John Balls pioneering Alpine Club guide to the Western Alps, reconstructed for a new generation of climbers by W. A. B. Coolidge, in a handsome five-volume set.

John Ball (18181889) came to the mountains by way of politics and botany. Born in Dublin, he served as Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1855 to 1857, and he became the first President of the Alpine Club on its foundation in 1857, the year of his first ascent of Monte Pelmo in the Dolomites. His Alpine Guide, issued in three parts between 1863 and 1868 (Western, Central and Eastern Alps), is regarded as the first true climbing guidebook. It was a handbook written by a man who had walked, climbed and observed what he described.

Three decades later the Alps had been transformed by exploration. The Alpine Club commissioned W. A. B. Coolidge (18501926), formerly editor of the Alpine Journal, to reconstruct the Western Alps volume. A reviewer in Nature judged the revision thorough, absorbing a quarter-century of new climbing while keeping Balls approach. It was the first volume of the clubs new edition. The Central Alps followed in 1907 and 1911 under other editors, also on behalf of the Alpine Club.

The guide moves systematically through the ranges: the Maritime and Cottian Alps, the Dauphin and Lower Savoy, the Graians, and finally the Pennine Alps, with Mont Blanc and Monte Rosa, ending at the Simplon. This copy has been rebound so that each group of ranges has a volume to itself, with the index in a fifth.

BALL, John. The Alpine Guide. The Western Alps. By the Late John Ball, F.R.S., President of the Alpine Club. A New Edition, Reconstructed and Revised on Behalf of the Alpine Club by W. A. B. Coolidge, with New and Revised Maps. London, New York and Bombay: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1898.

Small octavo, rebound as a set of five volumes in a matching slipcase. The 1898 edition was issued in a single volume of xlix, 612 pages with ten folding maps, divided here as follows: volume one, the Maritime and Cottian Alps; volume two, the Dauphin Alps and Lower Savoy; volume three, the Graian Alps; volume four, the Pennine Alps; volume five, the index. Bound in deep red leatherette with gilt dentelles and all edges gilt. Slipcase reads “Religio Medici” to cover. All folding maps and other material are present, and each map has been backed with linen and is in fine condition. The contents are generally bright and clean, with some sporadic faint markings. An attractive set in near fine condition, with some rubbing along the slipcase edges.

Provenance:From the private collection of Warwick Williams.

Currently on display in ourPaddington store. For viewing or more information, please contact [email protected]

Catalogue Number: ON00225