83 “A Remarkable Work” (T.E. Lawrence): First Edition Of Burton’s Rarest Title 94BURTON, Richard Francis. Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah. London, 1855-56. Three volumes. Octavo, early 20th-century three-quarter navy morocco gilt. $11,000 First edition of illustrated narrative of his journey to Mecca, with five full-page color chromolithographs, eight tinted plates, one black-and-white plate, three plans (two folding), and a folding map. After years of studying Muslim customs and manners, Burton resolved to wend his way to Mecca to observe Muslim rites witnessed by few westerners. Donning a variety of disguises and learning the mannerisms common to Islam, Burton was accepted as a native. Over the course of his journey he visited the prophet Muhammad’s tomb and brought back the first accurate observations by a Westerner on the holiest of Muslim holy cities, Mecca. Norman Penzer remarks, “I questioned Colonel Lawrence [i.e., “Lawrence of Arabia”] about the accuracy of Burton’s description of the journey to Mecca and Medina, and he said that it was absolutely correct in every detail” (Penzer, 7). Penzer, 44-50. First several leaves of Volumes I and II with some chipping to edges not affecting text, rehinged and with some expert repairs, affecting frontispieces, title pages, and two folding maps. Burton’s Scarce Falconry In The Valley Of The Indus, 1852, One Of Only 500 Copies 95BURTON, Richard F. Falconry in the Valley of the Indus. London, 1852. Slim octavo, original dark purple cloth. $7,000 First edition of “one of the earliest of Burton’s books of travel” (Abbey), one of only 500 copies, with four full-page lithographic plates (including frontispiece), in original cloth. In 1842 Burton left Oxford to take a military commission in India. He worked as a surveyor and spy, mastering several Middle Eastern languages. In 1844, on a trek north to the Phuleli and Guni rivers of the Sind desert, Burton “found time to engage in some falconry… the postscript to the book gives one of the few pictures by Burton of the way in which he lived and worked among the natives” (Rice, 123). “One of the earliest of Burton’s books of travel” (Abbey), Falconry is also notably one of a quartet of books based on his experiences in India that Burton compiled from his notes while on leave in Europe in 1850-51. Containing four full-page tinted lithographic plates after Joseph Wolf. Penzer notes that in 1877 van Voorst wrote to Burton, stating that of the 500 copies issued, 257 remained unsold and suggested “scrapping” them. A handsome about-fine copy in original cloth.
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