FRANCIS FRITH (1822-1898)

PHOTOGRAPHICALLY ILLUSTRATED BOOKS

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FRANCIS FRITH (1822-1898)

'Egypt, Sinai, and Jerusalem: A Series of Twenty Photographic Views by Francis Frith.' [1862]

Twenty albumen prints, each around 15 x 19 in., nine signed Frith and dated 1858 in the negatives, each with printed title, credit and date Frith. Photo. 1857 on mount, paper guards (lacking four), descriptive text by Mrs. Poole and Reginald Stuart Poole, title page and preface, green half morocco, titled in gilt on upper cover Egypt, Sinai, and Jerusalem, Photographed by Francis Frith, ruled in gilt, g.e., elephant folio, London: James S. Virtue.

Literature

Gernsheim, Incunabula of British Photographic Literature, 1839-1875, p. 31, no. 130 (illus.); Goldschmidt & Naef, The Truthful Lens, p. 200, no. 62; Haworth-Booth [ed.], The Golden Age of British Photography, 1839-1900, pp. 90-91 (illus.); Perez, Focus East, pp. 163-165; Vaczek & Buckland, Travelers in Ancient Lands, p. 193; Van Haaften & Manchip White, Egypt and the Holy Land in Historic Photographs, p. xviii and xxiii.

Lot Essay

Frith visited Egypt three times between 1856 and 1860, taking large- format views on 16 x 20 inch negatives on each of these trips. Julia Van Haaften gives a first date of publication of 1860-61, when a volume or portfolio was published by William Mackenzie of London and Glasgow. This was followed in 1862 by the publication of the same series in ten parts by Virtue at 21 shillings per part. No specific date is listed for the publication by Virtue of the bound volume.

When Frith first left for Egypt in 1856 he was accompanied by Francis Herbert Wenham (1824-1908), a mechanical and optical engineer. Contemporary notices and reviews of both the stereoscopic and large- format views occasionally credit Messrs. Frith & Wenham as the photographers.

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