Croisière du Steam-Yacht Medjé en Angleterre Ecosse et Irlande Juillet-Août 1892 - original manuscript account with finely engraved illustrations.
1893134814Paris: c.1893. A finely executed illustrated manuscript documenting a pleasure cruise around Britain on the steam-yacht Medjé in the summer of 1892. The voyage won the Union des yachts français medal for the most interesting cruise of 1891-93 a sharp silver print of which with the presentation letter from the comte de Montaigu is mounted at the front. Portions of the narrative appeared in Le Yacht in 1894. The account offers a lively Belle Époque tour of the British Isles - effectively a circumnavigation shortened by the Caledonian Canal - with etched illustrations after pen-and-ink drawings by the Rochellois maritime artist Georges Charpentier 1846-1925. The yacht belonged to Xavier Eugène Schelcher 1867-1948 a wealthy Parisian stockbroker and new member of the Union des yachts français. Departing Le Havre in July 1892 the Medjé ran down the English coast to Plymouth passing through the Royal Naval Manoeuvres and prompting newspaper speculation that she carried French naval observers. Welcomed in Plymouth with a tour of the naval installations and an abundant lunch the party continued west shooting seabirds and bathing off Penzance before crossing to Ireland. At Kingstown and Dublin they visited the Royal Irish Yacht Club and commented - sometimes archly - on the city's poverty accompanied by Charpentier's vivid sketches. Excursions into Wicklow and a crossing to Holyhead allowed visits to Liverpool and Birkenhead where the builders of the Medjé's engines Cochran & Co. were proudly noted. Further stops included the Isle of Man Belfast Robinson & Cleaver's celebrated linen shop and the Giant's Causeway. They then headed for Glasgow detouring to Iona and Staffa and entered the Caledonian Canal Charpentier illustrating Neptune's Staircase and other scenes. Scotland's landscapes and Edinburgh's beauty impressed them deeply; excursions to the Trossachs prompted reflections on Walter Scott's romances. The rapid return down the east coast - Berwick Newcastle Scarborough Harwich Ramsgate - elicited little enthusiasm Newcastle offering "only a dungeon". Relief greeted the sight of Cape Gris-Nez and home. The Medjé was a 25-metre 43-ton twin-screw steam yacht built in 1889 at the Maudslay Son & Field yard powered by Cochran & Co. engines delivering 96 h.p. Schelcher was an active yachtsman winning two gold medals at the 1900 Paris Olympics; his son Rémi later competed at the 1936 Berlin Games. Schelcher is also known to have commissioned a comparable illustrated album of his 1897 cruise to the Norwegian fjords. Overall this is an attractively produced richly illustrated and often satirical record of British touring at the height of luxury yachting. Quarto 318 x 247 mm. 57 leaves of neat manuscript text titles and headings in a calligraphic Ronde hand occasional rubrication; 52 superb etched plates after pen and ink drawings by Charpentier the first additionally signed "A. Barret Sc." deck plan and full-page track-chart map; text and plates are both printed on fine polished vélin the plates on a slightly lighter weight. Contemporary strong orange half morocco by Victor Champs French curl on Turkish pattern marbled boards title gilt to the spine neatly nipped bands dotted roll gilt fouled anchor devices to the compartments double gilt ruled frame with olive sprig cornerpieces author's initials to the tail of the spine top edge gilt the others uncut marbled endpapers to match the boards silk page-marker. A little rubbed at the extremities lower joint chafed and just starting head and tail contents clean very good indeed. hardcover
Peter Harrington · Royaume-Uni3 850,00 £GB≈ 4 395,93 €
