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Description
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SALT, Henry (1780-1827). Twenty Four Views taken in St. Helena, the Cape, India, Ceylon, Abyssinia & Egypt. London: William Miller, 1809. Atlas volume, broadsheet (approximately 755 x 555mm). Aquatint title incorporating dedication, printed in sepia, 24 hand-coloured aquatint plates by D. Havell, J. Hill and J. Bluck, supervised by Robert Havell, after Salt, on thick Whatman paper with watermarks of 1805, 1808 and 1809, mounted on guards and interleaved throughout, these watermarked 'Edmeads & Pine 1804', the two Egyptian plates still with good margins. (Title with very light occasional spotting.) Contemporary half sheep over marbled boards, gilt spine label, remnants of ties (spine heavily rubbed and repaired at head, hinges sometime repaired, extremities rubbed). FIRST EDITION. A VERY FRESH, CLEAN COPY OF THE COMPLETE SET OF SALT'S VERY FINE LARGE FORMAT VIEWS. Salt visited the Cape, India, and the Red Sea. In Calcutta, the party was entertained by the Governor-General, Marquis Wellesley (the dedicatee of the present work) and then travelled to Benares, Lucknow, Ceylon and Madras. Salt then explored the Red Sea, returned to Bombay and Poona, to the Red Sea again, before making an extensive excursion into the Abyssinian highlands, here represented by six views. Contemporary advertisements make clear that the work was designed to be similar in size and presentation to the plates of Thomas and William Daniell's great work, Oriental Scenery (1795-1808): the undoubted artistry of Salt and his engravers have ensured that this work is a worthy successor. A quarto text volume, with the same title, was published by Miller in the same year. Cf. Abbey Travel II, 515 (late issue with text volume); Tooley 440 (the text 'is not important and the work is usually to be found without it').
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