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Georges-Marie Haardt & Louis Audouin-Dubreuil – The First Crossing of the Sahara by Motor Vehicle, with an archive of unpublished photographs – First Edition 1924
£5,250.00
First edition, first printing. Published by Librairie Plon in Paris, 1924. This is a very near fine copy of the famous account of the crossing of the Sahara by motor vehicle. In the quarto edition, preferred over the octavo. There is an inscription on the half title page, reading “A Monsieur Ferrel Hommage de André Citroën and G. Haardt.” The soft covers are cream with black and red lettering. There are some slight tears to the spine tips and some very slight toning to the top edge. There are some very light handling marks. The spine is unaffected, with one very faint crease to the centre. There is some very slight foxing present on a selection of internal pages. Each of the 171 photographic illustrations are present, as are the two folding colour maps at the rear. Twelve of the plates have tissue guards. There are 16 tinted vignettes after drawings by Bernard Boutet de Monvel present.
It is accompanied by a large archive of 35 original silver gelatin photographic prints, 29 of which are supposedly yet to see print. 21 of the images, all in smaller landscape format, have pencil annotations on the rear, presumably from a contact sheet when enlarged. They primarily show local peoples, landscapes and the motorised vehicles. This sequence illustrates the vehicles in convoy, tackling the Saharan terrain and its cruelty. The remaining photographs illustrate much the same subject matter, illustrating Haardt and Audouin-Dubreuil posing with Tuaregs, on horseback or with local peoples. Six of these photographs are reproduced in the book: A Tuareg woman from the Adrar des Ifoghas mountains (p.94), Timbuktu (p.115), a village near Timbuktu (p.129), villagers from the Niger bank performing the tam-tam dance (p.173), a wife of the chief from Bar ([Niger River], p.188) and Tuaregs in the desert (p.212). This archive is accompanied by the original Photographie D’a[xxx], Ruffini, 1 Rue de Vaublanc- Montagris photograph sleeve in brown paper and titled “Premiére. M Traversée du Sahara, Haardt. Audouin-Dubreuil.
This is a fine archive of some unique material. Copac cites that copies at three British and Irish institutions exist (LSE, Oxford, Horniman), although a copy also exists in the Royal Collection, presented by the Citroën team to George V and Queen Mary. This copy, unlike those mentioned prior, is accompanied by a fine archive of unpublished photographs that evoke the hunger for exploration during the 1920s.
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- Description
Description
First edition, first printing. Published by Librairie Plon in Paris, 1924. This is a very near fine copy of the famous account of the crossing of the Sahara by motor vehicle. In the quarto edition, preferred over the octavo. There is an inscription on the half title page, reading “A Monsieur Ferrel Hommage de André Citroën and G. Haardt.” The soft covers are cream with black and red lettering. There are some slight tears to the spine tips and some very slight toning to the top edge. There are some very light handling marks. The spine is unaffected, with one very faint crease to the centre. There is some very slight foxing present on a selection of internal pages. Each of the 171 photographic illustrations are present, as are the two folding colour maps at the rear. Twelve of the plates have tissue guards. There are 16 tinted vignettes after drawings by Bernard Boutet de Monvel present.
It is accompanied by a large archive of 35 original silver gelatin photographic prints, 29 of which are supposedly yet to see print. 21 of the images, all in smaller landscape format, have pencil annotations on the rear, presumably from a contact sheet when enlarged. They primarily show local peoples, landscapes and the motorised vehicles. This sequence illustrates the vehicles in convoy, tackling the Saharan terrain and its cruelty. The remaining photographs illustrate much the same subject matter, illustrating Haardt and Audouin-Dubreuil posing with Tuaregs, on horseback or with local peoples. Six of these photographs are reproduced in the book: A Tuareg woman from the Adrar des Ifoghas mountains (p.94), Timbuktu (p.115), a village near Timbuktu (p.129), villagers from the Niger bank performing the tam-tam dance (p.173), a wife of the chief from Bar ([Niger River], p.188) and Tuaregs in the desert (p.212). This archive is accompanied by the original Photographie D’a[xxx], Ruffini, 1 Rue de Vaublanc- Montagris photograph sleeve in brown paper and titled “Premiére. M Traversée du Sahara, Haardt. Audouin-Dubreuil.
This is a fine archive of some unique material. Copac cites that copies at three British and Irish institutions exist (LSE, Oxford, Horniman), although a copy also exists in the Royal Collection, presented by the Citroën team to George V and Queen Mary. This copy, unlike those mentioned prior, is accompanied by a fine archive of unpublished photographs that evoke the hunger for exploration during the 1920s.
