Stackelberg. La Grèce. Vues pittoresques et topographiques. [1829]-1834. folio. modern red morocco. The Blackmer copy

STACKELBERG, OTTO MAGNUS VON

La Grèce. Vues pittoresques et topographiques. Paris J.F. d'Ostervald, [1829]-1834

FIRST EDITION, folio (498 x 350mm.), half-title, title (dated 1834) with lithographed vignette, 26 leaves of letterpress text (see note), and 15 divisional titles with lithographed vignette, mostly on india paper, 111 lithographed plates (see note), of which 27 double-page, mostly on india paper, additional livraison title (dated 1830) bound after half-title, modern antique-style red morocco by Evangelia Biza of Athens, covers elaborately tooled in gilt, spine in seven compartments with raised bands, gilt dentelles, silk endpapers, minor spotting, a few marginal repairs, a few plates and divisional titles with margins extended or laid down

THE BLACKMER COPY. A COMPLETE COPY OF "STACKELBERG'S CHEF-D'OEUVRE, REGARDED BY MANY AS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL BOOK OF GREEK VIEWS" (Blackmer). When the owner acquired this book in 2008 he wished to make this copy complete; the missing text and plates were found and the volume expertly bound in red morocco by Evangelia Biza of Athens. The work is divided into two parts - Péloponèse and Grèce septentrionale - and they in turn are divided into sections. The first into Laconie, Messenia, Argolid, Arcadia, Elis and Achaea; the second into Attica, Boeotia, Phocis, Aetolia, Acarnania, Thessaly and Epirus. This is a rare work which is seldom found complete as it was issued in parts over a number of years. The last complete copy we have traced at auction was sold in these rooms, 15 October 2003, lot 745, £55,200.

LITERATURE:

Blackmer 1593 (this copy); Weber I, 1122

PROVENANCE:

Henry M. Blackmer II, bookplate, his sale in these rooms, 11–13 October 1989, lot lot 1031, £13,200; Greece and the Levant: a Private Library, sale in these rooms 13 November 2008, lot 195, £56,450