La Hollande Pittoresque: Voyage aux Villes Mortes du Zuiderzée

1875, second edition, Henry Havard's travels to the Dead Cities of the Zuiderzee

Author

Publisher

Printing Details

Second edition. Hardback, nicely bound in half-leather, with gilt decoration to spine, marbled paper covered boards, and all edges marbled. 18.5 × 11.45cm, viii + 403pp [2]. French text.

An important 19th century travel book from French art historian and critic Henry Havard. The author had fled Paris in the early 1870s after being involved in the Paris Commune of 1871. During his exile he explored the Dutch countryside and he became a respected expert on Dutch art and heritage. The title of this book translates as 'Picturesque Holland: Voyage to the Dead Cities of the Zuiderzee', and describes the towns around the Zuiderzee which by the 1870s had fallen into economic decline after their Golden Age glory. His descriptions of towns like Volendam, Marken, and Enkhuizen—and specifically their traditional costumes and architecture—went some way to turning around their fortunes and they became tourist destinations.

The book has ten illustrations by the author and van Heemskerck van Beest.

Condition

A very good copy. There is light but comprehensive foxing to the prelims and sporadically throughout the book but most pages clean, the tanning mostly to the uppermost part of the plates. All pictures present as per the plate index. The leather is in very good order, with just light rubbing to the corners and spine ends. Inoffensive previous owner's name to the ffep.