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THBHoward Carter's Hand-Annotated Lecture Notes
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LiveNov 9, 2022
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- Lot Description
Howard Carter's hand-annotated typed notes for three lectures (two about his discovery of King Tut's tomb, and one on the subject of color), totaling 36 pages housed in a leather binder, with his pencil annotations throughout. The first text relates to his discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun, beginning: "We had almost given up in dispair, and would have done, were it not for the fact that in nearing the tomb of Ramses VI, we found a very intriguing buried heap of flint boulders which suggested the proximity of a tomb. Our work progressed, and at the level of the twelfth step there was disclosed the upper part of a doorway, blocked, plastered and sealed…But I realised it was getting late. It was with reluctance that I reclosed the excavation…Little knowing that had I gone a few centimeters deeper in that excavation, the name of Tut.ankh.Amen upon the seals of that doorway would have told me the secret—that almost ephemeral king, Tut.ankh.Amen, in accordance with the religion he reverted to, and under the Theban traditions, had made his grave in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings." The text is interspersed with slide listings providing an outline for the lecture's visuals—chronicling the Valley of the Kings, the excavation, the discovery of the tomb, and the antechamber and its precious objects, which have been annotated in pencil and red crayon in Howard Carter's hand. An inserted page, employing a different typeface, provides his famous account of his first sight of the tomb's interior: "As my eyes grew accustomed to the light, details of the room within emerged slowly from the mist, strange animals, statues and gold, everywhere the glint of gold…I was struck dumb with amazement, and when Lord Carnarvon unable to stand the suspense any longer, inquired anxiously, 'Can you see anything?' It was all I could do to get out the words, 'Yes wonderful things.'"
The second lecture, "The Royal Burial and Innermost Treasury," dated May 1930, offers biographical commentary on Tutankhamun and documents the excavation of the burial chamber. Lists of slides offer a discussion of the penetration of the doorway of the burial chamber, the shrine, the sarcophagus, King Tut's coffins, and the mummy itself. Of iconic decorative coffin, Carter observes: "It is nearly two metres in length, wrought of solid gold, depicts the king as Osiris, engraved with feather pattern and the goddesses Isis and Nephthys, and is embellish with auxiliary cloisonné work representing the two protecting goddesses, Nekhebet and Buto, of the Two Kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt."
The third lecture, entitled "Colour," hand-annotated in pencil, "Lecture Colour, V&A Oct. 17, 1934," departs from his archaeological interests and provides an interesting discussion of color from artistic and scientific perspectives. Carter has penned a paragraph in pencil opposite the first page, the handwritten section within the binder. In very good to fine condition, with several pages detached from the three-ring binder and some scattered staining throughout. An utterly fascinating compilation of Carter's personal lecture notes, offering a first-person account of his historic discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb. - Shipping Info
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