Venice Simplon Orient-Express By Shirley Sherwood
Venice Simplon Orient-Express (Collectible First Edition)
The Definitive Illustrated History of Europe's Most Legendary Golden Age Luxury Train
The Definitive Illustrated History of Europe's Most Legendary Golden Age Luxury Train
Bibliographic Specifications
- Title: Venice Simplon Orient-Express: The Return of the World's Most Celebrated Train
- Author: Shirley Sherwood
- Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd, London
- Publication Date: 1983
- ISBN-10: 029783035X / ISBN-13: 9780297830351
- Edition Details: First Edition, First Impression. High-end lifestyle and transport history monograph.
- Binding: Hardcover with original publisher's heavy premium cloth boards, housed in the original illustrated dust jacket under a protective archive cellophane wrapper.
- Physical Format: Quarto Format (4to), 160 pages. Lavishly enhanced with archival route maps, historical engineering schematics, and vibrant full-colour lifestyle photography.
- Language: English
Official Condition Report
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The Book: Very Good Plus (VG+) / Near Mint
- Exterior / Boards: The original publisher's heavy cloth boards are exceptionally sharp, perfectly square, and firm across all edges. The spine is completely immaculate, straight, robustly bound, and uncreased with perfect structural tightness.
- Interior: Exceptional and pristine. The internal pages are beautifully crisp, clean, white, and fully intact. Free from handling soils, foxing, thumb marks, dog-ears, handwriting, previous owner names, or dealer pencil notations.
- Protection: This elegant volume has been meticulously well maintained and looked after thus far, now preserved under a professional, removable archival-grade cellophane sleeve.
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The Dust Jacket: Very Good Plus (VG+)
- Condition: The original illustrated dust jacket is complete and unclipped. It exhibits only very slight, microscopic signs of standard retail shelf storage wear along the extreme corner tips, completely free of chips, deep tears, or sun fading.
Synopsis & Historical Value
Published in 1983 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Venice Simplon Orient-Express is an extraordinarily evocative, authoritative historical chronicle that traces the dramatic rise, fall, and magnificent resurrection of luxury train travel in Europe. Author Shirley Sherwood masterfully tracks the legacy of the original Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, charting how these rolling palaces became the ultimate global symbol of geopolitical intrigue, royal prestige, and artistic opulence. Crucially, the text details the monumental 1970s and 1980s restoration project helmed by James Sherwood to salvage abandoned, historical carriages from overgrown sidings and rebuild them into the modern Venice Simplon-Orient-Express. Featuring rare archival photographs alongside exquisite contemporary design spreads, this first impression stands as a vital design archive and a highly prized resource for collectors of rail transport infrastructure and luxury travel social history.
Published in 1983 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Venice Simplon Orient-Express is an extraordinarily evocative, authoritative historical chronicle that traces the dramatic rise, fall, and magnificent resurrection of luxury train travel in Europe. Author Shirley Sherwood masterfully tracks the legacy of the original Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, charting how these rolling palaces became the ultimate global symbol of geopolitical intrigue, royal prestige, and artistic opulence. Crucially, the text details the monumental 1970s and 1980s restoration project helmed by James Sherwood to salvage abandoned, historical carriages from overgrown sidings and rebuild them into the modern Venice Simplon-Orient-Express. Featuring rare archival photographs alongside exquisite contemporary design spreads, this first impression stands as a vital design archive and a highly prized resource for collectors of rail transport infrastructure and luxury travel social history.
Author Profile: Shirley Sherwood
Dr Shirley Sherwood OBE is a highly distinguished British scientist, historian, author, and world-renowned art curator who has spent decades documenting historical design, botanical illustration, and luxury travel preservation. As a key driving force behind the aesthetic curation and revival of the Orient-Express network alongside her husband, Sherwood gained unprecedented access to private engineering logs, internal design briefs, and historical travel archives. Renowned for her analytical precision, elegant prose, and deep eye for structural detail, her monographs are widely recognized as the definitive resources on golden age luxury transit.
Dr Shirley Sherwood OBE is a highly distinguished British scientist, historian, author, and world-renowned art curator who has spent decades documenting historical design, botanical illustration, and luxury travel preservation. As a key driving force behind the aesthetic curation and revival of the Orient-Express network alongside her husband, Sherwood gained unprecedented access to private engineering logs, internal design briefs, and historical travel archives. Renowned for her analytical precision, elegant prose, and deep eye for structural detail, her monographs are widely recognized as the definitive resources on golden age luxury transit.
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