Lot 312
Mayer, Luigi
Rare Books, Maps & Manuscripts
Auction: 4 September 2013 at 12:00 BST
Description
Views in Egypt... London: Thomas Bensley, 1801. Folio (page dimensions: 46.8x35cm), 48 hand-coloured aquatints, contemporary half calf with marbled boards, sensitively rebacked, a little foxing and darkening to title-page and dedication leaf, especially at corners, very light foxing to text, some slight offsetting onto text, occasional very minor marginal foxing and dust-soiling to plates, covers a little rubbed and darkened
Footnote
Note: Abbey Travel, 369, calls for a portrait, which this copy lacks. However, it would appear that few copies were bound with this plate.
Mayer is often considered to have made some of the most accurate depictions of the Near East before David Roberts (see lot 320, Sketches in Egypt and Nubia). For several years, the German-born artist studied under Giovanni Battista Piranesi in Rome, before entering the employment of Sir Robert Ainslie, British ambassador to the Ottoman Porte, creating illustrations of Asia Minor and the Near East. Ainslie had a reputation as a great lover of all things Turkish, amassing coins and antiques from the area. Mayer's drawings added to this collection. Views in Egypt is one of three published groups of Mayer's work. In 1804, when Ainslie returned to the UK with Mayer in tow, it was combined with Views in Palestine and Views in the Ottoman Empire, chiefly in Caramania, to be sold to the public as one volume. However, this edition pre-dates this as one of the original copies of Views in Egypt to be published in 1801, whilst Mayer and Ainslie were still in the Near East.
Information from: Barnard, Fiona (University of Reading Special Collections). Luigi Mayer, Views in Egypt, 1801. Reading: 2007