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SALT, Henry.
Twenty-Four Views in St. Helena, the Cape, India, Ceylon, the Red Sea, Abyssinia and Egypt.
First edition, with plates watermarked 1824. Having failed in his original ambition to be a portrait painter, Salt set out on an eastern tour in June 1802 as secretary and draughtsman to Viscount Valentia. "He visited India, Ceylon, and the Red Sea, and in 1805 was sent by Valentia on a mission into Abyssinia, to the ras of Tigré, whose affection and respect he gained, and with whom he left one of his party, Nathaniel Pearce. The return to England in 1806 was made by way of Egypt, where he first met the pasha, Mehmet Ali. Lord Valentia's Travels in India (1809) was partly written and completely illustrated by Salt, who published his own 24 Views in St Helena, India and Egypt in the same year" (ODNB). In emulation of a successfully proven format, the work was published "in the same size and style as Daniell's Series of Oriental Scenery", according to an advertisement in the text which is very occasionally found with this work but which, Tooley opined, "is not important and the work is usually to be found without it." Very often the two Egyptian plates, offering fine views of Cairo and the Pyramids, being rather larger in image size than the other subjects, are found trimmed with slight loss of image. This is not the case here.
Large folio (751 × 534 mm). Original marbled boards, with red morocco patch title label to the upper, rebacked and recornered in red morocco to style, title gilt direct to spine, wide, flat bands with geometric panels, compartments ornately gilt with foliate arabesque rolls and roundels. Uncoloured sepia aquatint title incorporating dedication, and 24 aquatint views by D. Havell, J. Hill and J. Buck under the supervision of Robert Havell, with fine, original hand-colour. on thick paper watermarked J. Whatman 1824. Bookplate of Thomas Swinnerton Armiger, one of the founders of the Hunterian Society, to front pastedown. Sides lightly rubbed, light toning and a few trivial marks chiefly in fore-edge margins, a very good copy with fine hand-colouring throughout.
