Artist Index: Frith, Francis

Lower Egypt, Thebes and the Pyramids. Bound volume with a total of 37 albumen prints from glass plate negatives. Photos circa 16 x 23 cm or reverse. The majority signed and numbered in negative, each with printed caption on mount. With contents, title and illustration on frontispiece. Bound in green leather-backed cloth (buckled, edges/corners rubbed) with gold-embossed title on front cover. William MacKenzie, London, Glasgow & Edinburgh, 1862.

Francis Frith, a former apprentice in a cutlery house and a partner in a grocery business, transitioned to photography in the early 1850s. He embarked on three expeditions between 1856-1860 to Egypt, Sinai, Ethiopia, and Jerusalem, capturing ancient monuments and culture using wet collodion glass plate negatives and producing albumen prints on-site in a portable darkroom. The second volume of his four-part series on Egypt, Palestine, and Nubia includes views of Cairo, the Pyramids at Giza, and early photographs of the temple of Kar- nak in Luxor. His work served as a valuable resource for Egyp- tologists and archaeologists, contributing to a Western fasci- nation with Egypt‘s ancient history and cultural heritage. – Some foxing and time-staining on album pages, some prints slightly faded along edges, some with minimal surface scuff marks, otherwise in very good condition with strong contrasts.