Voyage dans L'Inde,

Scarce in commerce, rarely appearing on the market as complete.

Aged 28, Jacquemont travelled to India for what was to be a three and a half year expedition collecting natural history specimens for the Jardin des Plantes. He explored the Western Himalayas including the Tibetan plateau, the Punjab and Kashmir, discovering several hundred new species. He became seriously ill in the mountains but succeeded in reaching Simla. After recovering he made a short visit to Ladakh and returned to Simla in the autumn and thence to Lahore where he met Ranjit Singh. He is said to have been the first European after Bernier to visit Kashmir, where he arrived early in 1831, and spent five months studying plants and animals. In spite of his illness returning, he visited Ladakh. In February 1832 he returned to Simla and Delhi and went to Bombay intending to return to France but died before he could make the return.

His manuscripts (including his personal journal) and collections were edited, described and published in the present work. The botanical section was written by Joseph Decaisne and Jacques Cambessedes, and is accompanied by 180 plates after A. Riocreux and E. Delisle. The mammals are described by Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, the crustaceans by Milne Edwards and the insects by Blanchard. The other plates include portraits, architectural and topographical studies and views.

The original botanical plate (29) featuring 'Flourenzia Caepitosa' was later replaced by a new plate of 'Periandra Caepitosa'. This copy has the latter.

First edition; 6 vols, comprising 4 vols text & 2 vols plates, 4to (36 x 29 cm); half-titles, 4 folding engraved maps, 290 engraved or lithographed plates, of which 26 hand-coloured or coloured (including 25 of natural history subjects) and heightened with gum arabic, with additional frontispiece portrait inserted loose, a little foxing to first and last few leaves of each vol., but overall clean and bright internally; nineteenth-century quarter purple cloth, marbled boards, gilt lettering to spine, boards a little rubbed, a very good set.

Great Flower Books, p.61; Marshall, 717; Nissen (BBI), 966; Nissen (ZBI), 2084; Stafleu TL2 3230; Yakushi J18b.