1826 Scarce Edition - Baron Munchausen with Hand-Coloured Illustrations
A charming and beautifully preserved scarce 1826 edition of The Surprising Travels and Adventures of Baron Munchausen, complete with its original hand-coloured folding frontispiece and hand-coloured engraved title page, in an attractive contemporary embossed leather binding.
Author: Traditionally attributed to Rudolf Erich Raspe.
Title: The Surprising Travels and Adventures of Baron Munchausen (Exceeding All Other Travellers!!!), including An Account of a Voyage into the Moon and Dog Star.
Publisher: London: Printed for and sold by T. Hughes, Ludgate Street, and J. Bysh, Paternoster Row, 1826.
Edition: A New and Complete Edition.
Language: English.
Pages: iv, 70; iv, 61 pages.
Size: 7 x 4 inches.
Binding: Very good contemporary dark leather binding, richly embossed with a repeating diamond pattern, decorative borders, raised spine bands, and gilt-lettered spine. Beautifully preserved multicoloured marbled endpapers in red, blue, cream, and yellow. Light rubbing and expected age-related wear to the leather extremities, with the binding remaining sound and particularly attractive. Protected in a removable mylar cover.
Content: Very good, complete, with gentle age toning and scattered foxing, most noticeable on the preliminary leaves and illustrated pages. The text remains clean and legible, with the original illustrations retaining their pleasing period colours. Early handwritten ownership inscriptions appear on the preliminary leaves.
Illustrations: Complete with the original hand-coloured engraved folding frontispiece depicting Munchausen rescuing his horse from a perilous situation, together with a hand-coloured engraved title page featuring a portrait of the Baron. Both illustrations retain their original period colouring.
Estimate: $400–500 USD.
The book: The Surprising Travels and Adventures of Baron Munchausen is one of the great classics of imaginative adventure and extravagant storytelling. First published in English in 1785, the tales follow the extraordinary exploits of a boastful German nobleman whose impossible adventures carry him across distant countries, through extraordinary battles, beneath the sea, and even to the Moon. Among his most memorable feats are riding a cannonball, escaping remarkable dangers through sheer ingenuity, and encountering creatures and situations that defy every law of nature.
This delightful scarce 1826 London edition brings together the Baron's travels and their continuation in a compact volume. Particularly appealing are its two original hand-coloured engravings: the large folding frontispiece, with its dramatic depiction of the Baron firing a pistol while his horse is stranded high above him, and the decorative engraved title page with a colourful portrait. The handsome contemporary leather binding and striking marbled endpapers add considerable charm, making this a desirable example of early nineteenth-century illustrated adventure literature.
The author: Rudolf Erich Raspe (1736–1794) was a German scholar, writer, and antiquarian who is generally credited with creating the original English-language adventures of Baron Munchausen. Drawing inspiration from the extraordinary stories associated with the real German nobleman Hieronymus Karl Friedrich von Münchhausen, Raspe transformed the Baron's legendary boasts into a series of fantastical narratives filled with satire, absurdity, and imaginative invention.