First edition, illustrated with a frontispiece engraved by De Launay after Marillier (cf. Conlon, 83:1107; Quérard, III, 174; Barbier, I, 276; Brunet, 5636. Not listed by Thiébaud).
Contemporary full speckled calf, smooth spine gilt in compartments with decorative tooling, green morocco title label, gilt rolls on the caps, gilt fillets along the edges, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, joints lightly restored, some repairs to the spine, yellow edges.
Joints tender, endpapers slightly soiled at the margins, a few spots to the edges, handwritten ownership note on the half-title.
The author, a traveller and naturalist born in Montargis in 1734 and who died near Château-Thierry in 1802, set sail for the East Indies around 1753.
From Smyrna, he travelled overland to Aleppo and reached Baghdad after a series of tumultuous adventures. From there, he descended the Tigris and the Shatt al-Arab, sailed across the Persian Gulf, and reached the eastern coast of India. "Cet ouvrage fut publié à la sollicitude de Buffon. L’auteur y traite de particularités inconnues jusque alors ; il nomme et décrit les animaux dont les divers peuples orientaux font leur nourriture. Il donne de curieux renseignements sur les crocodiles, les caméléons, les serpents, les sauterelles, etc. ; il raconte les nombreuses manières de chasser les animaux féroces ; explique les causes de la vénération des Indous pour certaines bêtes, etc." Cf. Hoefer.
Foucher d’Obsonville also authored a Supplément au voyage de Sonnerat (1785), a Lettre (...) sur la guerre des Turcs (1788), and a translation of a work from the Vedic corpus (1788).