[Rarebooks] fa: HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EXPEDITION TO EGYPT - Robert Thomas Wilson - 1803

[ArCh]

Listed now, auctions ending MONDAY, April 22. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

http://tinyurl.com/y3tbxvzl

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


Robert Thomas Wilson: History of the British Expedition to Egypt; To which is subjoined, A Sketch of the Present State of that Country and its Means of Defence. Illustrated with Maps, and a Portrait of Sir Ralph Abercromby. London: Printed by C. Roworth...and sold by T. Egerton, Military Library, Whitehall, 1802. FIRST EDITION; 4to (27 cm), in modern speckled goatskin over marbled boards, spine tooled and lettered in gilt; [iii]-vii, [1], 354 pp.; bound without the half-title page, else complete with portrait frontispiece, 3 folding engraved maps highlighted in color, 2 folding tables.

Eyewitness account of the British campaign against French forces in Egypt in 1801. The author, a lieutenant colonel of cavalry, saw action at Aboukir and Alexandria under General Abercromby and later entered Cairo with General Hutchinson. "The work derived especial popularity from the charges of cruelty which it brought against [Napoleon] Bonaparte, both towards his prisoners at Jaffa and his own soldiers at Cairo. Of these charges the emperor complained to the British government..." (DNB). Contents with mild toning, occasional light foxing and touches of soiling; some browning to the folding maps, one splitting along the fold, another with a 4 1/2" closed tear; title-page with the early printed ownership label of Digby Legard (obscuring the earlier signature of John Legard, dated 1803); else clean and sound, firmly and attractively bound.