The album contains 23 original studies, including the photographic portrait of a sculptural bust of Lane, two fully worked drawings with watercolour, eleven monochrome watercolours with pen and ink landscapes and views, and ten pencil studies of wall reliefs. Many of these images include handwritten captions in pencil that are almost certainly added by E. W. Lane himself on the opposing page of the mounted image. This indicates that Lane arranged for this selection of items to be mounted in the album, which was then presented to someone.
Handwritten notes recording contacts at various institutions whom the former owners of the album may have consulted in relation to the album's contents.
14 x 9 cm
[annotation]: 'See Mr Gibb Smith / V&A. / Capt. Hollis Smith / of Parker Galleries / suggested I bring the / book & you'd introduce / me to the right person / John Halton(?) in Library, / or Print Room -'
Street scene, probably in Cairo, with a man wearing a blue garment and a white turban, walking and holding aloft a long stick in his right hand, preceding another man wearing a green garment and red turban riding a horse.
A scene with four women inside a room within a dwelling or perhaps a coffee shop(?), probably in Cairo or elsewhere in Egypt. The woman on the left wears a white and red striped garment and white turban with her back to the artist and holds a small teacup in her right hand, offering it to one of the other women. Background right, a woman wearing a blue, red and red checked jilbab with a black veil over a blue garment, greeted at the door by a servant girl wearing a blue garment and head covering with her back to the artist Foreground right, a woman wearing a green garment and white scarf is seated on a red floor cushion
View showing the Bab al-Nasr gate, the mosque of al-Hakim, and part of the city walls in Cairo. Although the caption mentions the Bab al-Futuh gate, it is not recorded in this watercolour.
pencil, monochrome watercolour
mounted
17.4 x 10.1 cm
[Lane's caption on verso of album page, at top left corner] 'The Ba'b en-Nasr & Ba'b el Footon' being two of the principal gates of Musr el(?) ~~xxxxxx xxxxxx xx xx ~~ : - a the former - b the latter. c c the two / minarets of the ruined mosque of El-Wha'kim. / Erected A H. 480 - A.D 1087-8.' (pencil note)
View of the courtyard of the mosque of Amr ibn al-As Mosque in Cairo, viewed from within the colonnades lining the courtyard:
black ink, monochrome watercolour
mounted
17.6 x 10.1 cm
[Lane's caption on page verso, at top left corner] 'Interior view of the Mosque of 'Amir, or Musr 'Alee'ckah. / Erected in the middle of the seventh century - the 1st mosque built in Egypt.' (pencil note)
View of the colonnade and minbar in the Mosque of Amr ibn al-As in Cairo, with a figure leaning against a column in the foreground and two men in conversation at the far end of the colonnade:
pencil, black ink, monochrome watercolour
mounted
17.5 x 10 cm
[Lane's caption on page verso, at top left corner] 'The Place of Prayer in the Mosque of 'Amir.' (pencil note)
View of a funeral procession at the southern cemetery of Cairo. The cemetery is also known as Qarafa:
black ink, monochrome watercolour
mounted
17.5 x 10 cm [Lane's caption on page verso, at top left corner] 'The Great Southern Cemetery of Musr, called El-Ckara'feh - a, the tomb of the Im'am Es'h Sha'fe'ee' (pencil note)
View of the aqueduct at the Cairo citadel and the Fumm al-Khalig water intake tower:
pencil, black ink, monochrome watercolour
mounted
17.8 x 10.2 cm
[Lane's caption on page verso, at top left corner] 'The Aqueduct of Musr — a, the building in which are the water-works — b, entrance of the Canal of Musr — / c, part of the bridge of the Canal — d, part of Mount Moockut'tum.' (pencil note)
View of the Mosque of Ahmad Ibn Tulun in Cairo showing the courtyard with the ablution fountain:
pencil, monochrome watercolour
mounted
17.8 x 10 cm
[Lane's caption on page verso, at top left corner] 'The Great Mosque of Ibu Too'loo'n, vulgarly called Ga'me' Teyloo'n — a, dome over the tank — b, the great minaret — / c, minaret of a mosque at the eastern angle of the Ckal'' at el-Kebsh — / Erected A H 263 AD 876-7' (pencil note)
Drawing of a detail from a battle scene, Seti I in a chariot charging Libyans on the battlefield, on the north exterior wall of the hypostyle hall in the Great Temple of Amun at Karnak:
black ink drawing
mounted
17.8 x 10.2 cm
Below the drawing are two small cartouches of the king (in ink)
[Lane's caption on page verso, at top left corner] 'Sculpture at Kar'nak' (pencil note)
Tomb wall scene, upper register, sem priest with offerings before Qen and wife Meryt, with monkey eating dates under chair, followed by two rows of seated men and women, probably TT 59, Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, Thebes:
pencil drawing
mounted
17.7 x 10 cm
[Lane's caption on page verso, at top left corner] 'Painting in a tomb in the Hill of the shey'kh 'Abd El-Ckoor'neh' (pencil note)
Part of a temple wall scene from the forecourt of the Beit el-Wali temple at Kalabsha, two registers of Nubians, including women and children, bringing tribute with animals, [to Ramesses II]:
pencil drawing
mounted
17.8 x 10.2 cm
[Lane's caption on page verso, at top left corner] 'Sculpture on the left side-wall of the court before the rock-temple of Ckala'b'sheh.' (pencil note)
Temple wall scenes from the hypostyle hall in the Great Temple of Amun at Karnak Left scene, Seti I spears Libyan chief on the battlefield, north exterior wall Right scene, Ramesses II binding Syrian captives, south exterior wall
Two pencil drawings
Drawings are mounted side-by-side
17.7 x 10.2 cm
[Lane's caption on page verso, at top left corner] 'Sculptures at Kar'nak' (pencil note)
Tomb wall scene, female musicians, from the hallway of tomb Amenhotep-si-se (TT75), Sheikh Abu el-Qurna. The musicians play a harp, lute, double-pipe, a girl dancing, lyre and a tambourine:
pencil drawing
mounted
17.7 x 10 cm
[Lane's caption on page verso, at top left corner] 'Female musicians & dancers — from the paintings at a tomb in the Hill of the shey'kh Abd El-Ckoor'n[eh]'.' (pencil note, 'eh' of 'Ckoor'neh' is cut off, presumably when the mounted drawings were bound)
[Lane's caption on page verso, at top left corner] illegible pencil note
Detail from a wall scene, gazelle suckling calf, probably from scenes of bringing fowl and young animals in boxes (including hare, hedgehog, gazelles, and gazelle and young, from room I in the tomb of Nebemakhet [LG 86], son of Khephren, in the Central Field at Giza.
