Three albums.

Album 1. Oblong Folio album (ca. 28,5x36,5 cm or 11 ¼ x 14 ¼ in). 24 card stock leaves. With 96 mounted original gelatin silver photos, including over twenty large images from ca. 20x28 cm (7 ¾ x 11 in) to ca. 16x21,5 cm (6 ¼ x 8 ¼ in); the rest of the photos (some are real photo postcards) are from ca. 13x18 cm (5x7 in) to ca. 9x12 cm (3 ½ x 4 ½ in). All but a few photos with period white ink captions on the mounts; two large images of the Great Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx with the compiler’s extensive ink notes on verso. Period brown quarter cloth album with papered boards, fastened with a string. Binding rubbed on extremities, spine and corners with tears and minor losses, several mounts and photos with minor creases, a few photos mildly faded, but overall a very good album with strong interesting photos.

Album 2. Oblong Folio album (ca. 23,5x32,5 cm or 9 ¼ x 12 ¾ in). 24 card stock leaves with tissue guards. With 48 mounted large original gelatin silver photos, from ca. 18x24 cm (7 x 9 ½ in) to ca. 16x21 cm (6 ¼ x 8 ¼ in). Over twenty photos with period ink or pencil captions on verso, several images are also dated from 1924 to 1929 on verso. Period brown full cloth album fastened with a string. Binding rubbed on extremities, several tissue guards with tears, a few photos mildly faded, but overall a very good album with strong interesting photos.

Album 3. Oblong Quarto album (ca. 19,5x27 cm or 9 ½ x 10 ½ in). 24 card stock leaves with tissue guards. With 63 mounted original gelatin silver photos, including 31 larger images from 16x21 cm (6 ¼ x 8 in) to ca. 13x17,5 cm (5x7 in); the rest of the photos are ca 8x12 cm (3 ¼ x 4 ¾ in). All but a few photos with period white ink captions on the mounts. Period brown full cloth album fastened with a string. Binding rubbed on extremities, the string is broken, so several leaves at the rear are loosely inserted, several tissue guards with creases or tears, a few photos mildly faded, one photo was possibly previously removed, but overall a very good album with strong interesting photos.

Historically significant, well-annotated collection of over 200 original gelatin silver photographs illustrating the service of the 208th (Army Cooperation) Squadron of the Royal Air Force, stationed on the Ismailia Air Base in the Kingdom of Egypt in the 1920s – early 1930s.

The collection was most likely assembled by one of the squadron’s pilots and includes over twenty photos of various RAF aircraft: “Avro 504 N training machine,” “[Imperial] Airway’s ‘Horsa,’” “Vickers Victoria, troop carrier, long-distance bomber,” interior of a “cabin of a Vic,” “Vic formation,” “Farey Gordon” light bomber, “Fokker with Wright Whirlwind engine at Cairo on its way to Kenya colony,” a Vickers Vellore biplane, “woodcock, [Jubilee?] engine, single seater, showing differential slot wing control,” “Avro Andover” &c. There are also images of burning planes on an airfield, “the remains of 4883 after the fire in 26/4/29,” and a scene of “Vernon crash at Iraq, 7 killed.” Several images show the aircraft in flight taken from other planes: “III Fs. in formation (45 Sqnd, Helouan [Helwan, Cairo]),” “BIF over Mustapha bks,” “Formation of BIFs over HMS Revenge,” “III F’s over Khartoum,” “Vic formation over Pyramids,” “III’s over Sudan,” and “formation flying over Lake Timsah, 1925.” Three excellent aerial views show “R.A.F. station, Heliopolis, from 2000 ft.,” “4 F.T.S., Abu-Sueir” (Abu Suweir Air Base west of Ismailia), and “station ‘90’ en route to Khartoum.”

A group portrait depicts the squadron members and commanders posing in front of their planes. There is also a photo of “b Flight, 208 (ac) squadron, Ismailia. Pilot & crew of the 1927 Lloyd Reliability trial” (posing in front of a biplane, names and ranks of all men identified), and a scene with pilots and crew in the desert, captioned “early morning tea on the Blue at the forced landing.”

A series of twenty-two smaller photos documents “9762’s second effort. F/Lt Chichester, Sept. 1931” – transportation of a landed RAF Vickers Victoria aircraft in the Sinai desert near Moseifig. The images of the plane’s dismantling and transportation are captioned: “Wasn’t too bad, altho’ some people managed to lose their temper, especially when they brought the hull across 15 miles of “blue” by camel power, man power and “hoarse” power. Near the end of the job under “Fiapo’s” supervision. The wogs were paid… and Mosifig was left to the station master and his kids.”

There is also an interesting view of “Graf Zeppelin” (a German hydrogen-filled rigid airship), dated “April 27th, 1931.” In April 1931, the airship went on a Middle Eastern tour, visiting Benghazi, Cairo, the Great Pyramid of Giza and Jerusalem.

The albums also contain a dozen of group portraits of the squadron’s boxing and rugby teams at various RAF inter-service championships (names of several winners identified) and a scene with “Air Commodore Board presenting R.A.F. Captain (F/Sgt. Fretwell) the Interservice Football Cup of Egypt, 1927-1928.” Other photos of the squadron’s leisure activities include a series of group portraits from the “b Flight outing, 1926” (with young men dressed in bathing suits, posing on a river or seaside and having lunch), group portraits from a theatrical performance (names of the participants are captioned on verso), a group portrait from a “farewell dance, 208 Sqdn, April 27,” and a view of the interior of a decorated hall with a sign in the background “Ear, drink and be merry, Xmas 1929.”

There are also a dozen views of Egypt and Sudan, taken from a plane and showing Cairo, “Nile Delta,” “Kad-e-Main” complex, “Nile Barrage,” the Great Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx (two with the compiler’s extensive manuscript notes on verso), “aerial view near Alexandria,” “Nile Barrage from the air,” “Khartoum and the Blue Nile, Residency in foreground,” &c.

About twenty photos show Cairo: entrance to the “Shepheard’s Hotel” (founded in 1841, destroyed in 1952 during the Cairo Fire), alleys of the “scent bazaar” in “Muski” (Al Moski) market area, “Mosque Ba-bar es Salaam” (Mosque-Madrasa of Sultan Hasan), Ramses railway station, the Citadel and city walls, Tombs of the Caliphs, “Baron’s Folly” (Baron Empain Palace in Heliopolis), Nile Barrage (general views, “nilometer on Nile barrage,” “barrage lock,” “at ground level,” the gardens), the Virgin’s Tree, old minarets, interior of a “curio shop,” “native funeral,” &c. Other photos show Alexandria (El-Nozha Gardens, “Italian family grave,” equestrian statue of Mohamed Ali Pasha), Aboukir/Abu Qir (“entrance to Fort Tewfek,” “the moat,” “Brighton beach (Aboukir),” “excavations at the buried city of Canopus, Aboukir”), Khartoum (general, Gordon college, “Beit-el-Amara, the Madhi’s Treasure-House”), Great Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx, Karnak Temple, the Pyramid of Djoser, ancient Egyptian bas-reliefs, “Red Hills at Mokattam,” felucca boats, a “native ferry,” “sunset on the Nile,” “one of Napoleon’s watch towers (Suez road),” a traditional water wheel, &c.

Several images portray Egyptian people (“fellahin,” “sheep herder,” a fisherman casting a net, a woman “making chappatis,” a snake charmer, a pottery seller, beggars, silk spinners, &.) and native Africans from Sudan. There are also views of the African savanna, taken from the plane, and close-up photos of local fauna (mosquitoes, praying mantis, locust, moth, chameleon, tarantula, scorpion). Several photos were taken in the Levant region: an aerial view of Amman (Jordan) with ruins of the Roman amphitheatre, Jerusalem and environs (Mount of Olives, Caiapha’s house, Joseph’s Tomb, River Jordan), “sunset over Galilee,” orange trees in Jaffa, &c.

Overall an important extensive collection of original photos of RAF planes, pilots and crew members on service in Egypt in the 1920s – 1930s.