The Holy Land

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David Roberts,

The Holy Land

Lithographed Printed and Published by Day & Son. 1855 - 1856

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OFFERED is a remarkably clean and internally fine complete example of the 1855 First Quarto Edition of David Roberts “THE HOLY LAND,” printed at London in Large Quarto by Day & Son in 1855 and 1856. Bound in the publisher’s original Dark-Green Half-Morocco by Leighton, Son and Hodge, richly gilt over purple pebbled cloth, with the gilt armorial of the Kingdom of Jerusalem upon the upper boards. Comprising six volumes in three, adorned with the full suite of 250 Stone Lithograph Plates, printed in colour.

The volume(s) measure about 29.7 cm. by 22.5 cm. by 4.7 cm.

Each leaf measures about 286 mm. by 205 mm.

The full title reads as follows:

The Holy Land, / Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, & Nubia. / After Lithographs by Louis Haghe / from drawings made on the spot by David Roberts, R.A. / with Historical Descriptions by The Revd George Croly, L.L.D. / London, April 16th 1855. / Lithographed Printed and Published by Day & Son, Lithographers to the Queen / Cate Street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields

The volumes are complete in all respects with 241 colour-tinted lithographic plates, 6 tinted lithographic titles and vignettes, 2 lithographic maps, and 1 portrait of Roberts.

Please note that, as called for, there is no pagination for the prints or their descriptions.

International Shipping is Free for this set.

 

THE VOLUMES ARE IN FINE CONDITION INTERNALLY, AND IN EXCELLENT CONDITION EXTERNALLY. They are bound in dark green half-morocco over purple pebbled cloth, with the gilt armorial ensign of the Kingdom of Jerusalem stamped on the front boards. The spines are divided by raised bands into 6 compartments, four of which are richly gilt; the remaining two compartments bear the title and the volume numbers. The edges of the leaves are gilt. The bindings show only very slight scuffing at the corners and along the hinges; the binder’s glue has dried somewhat (as frequently occurs in volumes of this period) causing one leaf in the sixth volume to have detached. Internally the leaves are exceptionally clean and bright, with ample margins throughout, with no foxing whatever (very rare for a 19th century illustrated work), with clear, crisp text, and with only the slightest occasional toning of the text leaves. The lithographic prints all retain their original protective tissue covers.

OF DAVID ROBERTS

Born in Stockbridge, Edinburgh, Roberts first apprenticed as a shoemaker with his father and then worked as a house painter while studying art in the evenings. By 1815 he was working as a decorator and soon found himself working in scene painting for theatres such as the Pantheon and the Royal in Edinburgh. By 1820 he was beginning to produce oil paintings of various landscapes, initially of local areas, such as Dryburgh Abbey. After moving to London he continued scene painting for the Coburg Theatre (now the Old Vic), while continuing to build his reputation as an Oil Painter. He also made his first trip abroad, if only to Normandy, and produced a painting of the Rouen Cathedral that sold for eighty guineas. At this time his reputation as both a scene painter and oil painter became well established, with commissions from Covent Garden including the sets for the London premiere of Mozart’s ‘Die Entführung aus dem Serail’ in 1827. During the second part of the 1820s, and in addition to English and Scottish scenes, Roberts painted views of prominent buildings in France and the Low Countries including Amiens, Caen, Dieppe, Rouen, Antwerp, Brussels and Ghent, sometimes making several paintings of the same scene with only minor variations. By 1829 he was working full-time as a fine artist. That year, he exhibited the Departure of the Israelites from Egypt, in which his style first became apparent. In 1831, the Society of British Artists elected him as their president.

In 1838 Roberts traveled to Egypt, which had grown popular both as a travel destination for the adventurous antiquarian, and as the subject of highly valued artworks. The journey became an extensive tour of the region, including Jerusalem, Petra (in modern Jordan), Giza, Thebes and various sites along the Nile. During this trip, he constantly sketched stunning views of colossal ruins, ancient temples of the Egyptian and Persian empires, and particularly biblical sites in and around Jerusalem. His sketches also depicted the local customs, clothes and contemporary dwellings, markets and palaces, and the third published volume (the first half of the second volume in this set) includes a scene depicting his meeting with Muhammad Ali Pasha in Alexandria, which he did not sketch at the time but is reputed to have produced from memory. Upon his return to Britain, after he was fêted by high society in Scotland, he worked with the engraver Louis Haghe to produce the collection in book form, funded by subscriber which he personally solicited. Thanks to the popularity of the subject matter, and the relative absence of British art on the same subject, he was quite successful, with Queen Victoria as subscriber number one (her large paper folio copy is still in the Royal Collection.) Louis Haghe, along with William Day, was a Lithographer to the Queen and innovator in the process of colour lithography, and the lithographs in this volume benefit from his skill. Much of the rest of Roberts’ work focused on European subjects, such as a trip he made to Spain and another to Italy, before his death in 1864.

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