CARTER, Howard, and A.C. MACE [volumes II and III by Carter alone]. The Tomb of Tut-Ankh-Amen. London: Cassell. 1923 [-1933].
Three volumes, 8vo. Original brown cloth, lettered in gilt and with gilt-stamped scarab on black shields on front covers (vol. I with shield in leather, sometimes called presentation issue; the other shields are cloth), 'Egyptian' decorated endpapers, printed in light sage green; pp. I: xvi, 231, [1]; II: xxxiv, 277, [1]; III: xvi, 247 [1]; numerous plates after photographs by Harry Burton; front cover of vol. II a little mottled and with short repaired tear to head of spine, only very sporadic minimal spotting to text; a very good set of all volumes in first printing, with important provenance (see below).
First editions of all three volumes, from the library of the German Egyptologist Adolf Erman (1854-1937).
This set describes one of the most spectacular finds in archaeology and is a landmark of the discipline and one of the most important books of Egyptology. At the age of seventeen in 1891, Carter went to Egypt where he worked under Flinders Petrie. His great success in drawing the painted reliefs at Deir al-Bahri, Thebes led to his being appointed in 1899 the first chief inspector of antiquities in Upper Egypt, despite having no formal qualifications. His appointment proved a great success, however, and Carter discovered the tomb of King Tuthmosis IV in the Valley of the Kings. Carter's career took a downturn in 1905 when he was held responsible for a skirmish between foreign visitors and Egyptian antiquities guards, which resulted in Carter resigning from the antiquities service. 'Carter's rehabilitation came in early 1909 when, on the recommendation of Maspero, he began his association with George Herbert, fifth earl of Carnarvon. Until the First World War they excavated in the Theban necropolis, making important, but unspectacular, discoveries. Carnarvon was then encouraged by Carter to apply for the concession for the Valley of the Kings, surrendered by Davis in 1914. The time was not right, and the prognostications for discovery were not favourable. Davis, Maspero, and others believed that there was nothing of importance left in the valley to be discovered. Carter thought otherwise.
A short campaign by Carter in the tomb of King Amenophis III in 1915 produced trifling results, and for the rest of the war until 1917 he was employed as a civilian by the intelligence department of the War Office in Cairo. In 1917 he was at last free to return to working for Carnarvon, and until 1922 he conducted annual campaigns in the Valley of the Kings; but few positive results were achieved. In the summer of 1922 Carter persuaded Carnarvon to allow him to conduct one more campaign in the valley. Starting work earlier than usual Howard Carter opened up the stairway to the tomb of Tutankhamun on 4 November 1922. Carnarvon hurried to Luxor and the tomb was entered on 26 November. The discovery astounded the world: a royal tomb, mostly undisturbed, full of spectacular objects. Carter recruited a team of expert assistants to help him in the clearance of the tomb, and the conservation and recording of its remarkable contents. On 16 February 1923 the blocking to the burial chamber was removed, to reveal the unplundered body and funerary equipment of the dead king. Unhappily, the death of Lord Carnarvon on 5 April seriously affected the subsequent progress of Carter's work. In spite of considerable and repeated bureaucratic interference, not easily managed by the short-tempered excavator, work on the clearance of the tomb proceeded slowly, but was not completed until 1932. Carter handled the technical processes of clearance, conservation, and recording with exemplary skill and care. A popular account of the work was published in three volumes, The Tomb of Tut-ankh-Amen, the first of which was substantially written by his principal assistant, Arthur C. Mace. No archaeological discovery had met with such sustained public interest, yet Carter received no formal honours from his own country' (ODNB).
At the end of the entire work is the ominous Appendix II by A. Lucas on the Chemistry of the Tomb. A series of unexplained deaths of participants in the digging and opening of the tomb in 1922, beginning with Lord Carnarvon's death six weeks after the opening of Tutankhamun's tomb, resulted in many curse stories in the press and popular imagination.
Provenance: All volumes with bookplates of the eminent Egyptologist Adolf Erman. 'In the realms of his own subject he was without doubt regarded as the foremost scholar, since it was he who first placed the study of the ancient Egyptian language upon a scientific basis … He could write excellent descriptive prose, informed by a considerable sense of humour, which presented a living picture to his readers, as in his "Ägypten", translated into English by Lady Tirard under the title of "Life in Ancient Egypt", his "Religion der Ägypter", translated by the same author and called "Handbook of the Egyptian Religion", and his "Literatur der Ägypter" of which the English edition has been prepared by Prof. A. M. Blackman. The last-named book is perhaps his greatest contribution of this kind, enabling the student of the past for the first time to become acquainted with specimens of ancient Egyptian literature of all periods, beautifully translated and explained' (Obituary in Nature, 21 August 1937). This set was provided through the London bookdealers Bernard Quaritch by Caroline Ransom Williams (1872-1952), Erman's most famous student in Berlin – see the Quaritch note loosely inserted in vol. I, where she is referred to by her married name Grant Williams.
In Erman's archive at Bremen University are letters by her promising financial support for Erman during the upheavals of the Weimar Republic and the hyper-inflation of 1923. 'Dr. Caroline Louise Ransom Williams was the first professionally trained woman Egyptologist in America. Mentored by Breasted who was only seven years her senior, their relationship would evolve from teacher and pupil, to the greatest of colleagues with a friendship that would last for 37 years until his death … Ransom received a Master of Arts in classical archaeology and Egyptology in Chicago and Breasted encouraged her to follow in his path and next attend the University of Berlin, Germany. From 1900 to 1903, she trained under some of the leading Egyptologists in the world including Dr. Adolf Erman, Breasted’s own beloved teacher' (Museo Egizio, online).
Sets of The Tomb of Tut-Ankh-Amen with important Egyptological provenance have rarely appeared on the market.
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