Voyages and Travels to India, Ceylon, The Red Sea, Abyssinia, and Egypt, In the Years 1802, 1803, 1804, 1805, And 1806
Author: George Annesley, 2nd Earl of Mountnorris (1770-1844), styled Viscount Valentia between 1793 and 1816
Year: 1809
Publisher: Printed by W. Bulmer & Co. for William Miller
Place: London
Description:
Three volumes. [12]+496+title. [iv]+520; title+ [iii]+506 sixty-nine plates. including four large folding charts and other foldout charts. Quarto (11 1/2" x 9 1/4") bound half leather with red labels in gilt lettering to spine over black cloth boards and marbled endpapers and gpages. (Abbey Travel 515 (note) Fumagalli 1439. Lowndes p. 2747. Hilmy I, p. 38. Brunet V, 1034; 138; Mendelssohn 1, 73) First edition.
George Annesle , and Henry Salt (1780-1827) spent four years travelling in South Asia and East Africa. This account of their journey is illustrated by engravings based on paintings and drawings made by Salt throughout their tour. Volume I is devoted to India and Sri Lanka, Volume II to the Red Sea region, and Volume III to Ethiopia and Egypt. During their 1805 visit to Ethiopia, Mountnorris and Salt met with the regent, Wolde Selassie, in the hope of opening up trade with Britain.
George Annesley, better known as Lord Valentia, the title from his youth, Annesley, travelled widely and collected plants from India and other parts of the world he visited. He established a ten-acre arboretum in the grounds of Arley Castle, Upper Arley, Worcestershire, England in the first half of the 19th century. He also commissioned the remodeling of the house into an asymmetrical Gothic castle, completed in 1844, the year of his death. Annesley died, aged seventy four. He was a fellow of the Royal Society (1796) and the Literary Society (1796).
In 1802 Henry Salt was appointed secretary and draughtsman to George Annesley, Viscount Valentia. They started on an eastern tour, traveling on Minerva to India via the Cape. Salt explored the Red Sea area, and in 1805 visited the Ethiopian highlands. He returned to England in 1806. Salt's paintings from the trip were used to illustrate Lord Valentia's Voyages and Travels to India, Ceylon, the Red Sea, Abyssinia and Egypt, in the years 1802, 1803, 1804, 1805, and 1806, published in 1809 in three volumes.
Condition: Some intermitting foxing, large folding charts creased along folds with some losses, folds reinforced on the verso with some small tears repaired, several closed tears to margins else very good. This is an oversized and heavy set, that requires additional postage.
