Albert N'yanza Great Basin of the Nile First Edition - Samuel White Baker - Bauman Rare Books

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Albert N'yanza Great Basin of the Nile

Samuel White BAKER

Item#: 111038 We're sorry, this item has been sold

Albert N'yanza Great Basin of the Nile

“WITH THIS DISCOVERY AN ANSWER HAD BEEN FOUND TO THE AGE-OLD QUESTION OF THE ORIGIN OF THE NILE”

BAKER, Samuel White. The Albert N'yanza, Great Basin of the Nile, and Explorations of the Nile Sources. London: Macmillan, 1866. Two volumes. Octavo, original gilt-stamped pictorial green cloth.

First edition of Baker’s dramatic account of the discovery of the source of the Nile, with two maps (one folding), frontispiece portrait, 13 full-page engraved plates, and tinted lithograph frontispiece in Volume II. A very nice copy in the original cloth.

"In 1861 Baker set out… on a journey to discover the source of the White Nile… after many adventures he first saw the great lake on 14 March 1864, and named it Albert N'yanza (Lake Albert). With this discovery an answer had been found to the age-old question of the origin of the Nile" (PMM 357). Baker's trek is "of very great importance in the history of African exploration" and his writings "had a greater impact on British public opinion than any African explorer since Livingstone." For his efforts, Baker was knighted by Queen Victoria and became "England's foremost authority on the river Nile" (McLynn, 77, 81). Bookplate.

Short closed tear to folding map at stub, text and plates generally clean. Original cloth clean and fresh, gilt bright. A near-fine copy.

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Aquatint Copperplate process by which the plate is “bitten” by exposure to acid. By changing the areas of the plate that are exposed and the length of time the plate is submerged in the acid bath, the engraver can obtain fine and varying shades of gray that closely resemble watercolor washes. Although the name contains the word “tint”, this is a black-and-white printing process; aquatint plates can often be hand colored, however.
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