First French edition, complete with its engraved plate at the end of the volume: "Air mauresque" (see Gay 1352).
Bookseller’s resale label from the antiquarian bookseller Challamel affixed to the foot of the title page.
Bound in contemporary half brown calf, smooth spine with gilt and blind tooling, black morocco title and date labels, some rubbing to the spine, marbled paper boards, handmade laid paper endleaves and pastedowns, speckled edges, corners slightly worn, upper corner missing on one, binding slightly later.
Some foxing, dampstaining affecting the lower margin of the first 70 leaves.
The work was first published in London in 1811 under the title: "An account of Tunis, of its government, customs and antiquities, especially of its productions, manufactures and commerce".
On the verso of the half-title is a manuscript note signed by Henri Fournel: "The original of this work was published in 1811. It had been written by a common man, and the translation is superior to the original." Henri Fournel (1799–1876), a mining engineer, was long associated with the Saint-Simonian movement before holding senior positions at the Compagnie des Chemins de fer du Nord.
The same hand has inscribed the translator’s name on the title page.
Marcel Dunan’s bookplate mounted on a pastedown.