Egypt & Nubia.

£175,000 · Offered by Shapero Rare Books

the preferred deluxe format the preferred deluxe format of 'one of the most important and elaborate ventures of nineteenth-century publishing, and it was the apotheosis of the tinted lithograph' (Abbey Travel). No publication before this had presented so comprehensive a series of views of the monuments, landscape, and people of the Near East. Representing the completion of a project begun in 1842, but a discrete work in its own right, Egypt and Nubia was published in three formats between 1846 and 1849, with the deluxe coloured-and-mounted format 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. Roberts had already discussed publication of the views with Finden before leaving for the Near East, but on his return both Finden and Murray, who was also approached

• Binding: Hardcover

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