[Caucasus] - Lot 223

[Caucasus] GULBENKIAN (Calouste). La Transcaucasie et la péninsule d'Apchéron, souvenirs de Voyage. Paris, Librairie Hachette, 1891. In-12, XXXI-336 pp. 2 plates. Contemporary red half-chagrin with corners, spine with 4 raised bands, gilt authors and title, ornate caissons, untrimmed, cover preserved (minor rubbing). First and only early edition of this work by Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian. Very rare. Edition of 25 numbered copies on Japon, this one no. 23. Illustrated with an out-of-text map of Caucasia by L. Thuillier, printed in color by Lemercier, and an in-text map of the Apcheron peninsula. Calouste Gulbenkian (1869-1955), an Armenian-British businessman and a kind of Rockfeller of the Caucasus, was an important figure in the development of the oil industry in this area and in the Middle East, founder of the Iraq Petroleum Company and the first person to discover Iraq's oil reserves. He devotes a large part of his book to Azerbaijan and its oil development, as well as its history and culture.