A Geographical Present: Being Descriptions of the Principal Countries of the World

Very good copy of the second edition (first published in 1817) of this popular educational book by woman writer Mary Anne Venning

Complete with 60 charming handcoloured wood engravings of costumes of the world

There are fine gentlemen and ladies of London and Paris, Bohemian peasants, Catalonians dancing the Fandango (possibly flamenco?), Hungarian hussars, itinerant Savoyards, Laplanders (Saami) riding reindeer-driven sleds, Greeks, Russians, Armenians and Turks.

There are many fascinating plates of African peoples from Mamluks and Copts in Egypt, native peoples of Tunisia, Senegal, Cazegut (Bissagos Islands), Cacongo (Angola), Issinia (Guinea), Congo, Jagga (Chaga) people of Tanzania, Khoikhoi from South Africa, Zulus from Natal, etc.

There are also several Native American peoples including Iroquois of Canada, natives of Virginia and California, Carib of Martinique, Aztecs of Mexico, Inca of Peru, natives of Guianna (Guyana) and Yaghan people of the Land of Fire (Tierra del Fugo).

Also includes Otaheiteans (natives of Tahiti) and other Polynesian peoples of St. Christian (Nuku Hiva), Isle of Paques (Easter Island), and Isle of Tanna (Vanuatu).

Although unsigned, it is likely the engravings were drawn and engraved by William Darton (1775-1819) and his son Samuel Darton (1785-1840), Quaker engravers and printers of educational books for children. Darton was to publish many woman educational writers including Patricia Wakefield, Sarah Waring, Sarah Candler, Agnes Strickland, Ann Taylor, etc.

Little is known of the author Mary Anne Venning. From the titles of her published books, it appears she started off writing moralistic works for children (A Commonplace Book 1802 and Simple Pleasures 1811) before turning to geography (A Geographical Present 1817) and finally science (A Botanical Catechism 1825, Rudiments of Conchology 1826 and Rudiments of Mineralogy 1830).

According to Megan Nourcia in X Marks the Spot, Venning's most successful work "skillfully blends quantative statistics about manufactures and major rivers with qualitative judgments about national greatness. The combination propelled the text into two more editions in 1818 and 1820, and it was later published in America as three separate volumes on Europe, Asia and Africa."

Bound in red cloth spine with gilt title "The World" and year "1818," blue marble boards, new endpapers, neatly repaired tear to frontis, some spotting and foxing, dust to edges of pages, but most plates clean and sharp with rich handcolour.