FINE VIEWS OF THE HOLY LAND AND EGYPT

WILSON, Colonel Charles. Picturesque Palestine, Sinai and Egypt. New York: D. Appleton, (1881-83). Two volumes. Folio, original three-quarter brown morocco gilt, raised bands, gilt-stamped cover titles, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. $2500.

First edition, American issue, of this handsome pictorial survey of the Holy Land and Egypt, with lovely additional engraved title pages, 39 fine full-page steel engravings and over 600 in-text wood-engravings.

"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). The views in his monumental visual history depict Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Galilee, Damascus, Palestine and the great ruins of Egypt: the Pyramids at Giza, Luxor, and the Great Temple of Karnak. The plates and wood-engravings were prepared from drawings by Harry Fenn and J.D. Woodward. Fenn illustrated Whittier's Snow Bound (1867) and Ballads of New England (1870), the first illustrated gift books of their kind in the United States. He was also a founding member of the American Watercolor Society. Blackmer 1817.

A fine copy, with only a few small scuffs to original morocco spines.