VALENTIA (George, Viscount).
Voyages and Travels to India, Ceylon, The Red Sea, Abyssinia, and Egypt
ONE OF 25 COPIES (?) WITH PLATES IN 2 STATES
George Annesley, 2nd Earl Mountnorris and 9th Viscount Valentia, was an aristocrat and adventurer, and member of parliament for Yarmouth between 1808-1810. Fearing that France would acquire Egypt, in 1802, Valentia led the first British mission to Abyssinia in order to establish a defensive port in the Red Sea.
Accompanied by his secretary and draftsman Henry Salt, they embarked on the East India Company ship Minerva (which had previously been employed transporting convicts from Ireland to Australia). Valentia visited Massawa and the Dahlak islands and studied trading practices, before arranging for Salt to penetrate further into the Ethiopian interior. Salt went on to become a noted Egyptologist in his own right, making extensive sales and donations of artefacts to the British Museum. The expedition took them through India, Ceylon, Abyssinia and Egypt and Annesley utilised the paintings and drawings made by Salt as the basis for the illustrations in this three volume narrative of the expedition.
According to Lowndes, there were 50 large paper copies printed with proof plates and “a few copies India proofs and etchings for gifts.” This is clearly one of the latter presentation copies, a contemporary ms. pencil note informs us that 25 were printed.
Abbey Travel, 515; Lowndes 2747; Pankhurst, 11.
