Random Sketches or What I Saw in Europe ... with photographic illustrations ....

Philadelphia: G Collins, 1857. First Edition.. Original publisher's embossed cloth.. Good; horizontal split at the head of the backstrip; modest wear to the head and tail of the backstrip; some spotting to the frontispiece and title page; front and rear blanks torn out.. 8vo. There are four photographic salt prints illustrating the book. This copy signed by A R DuPont on the verso of the frontispiece.

Among the earliest photographically illustrated travel books published in America. The author identifies himself as an artist. The book is a record of his "grand tour" of the continent. The photographs illustrating the text are all salt prints, inserted as plates. There is a frontis. photographic portrait (salt print) of the author (bearing his hand written signature), followed by views (again salt prints) of St. Marks square in Venice, the Coliseum, and the Place de la Concorde in Paris. See Dag. Annual, 1995, p. 217; Smith, R20.