Beschreibung:

FRANCIS FRITH Egypt, Nubia, and Ethiopia . London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1862. 4° (230 x 180mm). 100 albumen stereographs. (Marginal damp-stain not affecting photographs and only a very few lines of text.) Original purple pictorial cloth, richly tooled in gilt and blind, gilt edges (corners lightly rubbed). FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL CLOTH. Frith published the findings of his expeditions to Egypt and the Holy Land in a series of volumes between 1858 and 1863; this one collects the stereoscopic views for 'ONE OF THE MOST RENOWNED NINETEENTH-CENTURY PHOTOBOOKS'. 'The excellent smaller pictures are... proof that a less unwieldy camera tends to free the photographer's vision... Frith was liberated not only from the technical difficulties, but also from aesthetic responsibilities of making a grand statement' ( The Photobook ). Cf. The Photobook , p.28; Gernsheim Incunabula 172.