250 - MARÇAIS (Georges). Cities and Countryside of Algeria. Paris, Imprimerie nationale, 1958. Loose-leaf, with a padded cover, publisher’s folder, and slipcase.

MARÇAIS (Georges). Cities and Countryside of Algeria. Paris, Imprimerie nationale, 1958. Loose-leaf, with a padded cover, publisher’s folder, and slipcase. First edition limited to 330 numbered copies on Arches vellum; this is one of the numbered copies from the main print run. Georges Marçais (1876–1962), an Arabist and historian of Islamic art, was the first holder of the chair of Muslim Archaeology at the Faculty of Letters in Algiers and director of the Museum of Algerian Antiquities. *Cities and Countryside of Algeria* was published in 1958, the year of his academic retirement, amid a tense political climate; the book was published under the patronage of the Algerian Commission at the Brussels World’s Fair, thus serving as a monumental tribute to Algeria: Algiers and its port, the suburbs of Algiers, Greater Kabylie, Oran—heir to Spain, royal Tlemcen, the Tlemcen countryside, Constantine, the Aurès Mountains, and finally the Algerian Sahara. Each of these sections is illustrated with original etchings framed by serpents (54 in total, including 9 inset plates) engraved by three artists, all members of the School of Algiers and winners of the Abd-el-Tif Prize: Jean-Eugène Bersier (1895–1978), Étienne Bouchaud (1898–1989), and Eugène Corneau (1894–1976). Some foxing, especially on the case. Experts: Loup Axmann and Jean-Luc Boisseau