The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, & Nubia.

With pencilled annotations by a talented female Egyptologist and artist

First edition of "one of the most important and elaborate ventures of nineteenth-century publishing, and the apotheosis of the tinted lithograph... there is pleasure to be had from many of the individual plates, where Haghe's skillful and delicate lithography, and his faithful interpretation of Robert's draughtsmanship and dramatic sense, combine in what are undoubtedly remarkable examples of tinted lithographic work" (Abbey). Roberts had toured Eqypt, Alexandria, Jerusalem, Palestine, Lebanon, and Baalbec during 1838 to 1839 making detailed drawings of the most significant sites, from which he worked up the final pictures for his master work.

Provenance: Peter Carthew (1808-1870), of 15A Kensington Palace Gardens, with his bookplate, presumably bought at publication; passed on to his daughter Alice Grace Elizabeth Carthew (1867-1940), with her notes in pencil initialled "A.C." Alice Carthew was a noted collector of William Blake prints and antiquities, subsequently donating her abundant collections to institutions including the British Museum, the Hunterian, the Victoria & Albert Museum, and the Tate Collection. She donated Mycenean antiquities and a Cycladic figurine to Girton College, Cambridge, and made a number of watercolours for the Egypt Exploration Society of artefacts from their excavations at Deir el-Bahari.

Alice Carthew's pencil annotations in the Holy Land volumes (dated 1914 and 1926) relate to the topographical accuracy of Roberts's views, presumably after visits she had made to the actual locations. For example next to "The Ravine" she notes "steps not steep enough", and beside "Petra Looking South" "good picture... far too much water".