Holy Bible

BIBLE   |   Francis FRITH

Item#: 89940 We're sorry, this item has been sold

Holy Bible
Holy Bible
Holy Bible
Holy Bible

VICTORIAN KING JAMES BIBLE, EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED WITH SIX ORIGINAL ALBUMEN PHOTOGRAPHS BY FRITH

BIBLE. The Holy Bible. London: George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode, circa 1869. Quarto, contemporary full blind-tooled brown morocco rebacked with original spine laid down, brass clasp and catch, beveled edges, all edges gilt.

Handsomely bound 19th-century King James Bible, extra-illustrated with six mounted albumen photographs by pioneering Holy Land photographer Francis Firth, with brass clasp.

This volume contains a late-19th century edition of the magisterial King James translation of the Bible (first published 1611) extra-illustrated with 20 mounted albumen photographs of the Holy Land by Francis Frith. A founding member of the Liverpool Photographic Society who is considered “the most successful of the photographic entrepreneurs following the calotype era” (Parr & Badger, 18), “Frith is the most prominent of the early photographers of Egypt and the Holy Land. He built his own 16 by 20-inch wet-collodion plate camera, put it in his wicker camper/darkroom, and in 1856 embarked on his first trip up the Nile. The result was a series of pictures that still amaze in terms in their clarity, precision and visual impact. His direct eye-level frontal photography produced some of the most exquisitely detailed images of his day” (McDarrah & McDarrah, 156-7). “His photographs of the landscape and monuments were taken under dangerous and difficult conditions. He slept in tombs and caves and was attacked by wild dogs and brigands; inside an unventilated tent he worked in desert temperatures with collodion chemicals that boiled on the glass plate negatives” (DNB). Frith’s images in this Bible include two views of the Sinai wilderness, the convent at Mount Carmel, the stone pyramid of Dashûr, Banias and the Parthenon. Contemporary family record to front free endpaper. Brass clasp engraved with owner’s initials.

Occasional light foxing. A distinguished Bible in nearly fine condition.

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