Sir E. A. Wallis Budge. An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary. Exceptional Harrison & Sons Printer's Working Production Copy, documenting the manufacture of the first edition, 1916-1920.

Sir Ernest Alfred Wallis Budge (1857-1934) was one of the most prolific and influential British Egyptologists of his generation. He joined the British Museum in 1883 and rose to become Keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, a post he held from 1894 until his retirement in 1924. During his long career at the Museum he was closely involved in the acquisition, cataloguing and interpretation of Egyptian antiquities, papyri and manuscripts, and his publications helped bring Egyptian language, religion and funerary literature to a wide English-speaking readership.

Published in 1920, An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary was one of Budge's most ambitious works: a massive reference work of over 1,300 pages, incorporating a hieroglyphic dictionary, lists of royal and geographical names, Coptic and Semitic alphabets, an index of English words, and Harrison & Sons' own list of Egyptian hieroglyphic characters. Although modern Egyptology has superseded many of Budge's readings, the dictionary remains a landmark in the history of British Egyptological scholarship and in the technical history of hieroglyphic printing.

This remarkable volume is not an ordinary published copy, but appears to be Harrison & Sons' own working production copy, assembled during the printing of the first edition. The text is formed from printer's proof sections, many bearing Harrison & Sons Bookwork Department oval date stamps. The dated stamps run through the production sequence from September 1916 to March 1920, with examples including 28 September 1916, 30 July 1917, 3 May 1918, 2 August 1918, 26 August 1918 and 11 March 1920. Additional dated stamps are also present elsewhere in the book. Together they provide unusually clear evidence of the prolonged manufacture of this technically demanding work over almost four years.

Throughout the volume are numerous contemporary printer's working annotations in pencil and ink, including proof corrections, checking marks, revised or substituted hieroglyphic characters, production symbols and occasional small sketches in the margins. Particularly notable are the corrections to individual hieroglyphic signs rather than the English text alone, providing a rare insight into the practical challenges of preparing and revising one of the most complex works of Egyptological typography produced in the early twentieth century.

Loosely inserted is an original folded grey working sheet bearing pencilled hieroglyphic sketches, calculations and production notes. This appears to be contemporary production material connected with the preparation or checking of the printed text, and is a particularly rare survival of the working process behind the book.

The book has been rebound more recently in a handsome full crimson morocco binding, with gilt ruled borders, gilt spine decoration and title, and marbled endpapers. The upper board incorporates a photomechanically reproduced Egyptian design, the PMTs for which are included with the book. 

The upper board is decorated in gilt with a photomechanically reproduced image of Osiris embraced by Isis and Nephthys beneath the winged scarab Khepri, derived from the illustration published in E. A. Wallis Budge's Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection (1911), itself reproduced from a bas-relief at Philae. Significantly, that work was printed by Harrison & Sons - the same firm responsible for printing the present Dictionary - making it highly likely that the surviving photomechanical transfer (PMT) accompanying this volume was produced within Harrison's own printing works, basing this revised design on artwork retained from Budge's publications.

Ultimately published by John Murray, London, 1920 as An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary: With an Index of English Words, King List and Geographical List With Indexes, List of Hieroglyphic Characters, Coptic and Semitic Alphabets, Etc, by Sir E.A. Wallis Budge, Knt., F.S.A. (Ernest Alfred Wallis Budge). Printer: Harrison and Sons, London. Two volumes bound as one. cliv + 1356 pp.

Condition: The later binding is sound and attractive, with minor wear. The proof text block shows expected evidence of workshop handling, including some toning, soiling, creasing, marginal wear, variable paper stocks, occasional uncut edges and minor page flaws. Numerous Harrison & Sons date stamps, production annotations and proof corrections are present throughout. Title pages and dedication page are not present, consistent with this being an assembled production proof rather than an ordinary issued copy. A remarkable survival, preserving the printing history of one of Budge's major Egyptological works and offering direct evidence of Harrison & Sons' work in hieroglyphic typography.

A highly unusual and possibly unique printer's working production copy, documenting the four-year manufacture of Budge's monumental dictionary and of particular relevance to the history of Egyptology, egyptology collections, and early twentieth-century Oriental printing.