TRAVELS IN GEORGIA PERSIA ARMENIA ARMENIAN, EAST TURKEY 2 Volume Set * Fair value $4,000 + & No Reserve Auction Start Price USD 2,245.00 Current Price USD 2,245.00 Time Left - Bid Count 0 Buy It Now Price - Reserve Price - Start Time Thursday, July 17, 2008 End Time Sunday, July 27, 2008 Location USA See more about 'TRAVELS IN GEORGIA PERSIA ARMENIA ARMENIAN, EAST TURKEY' Description                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    TRAVELS IN GEORGIA, PERSIA, ARMENIA AND ANCIENT BABYLONIA During the Years 1817, 1818, 1819 and 1820 by SIR ROBERT KER PORTER. 1821. Description: First Edition. Very rare and collectible set in 2 volumes. Printed in London by Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1821.  Large folio like size, 11 x 8 inches, 2 portrait frontispieces, 67 of 88 engraved or aquatint plates, 4 plates in full color, 1 full page woodcut diagram, additional woodcut illustrations in the text. Fine leather spines. Half-title present in Volume II, pages: xxiii, 720; xiv, (2) -errata & list of plates, 866 pages including index.  The set is lacking 21 plates, including 1 color plate and 2 folding maps. Volume I lacks plate list, but register is continuous, indicating that no leaf is missing! Volume II lacks last 3 pages of index. The set is bound in modern quarter morocco leather over cloth sides, spine blind ruled and gilt lettered. Few minor scratches and minor marks to cloth. The set has a very attractive gilt coat of arms to head of spines, gilt library number at tail, attractive reference library bookplate on front pastedowns, round blind library stamp on title pages and frontispieces and occasionally within, oval ink stamp and library numbers on verso title pages, 1 further oval ink stamp within, some of the plates stamped with small "YL", title pages and frontispieces slightly dusty and faintly stained around the edges, those in Volume I have a couple of short closed edge tears neatly repaired on verso, many page margins thumbed, occasional small pale stains and light soiling, ink spot to 3 pages, loss of 6 letters in all, tiny hole in 1 page, loss of 2 letters, a few small closed edge tears, neatly repaired, corner tip torn off 1 text page, some plates lightly browned in margins, a few plates with white backgrounds have pale offsetting from the text, 1 plate with vertical crease, occasional very pale foxing to plates, 1 plate has closed edge tear affecting image, repaired with old paper on verso, no loss, Volume II has a dark brown stain affecting lower corner of many pages, varying in intensity and size but not affecting text or image on plates, small pale water stain affects upper margin of some plates in Volume II, final page in each volume slightly dusty. On a positive note: There is not much foxing to the text, plus bindings are tight and firm. Overall fair plus and acceptable 187 years old copy of a very scarce important work on Persia and Armenia.  Please note, due to the age of the set perfect copies are practically impossible to find.  Robert Ker Porter (1775-1842), brother of the prolific novelists Jane and Anna Maria Porter, trained as an artist gaining admission to the Royal Academy in 1790 and receiving some important commissions in London, focusing on battle scenes. Sir Robert was an English painter, diplomat and traveler.  In 1804 he went to Russia as historical painter to the Tsar. From there he travelled to various countries. In 1817 he proceeded from St. Petersburg through the Caucasus into Persia where he passed through Tehran and Isfahan, examined the ruins of Persepolis and made many valuable drawings and transcriptions of cuneiform inscriptions. At Tehran he drew the portrait of the Persian monarch Futteh Ali Shah who awarded him in 1819 with the insignia of the Order of the Lion and the Sun (see frontispiece to Volume I). The bulk of this work is on Persia but there is also a considerable amount of material on Russia, Armenia, Georgia and Iraq and he returns via Constantinople. One of the greatest mines of information concerning the life and manners of the people of Western Asia at the beginning of the last century, and also with regard to the monuments, inscriptions, and other antiquities then known to exist in Persia and Babylonia, is the magnificent work of Sir Robert Ker Porter, " Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, Ancient Babylonia, etc., etc., during the years 1817-20," equally remarkable for the "truth in what the author relates," and the "fidelity in what he copies" and illustrates by his numerous drawings, portraits, and sketches. From childhood love for the arts, he had become a famous painter of international reputation, whose eminent talents, striking personality, and final marriage with a Russian princess had secured for him a social standing which enabled him, by his pen and brush, to reach circles hitherto but little influenced by the books of ordinary travelers and the scientific and often dry investigations of men of the type of Otter, Niebuhr, Beauchamp, and Rich. In his popularization of a subject which so far had stirred the minds of only a limited class of people, and in appealing, by his religious sentiment, the manner of his style, and the accurate representation of what he had observed, not less to the men of science and religion than to the aristocratic circles of Europe, on whose interest and financial support the resurrection of Assyria and Babylonia chiefly depended, lies the significance of Ker Porter as a Babylonian explorer. The fair value of this rare 2 volume set is above $4,000 / This is No Reserve Auction!   One of four color plates.   Place a Bid!