MOSER Henri.

Oriental weapons and armor. H. Moser-Charlottenfels Collection. Leipzig, Karl W. Hiersemann, 1912. Large folio (52 x 42 cm). In filled green percaline folder, oriental-style decorated boards, gold title on spine, gilt head, in slipcase. xvii pp. with 1 frontispiece title in a color illuminated cartouche and 44 lithographed plates, 10 in color, mounted on tabs and protected by serpents, and figures in the text including Moser's portrait. An edition of 300 copies, of which 125 are in German, 75 in English and 100 with French text, all numbered by the press. The French version is no. 94. Ex-libris. This precious Collection of Oriental Arms was put together, as the author admits, at a time when the taste for Oriental art was far from reaching the degree of development it has today. In his touching preface, Moser recounts how, as a mere lieutenant, he left with the Russian army in 1868 to conquer Turkistan. One of the first, after Vambéry, to visit Bukhara, he was even detained for a time in the Emir's prisons. He sometimes acquired marvellous Damascus blades for a bottle of vodka; or "attached to the first embassy sent to the Emir of Bukhara by H.M. Emperor Alexander III, I received from the hands of General Prince Frederic Sayn-Wittgenstein, the very arms of Shamyl, the great hero of the Caucasus". After the preface, this luxurious edition opens with three watercolors by Scott, reproduced like the rest of the plates by the Vienna printing house and forming a magnificent introduction to the complete armor, rider and horse equipment, helmets, armbands, sabers, daggers, rifles and pistols. A brief description of the plates, with oriental names (Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Indian) given in transcription.