Oblong Quarto (ca. 16x25 cm). 32 thick paper album leaves. With 60 albumen photos, all ca. 5,5x9 cm (2 ¼ x 3 ½ in). The photos are mounted on slightly bigger original card and then inserted in window mats with empty backs, allowing to see the versos. Eight photos are partly hand-coloured; two photos are captioned in negative. Sixteen photos with paper labels of “W. Hammerschmidt, Caire d’Egypte, Berlin” on verso (containing printed captions); one photo with a printed caption and credentials of “W. Hammerschmidt, Phot.” on verso. Two photos with printed credentials of “Royer & Aufière Photographes, Désiré & Cie Successeurs,” four photos with printed credentials of “Royer & Aufière” (rare), “H. Délié et Cie”, “E. Neurdein” and “Photographie Jules Deplanque” on verso, one photo with an ink stamp “Fotografia Egiziana, Cairo, Luigi de Michele” on verso. Several photos with period or later ink or pencil captions on versos. Period maroon full morocco album with elaborate blind-stamped ornaments on both boards; spine with raised bands. Decorative brass clasps; marbled endpapers; all edges gilt. Binder’s paper label on the front pastedown endpaper. Several leaves slightly age-toned or with minor foxing, two window mats with minor tears, but overall a very good album with strong interesting photos.

Rare attractive keepsake album of sixty early carte-de-visite photographs of Egypt, taken by several local businesses, including a noted Cairo studio of Wilhelm Hammerschmidt and an early Cairo partnership of Louis Royer and Clovis Aufière (fl. ca. 1860s). Invented in the middle 1850s, photograph portraits and views in the format of “carte-de-visite” (ca. 85x55 mm) gained popularity in the 1860s and became objects of collecting, especially photos of celebrities and famous sites around the world.

Most photos in the album (ca. 50) are portraits of Egyptians and scenes from their life (water carriers, musicians, “Bedouins from Giza,” camel, oxen and donkey riders, sellers of oranges or sugar canes, elders, beggars, barber and his client, a “tobacco cutter,” women with water jugs, smoking hookah, posing in traditional clothing, with covered faces, Nubian women, mothers with children, &c.). Two photos after paintings portray Ismail Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt and ruler of Sudan (1863-1879) and “Vice-roi d’Egypt” – apparently, Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt (March-November, 1848).

The other photos are views of Cairo (the Citadel and Muhammad Ali Mosque, Mosque of Qani-Bay and other examples of Mamluk architecture, “houses in Copts in Cairo”), Suez Canal, Pompey’s Pillar in Alexandria, a dahabiya on the Nile, &c. Overall a beautiful album with well-preserved early carte-de-visite photographs of Egypt.

A list of available captions: Marchande d’oranges (Egypte) [ink caption; ink stamp of a private “Collection Sirot-Angel” on verso; 14. Femme fumant la narguilèh [paper label of W. Hammerschmidt]; 54. Mucisien barberin [paper label of W. Hammerschmidt]; Ismail Pasha, Vice-roi d’Egypte [printed caption, studio card of E. Neurdein]; 6. Jeune fille arabe voilée [paper label of W. Hammerschmidt]; 70. Ane chargé dune outre d’eau [paper label of W. Hammerschmidt]; 1. Anier avec son baudet [paper label of W. Hammerschmidt]; 76. Buffle monté par un gamin [paper label of W. Hammerschmidt]; 67. Chameaux de charge [paper label of W. Hammerschmidt]; 53. Joueur de luth et de clavicorde [paper label of W. Hammerschmidt]; 65. Négre à chameau [paper label of W. Hammerschmidt]; 48. Porteur d’eau [paper label of W. Hammerschmidt]; 39. Bédouins de Gizéh [paper label of W. Hammerschmidt]; 47. Vendeur d’eau [paper label of W. Hammerschmidt]; 50. Coupeur de tabac [paper label of W. Hammerschmidt]; 24. Femme portant des cruches d’eau [paper label of W. Hammerschmidt]; Vice-roid’Egypte [pencil caption; studio card of Jules Deplanque]; 52. Joueur de kemengéh [paper label of W. Hammerschmidt]; 1200. Maisons du Caire et la citadelle [manuscript ink caption]; 84. Barque de voyageurs ou dahabijéh descendent le Nil [paper label of W. Hammerschmidt]; Chantier 6. Curve in the canal, xii, 73 [captioned in negative]; Egyptiennes femmes [manuscript ink caption]; Vue du Canal de Suez [captioned in negative] ; 170. Maisons Cotes au Caire [studio card of W. Hammerschmidt].

“Born in Berlin, Wilhelm Hammerschmidt was already a professional photographer when he settled in Cairo, Egypt, around 1860. There he established the Hammerschmidt shop, where he sold photographic materials to other early photographers such as Henry Cammas. Hammerschmidt exhibited ten views of Egypt at the Société Française de Photographie in 1861 before becoming a member the following year. He also made costume and ethnographic studies, exhibiting those at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1867. Hammerschmidt also made photographs in Syria and Nubia, now Sudan” (Wilhelm Hammerschmidt / Getty Museum Collection; see more). Hammerschmidt is considered one of the first photographers to produce high quality detailed images of Egypt and his travels and photographs of Upper Egypt and Nubia predate popular tourism in Egypt. He appears to have collaborated with the pioneering photo chemist Hermann Wilhelm Vogel (1834-1898), which would explain the high quality of Hammerschmidt's photographs.

Ermé Désiré opened his photo studio in Cairo in ca. 1864 and became known for the series of views of the construction of the Suez Canal and numerous photos of Cairo, produced on the assignment of Ismail Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt. He also took classical ethnographic portraits of local people, from beggars and street sellers to Egyptian dignitaries and officers of the Khedivial army.

“Royer and Aufière had a partnership in Cairo probably during the early 1860s. The work of this pair is rare and identified photographs have consisted mostly of carte-de-visite portraits of native types taken in the studio, some of which are beautifully composed. They are also important as they represent examples of early photographic representations of native people. Royer and Aufière were succeeded by Ermè Desirè. As Desirè is listed as being in Cairo from 1865, it seems likely that Royer and Aufière had only a short career in Egypt” (Jacobson, K. Odalisques & Arabesques: Orientalist Photography, 1839-1925. Quaritch, 2007, p. 208).