Monuments of Ancient Egypt

Freeman and Wertheimer note that Gosse published four books on Bible lands and this, the first of them, was written as a manual to the British Museum collection of Egyptian antiquities and to show how these monuments illustrate scripture history. The other three are:

Sacred Streams
The History of the Jews
Assyria

The first edition was published in 1847.

A second edition came out in 1855, and it is this edition held in my library.

It is to be presumed that the illustrations are by Gosse, except for two, which are signed by Josia Wood Whimper (1813-1903), a fine example of which is the frontispiece - ‘Interior of the temple of Esne’.

Both editions contain ‘many illustrations’, as described on the title page. In fact I have counted 119, making this book a work of prodigious labour in the illustrations alone.

The book is a fine example of Victorian binding, with both boards having blind ornamental borders and floral corners. The binder’s ticket is on the back endpaper - Spencer & Son.

The book holds a small piece of social history in the blind stamp on the title page and elsewhere, which reads - Chorlton on Medlock Working Men’s Institute.

 

© John Dunn.