Los 4039

Frith, Francis
(1822-1898)Views of Egypt, Nubia, and the Holy Land

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Aus dem Katalog
Fotografie des 19. – 21. Jahrhunderts (Katalog nur online verfügbar)
Auktionsdatum 29.11.2025

Views of Egypt, Nubia, and the Holy Land. 1856-1860. 13 albumen prints, mounted to original mounts. Each ca. 15,5 x 22,5 cm (31 x 43,5 cm). Each titled in letterpress below the image; most signed and dated “Frith Photo 1857” in the negative.

Francis Frith, originally a cutlery apprentice and later a grocer, turned to photography in the early 1850s. Between 1856 and 1860, he undertook three expeditions to Egypt, Sinai, Ethiopia, and Jerusalem, where he documented ancient sites using wet collodion glass plate negatives and produced albumen prints in a portable darkroom. This group of photographs includes architectural and landscape views from Cairo, Thebes, Luxor, and Nubia - including the Citadel of Cairo, the pyramids of Dahshur and Saqqara, the Great Temple of Luxor, Medinet Habu, and Abu Simbel - as well as scenes from Bethlehem and Nazareth. Characteristic of Frith’s large-format work, the photographs combine compositional clarity with archaeological precision and an evocative sense of place. His early travels marked a milestone in photographic travel documentation and appealed to both scholarly and popular Victorian audiences. – Some foxing to mounts and occasional light fading as well as signs of silver mirroring on some prints, otherwise strong tonal prints in near excellent condition. With: Accompanied by original letterpress album pages with printed descriptions of the sites depicted.