Prisse d'Avennes's classic work on Arabic decoration. Features architecture, textiles, pottery, etc.

Emile Prisse d'Avennes (1807-1879), orientalist & Muslim convert, obsessive in his attention to detail, was, after Champollion, the greatest pre-twentieth century Egyptologist. A French nobleman by birth, though impoverished, Prisse d'Avennes spent his life in the pursuit of the exotic. After a period fighting for Greek independence he travelled to India, a journey that prefigured his extensive Middle Eastern travels, which during the next 40 years took him to Palestine, Syria, Sudan, Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia, and most importantly Egypt and Algeria where he lived. Like Coste, Prisse d'Avennes worked for the Viceroy Mohammed Ali, though he quarrelled with Mohammed Ali subsequently and left his service.

In 1860 he returned to France with the fruits of his travels: 300 folio drawings, 400 metres of bas-reliefs, 150 photographs of important architectural details, 150 sketches, daguerrotypes and numerous plans, details and elevations copied on the scene. Until his death in 1877 this wealth of material was to occupy him completely as he sought to organise it for publication.

First edition; folio; 110 lithographed plates, most chromolithographs, many heightened with gold; later brown morocco-backed cloth boards gilt, small marginal repair to blank lower margin pl. 70 not touching image, some margins a bit dusty, half-title stained else a very good copy.