signed first edition Hardcover
1890 · London
by Stanley, Henry M.; W.G. Stairs; Thomas Heazle Parke; Robert Henry Nelson; A.J. Mounteney-Jephson; J. McNeil Whistler; Henry Van Der Weyde
London: Henry Solomon Wellcome and Elkington & Co., 1890. Autograph. Very good+ condition. Hardcover. Signed by Author(s). First Edition. Octavo (8vo). 12 pages, including pages with mounted photographs. Bound in full leather stamped "Stanley" with shield and eagle decoration on the front cover, with wear to the extremities. The spine has been expertly rebacked in full leather to match the original. The hinge of the page containing the Stanley photograph has been repaired almost invisibly, not affecting the photograph or the text. There is minor to moderate foxing scattered throughout. With the exception of the list of persons present, which is affixed to the inside front cover, each page is mounted on thick card stock. There are five photographic portraits of the officers of the Advance Command of the Expedition, each of which is signed by the officer in the top margin above the photograph. The book is additionally signed on the front and rear endpaper by 23 attendees of the banquet event. The text includes the menu of nine courses served on May 30th, 1890 including "Babas a la Stanley" for entrements. It was a lavish event, held in the Portman Rooms, with the Band of the Grenadier Guards played 10 songs. At this event, Stanley was presented with a massive testimonial shield and medallions wrought in fine silver by Elkington & Co. The shield was designed by Henry Solomon Wellcome, who apparently organized this banquet event. Wellcome's new tabloid medicines in the form of "nine beautiful chests replete with every medicament necessary to combat the endemic diseases peculiar to Africa" accompanied the expedition, and there were several pharmaceutical colleagues in attendance at the event. Signed by 1) Max O'Rell pen name of M. Paul Blouet (1848-1903) French author 2) Howard Bronson (1842-1908) American Dramatist 3) Moncure D. Conway (1832-1907) Abolitionist Minister 4) William Holman Hunt(1827-1910) English Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood 5) J. McNeil Whistler (1834-1903) American artist 6) Frederick Kill Harford (1832-1906) English clergyman, musician, poet and pioneering music therapist 7) Gen. P.D. Roddey (1826-1897) Alabama Confederate 8) Dr. G. W. Holman American patent medicine 9) A.R. Shaw 10) Hon. J.C. New Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury 11) Henry S. Wellcome (1853-1936) pharmaceutical entrepreneur 12) Sir Mountstuart Grant Duff (1829-1906) Scottish politician 13) W. Everett? 14) Charles Williams 15) Maj. Henry Van Der Weyde (1838-1924) Dutch born English painter and photographer 16) Brent Good (1837-1915) Carter Medicine Co.; shocked in London Zeppelin Raid 17) J.N. Aronson electrical patentee 18) Eli Lemon Sheldon (1846-1892) close Stanley family friend whose wife Mary French Sheldon traveled to Mombasa and Kilimanjaro 19) Stanley on portrait 20) Stairs on portrait 21) Parke on portrait 22) Nelson on portrait 23) Mounteney-Jephson on portrait 24) G.G. Macpherson 25) M.P. McCoy London Agent Cottrell Presses 26) D. Dalziel of Dalziel's Cable News Agency 27) Townsend Percy 28) Edward H. Allen (1830-1895) G.A.R. The book measures just over 10 inches in height..
(Inventory #: 019305)