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24 illustrations of Arabian horses from the Royal stables

Adam, Albrecht. Bildnisse vorzüglicher Pferde aus dem Marstall & den Privat Gestüten des Königs von Württemberg. Chevaux supérieurs de l'écurie et des haras particuliers de Sa Majesté le Roi de Wurtemberg.

Stuttgart, G. Ebner, [c. 1832].

Oblong 4to. 24 lithogr. plates by Franz Adam after A. Adam. Mounted on cardboard with double inked borders. Stored loosely in two original printed wrapper folders. Half calf case.

Very rare first and only edition, complete with 24 illustrations of Arabian horses from the Royal stables. The engraved captions in the original wrappers provide brief notes in French and German regarding the genealogy and origins of the depicted horses (Kabardin, Bagdadi, Burnu, Sultan Mahmud, Aleppo, Vezier, Omar, Mobaref, Kailf, Selim, Hamdani, Halma).

Adam had come to the Württemberg court in 1829 at the King's personal invitation. "King William and Duke Alexander commissioned portraits from him; he also painted the King's Arabian horses" (cf. AKL I, 282). Only one record in OCLC (Württ. Landesbibliothek); only a single, incomplete copy sold at auction during the last decades.

Plates bear the publisher's blindstamp; wrappers with slight tears; otherwise perfect. From the 27,000-volume library of Duke Maximilian Joseph in Bavaria (1808-88). The Duke had a hippodrome installed at his Ludwigsstrasse palace, where he regularly performed as dressage rider. His great interest in Arabian riding horses is also evidenced by his almost year-long journey through the Orient undertaken in 1838.

References

Winkler 3, 17 and 18. Nissen 9. Weigel (1838) 80.