VAN DE VELDE, Carol Wilhelm Meredith (1818–1898). Le Pays d'Israel. Paris: Jules Renouard, 1857.

Massive color-plate first edition; one of only 300 copies. Van de Velde was a Dutch naval officer, who made two journeys to the Middle East in 1851 and 1852. His narrative of these journeys was first published in English in 1854, with these plates appearing three years later. Only 300 ordinary copies were printed in addition to proof copies before the lithographs' stones were destroyed. Approximately half of the plates are chromolithography with the remainder being one-, two- or three-color tinted lithographs. All carry the publisher's small blind stamp and illustrate views of Beirut, Sidon, Mount Hermon, the ruins of Hazour, Mellia, Akka, Samaria, Jaffa, Jerusalem, Kidron, Gaza, Bethlehem, Hebron, the Dead Sea and more. Blackmer 1723.

Large folio (565 × 380mm). 100 full-page lithograph plates including lithograph title and map of Israel (untrimmed, light edge-wear, stains on final two plates, narrow marginal dampstain on bottom edge). Original morocco-backed cloth gilt (rebacked with original spine laid down, light wear); black cloth box.