Oblong Octavo (ca. 15,5x22,5 cm or 6x9 in). 15 card stock album leaves. 60 albumen photos, all ca. 5,5x9 cm (2 ¼ x 3 ½ in). The photos are mounted on slightly bigger original cards and then inserted in window mats recto and verso. Eighteen photos are hand-coloured. Nine photos with printed credentials of “W. Hammerschmidt, Phot.” on versos; five photos with printed credentials of “E. Désiré & Cie.” on rectos and versos; at least three photos with printed credentials of “Schonfeld & Co.” on rectos and versos; two photos with printed credentials of “E. Bechard” on rectos and versos; one photo with a printed label “David Robertson & Co., Alexandria <…>” on verso. About twenty images with printed or manuscript captions on versos. Several photos are not examined outside the mats. Attractive original brown full morocco album with blind-stamped ornaments on both boards and the spine; decorative brass clasps; all edges gilt; moire endpapers. Each leaf with a small gilt-stamped copyright “F.R.G. Patent” or “R.G. Patent.” Several window mats with minor tears (mostly neatly repaired), a few photos very mildly faded, otherwise a very good album or rare early photos.

Attractive album of sixty rare early carte-de-visite photographs of Egypt, taken by noted studios of Wilhelm Hammerschmidt, Ermé Désiré, David Robertson, Emile Béchard and Wilhelm Schönfeld (active in Saint Petersburg, Russia in ca. 1840s-1870s). Invented in the middle 1850s, photograph portraits and views in the format of “carte-de-visite” (ca. 85x55 mm) gained popularity in the 1860s and became objects of collecting, especially photos of celebrities and famous sites worldwide.

All but one photos in this album are portraits of Egyptians and scenes from their life, showing a Marabout (Muslim religious teacher), Bedouins, Nubians, government officials, a Janissary, a barber and his client, a cotton spinner, a dancer, “Almas, a distinguished Arab singer,” a Dervish, a shoe cleaner, sellers of coffee, plants, vegetables and bread, women in traditional dress, a carpenter, a poor family, praying men, and others. There is also a portrait of two “Donne d’Bethlehem.” One image shows the mausoleum of Sultan Qaytbay in Cairo (“Mosquée Kaid-Bey”) – an outstanding example of the Egyptian Mamluk architecture pictured on the Egyptian one-pound note. Overall a beautiful album with well-preserved early carte-de-visite photograph portraits of Egyptian people.

A list of available captions: 36. Marabout [printed stamp of W. Hammerschmidt]; 56. Barbier [printed stamp of W. Hammerschmidt]; Bedouin [pencil manuscript caption]; Bedouins [pencil manuscript caption]; [An Arab official wearing a fez; printed stamps of “Désiré & Cie” on recto and verso]; Arab coffee seller [pencil manuscript caption]; Jenisseri [pencil manuscript caption, printed stamps of “Désiré & Cie” on recto and verso]; 57. Arabe travaillant du coton [printed stamp of W. Hammerschmidt]; [A Nubian; printed stamp “Schönfeld & Co/Шенфельдъ и К” on recto]; [Another portrait of a Nubian; printed stamp “Schönfeld & Co/Шенфельдъ” on recto]; [Portrait of a Egyptian man wearing a fez; printed stamps “Schönfeld & Co/Шенфельдъ” on recto and verso]; [An Arab elder with praying beads; printed stamps “Schier & Schoefft” on recto and verso]; Venditrice di [?], Cairo [pencil manuscript caption, printed stamps of “Désiré & Cie” on recto and verso]; Arab merchant [pencil manuscript caption]; Vendeur de plantes [pencil manuscript caption]; Donne d’Bethlehem [pencil manuscript caption]; 12. Danseuses [printed stamp of W. Hammerschmidt]; [A Egyptian official; printed stamps “E. Bechard” on recto and verso]; [A Egyptian sitting at a table; printed stamps “E. Bechard” on recto and verso]; Almas, la chanteuse arabe en renommée [pencil manuscript caption; printed stamps of “Désiré & Cie” on recto and verso]; 65. Nègre à chameau [printed stamp of W. Hammerschmidt]; [An Arab boy with a donkey; paper label of “David Robertson & Co.”]; 19. Famille arabe de la basse classe [printed stamp of W. Hammerschmidt]; 82. Cheval arabe [printed stamp of W. Hammerschmidt]; 2. Anier avec son baudet [printed stamp of W. Hammerschmidt]; 168. Mosquée Kaid-Bey [printed stamp of W. Hammerschmidt]; Arab carpenter [pencil manuscript caption]; Arabe en pellerginàge [pencil manuscript caption]; [A street shop. Cairo; printed stamps of “Désiré & Cie” on recto and verso].

“Born in Berlin, Wilhelm Hammerschmidt was already a professional photographer when he settled in Cairo, Egypt, around 1860. There he established the Hammerschmidt shop, where he sold photographic materials to other early photographers such as Henry Cammas. Hammerschmidt exhibited ten views of Egypt at the Société Française de Photographie in 1861 before becoming a member the following year. He also made costume and ethnographic studies, exhibiting those at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1867. Hammerschmidt also made photographs in Syria and Nubia, now Sudan” (Wilhelm Hammerschmidt / Getty Museum Collection). Hammerschmidt is considered one of first photographers to produce high-quality detailed images of Egypt, and his travels and photographs of Upper Egypt and Nubia predate popular tourism in Egypt. He appears to have collaborated with the pioneering photo chemist Hermann Wilhelm Vogel (1834-1898), which would explain the high quality of Hammerschmidt's photographs.

Ermé Désiré opened his photo studio in Cairo in ca. 1864 and became known for the series of views of the construction of the Suez Canal and numerous photos of Cairo, produced on the assignment of Ismail Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt. He also took classical ethnographic portraits of local people, from beggars and street sellers to Egyptian dignitaries and officers of the Khedivial army.

Working in Egypt from 1870 to 1880, the photographer Émile Béchard (1844-?) is above all known for his genre scenes and cunningly composed Egyptian views, as well as his carefully constructed versions of Egypt’s cultural heritage, ancient or medieval, which his brother Hippolyte sold from La Grande Combe in the Gard. Béchard also produced work of a more documentary nature, including the collection illustrating the first collections of Egyptology that were brought together in the Bulaq museum, which he made for Auguste Mariette in 1872, along with his associate Hippolyte Délié (Volait, M. Emile Bechard. The new Cairo in 1874//Bibliothéque National de France. Shared Heritage).