[SPRY, WILLIAM JAMES JOSEPH]. Life on the Bosphorus. Doings in the City of the Sultan. Turkey, Past and Present, Including Chronicles of the Caliphs from Mahomet to Abdul Hamid II. London: H. S. Nichols, MDCCCXCV. [1895].
FIRST EDITION [EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED]. Complete in two volumes; leather bound; hardcover; octavo (23 x 15 cm.); Part I: pp. xix, 244; Part II ('Chronicles of the Caliphs'): pp. [2], 330. English text with numerous illustrations throughout, plus a folding colour map. Handsomely bound in full morocco gilt by H. G. Long, Southsea, England; all page edges gilt; green-marbled endpapers; half-titles; frontispieces; title-page printed in red and black; extra-illustrated with a total of 106 full-page plates with tissue guards + illustrations in the text; part II with an appendix and folding coloured map to rear. Condition: GOOD. Bindings tight and secure with the hinges and joints perfectly intact. Very light rubbing to extremities, the second volume with damp staining to lower portion of the covers, light staining affecting some preliminary leaves of this volume; overall the interiors largely well-preserved with some light toning and very occasional marginal fox spots. Scarce thus.
Notes: First edition of this fascinating survey of the culture and history of Turkey and especially Constantinople. An exceptionally rare extra-illustrated copy bound in two volumes with a total of 106 full-page plates (including many photographs), numerous in-text wood-engravings, and a folding map in colour of the Turkish Empire. Spry's comprehensive and entertaining work surveys Turkey and Constantinople's past and present, including a "chronicle of the Caliphs," from Muhammad to Abdul Hamid II. Includes chapters on the building of mosques including St. Sophia, Muslim religious practices such as the pilgrimage to Mecca and Ramadan, state receptions, cemeteries and funeral customs, baths and bathing, harems, Dervishes, fishing in the Bosphorus, pastimes, and trade and the role of guilds. Also with an Appendix on Armenian reforms. Not in Blackmer or Atabey.
