A COLLECTION OF 83 ALBUMIN PHOTOGRAPHS OF A VOYAGE TO EGYPT, PALESTINE AND GREECE
INCLUDING 20 PHOTOS BY BECHARD

VOYAGE TO ORIENT-BECHARD. Large album of 83 albumen photos, bound in full calf with gilt titles and decorations at covers, five raised bands decorated spine, gilt edges, marbled clothed fly-leaves with gilt decorative frames. [without date, but about 1880]

Carton: 480x324 mm. Images: ca. from 420x375 mm (large photos) to 295x230 mm (small photos).

A VERY CHARMING COLLECTION OF PICTURES, INCLUDING 20 ORIGINAL PHOTOS BY HENRI BÉCHARD, DESCRIBING THE NEAR EAST (EGYPT, PALESTINE, SYRIA AND GREECE) AS IT APPEARED TO THE EYES OF A 19TH CENTURY TRAVELLER.

The fascinating ruins and the mysterious women of Asia, the men with their elegant military uniforms or in praying pose: the images in this album speak of a world that has always enchanted the Europeans and that did it even more after the Romantic age. The pictures shows people and places of Egypt, Palestine and Greece, with particular attention paid to the remains of the ancient towns and Christian vestiges.

In the collection there are 20 photos by H. Béchard, each one with the photographer’s series number. They can be found in the following positions: XIV (plate number 206), XVI (166), XVII (149), XVIII (148), XX (137), XXI (51), XXII (124), XXIII (126), XXIV (60), XXV (114), XXVI (97), XXVII (106), XXVIII (101), XXIX (45), XXX (70), XXXI (29), XXXII (3), XXXIII (2), XXXIV (209), XXXV (132).

The name H. BECHARD appears scratched into the negatives of these 20 large format prints produced in Egypt, mainly representing ruins and buildings with captivating perspectives and high sharpness for the time. Henri Béchard is probably an alternate name used by Emile Bechard, photographer who held a studio during the last 30 years of the 19th century in the Esbekiah Gardens in Cairo along with Hippolyte Delie and won a gold medal at the International Exhibition of 1878 in Paris.

BÉCHARD (late 1869-1880) sold standard tourist views, as well as a series of types and costume studies. No doubt he was attracted to Egypt by the influx of visitors and potential customers at the time of the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, which also coincided with the first package tourist trips there. This created an enlarged market for pictures that could support a larger more competitive market. A proliferation of studios in Cairo followed, but Béchard’s pictures stands out their quality among all the other preserved of his colleagues.In 1887, he published L’Egypte Et la Nubie Monumental, Historique, Architectural, Reproduction Par les Procedes Inalterables De La Phototypie De Cent Cinequante Vues Photographiques, which contained a number of images (that Emile claimed to have made) that originally appeared with the credit H. Bechard, but which was removed from the versions in this edition. In 1888, ten years after he won the medal, A. Palmiere published a set of 150 photo-gravures out of the work of Henri Bechard: L’Egypte et la Nubie, a fine work and valued high today. Still then the images by Bechard were the most impressive photographs of the Egyptian antiquities.

PROVENANCE: I. As indicated by the front covers impressions, the album belonged to the Italian lawyer Felice Vallegia, who presumably had him composed for himself during a voyage to Egypt, Palestine and Greece. Vallegia is recorded in the Italian National Archives as a member of the Chambers of the Deputies, elected near Modena in 1882 for the 15th legislature of the Reign of Italy. II. At the recto of the fourth front fly-leaf, manuscript note by a 20th century hand in black ink: 5 ottobre. In ricordo a Giovanna Amigoni, zia Elvira.

REFERENCES: N. MICKLEWRIGHT-A. BRASSEY, A Victorian traveler in the Middle East: the photography and travel writing, Coventry, Biddles Ltd., 2003, pp. 118–121: «Béchard’s […] work, whatever the subject, is characterized by a dramatic sense of presentation and careful attention to composition».

The leaves are slightly warped and present traces of oxidation, but overall good condition.

Download all pictures: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3vdx8kbko3pzevf/dUXtm0lhCr