Vues et types du Sénégal. Recueil de 17 aquarelles inédites signées

Unpublished manuscript comprising a collection of 17 captioned watercolours.

The work announced on the title page, "Vues et types du Sénégal", was never published, and the watercolours presented here were most likely intended to illustrate it.

The author of these watercolours is named at the foot of the table of plates: « A. Poquet (Del.) 1873 »., this illustrator is not recorded in either Bénézit or Bellier de La Chavignerie.

Modern half red shagreen binding with corners, spine with five raised bands gilt ruled, marbled paper boards.

A restored tear to the right margin of the final watercolour.

The volume consists of a calligraphed title leaf, with, on the verso, a list of plates (entitled « Table des gravures »), followed by the 17 watercolours mounted on the recto of each leaf, at a rate of one or two per page.

They depict landscapes, notable sites, various scenes, and figures in traditional dress.

Measuring 9.5 x 21 or 16 x 9 cm, they are accompanied by a handwritten caption:

 1. Dagana. - 2. Richard-Toll. - 3. Fort de Bakel. - 4. Princesse Mauresse, Trarzas [and] Maure Orfèvre, Trarzas. - 5. Type de coiffure de Malinkés. - 6. Homme Bambara [and] Femme Bambara. - 7. Femme Peule [and] Femme Mandingue. - 8. Jeune Maure Darmenkour [and] Femme Wolof portant son enfant. - 9. Palmier ronier. - 10. Deuxième barrage au-dessus du Félou. - 11. Montagnes de Maka Gnian. - 12. Vue de Koundian. - 13. Poste de Dabou.

On the title page, the name Bérenger Féraud has been crossed out in pencil.

This refers to Laurent Jean Baptiste Bérenger-Féraud (1832-1900), physician and ethnologist, head of the Senegal health service in 1872, chief physician in Toulon in 1873, and later director of the health service of Martinique in 1875.

The author of numerous medical publications, notably on tropical fevers, he also wrote several works on Africa, including "Etude sur les Ouolofs" (Paris, Ernest Leroux, 1875) and"Les peuplades de Sénégambie" (ibid., 1879).

A very fine group of unpublished watercolours devoted to Senegal.