Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - April - 2009 Issue
Varied Items from Antiquariat Banzhaf
A view of the ancient city of Pompeii.
Item 147 is A letter on the abolition of the slave trade; addressed to the freeholders and other inhabitants of Yorkshire, by William Wilberforce, published in 1807. Wilberforce was first elected to Parliament in 1780, at the age of 21. He was described as something of a fun-loving type, a great speaker and good friend of future Prime Minister William Pitt. However, Wilberforce was an independent, not wishing to conform his views to any party. Sometime around 1785, he underwent a religious conversion, and it made him a more serious person, at least on the issues of the day. The issue that most concerned him from that point on was slavery, and he worked tirelessly to end the slave trade, and later, to outlaw it entirely from the British Empire. €1,400 (US $1,913).
Item 112 is Album du Canal Maritime de Suez, by Hippolyte Arnoux. This album with mounted photographs of the Suez Canal was published in Port Said in 1866. Arnoux was a notable local photographer, and these pictures predate the opening of the canal. Ferdinand de Lesseps obtained a permit to build the canal in the 1850s, but it would not be until a decade later, in 1869, that the canal was opened for traffic. Photographs show the canal, Port Said, natives, and de Lesseps' house. €900 (US $1,228).
Antiquariat Banzhaf may be reached at 0049-(0)7071-552314 or Antiquariat-Banzhaf@t-online.de.
