Album du Musée de Boulaq, comprenant quarante planches photographiées par MM. Délié et Béchard, avec un texte explicatif

Very rare first edition of this splendid photographic album, produced in Cairo in 1871, representing the first illustrated catalogue of the earliest museum devoted to Egyptology.

The photographs by Hippolyte Delié and Émile Béchard depict the rooms and antiquities of the Boulaq Museum, founded in Cairo in 1863 by the eminent Egyptologist Auguste Mariette (1821–1881).

The album comprises forty albumen prints (approx. 24.5 × 18 cm), mounted on thick card leaves set on guards, each accompanied by a letterpress commentary leaf (except plates 4 and 11, which each have two). The prints are mounted on the versos of the plates, the rectos bearing the printed captions.

Contemporary half brown shagreen, spine with five raised bands decorated with blind-tooled compartments and gilt floral tools, minor rubbing to spine and joints, headcaps slightly softened, blind-tooled interlaced borders on the boards, gilt title on upper board, endpapers and pastedowns in white moiré silk with a few light spots, all edges gilt.

Repairs to the spine and one joint at head, a few scattered internal spots.

In the preface dated 1 November 1871, Auguste Mariette explains the origins of this monumental publication. "MM. Hippolyte Delié et Béchard s'adressent à la Direction du Musée de Boulaq pour obtenir l'autorisation de reproduire par la photographie quelques-uns des monuments exposés dans nos galeries. Non seulement la demande (…) est accueillie avec empressement, mais le Directeur du Musée croit devoir favoriser l'oeuvre des excellents photographes du Caire, en ouvrant pour eux les armoires du Musée et en choisissant parmi les objets qui y sont contenus ceux qui lui ont paru les plus dignes de figurer dans l'Album projeté. MM. Delié et Béchard ont suivi, pour le classement et l'arrangement de leurs épreuves, l'ordre adopté dans la Notice sommaire qui se vend à la porte du Musée. Trois planches où le Musée est représenté à l'intérieur et à l'extérieur servent d'introduction à l'Album. Les monuments viennent ensuite, classés en monuments religieux, monuments funéraires, monuments civils, monuments historiques, monuments grecs et romains."

"L'Album photographique (…) est ainsi comme un catalogue illustré du Musée. La remarquable exécution des planches nous permet d'ailleurs de recommander à tout le monde l'Album de MM. Delié et Béchard. Les voyageurs l'emporteront en effet comme un souvenir de leur visite au Musée de Boulaq. Les savants y trouveront les textes hiéroglyphiques reproduits avec une netteté qui les met en présence des monuments eux-mêmes. Les artistes enfin n'étudieront en aucun ouvrage d'égyptologie aussi bien que dans les belles épreuves sorties des appareils de MM. Delié et Béchard, les difficiles problèmes qui se rapportent à l'histoire de l'art en Égypte"

The French photographer Émile Béchard was active from the late 1860s to the 1890s: "Béchard arrived in Egypt probably together with his partner Delié. He collaborated with him in the production of the Album du Musée Boulaq and in the carte de visite photographs of native types and costumes. There is little information on the life of Béchard. It is known that he was awarded a first class gold metal at the Exposition Universelle of 1878 in Paris, and his images appear in many of the travel and topographic albums until almost the end of the century. His major achievement was no doubt his monumental album of photographs of the most important archaeological sites and antiquities of Egypt (…) It is worthy to note that Béchard did have a great deal of talent in picturing architecture. The neatness of the execution and printing of the final image adds tremendously to the monumentality he was able to reflect in them". Cf. Nissan N. Perez, *Focus East*, 1988, p. 123. See also, in the same work, the notice devoted to his associate: "Delié arrived in Egypt the year the Suez Canal was opened and settled in Cairo. Until the mid-1870s he was in partnership with Emile Béchard. The two collaborated on a major photography album on the Boulaq Museum that was very highly praised as one of the most luxurious and finely printed books of the period (…) Delié's photographs were known already in 1869, and some of them were used that early for woodcuts illustrating articles in Le Tour du Monde. In 1876, he became a member of the Société Française de Photographie, and in 1878 he was awarded a bronze medal at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. For some reason, Delié's images, although equal in quality, are much rarer than those by Béchard, even though both continued to work after they dissolved their partnership. His photographs are exclusively of Egypt, mainly ruins, antiquities, and cityscapes, with a few genre studies" (op. cit., pp. 153–154). Nissan N. Perez also devotes a substantial notice to Mariette’s archaeological activity, Mariette being closely familiar with photography: "Best known as Mariette Bey, this famous Egyptologist became an archeologist almost by chance. He was a young schoolteacher in the provincial town of Boulogne-sur-Mer, writing bad novels and chairing the local fishing-club, when he happened across the papers of a relative, Nestor L'Hote. L'Hote's writings of Egypt aroused Mariette's interest, and he turned to the study of Coptic writings and hieroglyphs. He published a number of papers that attracted the attention of Charles Lenormant, who sent him to Egypt in 1850 to hunt down Coptic manuscripts, which were at the time actively collected by British scholars. He remained in Egypt four years, during which time he realized the importance of finding and saving the archeological treasures still buried in Egypt. Mariette shared his conviction with Ferdinand de Lesseps, whom he met in 1857. The latter appealed to the Viceroy of Egypt, and Mariette was appointed head of the department of Antiquities, a post he created and held until his death in Cairo in 1881. During his years there he displayed an unusual instinct in finding excavation sites; his contribution to Egyptology is invaluable. He was also founder of the Boulaq museum. Photography became an inseparable part of his activity. He mainly employed professional photographers such as Delié, Béchard, and Brugsch, but he himself also photographed, using an 8 × 10" camera, newly found artifacts and ancient structures in remote parts of the Egyptian desert. It is interesting to note that, although technically not perfect, Mariette's photographs have a certain precision of angle and composition that makes the image 'right' and authentic. This is no doubt the result of his love and understanding of the objects he was photographing" (op. cit., p. 194).

See also J.-M. Carré, "Voyageurs et écrivains français en Égypte", pp. 223–249, for further information on Mariette.