La Guadeloupe pittoresque

First edition, very rare, of this album illustrated with 12 lithographic plates by Émile Verdier after drawings by the author (1 frontispiece and 11 plates, including one large folding plate depicting Pointe-à-Pitre) (cf. Sabin 8949).

Text and illustrations by Armand Budan.

Contemporary binding in brown quarter cloth with corners, smooth spine with long chocolate shagreen title-piece, boards covered with marbled paper framed by blind fillets, blue endpapers and pastedowns, sprinkled edges, early 20th-century binding.

The plates depict: Palmiste River. Heights of Petit-Bourg; Forest interior. Road to the Soufrière; View of the Soufrière from Versailles; The Yellow Baths near the Soufrière; Basse-Terre. View from the Empress’s Battery; Vauchelet Waterfall. Near Camp-Jacob; The Saut de Constantin. Near Basse-Terre; View of the port and the town of Le Moule; The village of Anse Bertrand. Grande-Terre; The Cow Hole (Anse-Bertrand); General view of the Port and the town of Pointe-à-Pitre taken from Morne-à-Caille.

The painter Armand Budan was born in Guadeloupe in 1827 and died in 1874. He painted the frescoes in the chapel of Saint-Pierre & Saint-Paul in Pointe-à-Pitre, rebuilt after the 1843 earthquake, as well as the decorative paintings of the municipal theatre.

Regarded as one of the first photographers in the Antilles, Budan launched a subscription for the publication of La Guadeloupe pittoresque in November 1862.

A few minor foxing spots, not affecting the overall condition.

A handsome and very rare copy.