2 text volumes, 1 atlas volume. [4]. lxxii, 364; [4], 370 (misnumbered 360) pp. Atlas volume: 11 pp. + 21 plates, including lithograph portrait of Bullock, 2 folding engraved plans, and 18 lithographs by Marlet after Bullock (and others), 6 are hand-colored. Text volumes bound in later red morocco-backed marbled boards, atlas volume is an oblong octavo re-bound in gray cloth, with original board covers laid down. First French Edition.

First French edition, translated from the English of this outstanding travel account of Mexico, with the atlas of beautiful lithographic views of cities, towns, antiquities, and six hand-colored Mexican costume plates. Bullock, naturalist and antiquarian, started his career as a jeweler and goldsmith in Sheffield, then founded a private natural history collection and museum first in Liverpool and then in London. In 1822, the first year of Mexican independence, Bullock traveled to Mexico, being the first English traveler in Mexico since Thomas Gage in 1640. Bullock became a naturalized Mexican citizen, and the new Mexican government gave him a silver mine near Temascaltepec. He brought back many Mexican artifacts to England (with the permission of Lucas Alamán), including a cast of the great Aztec calendar, models of the Teotihuacán pyramids, and the original map of pre-conquest Mexico which is illustrated in the atlas volume. These Mexican artifacts became the nucleus of a growing collection on "Ancient and Modern Mexico" put up for display at Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, London. The atlas includes handsome views of Puebla, Xalapa, San Juan de Ulloa, Veracruz, the pyramids of the sun at Teotihuacan, and the valley of Mexico showing Tacuba (now part of Mexico City). Of the two plans, one is a detailed view of Mexico City as it appeared in the 1824, commissioned by Don Diego García, with dozens of buildings labeled. "En 1823 vienen a Mexico padre e hijo patrocinados por inversionistas ingleses, quienes pretendian invertir sus capitales en alguna mina [de plata]. Bullock Sr. los embarcó en un establecimiento en Temascaltepec, Estado de Mexico, del que jamás llegaron a extraer ni un kilo de mineral" -José N. Iturriaga, Litografía y Grabado en el Mexico del XIX, p. 52; Sabin 9141; Abbey 667.