Henry Salt, artist, traveller, diplomat, egyptologist.

Condition : good, some annotations.
Illustrations : 8 black and white plates out of text.

Henry Salt (1780 - 1827) was a British diplomat and collector. He first trained as a portrait painter and went to London (1797) as a pupil of Joseph Farrington, then of John Hoppner. Between 1802 and 1806 he travelled as secretary and draughtsman to George Annesley, Viscount Valentia, through the Orient, visiting India, Ceylon, Abyssinia and Egypt, contributing a number of drawings to his employer's publication, "Voyages and Travels" (1809). Between 1809 and 1811 he visited Abyssinia on a government mission, an account of which he later published as 'Voyage en Abyssinie' (1814). In 1815 he was appointed British Consul General in Egypt, arriving there in 1816. He made numerous excavations in Egypt, procuring a large number of antiquities for the British Museum and for his own collection. He employed Belzoni at Thebes and sponsored his excavations in Nubia. He also sponsored Caviglia's work around the Pyramids and Athanasi also worked under his direction at Thebes.