BLACKWOOD, Lady Alicia. Scutari, the Bosphorus and the Crimea [wrapper title]. Bristol, John Lavars for Lady Blackwood in Ventnor, Isle of Wight, 1857.
Two volumes, tall folio (c. 55 by 37 cm); Original lithographed wrappers with cloth spines; two tinted lithographic titles, two printed dedication leaves, two leaves of lists of plates, 19 tinted lithographic plates, of which 5 are double-page folding panoramas; bindings with restorations, interior with faint trace of humidity to most plates, a few plates and one text leaf with restored marginal tears, still better than usually encountered; housed in a custom-made cardboard folder.
Very rare first privately printed edition sold at 2 Guineas. This work is dedicated to Florence Nightingale by Lady Blackwood, who worked with her at the Great Barrack hospital in Scutari, and was sold to raise funds for church and school missions. 'At the end of the war they [Lady Blackwood and her husband, a military chaplain] managed to travel, visiting Balaklava, Inkerman, Chernaya valley, and Cathcart's Hill. They delivered translated bibles and testaments to vanquished Russian soldiers, and travelled to see the khans of Bakhchisaray, the resort of the Karaite Jews in the valley of Jehoshaphat. Lady Alicia recalled that the southern part of the Crimea was reduced to one vast cemetery' (ODNB). Some of these places are depicted on the plates.
~b~Abbey 242; Atabey 113 ('rare'); Blackmer 148.~i~
#2121008