Mexico y sus alrededores. Coleccion de Monumentos, Trajes y Paisajes, Dibujados. / Mexico et ses environs. Collection de Vues, Monuments et Costumes

One of the most important books illustrating Mexico City and vicinity, this copy with more color plates than most, and including two infrequently found folding maps.

A splendid document of both Mexican life and lithography, this edition of Mexico y sus alrededores has nearly double the number of color plates contained in most other editions, as well as a rather rare combination of both the folding plan of Mexico City and the folding map of Mexico, the latter also showing a large portion of Texas. Most of the plates are after paintings by Casimiro Castro.

Issued first in two sets of installments between 1855 and 1856, the book seems to have undergone relatively few formal editions, being instead printed and published according to popular demand and the availability of illustrations. Because of this, there is wide variation among copies, which, in addition to presenting a changing selection of lithographs, reveal new perspectives and renditions of past subject-matter. Abbey notes that: "The draughtsmanship and lithography is of a very high standard" (Travel in Aquatint and Lithography). This volume is especially noteworthy in that light, as all but three of its lithographs are in color. Its cover bears the stamped year of 1875, although since the latest date to be specified on any of the plates is 1869, it is unclear how many views were taken in the early 1870s.

Of particular interest in this edition is a rare lithograph showing the presentation of a group of Kickapoo Indians and runaway Texas slaves at the court of the Austrian Archduke and Emperor of Mexico, Maximilian, in 1865. The only tribe never to surrender to or make deals with the encroaching United States, the Kickapoo sought asylum with Maximilian after being attacked by Texans as they fled the Civil War, and today divide their time between their lands in the U.S. and those in Mexico. Other plates depict breathtaking aerial views (some taken from hot air balloons), multiple rich examples of Mexican dress, a stagecoach robbery, noteworthy architectural sites, parks, and scenes from life on the road, in the street, and at the market, among other subjects.

"The most important work illustrating Mexico City in the nineteenth century" (Mathes, Mexico on Stone).

REFERENCES: Abbey, Travel 672; Sabin 48590; Mathes pp. 29-30.

CONDITION: Covers worn and discolored with some darker stains, especially on the lower cover, contents generally clean and attractive with occasional light foxing, half-title and one other leaf reinforced at edges with Japanese tissue, one map with several repaired tears on the left, both maps reinforced at edges with Japanese tissue.