Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, including their private life, government, laws, arts, manufactures, religion, and early history; derived form a comparison of the paintings, sculptures, and monuments still existing, with the accounts of ancient authors. Illustrated by drawings of those subjects... In three volumes. SECOND EDITION (1842) [with] A Second Series of the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians.... 1841. Two volumes and a volume of plates. London: John Murray, Albemarle Street. 1842; 1841. Octavos. xxxvi, 406; xxxvi, 446; xxiv, 404pp. The 'First Series' containing more than four hundred illustrations, including seventeen lithographed plates (several in color and/or folding). xxx, 444; xxxvi, 483; The 'Second Series' containing more than five hundred illustrations (again, from woodcuts & vignettes) in its first two volumes; the third volume of this 'second series' with more than seventy plates - many of then folding, and several of them richly printed in colors. With a 37p 'Index'

Wilkinson, John Gardner (1797-1875). (1) Manners and customs of the ancient Egyptians . . . 3 vols., xxxvi, [2], 406; xxxiv, [2], 446; xxiv, 404, 8 [adverts.]pp. 17 plates (some chromolithographed, some folding); text illustrations. London: John Murray, 1842. With:

(2) A second series of the manners and customs of the ancient Egyptians . . . 2 vols. plus supplement (index and plates). xxix, 444; xxxv, 483; xi, 37, [1], [12, adverts.]pp. 77 plates numbered 18-88 (some chromolithographed, some folding), including 6 plates numbered 30A, 35A, 36A, 37A, 43A and 54A; plates 73 and 74 renumbered 24A and 46A. Text illustrations. London: John Murray, 1841.

Together 6 volumes. 224 x 141 mm. Original gilt-stamped cloth, expertly rebacked retaining original spines, slight edgewear; Remnant & Edmonds binder's label in some volumes. Very good set. Gift inscription dated 1845 in some volumes.

Second edition of the first series; First Edition of the second series. Wilkinson, known as the "Father of British Egyptology," spent 12 years in Egypt visiting virtually every known ancient site, making skillful copies of paintings and inscriptions, and compiling copious notes on what he saw. On his return to England in 1833, he began publishing his researches in a series of works, the most important being Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians (first ed. 1837), which he followed four years later with the Second Series containing material he had omitted from the earlier work. Wilkinson's records of Egyptian antiquities prior to the advent of widespread tourism are an invaluable resource, and his numbering system for the tombs in the Valley of the Kings is still used today.