‎Middle east‎

‎RO'I (Yaacov).‎

‎From Encroachment to Involvement. A Documentary Study of Soviet Policy in the Middle East, 1945-1973.‎

‎New York et Jérusalem, 1974, fort gr. in-8°, xxxix-616 pp, biblio, index, reliure toile éditeur, jaquette, bon état. Texte en anglais‎

Bookseller reference : 7343

‎ROBINSON Jacob‎

‎Palestine and the United Nations Prelude to solution‎

‎,Washington, D. C., Public Affairs Press 1947, viii-269 pp., 1 vol. in 8 br.‎

Bookseller reference : 11055

‎Robert Fisk‎

‎The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East‎

‎Knopf 2005. clean unmarked copy. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. Knopf Hardcover‎

Bookseller reference : 362504 ISBN : 1400041511 9781400041510

‎Robert J. Hanks‎

‎The U.S. Military Presence in the Middle East: Problems and Prospects‎

‎Cambridge, IFPA - Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis Inc., 1982. Broschiert Gr. 8° 0‎

‎-- Good -- -- 80 p. -- Foreign Policy Report -- Library Copy‎

Bookseller reference : 004692 ISBN : 895490471

‎Robert Macy‎

‎Destination Baghdad -‎

‎M&M Graphics Publishing - 1991. PB/pub.1991/Gd. condition ex-lib/96 pages - The story of the F-117A Stealth Fighter the plane credited with ripping out the eyes and the heart of the Iraqi war machine. AR228199. Soft Cover. Good. M&M Graphics Publishing - Paperback‎

Bookseller reference : 28199

‎Robert Wiener‎

‎Live From Baghdad -‎

‎Doubleday Publishing - 1992. Hardcover/pub.1992/Fair condition/303 pages - Gathering news at ground zero. TI6v36185. Hardcover. Good. Doubleday Publishing - hardcover‎

Bookseller reference : v36185

‎Robert Young Pelton‎

‎Licensed to Kill: Hired Guns in the War on Terror‎

‎New York: Crown Publishers Inc. 2006. Book. Very Good. Cloth. First Edition. 8vo - over 7�" - 9�" tall. N.B. Head and tail of spine and D/J spine a little rubbed. Crown Publishers Inc. Hardcover‎

Bookseller reference : 038653 ISBN : 1400097819 9781400097814

‎Roberts Frank HH.: H. H.‎

‎Egypt and the Suez Canal‎

‎Washington.Smithsonian Institution.1943 First edition.With a map & 25 b&w photo plates.pp 68.Original grey limp printed card covers.The covers are a little marked & spine ends are worn.Otherwise a good clean copy. unknown‎

Bookseller reference : 4868

‎Roberts, David / Croly, George / Brockedon, William.‎

‎The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt & Nubia. London, Day & Son (vol. 3: New York, D. Appleton & Co.), 1855-1856.‎

‎Large 8vo (300 x 220 mm). 6 vols. bound as 3. With 250 numbered plates (image size 120 x 170 to 150 x 220 mm), including a tinted lithographed portrait of the artist, 6 tinted lithographed title-pages, 2 stone-engraved maps and 239 tinted and double-tinted lithographed and 2 chromolithographed views. Contemporary, richly gold-tooled reddish-brown morocco, side-stitched and oversewn, then sewn on 5 recessed cords, with a hollow back, 5 false bands on the spine, gold-tooled turn-ins, combed and curled marbled endpapers, headbands in red and yellow, gilt and gauffered edges. With thin paper guard leaves facing each plate. Second edition, with reduced illustrations but with more of them double-tinted or chromolithographed, of one of the most splendid and historically important visual records of the Middle East, after drawings by David Roberts (1796-1864) from the sketches he made from life during his travels through what is now Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Lebanon in 1838 and 1839. In Egypt he ventured up the Nile as far as the Nubian temples at Abu Simbel, near the present border with Sudan and travelled by camel through the Sinai to the extraordinary carved-rock buildings of Petra. These had been unknown to Europeans until Burckhardt discovered them in 1812 and 1813, so Roberts's views are among the earliest and are in many ways better than the few predecessors. In Lebanon he ventured as far as Baalbek, which had seen few European visitors before Egypt annexed it in 1832. Other sites he visited and drew include Cairo, Suez, Gaza, Jerusalem and Beirut. He was one of the first Europeans allowed to make drawings of the interior of mosques, so even in well-known cities these too opened a new world to European eyes. His views also provide a very detailed visual record of many sites that were afterward destroyed or disturbed. He drew them during the infancy of photography, before it reached the Middle East and long before it reached maturity there. His views of the modern cities also preserve records of both their architecture and their daily life and he shows spectacular landscapes in the mountains, around the Dead Sea and along the Nile and the Jordan. Roberts, born to a poor (Welsh?) family in Edinburgh, was apprenticed as a house painter, moved to London and worked his way up to paint sets for the Drury Lane Theatre and others. Thanks to patrons who appreciated his talents and hard work he was able to make the expensive and dangerous voyage through the Middle East. George Croly (in volumes 1-3) and William Brockedon (in volumes 4-6) provided explanatory and historical notes on the sites shown in Roberts's views. - Roberts's views were originally published in two separate works, issued in parts in the years 1842 to 1849 and often found together. One centred on the Holy Land, though also including views in other parts of the Middle East, while the other was devoted to Egypt and Nubia. The views in the former were made with only a single tint block and even the latter used fewer tint blocks than the present second edition and only one chromolithograph. The present edition, with sometimes very intricate double tints and two chromolithographs (with black and three tint blocks) is a masterpiece of tinted lithography. Since the lithographers used photographic reductions of the lithographic views of the first edition as an aid to their work, the book also pioneered the use of photography in graphic reproduction. The lithographed title-pages are dated 1855 except for those of vol. 3 (from the simultaneous New York issue, undated) and 6 (1856) but volumes 2-6 include plates dated 1856. The dates of the plates in all six volumes range from 16 April 1855 to 15 December 1856. - The title-page of volume 3 was intended for the simultaneous New York issue, but appears to have always been part of the present copy. In very good condition, with occasional light foxing, mostly on the backs of the plates, and with a faint marginal water stain in the lower outside corner of many plates in volumes 3 and 4, not approaching the printed image. The inside front hinge of the second volume as bound has separated from the book block and the bindings show some wear at the hinges and extremities, but they are otherwise also very good. 250 mostly tinted and double-tinted lithographs providing stunning early views of the Middle East, including Petra, Abu Simbel and the interiors of several mosques. Abbey, Travel 388 (lacking vols. 5-6). Blackmer 1432 (note). Gay 25. Hiler 205. Cf. Hamilton, Europe and the Arab world 66 (1842-49 ed.); Lipperheide, Lc 12 & Ma 27 (1842-49 ed.); Tooley 401f. (1842-49 ed.); not in Colas.‎

‎Roberts, Frederick.‎

‎Egypt to Hedjaz and Hedjaz To-Day. (Cairo, 1931).‎

‎8vo. 36 ff., printed on rectos only. Original printed wrappers with oval portrait of the author in Arabic costume. Stapled. First edition, very rare. Extraordinary guide to the Kingdom of Hejaz, "the most frequented pilgrim country in the world" (f. 36). It comprises accounts of Jeddah and Mecca and includes a chapter on King Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud (1875-1953), "undoubtedly the strongest and ablest ruler Arabia has produced for many many years" (f. 29). - Describing the journey from Egypt across the Red Sea, the booklet discusses the travel documents required to enter Hejaz, as well as the enormous economic benefit of the pilgrimage to the Kingdom, and gives a report of the crossing from Suez to Jeddah including stops at El Tor, "the most attractive and beautiful of the Red Sea towns" (f. 11), Wedja and Yambo. It includes a description of the Mount Sinai monastery as well as the wrecked pilgrim ship "Asia", which caught fire in the Jeddah port in 1929. On the one hand deeming Jeddah "a place for work and no play" (p. 24), the guide laments the prohibition of alcohol, cigarettes and gramophones, as well as the lack of hotels, cafés, restaurants, cinemas, and fresh water, and criticises the general state of many houses in the city. On the other hand, the booklet admires the low crime rate of Hejaz as well as recent improvements in public transportation. An uncommonly frank account of a Westerner's stay in Hejaz, not hesitating to speak out on the hardships of pilgrimage. - Covers loosened; somewhat soiled. A few pages slightly wrinkled. Contemporary ownership inscribed to title-page in blue ballpoint. Not a single copy traceable in libraries worldwide.‎

‎Roberts, James.‎

‎The Sportsman’s pocket companion: being a striking likeness or portraiture of the most eminent race horses and stallions [...] drawn by James Roberts and engraved by Henry Roberts. London, printed for R. & R. Baldwin, c. 1760.‎

‎8vo (223 x 148 mm). 40 engraved plates, some with vignette at foot, engraved index leaf. Modern olive green morocco gilt by Eighton, covers with triple gilt fillet, spine in six compartments, gilt lettered direct in second, others richly gilt, raised bands, top edge gilt. Fine series of plates, each depicting a famous horse with his rider or stable-hand, and recording its pedigree, qualities and racing record, together with the owner's name. The final plate shows the most famous of all, the Godolphin Arabian (here called the "Bay Arabian, the property of the Right Hon.ble the Earl of Godolphin"), foaled in Yemen around 1724: "This extraordinary horse became a private stallion soon after his arrival in this kingdom, and got a greater number of fine horses of just temper with superior speed than any Arab ever did. He was the Sire of Lath, Dismal, Cade, Bajazet, Babraham, Phenix, Dormouse, Regulus, Skewball, Sultan, Blanck, Slugg, Noble, Tarquin, Blossom, the Godolphin Gelding, Shepherdess, Amelia, and many others besides stallions and brood mares, all in the highest esteem; he died at Hogmagogg Hills, Dec. 1753, in the 29th year of his age". - Among the other horses are Lath, the Godolphin Arabian's offspring by Roxana; Basto (son of the Byerly Turk); Old Scar, whose ancestry included the Oglethorpe Arabian and Darcy's Yellow Turk, etc. The horses pictured all ran between 1708 and 1755. The first edition was published in about 1760. Rare, only two copies recorded in ABPC/AE Online. ESTC records two issues, one published and sold by Henry Roberts, the other printed for R. and R. Baldwin (as here): just one location is given for the first issue (Winterthur), and one for the second (BL). Huth records the work under a variant title, and also notes an 1820 edition. - Plate 12 shorter at margins, some spotting and browning, heavier at margins. A most handsome copy. Huth 38.‎

‎Robertson, William.‎

‎[Binding title:] Egypt & Nubia. Cairo [and elsewhere in Egypt and Nubia], 1838-1839.‎

‎Double Crown folio (48 x 36.5 cm). [37] ff. including title-leaf and 7 blanks, plus 16 loosely inserted ff. Album containing 42 pencil and other drawings (a few partly coloured) and 3 squeezes, some on the album leaves and some loosely inserted, mostly of ancient Egyptian and Nubian architecture, sculpture, bas-reliefs and hieroglyphic inscriptions, but also with a few botanical drawings and landscapes with buildings. Most have English-language captions in brown ink and are signed and dated 1838 to 1839. New black half morocco, on recessed cords, title and double fillets in gold on spine, using mid-19th-century marbled paper for the sides (blue-green Spanish-marble with black and white veins). An album of drawings (and squeezes of bas reliefs) made by William Robertson on a journey from Cairo in December 1838 down the Nile into Nubia, reaching as far south as the present-day Egyptian-Sudanese border region, including the temples of Abu Simbel, in January 1839, then returning via Philae, Karnak and other sites to Thebes in February 1839. They give very detailed views of numerous buildings, sculptures, bas-reliefs and hieroglyphic inscriptions, as well as more distant views of landscapes with buildings and three botanical drawings. While Robertson made most of his drawings on site, he drew the Temple at Luxor after a drawing by Achille Émile Prisse d'Avennes (1807-1879) who began exploring and drawing the ancient Egyptian sites in 1836 and published many of his drawings in 1847. The squeezes of bas-reliefs are of special interest, for they preserve a very precise record of the original with little influence from personal interpretation: the paper was wetted, pressed into the relief and allowed to dry. In addition to the three clear squeezes, a couple of the drawings also seem to have been made on flattened squeezes (some of those that survive as squeezes also have some lines drawn over them them). Since many of the ancient Egyptian sites have been looted and damaged over the years, these early drawings and squeezes provide an important record of what was there in 1838/39 and how it was situated, before the first photographs were made. The building of the old Aswan dam in 1902 caused frequent flooding and damage at the site of Philae, now an island, and most of its treasures were removed before completion of the new Aswan dam in 1970. The album has no true title-page, but the leaf before the first drawing has a slip pasted to it giving the name of the artist, dated from Cairo, December 1838. We have not identified the artist. The clergyman and historian William Robertson and his son of the same name died before 1838 and the archaeologist William Robertson Smith was not born until 1846. Thieme & Becker notes two artists named William Robertson, active two or three decades before and after the present drawings, but provides so little information that we cannot link them to either. He may possibly be the Irish-born London architect William Robertson (1770-1850), who took an early interest in Egyptian revival, but he would have been nearly seventy when these drawings were made. The loosely inserted drawings and squeezes are made on at least 8 different paper stocks, wove and laid, one of the wove stocks machine-made (the "watermark" left by the papermaking machine's belt seam appears in one sheet). A few of the original album leaves are now detached and may have been removed by the artist himself. The squeezes have inevitably been flattened in the album, but they still show the contours of the original bas-reliefs very clearly. One inserted drawing is severely foxed and one inserted floor plan is rather dirty, but in general the drawings are in very good condition. A detailed graphic record of ancient Egyptian art, architecture and hieroglyphic inscriptions, made before many of the worst depredations.‎

‎ROBINS PHILIP‎

‎A History Of Jordan‎

‎Cambridge University Press Cambridge: 2004. Softcover. Good condition. Philip Robins' survey of Jordan's political history begins in the early 1920s continues through the years of the British Mandate and traces events over the next half-century to 2004. Throughout the period the country's fortunes were closely identified with its head of state King Hussein until his death in 1999. In the early days as the author testifies the King's prospects were often regarded as grim. However both King and country survived a variety of existential challenges from assassination attempts and internal subversion to a civil war with the Palestine Liberation Organisation and in the 1970s and 1980s it emerged as an apparently stable and prosperous state. However King Hussein's death the succession of his son Abdullah II and recent political upheavals have plunged the country back into uncertainty. This is an incisive account compellingly told about one of the leading players in the Middle East. The contents of this book is as follows: 1. Society in pre-state Transjordan pre 1921; 2. The making of the modern state 1921-1928; 3. The road to independence 1929-1946; 4. Expansion and succession 1947-1953; 5. From freedom to repression 1953-1966; 6. War and civil war 1967-1971; 7. The years of prosperity 1972-1989; 8. Political and economic liberalisation 1989-; Conclusion: whither the Kingdom "An incisive and compellingly told account of one of the most important countries in the Middle East �". - Quarterly Journal of African and Asian Studies ISBN: 0521591171. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 2004 paperback‎

Bookseller reference : 56764X1 ISBN : 0521591171 9780521591171

‎ROBINS PHILIP‎

‎A History Of Jordan‎

‎Cambridge University Press Cambridge: 2004. Softcover. Good condition. Philip Robins' survey of Jordan's political history begins in the early 1920s continues through the years of the British Mandate and traces events over the next half-century to 2004. Throughout the period the country's fortunes were closely identified with its head of state King Hussein until his death in 1999. In the early days as the author testifies the King's prospects were often regarded as grim. However both King and country survived a variety of existential challenges from assassination attempts and internal subversion to a civil war with the Palestine Liberation Organisation and in the 1970s and 1980s it emerged as an apparently stable and prosperous state. However King Hussein's death the succession of his son Abdullah II and recent political upheavals have plunged the country back into uncertainty. This is an incisive account compellingly told about one of the leading players in the Middle East. The contents of this book is as follows: 1. Society in pre-state Transjordan pre 1921; 2. The making of the modern state 1921-1928; 3. The road to independence 1929-1946; 4. Expansion and succession 1947-1953; 5. From freedom to repression 1953-1966; 6. War and civil war 1967-1971; 7. The years of prosperity 1972-1989; 8. Political and economic liberalisation 1989-; Conclusion: whither the Kingdom "An incisive and compellingly told account of one of the most important countries in the Middle East �". - Quarterly Journal of African and Asian Studies ISBN: 0521598958. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 2004 paperback‎

Bookseller reference : 31941X1 ISBN : 0521598958 9780521598958

‎Robinson B. W‎

‎Persian Drawings From the 14th through the 19th Century‎

‎New York: Shorewood 1965. 96 illustrations many in color. 141 pp. 8vo. Hardcover . Catalogs: IRAN. New York: Shorewood, (1965) hardcover‎

Bookseller reference : 3801

‎Robinson, Arthur E.‎

‎The Mahmal of the Moslem Pilgrimage. [London], Royal Asiatic Society, 1931.‎

‎8vo. (117)-127, (1) pp. Original printed wrappers. Offprint from the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. About the Mahmal, the closed rectangular pyramidal canopy taken along on camelback on Egyptian and Syrian pilgrimages to Mecca before Ibn Saud's conquest of the Hejaz in 1925 - a "very curious custom in Islam", the origin and purport of which the present essay undertakes to investigate. "It is very improbable that the Mahmal [...] will be seen in the Hejaz again [...] The Mahmal is heretical to Islam, and the Wahhabis [...] have declined to admit the Mahmal into the Hejaz" (p. 117). - Wrapper shows insignificant ruststains from staples, otherwise in perfect condition. OCLC 47931240. Not in Macro.‎

‎Rodi, Antonio.‎

‎Caratteri stranieri, raccolti, scritti ed incisi da Antonio Rodi nell' anno 1836. Milano, Pagani Litografia, 1836.‎

‎Oblong 4to (327 x 154 mm). Dedication leaf and 10 engraved leaves of alphabet specimens, lithographed throughout. In the publisher's original lithographed wrappers. Only edition of this collection of alphabet specimens, comprising Arabic, Syriac, Chaldaic, Hebrew (in two versions), Greek, "Illyric", "Egyptian", "Saracen", and "Indian". The author dedicated his effort to Conte Livio Benvenuti Clavello. - Slightly browned and brownstained throughout. Contemporary ink ownership "Biagio G..." on dedication leaf. Rare; only two copies in Italian libraries (Biblioteca statale di Cremona & Biblioteca nazionale Marciana, Venice). ICCU VEA\0176272.‎

‎Rodinson Maxime‎

‎The Arabs‎

‎Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1981. Translated by Arthur Goldhammer. Map. Index. Owner's name on first page. xvi 188 pages. 20.3 cm. Wrappers Softcover. Condition: Fine/none. ISBN: 0-226-72356-9 . Catalogs: MIDDLE EAST. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, (1981) paperback‎

Bookseller reference : 7807 ISBN : 0226723569 9780226723563

‎RODINSON, Maxime‎

‎Israele e il rifiuto arabo. Settantacinque anni di storia‎

‎241 pagine; 18 cm. Brossura editoriale. Ottimo‎

‎ROGAN EUGENE:‎

‎The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War on the Middle East1914-1920.‎

‎<p>UK8vo HBdw/dj1st edn.Complete number line 001. NFINE/NFINE.No owner inscrptn and no price-clip to dw/dj.Bright crispcleanmattcontemporary monochrome photographic illustrated dw/dj with dark grey and dark blue lettering to front and spine/backstripcritics' reviews for another title to rear; with negligible shelf-wear or creasing to edges and corners - no nicks or tears present - two top corners minimally bumped with reciprocal creasingboth lower corners minisculely bumped but without any creasing to dw/djalong with miniscule bumpingcreasing at head of spine/backstrip.Rear panel of dw/dj with two unintentionalpartial diagonal creases.Top edges very lightly toned with faint sporadic dust-soiling flecksfore-edges also lightly toned but with some faintsporadic foxing/spotting otherwise generally clean; contents brighttightcleansolid and sound - pristine - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' cornersappears unread - apart from my own collation.Brightcrispcleanpublisher's original plain light grey cloth bds with brightcrispstamped black ink printed letters to spine/backstripa black headband and immaculate plain black eps.UK8vo HBdw/dj1st ednvii-xxvipp1-485pp paginated includes contents list/table with dedication to reverselist of mapsa note on Nomenclaturea preface6 contemporary regional maps - 1 double-paged5 others single paged13 chaptersConclusion thumbnail contemporary b/w photographs interspersed throughout the text and the bookacknowledgements notesa bibliography photograph credits and an indexplus unpaginated half-title page publisher advert for author's previous book 'The Arabs.'and title page.<br /> For some four centuries the Ottman Empire had been one of the most powerful states in Europe as well as ruling the Middle East.By 1914 it had been drastically weakened and circled by numerous predators hoping to finish it off.With stalemate on the Western Front and the Ottomans joining the Central Powersthe British French and Russians hatched an audacious plan to destroy their weakest opponent and carve out huge new empires for themselves: an ambitious and unprecedented invasion of Gallipoli . .Eugene Rogan's remarkable new book re-creates one of the most important but little understood fronts of the First World War.With the skillbalance and sympathy that made his 'The Arabs.' so successfulRogan brings to life a theatre of war that proved in its different way just as remorseless as any other. In 1914 the Ottoman Empire was depleted of men and resources after years of war against Balkan nationalist and Italian forces.But in the aftermath of the assassination in Sarajevothe powers of Europe were sliding inexorably toward warand not even the Middle East could escape the vast and enduring consequences of one of the most destructive conflicts in human history.The Great War spelled the end of the Ottomansunleashing powerful forces that would forever change the face of the Middle East. Bolstered by German moneyarmsand military advisorsthe Ottomans took on the RussianBritishand French forcesand tried to provoke Jihad against the Allies in their Muslim colonies.Unlike the static killing fields of the Western Frontthe war in the Middle East was fast-moving and unpredictablewith the Turks inflicting decisive defeats on the Entente in GallipoliMesopotamiaand Gaza before the tide of battle turned in the Allies' favour. 'The Fall of the Ottomans' includes detailed and gripping accounts of the principal battlesfought under the most brutal climatic conditions - from waterless deserts to the ice and snow of the Caucasus.Great cities were also fought over and fellas varied as Istanbul ConstantinopleDamascus DimashqBaghdad and Jerusalem before the Ottomans agreed to an armistice in 1918. The postwar settlement led to the partition of Ottoman lands between the victorious powersand laid the foundation for the ongoing conflicts that continue to plague the modern Arab world. If the fighting in the west was mainly between professional armiesthe fighting in the Middle East destroyed whole peopleswith the most terrible consequences for ancient communitiesfrom the Armenians to the Greeks.<br />Despite fighting back with great skill and determination against the Allied onslaughtand humiliating the British both at Gallipoli and in Mesopotamia now Iraqthe Ottomans were ultimately defeated clearing the way for the making of a new Middle east that has endured to the present - with consequences that still dominate our lives. Since April 2013 and again in March 2015and in this year toothe UK Post Office has altered it's Pricing in Proportion template altering it's pricesweight allowancesdimensions and lowered it's qualifying compensation rates too!<br />Soplease contact rpaxtonden@blueyonder.co.uk because of the weight/value of this item for correctinsured shipping/Pp quotes - particularly ALL overseas buyers - BEFORE ordering through the order page!</p> LONDON.ALLEN LANE/PENGUIN BOOKS,2015. hardcover‎

Bookseller reference : rja852519 ISBN : 1846144388 9781846144387

‎Roger Hilsman‎

‎George Bush Vs Saddam Hussein -‎

‎Lyford Press - 1992. PB/pub.1992/Gd. conditionAdvance Reader's copy/259 pages - Military Success! Political Failure . TE63861z. Soft Cover. Good. Lyford Press - Paperback‎

Bookseller reference : 3861z

‎Rohricht Reinhold.‎

‎Geschichte der Kreuzzüge im Umriss Umriß.‎

‎Innsbruck Wagner's 1898. Octavo. Pp. iv 272 2 publisher's ads. Letterpress device to title. Set in Gothic type. Hardcover contemporary half cloth and marbled boards these a little rubbed title lettered in gilt all edges speckled shelf label to tail of spine old stamps to first flyleaf blank. In fine condition. Excellent copy. ~ First edition. Innsbruck, Wagner's, 1898. hardcover‎

Bookseller reference : 0858

‎ROMANELLI Luigi.‎

‎La situazione attuale nel Medio Oriente. Conferenza tenuta agli ufficiali del M.D.E. il giorno 21.5.1959.‎

‎Lecce, Tipografia Scuola A.U.C., 1959, in-8, br. editoriale, pp. 27, [1].‎

‎Romieux, Osmond.‎

‎[Watercolour views of sea-coasts in New Caledonia and Peru]. [New Caledonia & Peru, 1855/60?].‎

‎21 album leaves with 1 drawing mounted on each recto. Album: full-sheet leaves (oblong folio, 395 x 525 mm); drawings: oblong folio and oblong 4to. An album with 21 watercolour drawings on paper with views of sea coasts from the shore (240 x 310 mm to 295 x 465 mm), one with a 22nd watercolour drawing on the back with a similar view, and one with about 15 human figure drawings in graphite pencil on the back. All bear the artist's stamp on the front (Lugt 3703) and 4 are signed or initialled by the artist. Richly gold- and blind-tooled green goatskin morocco, sewn on 3 recessed cords (not aligned with the six flat raised bands on the spine), each board with a blind-tooled inner oval frame of interlaced abstracted leaves and vines, surrounded by a gold-tooled frame of similar decoration (oval inside and rectangular outside), surrounded by 2 frames of thick-thin fillets, the front board with the owner's initials in textura capitals in the centre: "A.L.", signed at the foot of the spine, "A. Giroux & C:" (last recorded in 1856), white watered silk endleaves (the paste-down in the form of a doublure). The whole in a protective folder lined with thick leather, with green goatskin morocco where it wraps around the 2 short ends, and chemical-marbled paper sides (black papier croise d'Annonay: cf. Wolfe XXI, 1-3: France, 1830s-50s), with remains of a green cloth tie on the flap. A richly gold- and blind-tooled album (ca. 1850/56) containing 22 excellent and detailed watercolour views of rocky sea coasts, all or nearly all in New Caledonia and Peru (plus 1 graphite pencil drawing of about 15 human figures), the coastal views made from the shore. All were executed by Osmond Romieux (1826-1908), a leading amateur artist who made them during his tours of duty as a French naval officer. At least 18 have a pencil note on the back identifying the location: 15 "Nouvelle Caledonie", 2 "Pérou" (drawings 18, 20) and 2 "Callao" in Peru (drawings 17, 18). We have found no location indicated on drawings 3 (with views on both sides), 8 and 19 (with figure drawings on the back). Most of the drawings were made from the sea shore, looking out over both the sea and the nearby coasts, nearly all with rocky cliffs or outcroppings and some with trees or other plants. Many were made along bays or inlets where one can see the coast on both sides and the water in one view. Some show fortifications or other buildings, a few show boats in the water or on the shore and several show people on the shore, all or nearly all in European dress. Drawings 2, 8, 15 and 17 are signed or initialled by the artist. - No drawing in the album bears a date, but the album shows no signs of other items having been removed, so the drawings probably date from before or soon after the album was manufactured. The album leaves are made of wove paper with no watermark, but A. Giroux & Cie is not recorded after 1856 and the binding style suggests the album is not much older. Most of the drawings are made on thick wove paper with no visible watermarks and with a rough surface texture much like many of today's watercolour papers. Drawing 4 is on thinner and smoother wove paper with no watermark visible and drawings 9 and 11 are on laid paper watermarked (in the centre of a half-sheet): grapes on a crowned shield (20 grapes plus stem, rendered naturalistically, with grapes arranged in an irregular pattern rather than a honeycomb and sometimes overlapping), about 118 x 70 mm (chainlines 26 mm apart). Unfortunately, the watermark literature does not cover this period well, but the crown is in the general style of those used much earlier for a fleur-de-lis on a crowned shield, such as Heawood 1822. Drawings 20 and 21 may be on the same stock as 9 and 11 but show no watermark, though 20 was made in Peru and the others in New Caledonia. Drawings 9, 20, 21 and probably 3 and 19 are executed on oblong 4to leaves; at least most of the others are on oblong folio leaves. Drawing 13 may be backed with smoother wove paper. - Prosper Halvor Henri Oscar Romieux, who used the first name Osmond, joined the French navy at Rochefort (less the 30 km from his native La Rochelle) in 1841 and passed his exams at the École Navale in 1843. He made his first tour of duty in Polynesia during the Franco-Tahitian War (1844-47), at least from 1845 aboard the ship "La Virginie". We find no record of Romieux or the ship visiting New Caledonia during this period, although it is "only" 4500 km from Tahiti. Romieux must have shown artistic skill from early childhood, for already on this first tour he made excellent watercolour drawings, and he continued to make watercolour views around the world until he retired from duty in 1891. He was made a chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur in 1863 and later an officier. Other undated drawings also record him in New Caledonia and Peru (including Lima and Callao). He is documented in New Caledonia in 1880 and 1882, but the present drawings are unlikely to be that late, and we have found no date for his visit(s) to Peru. We have little record of Romieux's movements from 1848 to 1850, but if he left the South Pacific he soon returned, for he is recorded in Hong Kong in 1851 and the Philippines in 1852 (in 1851 he was an Enseigne on the ship "l'Algérie"). He must have left in 1852, however, for he is recorded in the Seychelles (in the Indian Ocean) in 1852 and Italy in 1853 and 1854. In this last year he was promoted to Lieutenant, but we have another gap in the records of his movements from that time to 1860. He may have made the present drawings during this period, for he set off for the Levant on the ship "Redoutable", apparently in or shortly before 1860, since he is regularly recorded in Syria, Lebanon, Greece, Algeria and Jerusalem from 1860 to 1864. He was promoted to Capitaine in 1867 and continued his travels, but since the present album was probably bound in or before 1856 we think it unlikely that he made the drawings after 1864. - Although the binding is signed by Giroux, the firm operated primarily as suppliers of artists' materials and Ramsden plausibly suggests that they "commissioned bindings by the best executants of the day". Alphonse Giroux established the firm by 1799, but his son Alphonse Gustave Giroux (1809-86) managed it from at least 1838 and the father died in 1848. - We have not identified the "A.L." who apparently acquired these watercolours and had the album made in the 1850s: Lugt lists several French collectors with those initials active at the time. One watercolour has a small corner torn off at the lower right, another is slightly frayed along the right edge and the one on thin wove paper is very slightly browned, but the watercolours are otherwise in very good condition. The binding may have been expertly rebacked, preserving the original backstrip, but so unobtrusively that one must wonder if the binding was originally made that way. It is further in very good condition and even the folder is olny slightly rubbed.A lovely and finely executed series of large watercolour drawings of the coasts of New Caledonia and Peru, probably made in the 1850s and mounted in a stunning gold- and blind-tooled contemporary album. For Romieux: Lugt 3703. For Giroux: Flety, Dictionnaire des relieurs francais p. 82; Ramsden, p. 94.‎

‎Rondot Vincent Frédéric Alpi François Villeneuve‎

‎La pioche et la plume Autour du Soudan du Liban et de laz Jordanie‎

‎BEL EXEMPLAIRE in-8 de 546 pages Index + bibliographie PUPS‎

‎hommages archéologiques à Patrice Lenoble‎

Bookseller reference : yam0556