[Orientalism]. COSTE, Pascal-Xavier. - Lot 219

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[Orientalism]. COSTE, Pascal-Xavier. - Lot 219
[Orientalism]. COSTE, Pascal-Xavier. Arabic Architecture, or Monuments of Cairo, Surveyed and Drawn, 1818–1825 Paris, Firmin Didot Frères et Compagnie Press, 1837–1839. Large folio (55.5 x 40 cm), (2)-II-52 pp., with very wide margins, 93 plates (out of 100). Red Russian half-leather with corner pieces, smooth spine detached with a portion preserved inside the book, covers edged with a gold fillet (corners worn, scuffing on the covers and edges; missing: 6 copper-engraved plates, nos. 2, 42, and 67 through 70, and one of the lithographed plates; some browning, mainly marginal, on certain plates). First edition. Pascal Coste (1787–1879), born in Marseille, was appointed architect-engineer to Muhammad Ali in 1819 and entrusted with numerous projects, including the Mahmoudieh Canal, the telegraph line connecting Alexandria to Cairo, irrigation canals and bridges, and the reconstruction of the fortifications at Aboukir. He later traveled to Persia with the painter Eugène Flandin. It was, in fact, this work on Cairo that earned him a position at the embassy of Édouard de Sercey, whom Louis-Philippe sent to the Shah. A beautiful edition by Didot. It consists of a title page dated 1837 and adorned with an engraved vignette, 52 pages of text, and 93 black-and-white plates preceded by a second title page dated 1839. Based on Coste’s drawings and engraved by Hibon, 64 of the plates are copper engravings (map outlines, line engravings), and 29 are lithographs (scenic views of Cairo). Coste produced these drawings while he was directing the works in Egypt for the Pasha between 1819 and 1827. The work was originally published in installments, which explains the presence of two printed titles in this copy. The plates are distinguished by the precision of their details. 19th-century stencil ex libris; “Marquis de Querhoent” (reinforced with pen) on the title page. Blackmer, 480. Gay, 1889.
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