Mitla. A Narrative of Incidents and Personal Adventures on a Journey in Mexico, Guatemala, and Salvador in the years 1853 to 1855 with Observations on the Modes of Life in those Countries

Tempsky, G. F. von

Verlag: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts, London, 1858

Beschreibung

Octavo, pp [xvi], 436, publisher's list; with 5 chromolithographs (one double-page) and 11 wood engravings, out of text, and a folding map showing his route, hand-colored in outline. Von Tempsky (1828 - 68) was of Prussian descent, but left Prussia at the age of 18 he came to the Mosquito Coast (coastal region of present-day Nicaragua) -- then controlled by the British -- to lead a life of adventure. He mined in the California gold-fields, unsuccessfully, and returned to Nicaragua to resume his life there. It is his long trip back through Mexico and Guatemala that he wrote about in his book Mitla (Zapotec ruins outside Oaxaca, Mexico), which is full of his adventures, great sense of elan and good eye for detail. (In the preface he apologizes for daring to write in the English language rather than German, but his English is quite up to the task.) He later went to Australia and New Zealand to mine gold and, it seems, to have more adventures. He was a skilled amateur artist, and it is his own water-color sketches that are the basis for the fine chromolithographs and other illustrations: the coloring is spectacular. Binding is the original crimson blind-stamped publsher's cloth, somewhat faded and stained. Text, map and images are unusually clean. Very good copy. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 6877

Bibliografische Details

Titel: Mitla. A Narrative of Incidents and Personal...

Verlag: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts, London

Erscheinungsdatum: 1858

Einband: Hardcover

Auflage: First edition.