Collection of Twenty Early Original Albumen Stereoview Photographs of Egypt, Showing Cairo, Ancient Egyptian Temples and Sites along the Nile and Suez Canal Under Construction. Ca. 1860s.

Twenty pairs of albumen stereoview photographs, each pair ca. 7,5x14,5 cm (3 x 5 ¾ in) mounted on original grey, yellow and orange cards. Over a dozen cards numbered in negative (from “51” to “222”), one with a signature in negative partly trimmed off; one photo with a printed caption in French in negative; one photo with a printed caption in English on the paper label attached to the card’s verso. Seventeen photos with period manuscript captions and/or numbers in English or French on the cards’ versos. One photo with a paper label of a 19th-century Vienna dealer C. Jos. Rospini on the card’s verso, one photo with a photo dealer’s ink stamp dated “1965” on the card’s verso. Several images mildly faded or with minor stains, otherwise a very good collection of strong stereoviews.

Interesting collection of early stereoview photograph views of Cairo, ancient Egyptian sites along the Nile, and the Suez Canal under construction. Eleven views of Cairo (two identical, but mounted on different types of card – yellow or orange) show the Citadel, Tombs of the Califs, and the streets of the old city. Eight views of the ancient Egyptian temples and sites show the Great Pyramids of Giza, the Great Hypostyle Hall and other sites in Karnak, the Colossi of Memnon, Medinet Habu temple, the Memnonium, and the temple in Kirscheh. The latter stood next to the Dendur and Kalabsha temples in Nubia, but was flooded with the waters of Lake Nasser after the construction of the Aswan High Dam. One stereoview depicts the works on the Suez Canal, with a floating construction crane in the middle of the canal.