Mexico. Landscapes and Popular Sketches. Edited by Dr. Gaspery

London: Trübner & Cie, 1858. 4to. 265 x 210 mm. (10 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches). [ii], vi, 202 pp. Engraved frontispiece, engraved title-page (with the date 1859 in the imprint), and 16 full-page engraved plates after original sketches by Moritz Rugendas. Original brown cloth, decorated in bind and gilt; rebacked sympathetically, some fading of the cover and some sporadic foxing to the tissue guards and to a few plates; with faults quite a good copy. The first edition of Sartorius's Mexico was published in Darmstadt in 1855 in nine parts, followed by editions published in London and New York in 1858-59. Satorius's book is one of the key travel books which illustrates the landscape and people of Mexico. Satorius was a refugee who left Germany looking for political and religious freedom. He became a wealthy miner and businessman and spent the later years of his life exploring and writing about his adopted country. Working with the artists Moritz Rugendas, they produced an image of the country that focused on the pastoral settings and the rugged lives of the rancheros. Rugendas's drawings and paintings were highly detailed and provided a series of engravers the opportunity to produce some stunning images of the Mexico during the 1850's. C. M. Kurz, J. Poppel and W. Lang were responsible for translating the lyrical style of Rugendas into engravings that captured the terrain and the lives of the Mexican people. Together, Satorius and Rugendus were interpreters of the Mexican state for both European and American audiences and were active in promoting emigration and business development in that country. Sabin 77121. See David J. Fox's review of a new edition of Rugendas's Mexico published in 1961 by Brockhaus of Stuttgart, in The Geographical Journal , Vol. 128, No. 4 (December 1962), pp. 538-539. (354) `.