Roberts, David; Rev. George Croly.

The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, & Numibia. From drawings made on the spot by David Roberts, R.A. with historical descriptions by the Revd George Croly, L.L.D. Lithographed by Louis Haghe Vol I [-2, -3, -I.,-V].

“THE FINEST ILLUSTRATED TRAVEL BOOK OF THE 19^TH CENTURY”
THE APOTHEOSIS OF THE TINTED LITHOGRAPH

6 volumes bound in 3. London: F.G. Moon, 1842–1849. First edition.

Folio (23 13/16” x 16 7/8”, 605mm x 429mm):
Volume I: binder’s blank, π² foll. A B–Q χ [$1 signed]. 19 leaves, pp. [6] (dedication, blank, 2pp. notice of Robert’s travels, 2pp. armorial ensign of Jerusalem) 1 2–30 [2] (list of subjects, explanation of title-page vignettes). With a lithographed frontispiece, a lithographed title-page, and 42 tinted lithographs, each with an explanatory page of text.
Volume II: π¹. 1 leaf, pp. 1 2. With a lithographed title-page and 42 tinted lithographs, each with an explanatory page of text.
Volume III: π¹. 1 leaf, pp. 1 2. With a lithographed title-page and 38 tinted lithographs, each with an explanatory page of text, of which one is a map.
Volume IV: 4 leaves, pp. [2] (dedication, blank) 1 2–8 [6] (explanation of title vignette, blank, 3pp. list of subjects and cont. title vignette explanations, interview with Mehemet). With a lithographed title-page and 41 tinted lithographs, each with an explanatory page of text.
Volume V: With a lithographed title-page and 43 tinted lithographs, each with an explanatory page of text, one of which is a map.
Volume VI: With a lithographed title-page and 37 tinted lithographs, each with an explanatory page of text.
With 250 plates in toto, of which six are title-pages, 2 are maps, 1 is a portrait of Roberts, and 120 are half-page.

Bound in half red morocco over red pebbled buckram boards. On the spine, 5 raised bands. Author and title gilt to the second panel, number gilt to the fourth. All edges of the text-block gilt.

Boards rubbed at the extremities. Significant dampstain to the real board of volume I. Tailband of volume I lifting. Foxed throughout, with sporadic dampstaining and soiling. Repair to the top edge of plate “Sabaste, Ancient Sumaria” in volume I. Tear to the lower edge of pp. 5/6 in volume IV. Repaired tear extrending from the fore-edge to the title-page of volume V. Volume VI with persistent water damage. Top edge of “Cairo, Looking West” infilled with card. Library label to the heel of each spine.

David Roberts (1796–1864) was the first professional artist of the West to visit and document the Near East without a patron, connection to a military expedition, or missionary motives. In his youth, Roberts had apprenticed as a house painter in his hometown of Edinburgh, and, with proven technical skill, he secured a contract with a traveling circus as a theatrical scene painter. Throughout his decade in the trade, Roberts simultaneously exhibited his landscape, architectural, and historical paintings throughout Europe was able to support himself as a full-time fine artist by 1829. After a stint in Spain, Roberts refocused his interest on the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa and set sail for Alexandria in 1838.

For eleven months, Roberts traveled up the Nile River, across deserts and mountains, through Egypt and the Holy Land, to arrive in Jerusalem on Easter 1839. Roberts recorded his impressions of landscapes, temples, ruins, and people in three sketchbooks and more than 272 watercolors. As he says in his preface for The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, & Nubia, "I may not have done them justice, but few artists of my standing could afford more time, and I daresay few could have produced more in the same number of days." As the first British artist to sketch the monuments of Ancient Egypt, Roberts was well aware of the stir his drawings would create in London. According to John Ruskin’s Praeterita, Roberts's drawings "were the first studies ever made conscientiously by an English painter, not to exhibit his own skill, but to give true portraiture of scenes of historical and religious interest." The colossal subjects and broad vistas were ideally suited to Roberts's background in the theatre, and his depictions were dutifully transferred to the stone by Louis Haghe. Haghe was recognized as the most prolific lithographer of his time; he had moved to England to establish himself as specialist of the hand-tinted lithograph, and his sensitive handling of the levigators and abrasives imparts a delicate range of tonality and preserved the spontaneous quality of Roberts's original images. Of the prints, Ruskin notes that “they are faithful and laborious beyond any outlines from nature I have ever seen.”

Originally published in 41 parts over 7 years in large folio, the set was available to subscribers in a deluxe hand-colored format mounted on card, proofs in portfolio, and a single-tint option (as in the present example). A testament to the publication’s staying power, the quarto edition was released in 1855, and, with plates reduced by photography, the set maintains the grandeur of the previous decade’s folios. To the present-day, Robert’s Holy Land endures as one of the most desirable and coveted travel and plate books in the history of fine printing.

Abbey, Travel 385 & 272; Tooley 401 & 402; Bobins 1:160

Cataloged by G.R. Murdock

Item #GRM0103

Price: $135,000