page 1 Arabia click here	Page 2 Arabia,Gaza, Israel etc click here	Page 3 Arabia,Gaza, Israel etc LARGE PLATE click here
Page 4 Arabia,Gaza, Israel etc  click here	Page 5 Arabia,Gaza, Israel etc  click here	Page 6 Arabia,Gaza, Israel etc  click here
Views in Egypt, Palestine,& Ottoman Empire /Luigi Mayer	Views in the Ottoman Dominions, in Europe and Asia 1/Mayer	Views in the Ottoman Dominions, in Europe and Asia 2/Mayer
David Roberts Holy land		Picturesque Scenery in the Holy Land and Syria / Spilsbury

David Roberts, R.A. (Scottish, 1796-1864)

David Roberts was born is Scotland in 1796. After moving to London, he achieved a respectable reputation as an artist prior to 1838 when he traveled to Egypt and the Holy Land to paint the monuments, architecture and people. Upon his return to England, his works were published (in conjunction with the lithographer Louis Haghe) in a six volume set, in which all 248 lithographs were hand colored. The first three volumes depicted Egypt and Nubia; the second three, the Holy Land. The set, which was sold by subscription, was an immediate success. Roberts was admitted to the Royal Academy and he continued to travel and paint until his death in 1864. The three books were  of  the Holy Land and Egypt & Nubia,
Trained as a painter of theatre sets and backdrops, David Roberts rose to acclaim through his habit of traveling to foreign locations to sketch scenes for later use in creating paintings of astonishing detail. In the era before photography, the works of such "travel artists" were the only window to the outside world for many Europeans. Through his two monumental series of collaborative lithographic works, Egypt, Nubia, The Near East and The Holy Land published in London 1842-49.

ABOUT THE LITHOGRAPHS: These were produced in two main editions  but with slight variations:- 1) Royal Subscription Edition (RSE) Folio prints and 2). Standard Edition (SE) Folio prints. All RSE lithographs are hand colored and mounted to a card as issued. The SE lithographs, although they were designed to be hand colored just like the RSEs, were not hand colored by the publisher.  Each print often required more than one stone (all done in reverse from the original) to capture different tones, e.g. black, white, ochre, and pink or tan. The registration (i.e. the placement of the sheet of paper to each successive stone) had to remain perfect throughout as the slightest variation would permanently “blur” the image, rendering it unacceptable.  The prints were in two sizes, a full folio size of approximately 19 x 12 ½ inches   alternating with half-folios of 12 x 9 ½ inches .  Each lithograph was printed in two forms. One was a “standard” version, pressed onto the thick ( often brittle )  paper that served also as text pages (the full folios were left blank on the reverse side while the half-folios contained text both under the print and on the reverse side). . There was also a “deluxe” edition. Here the lithograph was printed onto a thin but expensive paper (sometimes referred to as India paper), cut to size, and after being mounted on thick card-stock measuring 24 inches by 17 inches (some later copies were slightly larger but on marginally thinner cards), was then laboriously hand-coloured. This would ensure that each lithograph gave the impression of being an original water colour rather than a printed copy.

***ALL of these are from the subsribers edition but all have condition issues which is reflected in the price  ie cheaper with a defect ***

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