559.cc.19

Imprint: London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, Crown Buildings, 188, Fleet Street. 1876.

Quarto, red cloth spine and marbled paper boards, measuring 320 x 265 mm; edges gilt; pp. viii, 88; with 40 woodburytype prints mounted one to a page on light card, with printed captions beneath each image, and accompanying letterpress descriptions. The photographs provide a record of the following temples of Thebes: Temple of Rameses III at Medinet Habu (plates 2-14), the Ramesseum (plates 15-20), the Temple of Sethos I at Qurna (plates 21-22), the Temple of Amun-Kamutef at Luxor (plates 23-26) and the Temple of Amun-Ra at Karnak (plates 27-40).The origins of the work are outlined in Abney's introduction to the work: 'Sent out by the English Government to observe the late transit of Venus, it was decided that the Author, with a party of three men of the Royal Engineers, should be detached from the head-quarters of the Egyptian Expedition located at Cairo...and proceed to Thebes, to undertake the photographic work necessary for recording the different phases of the phenomenon...The detachment arrived at their destination early in November, 1874. Their stay was necessarily one of comparatively long duration, and in the intervals of leisure, excursions were made to the different places of interest with which they were surrounded. The camera was a never-failing source of amusement to all, and the sun pictures obtained in a climate which at that time of year was very oppressive, whiled away many an hour which might have been less profitably spent. The apology that the Author has to offer for publishing these sun pictures is that, perhaps, some who have visited Theban ground may like to recall the scenes which must have impressed them with wonderment, and that others to whom Egypt is a terra incognita, may gain an idea, though of necessity imperfect, of the marvellous architectural creations of a race whose early history is as yet shrouded in obscurity...The best thanks of the Author are due to Corporals Laffeaty, Milne, and Farr, of the Royal Engineers, for the never-failing aid they rendered him whilst photographing the different scenes of interest in Egypt, without whose co-operation the task now accomplished would have been doubly difficult.'