One of the rarest of all African big game hunting books, beautifully illustrated

Potocki, Józef / Stachiewicz, Piotr. Notatki mysliwskie z Afryki. Somali [Big Game Hunting in Somalia].

Warszawa, Gebethner I Wolff, z drukarni W. L. Anczyca, 1897.

Folio (310 x 400 mm). (2), 133, (3) pp. WIth colour-printed photographic frontispiece, a folding, partly coloured lithographed map, 18 photogravure plates (5 double-page), 5 numbered full-page tinted plates, and ca. 60 illustrations in text (mostly tinted). Publisher's original pictorial beige cloth with a lion's head on the front board and zebra-patterned endpapers.

 3,250.00

Well-illustrated first edition, in the original Polish, of "one of the rarest of all African big game hunting books" (Czech) by the Polish count Józef Potocki (1862-1922), a renowned big game hunter and breeder of Arabian horses. In 1895 he went on safari to Somaliland and afterwards wrote the present volume to commemorate the trip. The illustrations are by the notable Polish painter and illustrator Piotr Stachiewicz (1858-1938) and include eighteen beautiful photogravures of his paintings, including five in double-page size. The book was translated into English a few years later as "Sport in Somaliland" (1900), a much sought-after publication and usually much more expensive, but equally rare.

Some foxing throughout, a tear in the fold of the map. Binding slightly soiled and one hinge slightly damaged. A good copy.

References

K. P. Czech, African Big Game Hunting, p. 133.

Stock Code: BN#44904 Tags: , , ,