WILSON, Charles William, Sir (1836-1905). Picturesque Palestine, Sinai and Egypt. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1880-1883.

40 volumes in 40 original parts, 4to. 2 maps, 40 steel engravings, and 574 wood engravings. Original pictorial wrappers printed in blue (light spotting, a few closed tears, toning, a few volumes partially disbound but with all parts intact, light dampstaining to two volumes).

FIRST EDITION, RARE IN THE ORIGINAL PARTS. Beginning in 1864 Charles William Wilson began the first official survey of Jerusalem while working for the wealthy philanthropist Baroness Angela Burdett-Coutts, who wished to identify a better source of drinking water for the citizens of the city. These volumes contain the first printed views of the interior of the Dome of the Rock, a Muslim holy site at which the artists were famously protected by armed guards while they sketched its interiors, as Christians were traditionally barred from access (Ackerman, 258). Blackmer 1817.

[With:] WILSON. Picturesque Palestine, Sinai and Egypt. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1880-1883. 2 volumes, 4to. 2 maps, 40 steel engravings, and 574 wood engravings. (Toning to page edges, some offsetting.) Publisher’s deluxe brown morocco decorated in blind, edges gilt (light rubbing along extremities). FIRST EDITION IN BOOK FORM.

Property from the Dorros Family Collection

WILSON, Charles William, Sir (1836-1905). Picturesque Palestine, Sinai and Egypt. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1880-1883.