1883.]. Small folio, pp. [ii] title-page, with 12 engraved colour maps mounted on guards, of which 9 are in relief; fore-edge of title-page somewhat soiled and furled, lower corner of map 5 torn and missing, light foxing and browning throughout due to card and paper quality; a few neat ink and pencil annotations to maps visible; original red blind-stamped publisher’s cloth, upper cover lettered in gilt, head and tail of spine nicked and worn, joints rubbed, spine and vertical section of rear cover sunned, some light spotting and soiling to covers, extremities and corners bumped and lightly worn; still a good copy. Assumed first edition of this rare and innovative elementary atlas for young readers by the geographer and future politician Henri Mager, printed almost entirely in relief. The atlas includes 12 maps illustrating a planisphere (not in relief), physical Europe, political Europe (not in relief), physical France, political France (not in relief), the French colonies, the Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Australia and The Alps.
Mager was born on May 17, 1859 in Paris, and eventually became a member of the Superior Council of the Colonies and Chargé de Mission in Madagascar. He travelled extensively around the world, often on behalf of the government, and notably between July 1896 and September 1897. He is also remembered for his more extensive atlas of 28 maps, ‘Atlas Complet de géographie en relief’. Neither were dated, though contemporary advertisements suggest that they were published between 1880-1883.