LESSEPS, Ferdinand de. Percement de l'Isthme de Suez. Exposé et Documents Officiels. Paris, Henry Plon, 1855.
8vo. Early 20th-century oatmeal cloth, spine with red gilt-stamped lettering-piece, the original printed prappers bound in; pp. [iv], 280, [2], 19 [Lesseps' Lettre au Times], two folding lithographic maps; spotting to wrappers and text, otherwise a good copy of an uncommon publication.
First edition of one of the first exposés of Lesseps' main project, the canal that change world communication, trade and Egypt, published four years before work commenced. After having been occupied with the distant project since 1832 he received from Said Pasha a concession authorizing his scheme for the construction of the canal in 1854. 'In this treatise of nearly three hundred pages, with maps - The Piercing of the Isthmus of Suez - he set out the whole case for the canal and his proposed method of building it. He secured the support of Napoleon III and raised capital of teo hundred million francs. Construction was begun in 1859 and completed ten year later. Palmerston had opposed the whole scheme as inimical to British interests, and not a single share was taken up by the British investors; but in 1875 Disraeli, in a dazzling secret coup assisted by the Rothschilds, bought for Britain the shares originally subscribed for by the Kedive Ismail' (Printing and the Mind of Man 339).
This copy with the rarely present 19-page letter to the Times by Lesseps, where he refutes British warnings of financial collapse. He then points out that other European powers, such as Austria and Italian states clearly see the benefits, both for trade and investors.
Provenance: Contemporary Italian collector's name in purple ink at foot of title-page, early 20th-century armorial bookplate De Sardegna Hohenstein inside front cover. Originating from Tyrol, members of the Austro-Bohemia noble family of Thun und Hohenstein with many affiliations to other noble families held many important posts in various governments.
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