1845 Second Edition With Belper Provenance
THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS TWO VOLS
By Eliot Warburton
KEY DETAILS
Condition: Good
Format: Hardcover, Contemporary full diced calf, octavo (8vo), two volumes
Published By: Henry Colburn, Great Marlborough Street, London, 1845
Language: English
Illustrated By: Day & Haghe (Lithographer)
Provenance: Belper — probably Edward Strutt, 1st Baron Belper (1801–1880).
Collation: The second edition is bibliographically recorded as: Vol. I: xvi, 418 pp. Vol. II: vii, [1], 358 pp.; With two lithographed frontispieces, one in each volume, printed by Day & Haghe, and thirteen wood-engraved illustrations within the text.; This differs substantially from the pagination of the first edition — xvi, 389; viii, 433 pp. — and confirms the volumes as the reset second edition of 1845.
Dust Jacket: None, as issued, No Jacket
SKU: BTETM0002514
Shipping Info: Approximate Package Dimensions H: 12.5, L: 30, W: 25 (Units: cm), W: 3Kg
Tracked Shipping, Insurance Coverage as per Customer Request
DESCRIPTION
The Crescent and the Cross Two Vols
or, Romance and Realities of Eastern Travel
A handsome two-volume copy of the second edition of Eliot Warburton's celebrated Victorian account of travel through Egypt and the Middle East, published by Henry Colburn in 1845, the same year as the first edition.
The Crescent and the Cross; or, Romance and Realities of Eastern Travel was Warburton's first and most successful book. Based upon his extensive journey of 1843 through Egypt, Syria, Palestine and the wider eastern Mediterranean, it became an immediate publishing success and passed rapidly through successive editions. The third edition was already being advertised before the end of 1845.
This second edition is bibliographically distinct from the first, being reset and differently paginated: xvi, 418; vii, [1], 358 pp. It is illustrated with two lithographed frontispieces, one to each volume, printed by Day & Haghe, Lithographers to the Queen, together with thirteen wood-engraved illustrations in the text.
The volumes are attractively bound in contemporary full diced calf, with gilt-ruled boards, gilt-decorated compartmented spines, twin contrasting morocco lettering and numbering pieces, gilt board edges, marbled endpapers and marbled page edges.
Of particular interest is the provenance. Both the character of the binding and the “Belper” armorial bookplate, surmounted by a baron's coronet and incorporating the Strutt family crest, place the set within the library associated with the Barons Belper. Cambridge University Library records this form of bookplate as probably that of Edward Strutt, 1st Baron Belper (1801–1880).
An attractive early edition of one of the defining popular travel narratives of the early Victorian fascination with Egypt and the Levant, combining strong period presentation with identifiable nineteenth-century aristocratic provenance.
PROVENANCE
Belper — probably Edward Strutt, 1st Baron Belper (1801–1880).
Armorial “Belper” bookplate to the pastedowns, displaying a baron's coronet above the Strutt family crest.
Cambridge University Library records an equivalent bookplate as: “Belper, with Baron's coronet and Strutt family crest” and attributes it, with appropriate qualification, as possibly belonging to Edward Strutt, 1st Baron Belper, FRS, President of University College London and member of the Privy Council.
Edward Strutt was born into the prominent Derbyshire industrial family descended from the textile pioneer Jedediah Strutt. A Liberal politician and public figure, he served as an MP for more than three decades, held government office and was raised to the peerage as Baron Belper in 1856.
The book itself predates the creation of the barony, so the armorial bookplate represents subsequent incorporation of the volumes into the titled Belper library rather than an ownership mark contemporary with publication.
Other books carrying Edward Strutt or Belper provenance have been recorded by major institutional and auction catalogues, including Cambridge University Library and Christie's.
CONDITION, COLLATION & COPY NOTES
Two volumes in attractive contemporary full diced calf. Boards remain sound and present well, with rubbing, scuffing and surface marking consistent with age and use, more noticeable at the spines, joints and extremities. Some wear and scratching to the morocco spine labels. Gilt decoration remains attractive and the pair retains considerable shelf presence.
Marbled endpapers and marbled page edges present.
Internally, the volumes show scattered spotting and occasional age-toning. The lithographed frontispieces have more noticeable foxing, with some transfer and spotting to adjacent leaves, while the main text is generally considerably cleaner.
Bindings remain firm and the volumes are tightly held.
Please see Photos as part of condition report.
REFERENCES
Blackmer 1771 — recording The Crescent and the Cross, though citing a defective mixed-edition copy.
Abbey, Travel 363 — citing the third edition.
Cambridge University Library, Rare Books Provenance Index: “Belper, Edward Strutt, Baron, 1801–1880” — bookplate recorded as “Belper, with Baron's coronet and Strutt family crest.”
Dictionary of Irish Biography, “Warburton, Bartholomew Elliott George (‘Eliot Warburton’) (1810–52)”.
Maggs Bros., The Crescent and the Cross; or, Romance and Realities of Eastern Travel, first-edition bibliographical record.
Contemporary and institutional records of the 1845 second edition record the collation as xvi, 418; vii, [1], 358 pp., with two lithographed frontispieces and thirteen wood-engraved illustrations.
SYNOPSIS
The Crescent and the Cross records Warburton's travels through the eastern Mediterranean during 1843 and belongs to the great flowering of British travel writing concerned with Egypt, the Ottoman Empire and the Holy Land during the first half of the nineteenth century.
Warburton begins with the voyage south through the Mediterranean before reaching Alexandria and Cairo. He travels along the Nile into Upper Egypt and Nubia, describing the landscape, local communities and the ancient monuments encountered along the way, including the pyramids, Thebes, Dendera and Philae.
His narrative mixes archaeological and historical observation with accounts of contemporary Egyptian society and government, encounters with fellow travellers and local inhabitants, descriptions of river travel and the hazards and pleasures of the journey.
The second volume turns towards the Levant and Holy Land, taking the reader through Beirut and Lebanon, Tyre and Sidon, Acre and Jaffa, and onwards to Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Mar Saba and the Dead Sea. Warburton subsequently travels through Damascus and Baalbek before continuing through the eastern Mediterranean.
The work deliberately combines the factual conventions of nineteenth-century travel literature with adventure, anecdote and romantic description. Warburton was less interested in producing a formal archaeological handbook than in giving his readers the sensation of travelling alongside him.
That accessibility was central to the book's extraordinary contemporary popularity. Rather than addressing only scholars or antiquarians, Warburton wrote for the rapidly expanding Victorian audience fascinated by Egypt, biblical geography, the Ottoman world and journeys into regions still regarded by many British readers as remote and exotic.
Modern readers will also recognise in the work many of the assumptions, generalisations and Orientalist attitudes characteristic of nineteenth-century European writing about the Middle East. In that respect the book is valuable not only as a narrative of travel, but as evidence of how Egypt and the Levant were represented to a large Victorian readership.
Its combination of personal adventure, archaeological curiosity, religion, politics, landscape and highly visual descriptive writing made The Crescent and the Cross one of the more commercially successful British Eastern travel books of its generation.
AUTHOR BIO
Bartholomew Elliott George Warburton (1810–1852), generally known by his literary name Eliot Warburton, was an Irish landowner, traveller, barrister and author.
Born near Tullamore in King's County, now County Offaly, he was educated privately before entering Queens' College, Cambridge, in 1828 and transferring to Trinity College in 1830. He graduated BA in 1834 and MA in 1837 and was called to the Irish Bar, although he chose not to pursue a substantial legal career.
Warburton moved in a distinguished literary and intellectual circle. His friends included Richard Monckton Milnes and Alexander William Kinglake, author of Eothen. His travels in Egypt, Syria and Palestine in 1843 supplied the material for The Crescent and the Cross, initially developed from accounts written for the Dublin University Magazine.
Published in book form in 1845, it was an immediate success and established Warburton's literary reputation. He subsequently produced historical and fictional works including Memoirs of Prince Rupert and the Cavaliers (1849), Reginald Hastings (1850), Memoirs of Horace Walpole and his Contemporaries (1851) and the historical novel Darien; or, The Merchant Prince (1852).
Warburton's life ended abruptly on 4 January 1852. Travelling towards Central America on behalf of the Atlantic and Pacific Junction Company, he was aboard the newly built Royal Mail steamship Amazon when the vessel caught fire shortly after leaving Southampton. Warburton was among those lost when the ship burned and sank off Land's End.
The Crescent and the Cross remained his best-known work and continued to be reprinted for decades after his death.
ILLUSTRATOR
Day & Haghe (Lithographer)
LITHOGRAPHIC PRINTER
Day & Haghe, Lithographers to the Queen
Day & Haghe were among the foremost British lithographic printing establishments of the early Victorian period. Founded by William Day and later joined by Louis Haghe, the firm became particularly celebrated for architectural, topographical and travel-related lithography.
The two lithographed frontispieces in this edition were produced by Day & Haghe. The firm should therefore be identified as the lithographic printer rather than the illustrator; the artists responsible for the original designs are not identified in the bibliographical descriptions consulted.
The remaining illustrations comprise thirteen wood engravings within the text.
1845 Second Edition With Belper Provenance
THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS TWO VOLS
By Eliot Warburton
KEY DETAILS
Condition: Good
Format: Hardcover, Contemporary full diced calf, octavo (8vo), two volumes
Published By: Henry Colburn, Great Marlborough Street, London, 1845
Language: English
Illustrated By: Day & Haghe (Lithographer)
Provenance: Belper — probably Edward Strutt, 1st Baron Belper (1801–1880).
Collation: The second edition is bibliographically recorded as: Vol. I: xvi, 418 pp. Vol. II: vii, [1], 358 pp.; With two lithographed frontispieces, one in each volume, printed by Day & Haghe, and thirteen wood-engraved illustrations within the text.; This differs substantially from the pagination of the first edition — xvi, 389; viii, 433 pp. — and confirms the volumes as the reset second edition of 1845.
Dust Jacket: None, as issued, No Jacket
SKU: BTETM0002514
Shipping Info: Approximate Package Dimensions H: 12.5, L: 30, W: 25 (Units: cm), W: 3Kg
Tracked Shipping, Insurance Coverage as per Customer Request
DESCRIPTION
The Crescent and the Cross Two Vols
or, Romance and Realities of Eastern Travel
A handsome two-volume copy of the second edition of Eliot Warburton's celebrated Victorian account of travel through Egypt and the Middle East, published by Henry Colburn in 1845, the same year as the first edition.
The Crescent and the Cross; or, Romance and Realities of Eastern Travel was Warburton's first and most successful book. Based upon his extensive journey of 1843 through Egypt, Syria, Palestine and the wider eastern Mediterranean, it became an immediate publishing success and passed rapidly through successive editions. The third edition was already being advertised before the end of 1845.
This second edition is bibliographically distinct from the first, being reset and differently paginated: xvi, 418; vii, [1], 358 pp. It is illustrated with two lithographed frontispieces, one to each volume, printed by Day & Haghe, Lithographers to the Queen, together with thirteen wood-engraved illustrations in the text.
The volumes are attractively bound in contemporary full diced calf, with gilt-ruled boards, gilt-decorated compartmented spines, twin contrasting morocco lettering and numbering pieces, gilt board edges, marbled endpapers and marbled page edges.
Of particular interest is the provenance. Both the character of the binding and the “Belper” armorial bookplate, surmounted by a baron's coronet and incorporating the Strutt family crest, place the set within the library associated with the Barons Belper. Cambridge University Library records this form of bookplate as probably that of Edward Strutt, 1st Baron Belper (1801–1880).
An attractive early edition of one of the defining popular travel narratives of the early Victorian fascination with Egypt and the Levant, combining strong period presentation with identifiable nineteenth-century aristocratic provenance.
PROVENANCE
Belper — probably Edward Strutt, 1st Baron Belper (1801–1880).
Armorial “Belper” bookplate to the pastedowns, displaying a baron's coronet above the Strutt family crest.
Cambridge University Library records an equivalent bookplate as: “Belper, with Baron's coronet and Strutt family crest” and attributes it, with appropriate qualification, as possibly belonging to Edward Strutt, 1st Baron Belper, FRS, President of University College London and member of the Privy Council.
Edward Strutt was born into the prominent Derbyshire industrial family descended from the textile pioneer Jedediah Strutt. A Liberal politician and public figure, he served as an MP for more than three decades, held government office and was raised to the peerage as Baron Belper in 1856.
The book itself predates the creation of the barony, so the armorial bookplate represents subsequent incorporation of the volumes into the titled Belper library rather than an ownership mark contemporary with publication.
Other books carrying Edward Strutt or Belper provenance have been recorded by major institutional and auction catalogues, including Cambridge University Library and Christie's.
CONDITION, COLLATION & COPY NOTES
Two volumes in attractive contemporary full diced calf. Boards remain sound and present well, with rubbing, scuffing and surface marking consistent with age and use, more noticeable at the spines, joints and extremities. Some wear and scratching to the morocco spine labels. Gilt decoration remains attractive and the pair retains considerable shelf presence.
Marbled endpapers and marbled page edges present.
Internally, the volumes show scattered spotting and occasional age-toning. The lithographed frontispieces have more noticeable foxing, with some transfer and spotting to adjacent leaves, while the main text is generally considerably cleaner.
Bindings remain firm and the volumes are tightly held.
Please see Photos as part of condition report.
REFERENCES
Blackmer 1771 — recording The Crescent and the Cross, though citing a defective mixed-edition copy.
Abbey, Travel 363 — citing the third edition.
Cambridge University Library, Rare Books Provenance Index: “Belper, Edward Strutt, Baron, 1801–1880” — bookplate recorded as “Belper, with Baron's coronet and Strutt family crest.”
Dictionary of Irish Biography, “Warburton, Bartholomew Elliott George (‘Eliot Warburton’) (1810–52)”.
Maggs Bros., The Crescent and the Cross; or, Romance and Realities of Eastern Travel, first-edition bibliographical record.
Contemporary and institutional records of the 1845 second edition record the collation as xvi, 418; vii, [1], 358 pp., with two lithographed frontispieces and thirteen wood-engraved illustrations.
SYNOPSIS
The Crescent and the Cross records Warburton's travels through the eastern Mediterranean during 1843 and belongs to the great flowering of British travel writing concerned with Egypt, the Ottoman Empire and the Holy Land during the first half of the nineteenth century.
Warburton begins with the voyage south through the Mediterranean before reaching Alexandria and Cairo. He travels along the Nile into Upper Egypt and Nubia, describing the landscape, local communities and the ancient monuments encountered along the way, including the pyramids, Thebes, Dendera and Philae.
His narrative mixes archaeological and historical observation with accounts of contemporary Egyptian society and government, encounters with fellow travellers and local inhabitants, descriptions of river travel and the hazards and pleasures of the journey.
The second volume turns towards the Levant and Holy Land, taking the reader through Beirut and Lebanon, Tyre and Sidon, Acre and Jaffa, and onwards to Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Mar Saba and the Dead Sea. Warburton subsequently travels through Damascus and Baalbek before continuing through the eastern Mediterranean.
The work deliberately combines the factual conventions of nineteenth-century travel literature with adventure, anecdote and romantic description. Warburton was less interested in producing a formal archaeological handbook than in giving his readers the sensation of travelling alongside him.
That accessibility was central to the book's extraordinary contemporary popularity. Rather than addressing only scholars or antiquarians, Warburton wrote for the rapidly expanding Victorian audience fascinated by Egypt, biblical geography, the Ottoman world and journeys into regions still regarded by many British readers as remote and exotic.
Modern readers will also recognise in the work many of the assumptions, generalisations and Orientalist attitudes characteristic of nineteenth-century European writing about the Middle East. In that respect the book is valuable not only as a narrative of travel, but as evidence of how Egypt and the Levant were represented to a large Victorian readership.
Its combination of personal adventure, archaeological curiosity, religion, politics, landscape and highly visual descriptive writing made The Crescent and the Cross one of the more commercially successful British Eastern travel books of its generation.
AUTHOR BIO
Bartholomew Elliott George Warburton (1810–1852), generally known by his literary name Eliot Warburton, was an Irish landowner, traveller, barrister and author.
Born near Tullamore in King's County, now County Offaly, he was educated privately before entering Queens' College, Cambridge, in 1828 and transferring to Trinity College in 1830. He graduated BA in 1834 and MA in 1837 and was called to the Irish Bar, although he chose not to pursue a substantial legal career.
Warburton moved in a distinguished literary and intellectual circle. His friends included Richard Monckton Milnes and Alexander William Kinglake, author of Eothen. His travels in Egypt, Syria and Palestine in 1843 supplied the material for The Crescent and the Cross, initially developed from accounts written for the Dublin University Magazine.
Published in book form in 1845, it was an immediate success and established Warburton's literary reputation. He subsequently produced historical and fictional works including Memoirs of Prince Rupert and the Cavaliers (1849), Reginald Hastings (1850), Memoirs of Horace Walpole and his Contemporaries (1851) and the historical novel Darien; or, The Merchant Prince (1852).
Warburton's life ended abruptly on 4 January 1852. Travelling towards Central America on behalf of the Atlantic and Pacific Junction Company, he was aboard the newly built Royal Mail steamship Amazon when the vessel caught fire shortly after leaving Southampton. Warburton was among those lost when the ship burned and sank off Land's End.
The Crescent and the Cross remained his best-known work and continued to be reprinted for decades after his death.
ILLUSTRATOR
Day & Haghe (Lithographer)
LITHOGRAPHIC PRINTER
Day & Haghe, Lithographers to the Queen
Day & Haghe were among the foremost British lithographic printing establishments of the early Victorian period. Founded by William Day and later joined by Louis Haghe, the firm became particularly celebrated for architectural, topographical and travel-related lithography.
The two lithographed frontispieces in this edition were produced by Day & Haghe. The firm should therefore be identified as the lithographic printer rather than the illustrator; the artists responsible for the original designs are not identified in the bibliographical descriptions consulted.
The remaining illustrations comprise thirteen wood engravings within the text.
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