The Beauties of the Bosphorus; by Miss Pardoe; From Drawings by William H. Bartlett

London: George Virtue, 1838. First edition. Hardcover. Very good. The British travel writer Julia S. H. Pardoe (1806-62), who, suffering from consumption, had been taken south early in her youth, accompanied her father to Constantinople in 1835 and was famous for her literary reports on Portugal and the Near East even as a child.

"Since Lady Mary Wortley Montagu probably no woman has acquired so intimate a knowledge of Turkey [. Her] works, written [.] in a pleasant and graceful style, attracted a large share of notice, and, as popular history, may still be read with pleasure" (DNB). - First published in 1838 with only 78 plates; later editions were published under the title "Picturesque Europe" (1854 and 1874).

The pretty views are engraved after William Henry Bartlett (1809-54), whose series of oriental and American topography were then very popular (cf. Thieme/B. II, 554). BLC 246, 438. DNB 15, 201, 5. Cf. Aboussouan 711 (first ed. 1838). Weber I, 1151 (1850).

4to, 164 pp, b&w frontis, decorative title page, and 79 b&w plates, all with original tissue guards intact. A Map of Constantinople is tipped in between pages 150 and 151. Full black decorative gilt morocco gift binding, with decorative gilt spine, gilt decorated boards, gilt inner & outer dentelles, all edges gilt. Spine edges are lightly rubbed. Small tear on verso of frontis illustration of Miss Pardoe has been repaired; it does not affect the illustration. Light fox spotting mostly confined to edges and backs of plates, and free endpapers.