Early-20th Century Photo Album of a Cruise from Nice to Cairo

c. 1906. Hardcover. Near Fine. Sheep over flexible boards; oblong 4to (352x275mm); contains 135 sepia photographs (silver prints), each about 4x5 inches, affixed to the recto and verso of black leaves (last half of text block left blank), many of them with handwritten captions beneath, in English (handsome cursive, white ink). Boards rubbed, and a little chipped and torn along the edges. Contents are fine -- photographs are nicely composed, exposed, printed, and preserved, with a little light silvering here and there, prettily so.

Photographs of (mostly) landscapes and landmarks, showing the Promenade de Anglais and Regina Gardens in Nice, then aboard a cruise ship past Corsica to Cairo, showing ruins, monuments, some beautiful images of sailboats, and glimpses of the travellers with their guides (the ladies in hats and long, full dresses, alongside their guides in turbans and white cotton). Names are casually recorded -- Caroline, Aunt Mattie, Lillian, Ibrahim (appears to be a guide) -- and just one image bears the date 1906, but landmarks and locations are often identified in detail. Neatly arranged, and remarkable for the quality of the photographs.