In 1855 the 1840’s folio edition of David Roberts’ “The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt & Nubia.” was reprinted in six volumes on quarto format. Usually the year of publication is described as “1855-56”, as the first volume was published on April 16th 1855 and the last volume was published October 1st 1856.
No library, bookseller or auction house usually mentions that there are variant issues. Probably because they are not aware of this fact.
After carefully checking the 44 plates of volume 1, the following differences were found between our copy and the copy of The Getty Research Institute as digitized by the Internet Archive, which can be found at the website of HathiTrust.
The title pages in our volumes are dated 16th April 1855 for the first five volumes and 1st October 1856 for the last volume, while the title pages of the copy of The Getty Research Institute are dated April 16th 1855, October 1st 1855, December 15th 1855, April 1st 1856, July 1st 1856 and October 1st 1856 respectivley for the six volumes.
The plates in our copy for vol. 2 ~ 5 are of a later date than the title pages, however, the copy of The Getty Research Institute and our copy have the same title page for vol. 1.
The different stones used, where found, are as follows:
Portrait Roberts: same stones have been used.
Title page : same stones have been used.
Plate 3: signature, shooting holes in wall left and right of the gate, missing upper wall decoration on the right, window on the left, two men near the gate, stone right side gate, etc.
Plate 4: signature, feet of the man on the left, kneeling men, faces men on the right, details of the large hanging lamp, etc.
Plate 5: signature, shoes standing man on the right, plant growing right above the same man, group of men on the left, etc.
Plate 6: bushes on the right side, trees on the left side, rocks in the middle, etc.
Plate 7: signature, woman bearing water, bush behind man sitting on stone, two men on the left, etc.
Plate 8: signature, feet and the faces of the men on the left. An obvious difference too is a third figure near the portico in the back on the left, looking down over the wall, which is missing in our copy.
Disregard the colour, but the differences can be found in the hands, the feet and the faces of the men on the left. Also Roberts’ signature and other smaller details are different. The differences can be seen clearly in the enlarged part below. An obvious difference too is a third figure near the portico in the back on the left, looking down over the wall, which is missing in our copy. The upper picture showing the picture of The Getty Research Institute copy, the lower picture is of our copy.
Plate 9: signature, position man on the left, stick laying on the ground, damage on central column, etc.
Plate 10: same stones have been used.
Plate 11: same stones have been used.
Plate 12: same stones have been used.
Plate 13: same stones have been used.
Plate 14: same stones have been used.
Plate 15: same stones have been used.
Plate 16: same stones have been used.
Plate 17: same stones have been used.
Plate 18: same stones have been used.
Plate 19: same stones have been used.
Plate 20: same stones have been used.
Plate 21: same stones have been used.
Plate 22: bushes, plants in the water, group of men near the water, buildings on top of mountain on the left, etc.
Plate 23: same stones have been used.
Plate 24: bush against wall on the left, entire lower right side of the plate, wall plants behind group of sitting men, etc.
Plate 25: same stones have been used.
Plate 26: same stones have been used.
Plate 27: same stones have been used.
Plate 28: Group of goat on the right, bushes, rocks on the left, some buildings, etc.
Plate 29: same stones have been used.
Plate 30: Group of men on the roof in the middle, tree and bushes, buildings left of minaret, etc.
Plate 31: same stones have been used.
Plate 32: same stones have been used.
Plate 33: same stones have been used.
Plate 34: same stones have been used.
Plate 35: same stones have been used.
Plate 36: same stones have been used.
Plate 37: same stones have been used.
Plate 38: same stones have been used.
Plate 39: same stones have been used.
Plate 40: same stones have been used.
Plate 41: same stones have been used.
Plate 42: same stones have been used.
Plate 43: same stones have been used.
Plate 44: same stones have been used.
Also the publisher’s imprint under some plates differ.
For instance the imprint under The Getty Research Institute copy for plate 8 reads:
London, Published April 16th 1855 by Day & Son 17 Gate Street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields.
While the imprint in our copy for the same plate reads:
London, Published April 16th 1855 by Day & Son Gate Street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields.
The reason why different stones have been used for some plates is unknown, but it seems not unreasonable to assume that some plates were lost or broken due to carelesness and had to be redrawn.
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