Four Views Of The Mosques And Other Objects Of Interest Occupying The Site Of The Temple At Jerusalem. Drawn And Lithographed From Photographs. Taken By Special Permission Of The Pasha Of Jerusalem. Isaacs, Albert Augustus.

First and only edition of this superb suite of architectural studies from Isaacs' pioneering photography in the region, finely reproduced by Day & Sons. Isaacs made an extensive tour of Palestine in 1856-7, and this was also the subject of his two books: The Dead Sea (1857) and A Pictorial Tour in the Holy Land (1863). Copies are scarce, with WorldCat recording those at Museum of Islamic Art (Qatar), V&A, and University of Glasgow only; we have traced only two appearances at auction. The portfolio contains two images each of the Dome of the Rock - "General View of the Great Mosque of the Sakara" and "The Mosque of the Sakara and the Judgement-Seat of David" - and of the Al-Aqsa Mosque - "Facade of the Mosque El Aksa" and "The Marble Pulpit and Colonnades". Isaacs had in fact been pre-empted in recording these sites by Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey (1804-92), who made daguerreotypes in Jerusalem in 1844, but which were unknown until the 1920s when they were discovered in a storeroom on his estate. Albert Augustus Isaacs (1826-1903) was born in Berry Hill, Jamaica, the son of a coffee planter, and was educated at Corpus Christi, Cambridge, receiving a BA in 1851 and an MA in 1854. He then taught at Christ Church, Oxford, and worked as a priest in Peterborough (1850-66) before serving as vicar of Christ Church, Leicester, until 1891. He was noted for his missionary work among the Jewish community. His first visit to Palestine was made around the same time that he took up an interest in photography: "as he explained in his 1857 travelogue, 'We well know how often the pencil is proved to be treacherous and deceptive; while on the other hand the facsimile of the scene must be given by the aid of the photograph. This consideration induced me to determine that. I would visit these places, and not only judge for myself, but endeavour likewise to give the public the best means of arriving at a just conclusion'. Isaacs did most of his work with waxed-paper negatives, well suited to the hot climate and extended travels that he faced. At some point, the reverend himself underwent a sort of conversion. As Isaacs recalled late in life in a letter to John Ruskin: 'I can speak of this authoritatively, having been the first person (1856) to take any photographs of importance in the Holy Land — and indeed the first who had taken any by the then new and beautiful collodion process'" (approved biography, Metropolitan Museum of Art). Folio (506 X 344 mm). 4 two-tint lithographs in printed pale greenish yellow card wrappers, spine and rear panel replaced. Front panel of wraps slightly rubbed and soiled, some short edge-splits; the plates with light surface soiling, minor edge-splits and chips as often, now professionally restored, overall very good.