Lot 314: BERNATZ, Johann Martin (1802-1877). Scenes in Ethiopia. Designed from nature... With

BERNATZ, Johann Martin (1802-1877). Scenes in Ethiopia. Designed from nature... With descriptions of the plates, and extracts from a journal of travel in that country. In two parts. Part I. - The lowlands of the Danakil. Part II. - The highlands of Shoa. London: Bradbury & Evans for F.G. Moon, 1852.

2 parts in one volume, oblong 2° (412 x 510mm). Letterpress general title, tinted decorative titles to 'vol.I' and 'vol.II', uncoloured lithographic map, 47 lithographic views drawn on stone by Leopold Rottmann after Bernatz, with up to five different tints and with occasional touches of hand-colouring, one plate double-page, printed by Sebastian Minsinger or Julius Adam of Munich. (Some spotting to most plates, heavier and affecting the image area of plates numbered 1-3, 10, 17, 23 and the double-page plate numbered '11-12', in vol.II plates numbered 5, 6, 10, 13 and 19 are similarly affected.) 20th-century red morocco-backed cloth, covers with vellum corners, spine lettered and dated in gilt (light soiling to covers).

The German-born artist Johann (or John) Bernatz accompanied Major William Cornwallis Harris as official artist on his mission to open up trading links with the ancient Ethiopian kingdom of Shoa. The present work is probably the most important published work to result from the expedition. A number of Bernatz's images were reproduced in Harris's Illustrations of the Highlands of Aethiopia (London, 1844), but he is now probably best known for the fine series of lithographs published in his Palestina, published in 1868. The present series was republished in Germany in 1854 or 1855 as Bilder aus Aethiopien. Not in Abbey; Brunet I,798 (incorrect plate count, 'bel ouvrage').

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