The Italian Valleys of the Pennine Alps: a Tour through all the Romantic and Less-Frequented ‘Vals’ of Northern Piedmont, from the Tarentaise to the Gries . . . With Illustrations from the Author’s Sketches, Maps, &c.

London: W. Clowes and Sons for John Murray, 1858.

8vo in 12s (200 x 134mm), pp. viii, [2 (illustrations, verso blank)], 558; wood-engraved frontispiece and 9 wood-engraved plates by J.W. Whymper, et al. after King and J. Wolf, 3 folding lithographic maps by W. & A.K. Johnston, 2 finished by hand in blue and one with routes in red, and one wood-engraved plan; wood-engraved illustrations in the text; occasional slight spotting or foxing, short marginal tears on a few ll.; contemporary calf prize binding by Nutt and Son for Leeds Free Grammar School, boards with borders of gilt and blind rules, upper board with central gilt arms, spine richly gilt in compartments, gilt red morocco lettering-piece in one, board-edges roll-tooled in gilt, turn-ins roll-tooled in blind, marbled endpapers, all edges marbled; extremities lightly rubbed and bumped, very lightly spotted, nonetheless very good copy; provenance: Leeds Free Grammar School (binding) – F.J. Young (armorial bookplate on front free endpaper) – S. Ratcliff (booklabel on upper pastedown).

£450

Approximately:
US $568€526

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The Italian Valleys of the Pennine Alps: a Tour through all the Romantic and Less-Frequented ‘Vals’ of Northern Piedmont, from the Tarentaise to the Gries . . . With Illustrations from the Author’s Sketches, Maps, &c.

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First edition. The traveller and scientist King (1821-1868), who was a member of the Alpine Club, made this expedition through the Alps with his wife, and explains in his opening chapter that, ‘Our project was, after crossing the Alps, to explore and traverse, from head to foot, all the remote and less frequented valleys of Piedmont, which descend from the steep southern face of the great Pennine chain, from Mont Blanc west to Monte Rosa east’ (p. 4). The routes of these journeys, which are ‘described in delightful detail’ (Neate), are shown in the folding map at the end of the volume, and the work also contains much on the history, archaeology, geology, and natural history of the area. Perret considers the account, ‘un ouvrage intéressant caractéristique du “pre-golden-age”, peu courant’.

ACLC p. 176; NLS, Mountaineering, i154; Neate K23; Perret 2437.

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