L'ART DE LEVER LES PLANS, comprenant, la description des instruments graphiques, les divers emplois de ces instruments sur le terrain, l'arpentage, la géodésie, le nivellement, la stéréométrie, la topographie et le lavis des plans. Dessiné par Henry (des Vosges) Professeur de Dessin linéaire, d'Architecture, d'Arpentage et de Lavis des plans.

First or early edition (see below). Oblong quarto (31 x 23.5cm). Publisher's original sewn printed wrappers. The contents comprising [24]pp. of text and 30 numbered full-page plans, 12 of these with contemporary hand-colouring, incorporating 190 figures. Two pages with contemporary ink annotations and corrections to the text. A good copy, the binding secure with marking to the covers, chipping and small tears to the edges, and a touch of worming to the rear. The contents with scattered finger-marking and ink splashes to the margins, the odd small nick or crease to page edges, and with two pinholes to the bottom corners of the frame on 15 of the plans (apparently as issued) are otherwise in good order. A scarce, well-illustrated mid nineteenth-century French account of surveying techniques and the production of technical drawings and maps by Professor J.B. Henry des Vosges. The publishing history of the work is a little obscure, with OCLC recording apparently identical, undated editions published in 1850 and 1856 by Auguste Logerot. It is quite possible that these are in fact the same (first) edition, with libraries simply recording conflicting dates (with one or perhaps both of these dates being incorrect).…