Raccolta Lloyd MSS - George Lloyd Album

1 album

Previously in private possession, but owner not known.

Sotheby's, London. Travel, Atlases, Maps & Natural History, Sale L17401, 9 May 2017, lot 62. Acquired by the Griffith Institute at auction thanks to a grant from the Friends of the National Libraries (100%).

Album of watercolours, drawings, and tracings of Egypt produced close to the end of Lloyd's life. It is a folio volume (33 x 44 cm, pages 32.7 x 43 cm), containing 135 watercolours and drawings (74 of which are full-page and 1 folding) and 10 tracings (8 folding). They are all mounted and most are captioned either on the image itself or on the mount. Captions on the mount seem to have been added when the album was put together after Lloyd's death. The album also contains a loose watercolour, a loose drawing and a loose lithographed portrait of George Lloyd by Prisse d'Avennes, who published it in his Oriental Album: Characters, Costumes and Modes of Life in the Valley of the Nile (1848). One of the drawings in the album is a pencil portrait of Lloyd sketched by Prince A. Soltykoff.

Kept as received.

Property of the Griffith Institute. No restrictions.

Copyright Griffith Institute, University of Oxford

• inglese

Conservation assessment in preparation. According to auction house's condition report: 'damp and water staining, re-backed retaining original spine, corners and edges rather rubbed'.

Catalogue.

This is an original.

Not known.

Other Archives:

• Papers and botanical collections in the Botanical Garden of Montpellier (http://www.umontpellier.fr/patrimoine/jardin-des-plantes/).

• Announcement of acquisition on the Griffith Institute website: http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/georgelloyd-album/.

• Original handwritten dated captions by George Lloyd have been identified on the verso of many of the items. Although not easily accessible due to the items being mounted, they have been read by the use of a backlight.

• Pencil numbers (encircled or not) were added later, probably by dealer.

• Some of Lloyd's drawings of wall reliefs and paintings from temples and tombs are idealised versions of what existed on the original monuments at the time when he recorded them, and he may have completed what had been lost, obscured or was uncertain. For example, on the verso of Lloyd MSS 074 he states 'All the heads of the women were effaced, it is said by Mr. Hay's draughtsman. I have restored the face, the band round the head, and the feet.'

• Unidentified items (totally or partially): Lloyd MSS 025, 034, 037, 063, 074, 080, 086, 088, 094, 098, 101, 102, 103, 104, 106, 139, 140 and 145.
• If you spot any mistakes or can shed some light on the unidentified items, please email us at griffith.institute@ames.ox.ac.uk.