BIRMANN (Samuel). Souvenirs from the Chamonix valley. Basle, Birmann et fils, s.d. [1826] In-folio, full long-grained green morocco binding, ornate ribbed spine, gilt title to spine, richly decorated boards, scrolls to front boards, pink paper endpapers (some traces of wear, soiling to edges of endpapers) (mid 19th century binding). Superb album of 26 plates, comprising 25 watercolour and gouache engraved views and a lithographed fold-out panorama of Le Brévent. Enriched with an aquatint of Geneva as a frontispiece, drawn by J. J. Wetzel, engraved by Hurlimann, watercoloured and gouached (view taken from the album Voyage pittoresque au lac de Genève ou Léman, published in 1820 by Orell Füssli in Zurich). The finest album of "souvenirs" of the Chamonix valley. The work includes the added frontispiece, the title, a preface by the author, the table of views, followed by 26 plates protected by a serpente, each with a commentary on a leaf (two of them illustrated with an explanatory sketch). At the end of the book is a comparative table of heights, lithographed by Horace Brunet & Cie in Lyon. The views show : Gorge de Cluse, Cascade de l'Arpénaz, Environs de Sallenche, Four savoyard, Habitation savoyarde, Le Mont-Blanc vu de Sallenche, Bains de Saint-Gervais, Cascade du Bonnant, Cascade de Chède, Lac de Chède, Le Mont-Blanc vu de Servoz, Berègères à l'Oratoire, Environs de Servoz, Aux Montées, Glacier des Bossons, Chamonix church, Le Prieuré and Mont-Blanc, La Mer de glace seen from Montanvert, View from the Garden, Source de l'Arveyron, Glacier des Bois, A la Flégère, Col de Balme seen from the Argentière valley, Argentière church, Chamonix valley seen from Col de Balme, Panorama of Bréven. A magnificent copy, virtually free of foxing. Ex-libris of John G. Murray pasted on the flyleaf, opposite that of Peter Obergfell. Samuel Birmann (Basel, 1793 - 1847) learned drawing and watercolour in the studio of his father, Peter Birmann, himself a painter and engraver. In 1815, he travelled to Rome with the landscape painters Jakob Christoph Bischoff and Friedrich Salathé. In 1817, he travelled to Sicily, where he produced drawings in a fine romantic vein, which were reproduced in Ostervald's Voyage pittoresque en Sicile. On his return to Basel, he published a number of views of the Alps, in a style that combined romanticism and precision of detail, which were to make the Birmann et fils publishing house a success. A victim of depression, he took his own life in 1847. Perret 0479 - Regards sur les Alpes 47 - Le Mont-Blanc vu par les peintres p. 56-57 - Nava T/1