Félix Teynard

plate 68 from Egypte et Nubie: Sites et monuments les plus intéressants pour l'étude de l'art et de l'histoire (Paris and London: Goupil et Cie., 1853-58), Blanquart-Evrard salt print from a waxed-paper negative, on the original mount, the series title, plate title, and photographer's and publisher's credits in letterpress on the mount, matted, 1851-52, printed no later than 1858

Acquired by General Charles Greely Loring, Boston, late 1850s

By descent through the Loring family

Acquired by a New England antiques dealer from the above

Acquired by Lee Gallery, Winchester, Massachusetts, from the above, 1987

Collection of Dr. and Mrs. C. T. Isaacs, Pennsylvania, Charles Isaacs as agent

Acquired by the Quillan Company from the above, 1989

Jill Quasha, The Quillan Collection of Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Photographs (New York, 1991), pl. 21 (this print)

Another print of this image:

Félix Teynard: Calotypes of Egypt, A Catalogue Raisonné (New York, 1992), page 177, number 68

Grading this salt print on a scale of 1 to 10 - 10 being a salt print that has deep brown dark tones and highlights that retain all of their original detail - this print rates 10. The print's tones range from red/brown in the dark areas, to cream in the highlights. The print is essentially in excellent condition. There is a faint area of soiling in the upper left corner, but this is not obtrusive. The mount is age-darkened at the edges. There is an even half-inch band of soiling along the length of the mount's right edge, as well as much lighter scattered soiling.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Karnak (Thebes): Sphinx à Tête Humaine et a Tête de Bélier is one of 160 photographs that comprised Félix Teynard's Egypte et Nubie, published in Paris in two volumes in 1858.  Like his contemporaries Francis Frith (Lot 60), Maxime du Camp (Lot 61), J. B. Greene (Lot 26), and Louis de Clercq (Lot 24), Félix Teynard traveled to the Middle East in the 1850s to photograph that region's monuments and landscapes.  A civil engineer by profession, however, and with no formal artistic training, Teynard made very personal and sometimes idiosyncratic choices in subject matter and in style that resulted in images of great directness and charm, such as the one offered here.  Taken at a temple complex in Karnak, the photograph shows us two sphinxes—not grand, colossal figures, but more domestic, approachable sphinxes, one with the head of a human, one with the head of a ram.  A map included in Egypte and Nubie allows us to locate this site in the temple area of Mut, to the south of the Temple of Amun, very near to Luxor.

The photograph offered here was originally in the collection of the American traveler and Egyptian scholar General Charles Greely Loring, who visited Egypt in the late 1850s, soon after the photograph was published.  A native of Boston, General Loring was at one time the director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and was responsible for the care and installation of the Museum's Egyptian collection.  The print remained in the collection of the Loring family for well over a century, until it was acquired by a private collector, and later by the Quillan Company.