Africa.- Verner (Col. Willoughby) Sketches in the Soudan, first edition, association copy inscribed by subscriber Charles Byng and dated 1886, additional lithographed pictorial title, list of subscribers, 39 chromolithographed plates on 37 sheets by J. G. Keulemans after Verner, each with facing explanatory leaf of text, chromolithographed map, advertisement leaf at end, some light spotting, original vellum-backed boards, rubbed and worn, some loss to upper cover, cracked joints with upper cover becoming detached, oblong folio, 1885.

⁂ The artist served in the Rifle Brigade, D. A. A. G. Intelligence Department, Nile Expeditionary Force of 1884-85 which was an attempt to relieve General Gordon besieged in Khartoum by the rebellious Mahdi. The expedition travelled up the Nile in small adapted whalers, aided by Canadian voyageurs to negotiate the rapids, and were attacked by the rebels at Abu Klea and Abu Kru but managed to continue. They finally reached Khartoum in January 1885, two days after Gordon and the garrison had been massacred. As well as scenes of the Nile, the desert, and the battlefields & military engagements, there are more everyday sketches of bivouacs and camps, finding water in the desert, and portraits of those involved.