GRANDPRÉ (Louis-Marie-Joseph O’Hier de). - Lot 15

GRANDPRÉ (Louis-Marie-Joseph O’Hier de). Journey to the West Coast of Africa, Undertaken in the Years 1786 and 1787… Paris: Dentu, Year IX–1801. — 2 volumes, in-8, 193 x 123: (2 ff.), 32, XXVIII, 226 pp., 1 map, 7 plates; (2 ff.), 300 pp., pp. 3–16 of the catalog, 1 plate, 2 maps. Light tan speckled sheepskin, smooth decorated spine, yellow edges (contemporary binding). First edition of the account of the Voyage along the West Coast of Africa, recounting the pioneering expedition led in 1786–1787 by Louis-Marie-Joseph O’Hier de Grandpré (1761–1846), a shipowner and naval officer, along the western coasts of Africa. This account—at once ethnographic, political, and economic—offers a striking snapshot of African and colonial realities at a pivotal moment, just before the upheavals of the French Revolution. The book contains an in-depth description of the Congo states frequented by Europeans. In it, Grandpré provides a precise analysis of local customs, traditions, laws, governmental structures, and commercial practices. But it is above all his account of the slave trade that leaves a lasting impression: in it, he describes, without embellishment, the organization, mechanisms, and stakes of this trade in human beings as it was practiced before 1789, thus providing firsthand testimony to one of the darkest chapters in colonial history. The account concludes with a second section devoted to the Cape of Good Hope, where the author provides a military and strategic description of this colony, then a vital crossroads of trade routes between Europe, Asia, and Africa. The illustrations consist of a “flat map of the Angolan Coast,” two plans (the Cape of Good Hope and its surroundings, and the Cape Citadel), and 8 plates depicting scenes of daily life and portraits of indigenous people, engraved from the author’s drawings. The first volume also includes a Congolese vocabulary (pp. 156–162). A fine copy in a contemporary binding, lacking the word “Fin” on the last leaf; a condition not recorded by bibliographers. This copy comes from the library of cartographer Jean-André Dezauche, who added the publisher’s 16-page catalog from that period, which describes the work. The first leaf of this catalog is missing. A small tear on the top cap of the first volume. Provenance: Jean-André Dezauche, with bookplate.