In 1855 David Roberts’ “The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt & Nubia.” was reprinted in six volumes quarto format. Usually the year of publication is described as ‘1855-56″, as the first volume was published on April 16th 1855 and the last volume was published October 1st 1856.
No bookseller or auction house usually mentions that there are variant issues. Probably because they are not aware of this fact. Just by chance I discovered it when looking at plate nr. 8 (vol. 1) of a copy being sold by Forum Auctions on November 14th 2024. When I compared it to the plate in my copy I found several small differences. Both plates shown below. Above the plate from the Forum auctions copy, below from my copy.
Disregard the colour, but the differences can be found in the hands, the feet and the faces of the men on the left. Also Roberts’ signature and other smaller details are different. The differences can be seen clearly in the enlarged part below. An obvious difference too is a third figure near the portico in the back on the left, looking down over the wall, which is missing in my copy. The upper picture showing Forum Auctions copy, the lower picture is of my copy.
Also the publisher’s imprint under both plates differ.
Forum Auctions copy read:
London, Published April 16th 1855 by Day & Son 17 Gate Street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields.
While the text in my copy reads:
London, Published April 16th 1855 by Day & Son Gate Street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields.
The title pages in my volumes are dated 16th April 1855 for the first five volumes and 1st October 1856 for the last volume, while the title pages of the copy that was sold by Forum Auctions are dated April 16th 1855, October 1st 1855, December 15th 1855, April 1st 1856, July 1st 1856 and October 1st 1856 respectivley for the six volumes.
The plates in my copy for vol. 2 ~ 5 are of a later date than the title pages, however, as you can see above, although both the Forum Auctions copy and my copy have the same title page for vol. 1, different stones were used for this particular plate. Unfortunately I was unable to compare more plates at this time