LE VAILLANT, François - Lot 99

LE VAILLANT, François Voyage in the interior of Africa by the Cape of Good Hope in the years 1780, 81, 82, 83, 84, & 85. [And:] Second Voyage in the interior of Africa. Paris, chez Leroy and then J. Jansen, 1790 & year 3 [1795]. 5 volumes in-8 (200 x 124 mm). First voyage : XXIV, 383 pp. with 6 engraved plates (including the frontispiece) for volume I ; 1 f.n.ch. of title, 400 pp. with 6 engraved plates (including the frontispiece) for volume II. Total of 12 plates of which 4 colored. Second voyage : 1 f.n.ch. of false-title, XLIV, 304 pp. 1 f.n.ch. of errata, 5 numbered plates of which 1 colored for volume I; 426 pp, 8 plates (numbered 6 to 11, 5bis, 8bis) of which 6 colored for volume II; 2 ff.n.ch., 525 pp. 2 ff.n.ch. (errata and notice to the binder), 9 plates (numbered 12-18, 11bis, 11bis*) of which 9 colored. Total of 22 plates. Fawn calf, decorative gilt border, smooth spine decorated, title and greement in black and red morocco respectively, gilt edges (uniform binding of the period). Ronsil, 297 (for the second voyage); Chadenat, 1660; Brunet III, 1034; Quérard, V, 268; DSB, VIII, 274-275. First edition of the two travelogues, made by the naturalist le Vaillant (1753-1824) and relating details of the expeditions in southern Africa assisted by de Varon and Le Grand d'Aussy. Le Vaillant left Paris and embarked at Texel towards the end of 1777. He disembarked at the Cape and made an excursion in the bay of Saldanha, then crossed the country of the Hottentots, whose curious customs he described, and joined the Cape after an absence of sixteen months. In 1783 he explored the country of the small and large Namaquois, tracked down the giraffe and was the first to import the strange animal into France, which he returned to in 1785. He endowed the Paris Museum with its first collection of parrots and birds of paradise. An exceptional copy, complete with 34 plates (12 for the first trip and 22 for the second) and whose natural history plates and those detailing the Hottentots are finely colored at the time. The plate of the famous 'apron' is well present. A very nice copy, well preserved in its uniform quality binding. The plate showing the giraffe (volume I) is present in double state, in black and in colors.