FINE VIEWS OF THE HOLY LAND AND EGYPT: PICTURESQUE PALESTINE, SINAI AND EGYPT, IN SCARCE ORIGINAL WRAPPERS
WILSON, Colonel Charles. Picturesque Palestine, Sinai and Egypt. New York: D. Appleton, 1880-83. Forty volumes. Folio (10 by 13 inches), original printed paper wrappers.Housed in two matching custom clamshell boxes.
First edition, in scarce original parts, of this handsome survey of the Holy Land and Egypt, with numerous fine full-page steel-engravings and over 600 in-text wood-engraved views by artists Harry Fenn, J. D. Woodward and Carl Werner.
The hundreds of steel- and wood-engraved views depict Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Galilee, Damascus, Palestine and the great ruins of Egypt: the Pyramids at Gizeh, Luxor, the Great Temple of Karnak. "Sir Charles Wilson had many interests in life outside his military and political duties, and probably did more than any other man to increase the knowledge of the geography and archaeology of Asia Minor, Palestine, and the adjacent countries" (Watson). His was the first official survey of Jerusalem (1864-65), the brainchild of Angela Burdett-Coutts of the wealthy banking family, who wished to provide Jerusalem with an improved water system. In the course of the survey, Wilson's team was given permission to make images of Muslim sacred areas, including the Dome of the Rock (pictured in Volume I, 49-66), from which Christians had been previously barred (see Vaczek & Buckland, 68-69). Blackmer 1817.
Plates and text fine, fragile and scarce original wrappers with expert restoration.