Henri Dupuy

Uncommon first edition (cf. Polak 8200).

Modern binding in light blue cloth, smooth spine, speckled edges, original wrappers preserved and mounted on tabs.

The work was written at a time when the abolition of privateering was increasingly being discussed—a measure that would later be enacted in the Treaty of Paris of 1856.

First edition, and first issue of the fine steel engravings by Sainson.

The illustrations are distributed as follows:

• in the first volume: 145 plates outside the text, including a frontispiece and four maps, two of which are folding; the map of the Hawaiian Islands curiously appears twice: once as a folding map, once across two separate plates;
• in the second volume: 140 plates outside the text, including a frontispiece and three folding maps.
• Contemporary bindings in cherry red half shagreen, spines with four raised bands decorated with gilt garlands and double gilt fillets and floral tools, red cloth-covered boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns.
• The steel engravings, after drawings by M. de Sainson, official artist on the Voyage of the Astrolabe, depict peoples from around the world, modes of transportation by land and sea, animals and plants, landscapes, and more.
• None of the bibliographies specify the exact number of plates. The index at the end of volume II provides clarity: the plates appear either as double-page spreads (72 and 70 respectively, not including the portrait frontispieces) or as single-page images, in which case there are 144 and 140, as is the case here.
• Moreover, many copies include duplicates, which accounts for the significant variation found in collation descriptions. Copy from the library of the Marquise H.-Dor. de Barthélémy (with ink stamp).
• Some scattered foxing, two corners slightly bumped, and black stains to the boards.