Travel
FERMOR, Thomas H.G.
Ancient Egypt in 1853 & 1854, being illustrations in photography.
Sanford, London 1855. Folio (45.8 x 37.5 cm). Printed title (mounted), 34 salt and lightly albumenized salt prints (20 x 25 cm.) mounted on thick paper, each within ruled border, bookplate of "Easton Neston" on front pastedown, manuscript captions, silk endpapers, some minor spotting throughout, all edges gilt, contemporary green morocco gilt, an very attractive copy.
An extremely early photographic record of the great monuments of Egypt preceding by several years the work of Francis Frith. Although with a printed title, this is almost certainly one of a very few copies specially printed at the author's expense, as a record of his visit to Egypt. Photography had only been invented in 1839 and from that date through to the early 1850s the processes available were cumbersome and difficult for an amateur to use. It was only with the relaxing of patents in the early 1850s that it became possible for soldiers and travellers such as Fermor to take the sort of photographs found in this album. The first ever photographic publication on Egypt was by Maxime du Camp. Collected during the years 1849, 1850 and 1851 there were 125 calotypes printed from Maxime du Camp's paper negatives at Blanquart-Evrard's establishment in Lille. These were sold in twenty five folios containing five plates each. Felix Teynard was another pioneer in this field publishing his 160 salt paper prints in 1853 in a series of thirty-two folios containing five plates each, later in 1858 publishing the entire lot in one book. Chronologically Fermor is the third in line, however it is extremely rare to find an album as early as the Fermor one, especially in the context of amateur photography of such high quality. His work was not published as far as we know and so forms a rarer oeuvre than his predecessors. It was not until 1857 that the next published group of photographs from the region were produced by Francis Frith. Another indication of how early this album is in the history of photography can be found in the fact that "The Journal of the Photographic Society" did not appear until 1853 and the very first exhibition organized by the Photographic Society did not take place until 1854; indeed photography was not taught to the Royal Engineers at Chatham until 1856, a fact that allowed the recording of the landscape and architecture of India to take place. These early photographers such as Roger Fenton, transformed the way photography could be used and brought it to the attention of a wider public. Thomas Fermor can be considered as one of the great early pioneers of the Golden Age of photography. The images are large (approx. 20 x 25cm) and of very good quality. There is excellent tone to the images and only minimal fading. Fermor (later Lord Fermor) made the album whilst an officer in the Life Guards, presumably on a tour of duty. The subjects include Luxor, Philae, Edfou, Karnac, etc. This album provides a rare opportunity to purchase an outstanding series of early photographs by a named photographer.
Price: £ 65000
US Dollar Price: $ 128890
Stock Number: 63779