Daniel HAVELL after Henry Salt

View of Grand Cairo. [&] The Pyramids at Cairo.

28 x 18¾ inches.

A magnificent pair of aquatints depicting early C19th Cairo engraved by Daniel Havell after the drawings of Henry Salt and published in London by William Miller in 1809. Partially printed in colours and finished by hand. Additional etching performed by S. Rawle.

Henry Salt (1780 - 1827) led a fascinating life as an artist, diplomat, traveller and antiquarian. He trained in London but from 1805 embarked upon a series of extraordinary journeys that would take him all over the world. Initially he went across to India and Ceylon via Ethiopia, the Red Sea and the Cape colonies but from 1815 onwards he was appointed the British Consul General in Cairo and it was during his time in Egypt that he produced his finest work. He became an obsessive collector of artefacts and sponsored several archaeological excavations at both Thebes and Abu Simnel. Many of his acquisitions ended up being either donated or sold to both the British Museum and the Louvre. Daniel Havell was born in 1785 and spent his working life in London where he engraved, mostly in aquatint, after his contemporaries. These views of Cairo are of exceptional quality and represent the most accomplished period of his career. He is thought to be the nephew of Robert Havell, the prominent engraver of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, and the two often collaborated in the production of particular plates.