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CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE, EGYPTOLOGY Five fine photographs relating to the transport of Cleopatra's Needle from Alexandria to London, 1877, 1877 image 1
CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE, EGYPTOLOGY Five fine photographs relating to the transport of Cleopatra's Needle from Alexandria to London, 1877, 1877 image 2
CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE, EGYPTOLOGY Five fine photographs relating to the transport of Cleopatra's Needle from Alexandria to London, 1877, 1877 image 3
CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE, EGYPTOLOGY Five fine photographs relating to the transport of Cleopatra's Needle from Alexandria to London, 1877, 1877 image 4
CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE, EGYPTOLOGY Five fine photographs relating to the transport of Cleopatra's Needle from Alexandria to London, 1877, 1877 image 5
Lot 10

CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE, EGYPTOLOGY
Five fine photographs relating to the transport of Cleopatra's Needle from Alexandria to London, 1877

10 – 20 March 2025, 12:00 GMT
Online, London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £2,816 inc. premium

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CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE, EGYPTOLOGY

Five fine photographs relating to the transport of Cleopatra's Needle from Alexandria to London, 1877, albumen prints, one signed "Borgiotti Pho., Alexandrie d'Egypte" in the negative, touched and corrected in white gouache and pen, a few surface abrasions and marginal tears, laid on paper, images 220 x 275mm., or slightly smaller, 1877

Footnotes

The Sultan of Egypt and Sudan presented the obelisk to the British Government in 1819, to commemorate the British victory over Napoleon. However, it was not until 1877 that Cleopatra's Needle finally arrived in England, and was erected in September 1878 on London's Thames Embankment, where it remains today. The engineer John Dixon was put in charge of the task, totally encasing the obelisk in an "iron cylinder, which was then rolled means of levers and chains down a track into the sea" (Royal Museums Greenwich website), mounted to a floating craft (the Cleopatra), and towed back to England by the steamship Olga.

The images include the obelisk lying horizontal surrounded by workers; the obelisk in a lifting harness with workers and female visitors; the iron cynlinder on dry land, and in the water (2 images, one with steamboats in the background).

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