# - Dixon, Waynman.

i) Letters: 28 autograph letters signed by Waynman Dixon from Egypt, including one incomplete letter, most to his father, mother, or sister Amy, but also one to Professor Piazzi Smyth, a carefully composed series of lengthy letters describing in great detail his life and activities, including his many visits to the Great Pyramid ("...these old mountains of art..."), the sight of them in the dawn mist, days and nights spent exploring and measuring the structure ("...up & down, up & down, stone by stone and joint by joint in the narrow cramped passage where you cant stand up ascending at an angle of 26^{o with smooth floor...") and his discoveries ("...I have found two new passages leading I don't know where as yet..."), also visits to other ancient sights such as Memphis, Luxor, and the Ramseseum ("...built as his temple Palace by Rameses the Great... before which stood the enormous granite statue of himself, the largest in Egypt... now overthrown & shattered into fragments..."), his travels up the Nile, his discovery of a petrified forest a few hours from Giza ("...There are hundreds of fallen trees scattered over the valley petrified where they lie as hard & solid as flint..."), also meetings with fellow Westerners in Egypt including Richard Owen, and other sights and festivals such as the Moulid El-Naby (Prophet's birthday) in Cairo and the annual fair at Tantah ("...In this place were some of the Fire eating Dervishes with long shaggy hair, right down to the waist, who seemed in a most frantic state bowing forwards & then backwards so that their hair flew out and touched the ground... In the middle of the place was a small dish of burning charcoal from which they now & then took a large hot cinder... threw it up in the air & caught it in their mouths, and then holding the glowing ember in their teeth... swallowed it..."), about 230 pages, chiefly 4to, each letter docketed and marked in blue and red crayon, Giza, the Nile, Cairo, Alexandria, and other places in Egypt, 21 April 1872 to 12 November 1876
[together with:] typescript copies of two letters by Dixon to the Newcastle Daily Chronicle on Cleopatra's Needle, 13 pages, 4to, 1878; a copy of a letter on the removal of the obelisk now in New York, 13 December 1879; 3 letters to Dixon by different correspondents on antiquities in his possession, 1872-73; three travel passes for Waynman Dixon, 1872-77}



ii) Manuscripts: autograph manuscript entitled "The Great Pyramid. Its History, Construction, & Purpose", a lecture on the pyramid, his own work, and its possible divine inspiration ("...I pitched my camp on the Nile, within sight & one might almost say under the shadow of the Great Pyramid, and many a night during the progress of my work... did I mount my donkey, and... ride off to the wondrous mystery in stone which stood on the edge of the Libyan desert, to enquire of the oracle the secret of its meaning, in questions of measure & line and Inductive research..."), 22 pages, folio, 1879; autograph manuscript entitled "By Camel to the New Petrified Forest", 8 pages, folio, 1872; autograph manuscript on Cleopatra's Needle, explaining how he and his brother engineered the movement of the obelisk, in pencil, 5 pages, 4to, 1919



iii) Watercolours and sketches: 23 watercolours of Egyptian and Somali scenes, most annotated with descriptions on the versos, subjects including the pyramids at Giza (3), other ancient ruins including the "Obelisk at Heliopolis", landscapes and buildings in Cairo and Alexandria, an "Arab Residence", boats on the Nile and at the port of Zeyla, 8 scenes in and around Berbera, capital of British Somaliland, including the harbour, landing stage, city from the beach, Dixon's camp, the lighthouse built by Dixon, and desert encampments, also one of "P&O. SS 'Candia' off South Coast of Spain July 10 /73", various sizes ranging from 125 x 175mm. to 260 x 360mm., mostly 1872; nine pencil sketches of Egyptian scenes including camels, portraits, and a highly finished depiction of Masr el Kaherah; 3 detailed pencil sketch of Cleopatra's needle, a sketch of Cleopatra's Needle and other antiquities in situ in Egypt, a pencil sketch "Towing the Cleopatra. 1877", and a detailed sketch of an ancient pictorial design; also with three blueprints of an obelisk with hieroglyphics



iv) Two detailed autograph plans of the first ascending passage in the Great Pyramid, showing the east and west walls in elevation, tinted in wash to show stones forming part of more than one side and key stones, each 520 x 800mm. on architects' tracing paper, originally drawn up in 1873 but these copies produced 14 February 1879, brittle, torn; a table recording distances between joints in the passage discovered by Dixon, 1 page, graph paper



v) Album containing 164 albumen prints, 12 watercolours and three pencil sketches, up to five items to a page, some items with captions, two pieces loose, mostly of Egyptian scenes including Cleopatra's Needle (now in New York), posed photographs of Egyptians (including musicians, Bedouin, pomegranate sellers), Cairo street and river scenes, "Palm grove at Mitrahenny", an obelisk at Heliopolis, the Giza pyramid complex, and antiquities in museums, various sizes from 60 x 45mm. to 250 x 200mm.

Condition is described in the main body of the catalogue, where appropriate
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Waynman Dixon was a civil engineer from North-East England, who went out to Egypt in 1872. Over the next years he was engaged in a number of building works including a bridge at Giza and a lighthouse at Berbera in Somaliland. He also became fascinated with ancient Egypt, and worked closely with Charles Piazzi Smyth, Astronomer Royal of Scotland, who had published extensively on the underlying measurement system of the pyramids. During his surveying work on the Great Pyramid in 1872, Dixon found and opened two sealed shafts on the north and south walls of the Queen's Chamber. He also found several artefacts in these shafts, some of which are now at the British Museum.

Waynman and his brother John Dixon were also responsible for bringing to London the 70 foot obelisk known as Cleopatra's Needle. The obelisk had been gifted to the British by the Pasha in 1819 but it was only in 1877 that an attempt was made to remove it to Britain. The Dixon brothers had it encased in a mammoth floating iron cylinder, complete with keel, sails, and a deck house, that could be towed behind another vessel. It was almost lost in a storm in the Bay of Biscay, and six sailors drowned in recovery attempts, but it did eventually reach London and was erected on the Embankment.