Leyde [Leiden], J. K. Steenhoff, 1868-1877. 4to (29.0 x 21.5 cm). 240, [2] pp.; several text engravings; 55 plates or maps, including two lithographed portraits, 48 mostly coloured and tinted lithographed plates (views), two tinted lithographed maps (one very large, multi-folded) one hand-written letter in facsimile (double-sized). Contemporary half morocco over marbled boards. Spine with five raised bands with gilt chains; compartments with gilt vignettes and title. Marbled endpapers. Speckled edges.

Rare (over) complete copy of the general part of the results of a voyage by the Dutch naturalist and merchant François Paul Louis Pollen (1842-1886), and his compatriot Douwe Casparus van Dam (1827-1898). Their zoological, botanical and ethnographical expedition to Madagascar lasted from November 1863 to July 1866. This Part includes two maps (one, folded, of the northern part of Madagascar and adjacent waters and islands; the other of the island of Mayotte and the Comores). It also includes all the fine lithographed images of events that took place during the expedition, and accurate illustrations of the scenery, anthropology and ethnography, including various fishing activities (of turtles, sharks, molluscs, etc.), not only of Madagascar, but also of Réunion. Four plates show various Madagascarians, two contain portraits wiuth facsimile handwritings, namely of Charles Coquerel, and of Antoine Rétout, a citizen from Réunion. Jean Charles Coquerel (1822-1867) was "a French navy surgeon, algologist, and entomologist who collected insects in Madagascar and neighbouring islands. A number of these were described after his death by Léon Fairmaire in his Notes sur les Coléopteres recueillis par Charles Coquerel a Madagascar et sur les côtes d'Afrique (1869). During his lifetime Coquerel wrote a number of articles and books, including an appendix on insects in Auguste Vinson's Voyage à Madagascar au couronnement de Radama II (1865)" (Wikipedia). Compared with Landwehr, who lists five issues with nine or ten plates each, this copy has the following four plates not mentioned by Landwehr: Un marchand-pêcheur créole à St. Denis (Ile de la Réunion), Le Bazar à Hell-ville (Nossi-Be c. n. o. Madagascar) après l'arrivée du poisson, Pêche de coraux et de coquillages à Madagascar, and Pêche à la seine par les Sacalaves du Nord à Ambodavi (Madagascar). The text was never completed - it stops abruptly at the bottom of p. 240, and a title page was not issued. Some foxing (as usual) ranging from light to medium to only a few plates and mostly in the margins, other plates quite clean. Overall, a very good copy, especially since these are always foxed to some degree. The complete expedition by Pollen is comprised of four volumes; the other parts on the geology and zoology are very rare and expensive too. Cat. BM(NH) p. 1593; Landwehr, 394. Not in Ryckebusch.