The Nile Boat; or, Glimpses of the Land of Egypt

First Edition. 8vo (10 x 7 ins); pp [vii], 218 + [8] adverts. Steel engraved frontispiece (lacking the tissue-guard), additional illustrated titlepage; one map, one plan, 32 further engravings (one of which is folding), and 17 wood cuts in the text. Original black cloth with gilt framed design to both boards with a pair of fishing boats in sail to upper and lower boards. Light rubbing to edges of spine and corner tips. Contemp. gift inscription to head of titlepage. A fine copy. Bartlett was born in Kentish Town, London, and apprenticed to John Britton (1771–1857), becoming one of the leading topographical illustrators of his time. In the 1830s and 40s he travelled extensively in Britain, the Balkans and the Middle East and made four trips to North America between 1836 and 1852. His aim was to capture "lively impressions of actual sights", as he wrote in the preface to The Nile Boat. Many of his views contain a ruin or element of the past including many scenes of churches, abbeys, cathedrals and castles, and Nathaniel Parker Willis described Bartlett's talent thus: "Bartlett could select his point of view so as to bring prominently into his sketch the castle or the cathedral, which history or antiquity had allowed". His book on the Nile passed into at least four editions following the first in 1849 (1850, 1852, 1862, 1869).