THE OBERLAND AND ITS GLACIERS: EXPLORED AND ILLUSTRATED WITH ICE-AXE AND CAMERA
GEORGE, H. B
London: Alfred W. Bennett, 1866. First Edition Quarto (8-1/2" x 10-1/2") in the original gilt-decorated brick cloth depicting a camera and climbing tools on the front cover. Illustrated with 28 original albumen photographs by noted Alpine photographer Ernest Edwards as well as a two-page map of the Oberland. Photographs range in size from 17 small images inserted within the text, including a circular vignette on the title page, to 11 full-page images. The Oberland (highlands) include the snowy Alps of the Swiss Canton of Berne. A seven-page chapter "Notes by the Photographer" describes the difficulty of making wet-collodion images under field conditions. The author was the editor of the ALPINE JOURNAL. Goldschmidt & Naef, THE TRUTHFUL LENS, #74. A most interesting copy with a SIGNED PRESENTATION on the half-title page: "Willard Bartlett/In remembrance of some days/with ice axe & rope/Elihu Root/Dec 25' 73." Root, who was later secretary of war under William McKinley and secretary of state under Theodore Roosevelt, formed an early law partnership with Bartlett, who would eventually become Justice of the Supreme Court in New York. Root maintained a correspondence with Bartlett up to the latter's death in 1925. This inscription dates from when both were in their late 20s. Contents clean and bright as are the covers. The frontispiece photograph is pulling away from the text block but still attached. Some fraying to the top front spine edge and the spine tips. Near Fine, and a superb association copy Decorated cloth (Item ID: 014216)
$3,000.00