Robb de Peyster Tytus Memorial Series. (= The Theban Tombs).

Elephant folio (380 x 490 mm). 5 vols., comprising: Volume I: The Tomb of Nakht at Thebes. Volume II: The Tomb of Puyemre at Thebes. Part I: The Hall of Memories. Volume III: The Tomb of Puyemre at Thebes. Part II: The Chapels of Hope. Volume IV: The Tomb of the Two Sculptors at Thebes. Volume V: The Ramesside Tombs at Thebes. With 5 frontispieces (4 in color), 178 plates (21 in color), and numerous figures. Original printed wrappers, untrimmed. Limited first edition of this catalogue of the principal tombs at western Thebes published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1917 to 1927, one of 500 atlas folio sets beautifully printed on handmade Van Gelder paper. A magnificent, untrimmed set. - Published in memory of the artist and amateur archaeologist and Egyptologist Robb de Peyster Tytus (1876-1913), this series was published to shed light on the magnificent artistic treasures of the tombs at Thebes. In over 180 folio plates, 25 of which are in color and many of which are folding, statues, paintings, treasures, and the interior plans of the tombs themselves are reproduced in loving detail. - The Robb de Peyster Tytus Memorial Fund was set up by the artist's mother, Mrs. Edward J. Tytus, after his death at the age of 32. For five years the Egyptian Department of the Metropolitan Museum of Art received $15,000 which were used to explore the tombs in Sheik Abd-el Qurna and the environs. Norman de Garis Davies (1865-1941) and his wife Nina collaborated with other artists, including Charles K. Wilkinson and H. R. Hopgood, for a decade to achieve the present set. Davies worked on numerous digs in Egypt (including with Petrie at Dendera and with the Egypt Explorations Fund's Archaeological Survey) before being appointed head of the graphics section of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's expedition to Egypt in 1907. Along with his wife Nina and his assistant Francis Unwin, he pioneered the use of egg tempera when recording the paintings from tombs, allowing for much more accurate and satisfying results in comparison to watercolours, which, although they rendered the colour with a flat finish, were the standard way of recording tomb paintings before the advent of reliable colour photography. - Insignificant edge flaws to the wrappers. Margins of a few plates very slightly browned; altogether a very clean set. Inconspicuous contemporary bookseller's label of Paul Koehler, Leipzig, to covers of three volumes. - OCLC 19290154.