CALVERLEY, Amice Mary.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Draft of "Osiris Chapel North Wall, Western section". Signed lithograph, a prepublication print that later became Plate 6 of The Temple of King Sethos I at Abydos, Volume I (1933). Calverley first travelled to Abydos to work on the publication in 1928. She became "the life and soul of the work" (Gardiner, p. vii), taking responsibility for project management and camp operations alongside producing her meticulous artwork.Amice Mary Calverley (1896-1959) was working as a draughtsman at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, when her artistry caught the attention of the Egypt Exploration Society. At Abydos, she used a combination of photography and draughting to create her reproductions, and paid particular attention to the hieroglyphics, which were checked by a professional epigrapher. The "Chapel of Osiris, North Wall, Western Section" shows a section of wall decoration in which King Seti I offers incense and libations to the sacred bark of Osiris. The industrialist John D. Rockefeller visited the site in the winter of 1928-29 and was so impressed by Calverley's output that he agreed to contribute funds to the Egypt Exploration Society's publication, allowing The Temple of King Sethos I at Abydos to be produced in luxury format. Subsequent volumes appeared in 1935, 1938, and 1958, one year before Calverley's death. Having become fascinated by Abydos, Calverley stayed there until 1948, enraptured with the site, the landscape, the people, and the culture. On her return to Canada, she bec

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