Main Automobile Routes of the British Isles, Central Europe, Algeria and Tunisia

Paris, H. Barrè: re, c. 1912. Folding lithographed map, 105 x 88 cm, printed in colours and dissected into 20 panels and laid on linen, minor wear; folding into calf bound covers, lettered direct in gilt, sunned. Bookseller’s label of Brentano’s Paris, which catered particularly for American expatriates. There appear to be a number of editions, none of them institutionally common, mostly published in the 1920s. However, our example shows pre-First World War political boundaries, and corresponds most closely with a single example held by the BNF (slightly miscatalogued with one of the authors given as Bende rather than Beadel; OCLC 494855278) which is dated by them to 1912. The deluxe binding and the inclusion of French North Africa suggests that this example of early motoring ephemera was aimed squarely at wealthy and adventurous travellers. Map