Paris, Hachette, 1873. Four-volume set (text, 2 vols., large quarto —Atlas, 2 vols, folio). Superbly bound set in contemporary red shagreen-backed marbled paper-covered boards, spines gilt in six compartments with raised bands, lettered in the second, numbered in the third with fine gilt tooling for the text and expertly bound to style for the atlas. Text with portrait frontispiece, 11 maps, 1 plate, plan, and wood-engravings in text. Atlas with 12 maps, 9 plans, 1 aerial view (some tinted), and 48 plates (including 44 bis) on 40 sheets (6 double-page), 11 of the plates in full colour.
First edition, one of a limited edition of 800 copies. A narration of one of the most impressive voyages of its day, a European pilot voyage of exploration into Indochina.
Beginning in Saigon in 1866 under the aegis of Captain Doudart de Lagrée, the expedition covered more than 5000 miles in Cambodia, Laos and Yunnan.