The founder  Joseph Thornton

 

Thornton's Bookshop ( W A & J S Meeuws )  Established in Oxford in 1835 -  The Old Barn - Walnut Court Faringdon, SN7 7JH Faringdon, a small market town near the Cotswolds,  about 20 miles from Oxford Tel.  (0044 ) (0) 1367 240056 .  E-Mail 188 years of bookselling

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DEMIDOFF, Anatole de, Prince of San Donato.  Voyage dans la Russie  méridionale & la Crimée par la Hongrie, la Valachie & la Moldavie  exécuté en 1837...par MM. de Sainson, Le Play, Hout, Léveillé, de  Nordmann, Rousseau et du Ponceau Dédié à Sa Majesté Nicolas Premier,  Empereur de toutes des Russies. Dessiné d'après nature et lithographié par (Auguste) Raffet. With 100 tinted lithographs printed on India paper, by  Auguste Raffet and printed by Auguste Bry (including additional lithographed  title, and 9 other lithographed section titles), all with tissues.  Half-title, illus. lithogr. title to face the title-page, with a plate  list on verso numb. 1-100. 2 unn. pp. (half title), pp. 3- 64 with  descriptive text for the plates nos. 1-87 (no description for the text  of the plates 88-100 as usual, so complete). Large folio (530 x 350 mm).  Contemp. black half chagrin, back gilt. With heraldic bookplate Louis  Mondanton. . Paris: Publié par Gihaut Frères, [1838-1848 ]  First edition of this rare and complete album of an expedition through  Hungary to southern Russia, returning by way of Constantinople and  Smyrnia.  Plates nos. 1 (frontispiece) - 8, Hungary; nos. 9- 19, Wallachia; nos.  20- 24, Moldova; nos. 25- 30 Bessarabia; nos. 31- 54 Crimea, 1st part;  nos. 55- 68, Camp of Vosnessensk, inter alia portrait of Nicolas I;  nos. 69- 80; Crimea, 2nd part; nos. 88- 100 show the portraits of the  members of the expedition.  The present huge work describes and illustrates scenery and exotic  architecture, not only of the Russian meridional region, and depicts  also uniforms, military camps, costumes, professions, festivities,  trade, custom and manners of Armenians, Cossacks, Gipsies, Jews,  Russians, Tartars, Turks, etc. An interior of a coffee shop is shown.  This scientific journey to southern Russia and the Crimea, etc. was  organized by Count Demidoff (1812-70) on behalf of the government. 22  scholars (of which Jules Janin wrote the descriptive text), and  artists (of which Raffet was the most important one) accompanied the  expedition.  Opposite plate 93, (portrait of J. J. Huout) is a 3- page  A.L.S. by his son Paul dated Colmar, 1 July 1868 ..  Prince  Demidoff was a famous art collector. His collection was sold in Paris  in 1870.- 2 small stamps and stamped number on title, a few slight  spots, and some light smudging to margins at the beginning. A nice  association copy on large paper. Brunet II, 583; Vicaire III, 167; NBG 13/14, p. 559 & NBG 25/26, p. 578; cf. Atabey 337 (later ed.); not in Blackmer.  Together with the  text volume , 7+621+(3) pp.. 4to., Illustrated with 64 plates by  Raffet. , 1840. [see Stafleu ]  £ 9,500

 

Ex-libris heraldic bookplate Louis  Mondanton.

Text sample

 
 

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