ROBERTS, David.

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Egypt & Nubia, First edition, in the preferred deluxe format with exquisite hand-colouring, of "one of the most important and elaborate ventures of 19th-century publishing... the apotheosis of the tinted lithograph" (Abbey Travel). Roberts's work was published in three formats between 1842 and 1849, with the present deluxe coloured-and-mounted issue offered at triple the price of the simplest format.David Roberts, RA (1796-1864), enjoyed a wide popularity in his day for his European views, but it is on the outstanding success of this project that the modern appreciation of his work is based. In August 1838 he arrived in Alexandria to start a carefully planned enterprise. It is claimed that he was the first European to have unlimited access to the mosques in Cairo, under the proviso that he did not commit desecration by using brushes made from hog's bristle. Leaving Cairo, he sailed up the Nile to record the monuments represented in the Egypt & Nubia division of the work, travelling as far as Wadi Halfa and the Second Cataract. At the time of publication, it was these views that excited the most widespread enthusiasm.Before leaving for the Near East, Roberts had already discussed publication with the engravers Edward and William Finden, but on his return both Finden and the publisher John Murray, who was also approached, baulked at the risks involved in a publication of the size and grandeur envisaged. However, Francis Graham Moon - "a self-made man from a modest background" (

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