8vo. xvi, 432 pp., frontispiece portrait, 22 plates, 2 folding plans, 1 double-page map, with an introduction by Robert W. Rogers, beautiful floral endpapers, original cloth, gilt top edge, slight bumping to lower corners and extremities, otherwise copy clean & in very good condition, Bookplate of Peter Hopkirk verso front cover, Eaton and Mains, New York & Cincinnati, first edition, 1897.

Synopsis

An association copy with a 2 page insert, A.L.s from the author addressed to Lady Layard and dated 1898, discussing the publication of this book and transcribing his full dedication to Lady Layard’s late husband, A. H. Layard. “I have dedicated it to the memory of my lamented departed friend as follows …
Hormuzd Rassam (1826-1910), an ethnic Assyrian, was born in Mosul in Upper Mesopotamia (now modern northern Iraq), then part of the Ottoman Empire. He was an Assyriologist and author. He is known for making a number of important archaeological discoveries from 1877 to 1882, including the clay tablets that contained the Epic of Gilgamesh, the world’s oldest notable literature. He is widely believed to be the first-known Middle Eastern and Assyrian archaeologist from the Ottoman empire. He emigrated to the United Kingdom, where he was naturalized as a British citizen, settling in Brighton. He represented the government as a diplomat, helping to free British diplomats from captivity in Ethiopia.