Holiday 2020 Catalogue

F e a t u r e d I t e m s 8 Warmly Inscribed By Egyptologist Howard Carter In Two Volumes To His Friend Percy White, Who Helped Write Volumes I And II 5. CARTER, Howard and MACE, A.C. The Tomb of Tutankhamen Discovered by the Late Earl of Carnarvon and Howard Carter. London, 1923-33. Three volumes. Thick octavo, original gilt-stamped brown cloth, custom clamshell box. $29,000. Fantastic presentation/association copy of the first edition of Carter’s account of the discovery of King Tutankhamen’s tomb, including the scarce third volume, with 247 dramatic illustrations, inscribed in Volume I: “PercyWhite fromHoward Carter. 16 Dec. 1923, Cairo. With homage from the Author, Howard Carter”; and inscribed in Volume III: “To my dear friend Mr. Percy White—Howard Carter, 1933.” White is known to have largely written Volume II based on Carter’s notes and diaries; Carter effusively thanks White in the Prefaces to both Volumes I and II. When Carter entered King Tut’s tomb in 1922, he bridged 3000 years separating the reign of the Boy-King from the modern world. This first detailed account, richly illustrated with hundreds of plates after photographs taken by Harry Burton, includes images from the discovery of Tut’s sepulchral chamber, the excavation of the site and hundreds of catalogued artifacts. This association copy was inscribed in Volumes I and III by Carter to his close friend, novelist Percy White (1852-1938). In the Preface to Volume I, Carter writes, “I must also thank my dear friend Mr. Percy White, the novelist, Professor of English Literature in the Egyptian University, for his ungrudging literary help” (page xvi); in the Preface to Volume II, Carter writes: “There is one old friend, of many years’ standing— Mr. Percy White, who insists that any assistance that it may have been in his power to give me, has had its own reward, as a labor of love. I must nevertheless embarrass him with my warmest thanks for helping me in the compilation of this volume, although for his sake I will say no more” (xxiv). Because of the Depression, the third and final volume, included here, was printed in limited numbers and is consequently quite scarce. Without dust jackets, as usual. Some scattered foxing, also as usual, expert reinforcement to text blocks and inner paper hinges, light rubbing to spines of Volumes I and II. An exceptional and scarce inscribed association copy.