Almanac à la Giraffe, 1829
Almanac à la Giraffe, 1829
Almanach stéréotype à la Giraffe pour 1829.
Véritable messager boîteux à la giraffe
A Montbéliard, chez Deckherr, imprimeur.
47 pages, including the first and last pages illustrated by Zarafa and her mahouts.
Condition: creases, stains, and tears
17,5 x 15 cm
Zarafa was the first giraffe to set foot on French soil. Given to King Charles X by Mehmet Ali, viceroy of Ottoman Egypt, the giraffe arrived in Marseille in November 1826 and traveled the 880 km to Paris in June 1827 with her two mahouts, Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (the director of the Jardin des Plantes, where she would spend the rest of her life), two cows whose milk she drank, an escort of mounted gendarmes, and a luggage cart. She died in 1845.
