Plates Illustrative Of The Researches And Operations Of G. Belzoni In Egypt And Nubia
Print
1820 (first published)
1820 (first published)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Print entitled 'Overflowing Of The Nile', a plate from the 'Researches And Operations Of G. Belzoni In Egypt And Nubia'. Volume of plates (44) on 34 sheets, with descriptive text. Quarter bound in black morocco, with label lettered with title and price, pasted on front cover. The volume contains prints made in a variety of techniques, lithographs, lithographs coloured by hand, etchings coloured by hand, soft ground etchings coloured by hand, etchings and aquatints. Most plates lettered with title and numbered. Many plates lettered with name(s) of artist(s). Each page lettered variously with the publisher's name and address.
Object details
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| Materials and techniques | Print |
| Brief description | Print entitled 'Overflowing Of The Nile', drawn by Sarah Belzoni, from 'Plates Illustrative Of The Researches And Operations Of G. Belzoni In Egypt And Nubia' published by John Murray. Volume of plates (44) on 34 sheets, with descriptive text. Great Britain, 1820. |
| Physical description | Print entitled 'Overflowing Of The Nile', a plate from the 'Researches And Operations Of G. Belzoni In Egypt And Nubia'. Volume of plates (44) on 34 sheets, with descriptive text. Quarter bound in black morocco, with label lettered with title and price, pasted on front cover. The volume contains prints made in a variety of techniques, lithographs, lithographs coloured by hand, etchings coloured by hand, soft ground etchings coloured by hand, etchings and aquatints. Most plates lettered with title and numbered. Many plates lettered with name(s) of artist(s). Each page lettered variously with the publisher's name and address. |
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| Marks and inscriptions | Each page lettered variously 'London. Published by J.Murray, 1820' or 'London, Published 1820, by John Murray, Albermarle Street'.
Some pages lettered variously 'C.Hullmandel's Lithography' or 'Printed by C.Hullmandel'.
(Lettered) |
| Credit line | Purchased with the assistance of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, Art Fund, Shell International and the Friends of the V&A |
| Subject depicted | |
| Places depicted | |
| Bibliographic reference | BELZONI, Giovanni Battista (1778 1823)
Italian, born in Padua.
Leading excavator, explorer, and draughtsman in Egypt. Travelled in Europe, and came to England in 1803, where he worked as a Strong Man in Sadlers Wells Theatre.
His wife Sarah Belzoni was of English (or Irish) descent. They met when he first came to England from Italy in 1803. A very attractive young woman, trained as a tightrope walker, she joined him in his theatrical performances. When he left for Egypt in 1815, she accompanied him and they lived together in the Tomb of Seti I which he discovered. She remained in Aswan when he cleared the entrance to the temple of Abu Simbel further south, writing a chapter on the women of Egypt, Nubia and Syria for his book: Narrative of the Operations and Recent Discoveries within the Pyramids...and of a Journey to the Coast of the Red Sea.
She had indeed travelled by herself through the Holy Land in 1818, reportedly disguised as a Mamluk youth, but was also able over the years, to experience the separate culture of the Middle Eastern women. Thus Sarah Belzoni published some of the earliest accounts of domestic life among the Turks and Arabs and also distributed bibles to Egyptians in Rosetta to spread the Christian Gospel in the region, without much success.
After her husband's death in 1823, Sarah opened an exhibition in London to succeed one he had successfully mounted some years previously. Unfortunately it was not a financial success and she became quite destitute for many years. She died almost fifty years after her husband on January 12th 1870 in St. Helier, Jersey, Channel Islands |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | SP.94:26 |
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| Record created | June 30, 2009 |
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