Folio. 31 pp., 10 plates, 15 figures in text, publisher’s green wrappers with light shelf wear, loose pages as published, scattered spotting, Adolphe Jourdan, Alger, first edition, 1909.

Synopsis

Georges Alfred Marçais was a French Orientalist (1876 – 1962). He began his training at the Ecole des Beaux – Arts in Paris. In 1902 he began his studies in history and geography at the Faculty of Arts in Rennes. He was a painter and writer before discovering Islamic art in 1902 during a trip to Tlemcen. He became a specialist in Arab archaeology and taught at the Madrasa of Constantine and then became first holder of the chair of Muslim Archeology at the faculty of Algiers. In 1929 he headed the Museum of Antiquities and Muslim Art in Algiers.
A collection of models and motifs for use by European architects and decorators. A corpus of decor on stone, plaster and wood of Algeria where archaeologists and historians of the Islamic art will find gathered documents to enable them to study the evolution of the style and the foliation of the themes.