182. GARNIER, Marie Joseph Francis (1839-1873).
Voyage d'Exploration en l'Indo-Chine effectué pendant les années 1866, 1867, et 1868 par une commission Frnaçaise présidée par M. le Captaine de Frégate Doudart de Lagrée. Paris: Librairie Hacette, 1873. 2 volumes only (the atlas volumes), folio (19½ x 15 inches; 495 x 380 mm). Mounted on guards throughout. Half-titles. 12 maps, 2 double-page, 9 plans, 2 double-page, 1 tinted lithographic aerial view, 48 plates on 40 sheets, 6 double page, 2 engraved, 10 hand-colored lithographs, 1 chromolithograph, the remainder tinted lithographs. Original dark blue cloth-backed light blue paper-covered boards, titled upper covers, the flat spines lettered in gilt. Condition : Extremities scuffed and bumped. Provenance : Francis Henri Louis de Geofroy (b.1822, French diplomat); by descent.
a very fine unsophisticated copy of the atlas volumes of the first edition of the official account of the most important 19th century expedition into indo-china . Beautifully illustrated, these volumes are from the library of a senior French diplomat stationed in the Far East, and are from an edition limited to only 800 copies. Now unfortunately without the accompanying octavo text volumes, these are from the library of Francis de Geofroy. Born in 1822, de Geofroy's professional career took him to Washington (where he met his American-born wife), Athens, Madrid, Peking and Japan. The atlases include views after drawings by Louis Laporte, who served as the expedition's artist: those of Angkor in Cambodia and Laos in Viet Chan are particularly striking. The maps were from the notes and surveys of Garnier himself. Garnier was forced to take over command of the expedition when its original leader, Captain Ernest Doudard de Lagrée, died. The French expedition had set out from Saigon in 1866 with instructions to explore the valley of the Mekong River in the hopes of finding a navigable route into south-western China. Garnier safely led the expedition, via the Yangtze River, to the Chinese coast, travelling nearly 5,400 miles through Phnom Penh, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. The expedition mapped over 3,600 miles of /previously unknown terrain, and became the first westerners to enter Yunnan by a southern route. Cordier Sinica 329; Cordier Indosinica 1012.
est. $15000 – £25000