Collection of Photographs of the Caucasus].

'the pioneer in Caucasian photography'

A fine group of photographs which capture the Northern side of the Caucasus, from the Black Sea in the West to Dagestan in the East. Maurice de Déchy made seven expeditions to the Caucasus in total, which due to the political and military climate had not been extensively explored by European mountaineers. His detailed descriptions of glaciers, gorges and valleys were largely responsible for drawing the attention of British and other mountaineers to the region.

Alpine club president, Douglas Freshfield wrote of de Dechy 'he made the first passage by travellers of several native glacier passes and collected a considerable amount of scientific information with regard to the glaciers and the snow region. He also took a very large number of most valuable photographs of the scenery and people, thus making himself the pioneer in Caucasian photography'.

The photographs depict various ascents and camps of the mountaineers and views of the Baksan Valley, the Kachu Pass and the Chegen and Karagam Glaciers. Ethnographic scenes include villagers from Dagestan and Tusheti. It appears some of the set were exhibited as they have been mounted on gold card and have pin holes in each corner.

93 photographs of various sizes, between 8 x 11 cm and 17 x 24.5 cm mounted on either gold card (with pin holes in each corner), grey card or unmounted, at least four are duplicates, some captioned on reverse, some in borders, in Hungarian or French, minor wear to a couple but overall in very good condition.