Leemans, (ed.). Bôrô-boedoer op het eiland Java. 1873-187, 4 volumes, a rare complete set

LEEMANS, CONRAD, EDITOR

Bôrô-boedoer op het eiland Java. Bôrô-boudour dans l'Île de Java. Leiden: E.J. Brill, [1873-1874]

FIRST EDITION, 4 volumes, large folio (625 x460mm.), title in Dutch and French, 393 lithographed plates (some on multiple sheets, one double-page), 17 smaller lithographed plates inserted at end of volume 3 (approximately 360 x 230mm., or the reverse), original blue cloth, minor soiling, marginal tears or browning, bindings worn and disbound or becoming so, without the text volumes

A very rare complete set of the plates of this monumental work on Borobodur, Java. The drawings for this immense publication took four years to complete and Frans Carel Wilsen (1818-1889) executed them directly from the temples' bas reliefs, with the assistance of J.F.G. Brumund and Schônberg Muller. The first plate volume contains the magnificent double-page view of the temples and a plan of the complex; the remainder of the plates are mostly line lithographs. The work was edited by Leemans, director of the Museum of Antiquities at Leiden, and lithographed and printed by C.W. Mieling in The Hague. A few plates were drawn on stone in Indonesia, but the task proved too overwhelming for the facilities at the Lithographic Establishment of the Engineers.

PROVENANCE:

Departement van Kolonien, unobtrusive oval blindstamps; Michael Arnioti Bindery, Athens, book labels