Standard work on Arabian art
La décoration arabe. Décors muraux. Plafonds. Mosaiques. Dallages. Boiseires. Vitraux. Étoffes. Tapis. Reliures. Faiences. Ornements divers. Extraits du grand ouvrage L'art arabe.
Folio (310 x 405 mm). 4 pp. index of plates. 110 plates, 100 of which in colour (incl. 26 double page plates). Contemporary half leather with gilt title to spine, marbled boards.
First edition of this selection from his famous, standard work on Arabian art, published between 1869 and 1877. The plates are slightly reduced from the original format and limit themselves to characteristic elements of decoration and ornament from all areas of the visual and applied arts of the Middle East. "'Arab Art', however, is more than a monument to the author's tenacity, skill, and devotion. For the historian of architecture, it is a precise source, a unique documentary record [...] On an entirely different level, Prisse d'Avennes has provided today's architects, designers, artists, and illustrators with some of the finest examples of measured drawings, pattern details, and illustrations of selected aspects of the built environment of a medieval Islamic city" (preface to the London 1963 edition).
Spine shows insignificant traces of restoration; interior clean and spotless. A fine copy.
OCLC 643808682. Cf. Ibrahim-Hilmy II, 138-140.
