Jean Chardin 

Voyages du Chevalier Chardin en Perse, et autres lieux de l'Orient... Nouvelle Édition... par L. Langlès. Paris: Le Normant, 1811

11 volumes (including Atlas volume), Atlas volume folio (502 x 320mm.), text volumes 8vo (217 x 138mm.), Atlas: half-title, engraved author portrait, title, 63 plates (of which nine folding), engraved folding map at end, contemporary green morocco gilt, gilt edges, pink endpapers, trace of erased library stamp to title, some spotting, map slightly creased at folds, extremities rubbed; text: engraved headpieces, later paper wrappers, manuscript labels to spines, wear to wrappers with some loss

Chardin was a jeweller, and his first journey to Persia and India in 1665 was to purchase gems. He came back to the Levant in 1671, having a commission to purchase the jewels of Shah Soliman III. On his second journey he met the artist Guillame Grelot, whose drawings inspired the engravings in the present work. Knowing Esfahan better than Paris, he gives a highly interesting account of the Persian court and of his business transactions with the Shah. The persecution of Protestants in France led Chardin to settle in London in 1681 where he was appointed jeweller to the court of Charles II, eventually receiving a knighthood.

LITERATURE:

Brunet I, 1802; Howgego C102; Wilson Persia 40

PROVENANCE:

Ex libris Domus Sancti Stanislai, bookplate in text volumes