- 35
Beaufort, Rosamund E.
Estimate
3,000 - 4,000 GBP
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Description
- Autograph manuscript travel journal
- ink on paper
detailing her travel from Cairo to Smyrna and onwards to Beirut, several weeks travelling around the Lebanese mountains, then inland to Baalbek and Damascus, concluding with a 15-day expedition into the desert to Palmyra, with a captioned and dated self portrait in ink riding a camel (8 October 1859) and a few scattered sketches and plans, in a lined notebook continued in an unbound stitched fascicule loosely inserted at the end, altogether 200 pages, with two additional leaves (receipt and thermometer readings) loosely inserted, 8vo, 24 March to 21 October 1859, black patterned cloth, labelled on spine ("Journal | H[oly] Land | Palmyra"), slight water damage at the margins
[with:] Beaufort, Emily Anne. Egyptian Sepulchres and Syrian Shrines including some Stay in the Lebanon, at Palmyra, and in Western Turkey ... Second edition. Longman, Green [&c.], 1862. 8vo (195 x 120mm), halt-plates, dedication, 6 chromolithographed plates, one folding, original cloth, lacks map, spines sunned, bindings lightly soiled
[with:] Beaufort, Emily Anne. Egyptian Sepulchres and Syrian Shrines including some Stay in the Lebanon, at Palmyra, and in Western Turkey ... Second edition. Longman, Green [&c.], 1862. 8vo (195 x 120mm), halt-plates, dedication, 6 chromolithographed plates, one folding, original cloth, lacks map, spines sunned, bindings lightly soiled
Provenance
Egyptian Sepulchres: John Philip Gell (1816-1898, booklabel); Philip Lyttelton Gell (1852-1926, armorial bookplate)
Condition
Condition is described in the main body of the catalogue, where appropriate.
"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. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
"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. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
Catalogue Note
THE REMARKABLE UNPUBLISHED JOURNAL OF A FEMALE ENGLISH TRAVELLER IN THE MIDDLE EAST IN THE 1850s.
Rosa Beaufort (the elder daughter of Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort) travelled with her sister Emily from Egypt to Lebanon and Syria in 1859, following an earlier tour of Egypt the previous year. The sisters were intrepid travellers, most notably when they accompanied a Bedouin caravan through the Syrian desert to Palmyra. They undertook this journey in the company of the painter Carl Haag and one of the more extraordinary women of her age, the Hon. Mrs Digby el Mesreb, the English widow of the Earl of Ellensborough who was now married to Abdul Medjuel al-Mesreb, head of the Mesreb tribe. Beaufort's journal is replete with lively and knowledgeable detail: Classical and Biblical sites, visits to markets, attendance at a Druze wedding, the architecture of Damascus, observation of ethnic tensions, and the experience of riding through the desert on camelback ("...The moon came out very early, and our Camels went on very well together - they always walk better together at night - and sometimes our Bedouins sang their wild songs ... This was all very well from your neighbour's Bedouin, but sometimes far from pleasant from your own, shouting at the full crack of his throat into your very ears...")
Rosa Beaufort (the elder daughter of Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort) travelled with her sister Emily from Egypt to Lebanon and Syria in 1859, following an earlier tour of Egypt the previous year. The sisters were intrepid travellers, most notably when they accompanied a Bedouin caravan through the Syrian desert to Palmyra. They undertook this journey in the company of the painter Carl Haag and one of the more extraordinary women of her age, the Hon. Mrs Digby el Mesreb, the English widow of the Earl of Ellensborough who was now married to Abdul Medjuel al-Mesreb, head of the Mesreb tribe. Beaufort's journal is replete with lively and knowledgeable detail: Classical and Biblical sites, visits to markets, attendance at a Druze wedding, the architecture of Damascus, observation of ethnic tensions, and the experience of riding through the desert on camelback ("...The moon came out very early, and our Camels went on very well together - they always walk better together at night - and sometimes our Bedouins sang their wild songs ... This was all very well from your neighbour's Bedouin, but sometimes far from pleasant from your own, shouting at the full crack of his throat into your very ears...")
The contemporaneous journal of Rosamund's sister, Emily Beaufort, also survives (Duke University, Rubenstein Library, Sec. A Box 125 items1-5 c.1), although it does not cover the trip to Palmyra. Emily also wrote a book about her experiences, a copy of which is included in this lot.