The highlands of Ethiopia

The full title of the book as it appears on the half-title page is “The Highlands of Aethiopia described, during eighteen months’ residence of a British Embassy at the Christian Court of Shoa.” Cornwallis Harris, a young British army officer, of undoubted ability, serving as military engineer in India. He was selected to lead a diplomatic & trade embassy to Sahle Selassie, ruler of an autonomous region of Ethiopia, in 1841. During the 18 months he was resident there, he led expeditions of discovery into the interior, where he met various tribes, described the geographical features, collected scientific data and had some exciting big game hunts. He was an accomplished artist and apart from the few plates in these volumes, produced a folio volume containing 26 colour plates – a companion to his book of Southern African mammals “Portraits of the Game and Wild Animals of Southern Africa.” He returned to Britain triumphant, was knighted for his efforts, but died a few years later, in India in 1848 at the age of 41. This set is a cornerstone of any serious collection of African travel and exploration, being well-written and concerning a region of Africa, little-known to Europeans. The copy on offer is a set of the RARE first edition (it was reprinted the same year). It is complete, with all half-titles, titles, two tinted lithograph frontispieces, hand-coloured frontispiece (of Sahle Selassie) in volume 3, hand-coloured Dedication page, folding map & 32 pages of publisher’s adverts in volume #1, dated November 20, 1843. ABBEY/TRAVEL #290; CZECH, p. 72. This set is in the original blind-stamped red cloth bindings, with gilt titles on spines. All volumes have slight wear to spine tips & slightly bumped corners, spine of volume #2 frayed at head & foot, some black marks in bottom half of the spine. Inner hinges of volume one splitting, rear inner hinge of volume #2 strained, signature of Joseph Gould on all three front end-papers & a gift inscription on the recto of all three frontispieces, quite heavy foxing on preliminaries and particularly on the plates. Map has two closed tears, at which there has been some attempt at repair. The map has been awkwardly folded and there is some creasing along the folds. This set has not been recased or rebound and is altogether one of the better First Edition sets I have come across. First Editions are particularly hard to find and most sought after by collectors of travel as well as being companions to Cornwallis Harris’ other works on Southern Africa.