Lot 88: HENRY MORTON STANLEY (1841-1904)

In Darkest Africa or the Quest, Rescue and Retreat of Emin Governor of Equatoria. London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington, 1890. 4o (290 x 220mm). Titles in red and black. Photogravure frontispiece to each volume, 36 wood-engraved plates on India paper, mounted, 6 etchings by M.G. Montbard signed by the artist in pencil, 4 coloured maps and plans, the 2 larger folding maps mounted on linen, and one leaf of autograph facsimiles. Wood-engraved illustrations on India paper, mounted. (Half-title and frontispiece in vol. I slightly affected by damp, one plate in vol. II detached, occasional soiling of page edges.) Original brown half vellum, upper covers with title and author's facsimile autograph in gilt, spines titled in gilt, top edges gilt, others uncut (vellum soiled). Provenance : 'Eisteddfod Genedlaethol Dinbych, 1939' (printed exhibition label, endorsed 'Capt. D.M. Stanley [catalogue no:] 21'). Hosken p. 189. NUMBER 232 OF 250 COPIES IN THE DEMY QUARTO EDITION DE LUXE, SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR on limitation leaf. Stanley and Emin entered Bagamoyo on their donkeys, some way ahead of their caravan, on 4 December, 1889. It was sensational news. Emin was safe, although the expedition to relieve him had cost the lives of at least seven hundred people. Stanley began his account of the rescue at the Hotel Victoria, Cairo, on the 25 January 1890, working on it continuously for 50 days at the rate of 20 printed pages per day. The first portion of the manuscript was delivered to the printer's on 12 March and the last proof sheet returned for printing by Clowes on 3 June. 'It may be safely asserted... that no work of travel of this magnitude was ever before produced in so short a space of time' (Author's and Publisher's Note, p. iv). Hosken p. 189. (2).