19th CENTURY DRAWINGS. EGYPT. CORSICA - Lot 128

19th CENTURY DRAWINGS. EGYPT. CORSICA [Baroness de GAUJAL]. Souvenirs from Egypt, November 1866. C.G. Two strong oblong albums containing 38 and 36 drawings (views, scenes, maps, plans). Brown chagrin with wood edges, gilt metal clasps, bisautés boards, geometrical framing on the boards, cold title in the center, smooth spines underlined with cold bands and fillets, gilt edges (wear to the lower headpieces and edges, a few stains, a few wet spots on the endpapers, a few small scattered brown spots and soiling, but very fresh inside, a splinter at the foot of the spine on one volume). Impressive travel diaries, entirely drawn and annotated. 74 drawings (15 x 20 cm in the frame) executed in graphite and/or colored pencil, or with occasional white highlights, on white, azure or yellow paper. All sited and dated with explanatory handwritten text mounted opposite, all in strong cardboard maries-louises with rounded gilded edges and gilded fillet framing. The texts are all dated November (18)66. We discover picturesque scenes and various adventures or memories of a trip that the illustrator seems to have made in the company of her husband, but in reality she confides little, allowing few details or personal impressions to filter through, although we can guess them from the images... Numerous drawings of Cairo; Egypt's main cities: Cairo, Alexandria, Gizeh, Boulaq...; An astonishing system image to describe the passages through the pyramids; Caliph and fellah dwellings; Marseille; Corsica; Bonifacio, Fine reproductions of maps and plans in color, picturesque personal moments, interiors, drawings of machinery and techniques (installation of a bascule bridge)... The albums have a title engraved with the initials C.G. Truffled with a period mourning card in the name of Baroness Hte de Gaujal. The initials C.G. probably refer to Marc-Eugène-Charles (1811-1872), baron de Gaujal , avocat général près la Cour impériale de Paris.