Henry Salt (14 June 178030 October 1827) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

artist, traveller, collector of antiquities, diplomat, and

Egyptologist Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , '' -logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religiou ...

Biography

Early life

Salt, the son of Thomas Salt who was a

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

and Alice ''née'' Butt, was born in

Lichfield Lichfield () is a cathedral city and civil parish in Staffordshire, England. Lichfield is situated roughly south-east of the county town of Stafford, south-east of Rugeley, north-east of Walsall, north-west of Tamworth and south-west o ...

on 14 June 1780. He was the youngest of eight children and went to school in Lichfield,

Market Bosworth Market Bosworth is a market town and civil parish in western Leicestershire, England. At the 2001 Census, it had a population of 1,906, increasing to 2,097 at the 2011 census. It is most famously near to the site of the decisive final battle o ...

, and then in Birmingham under where his brother John Butt Salt taught. He took an early interest in portrait painting. While in Lichfield, he studied under a watercolour artist, John Glover, and in 1789, he went to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

where he first studied under Joseph Farington and later under

John Hoppner John Hoppner (4 April 175823 January 1810) was an English portrait painter, much influenced by Reynolds, who achieved fame as a brilliant colourist. Early life Hoppner was born in Whitechapel, London, the son of German parents – his moth ...

. After a time, he gave up portrait painting, having failed to build up a reputation.

Early travels

Salt found a position with the English nobleman

George Annesley George Annesley, 2nd Earl of Mountnorris FRS (4 December 1770 – 23 July 1844), styled Viscount Valentia between 1793 and 1816, was a British peer and politician. Background Mountnorris was the son of Arthur Annesley, 1st Earl of Mountnorris, ...

, Viscount Valentia, travelling as his secretary and draughtsman, recommended by Thomas Simon Butt. They started on an eastern tour in June 1802, sailing on the British

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Sou ...

's chartered ship ''Minerva'' to

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

via the

Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with ...

. Salt explored the Cape of Good Hope, India, and the

Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; ...

area. Valentia came to describe Salt as a "secretary-draftsman": he was not only a companion, but also sketched the sites and scenes they encountered on their voyage. In 1805, Valentia sent Salt on a journey into Ethiopia (then often referred to by Europeans by the exonym Abyssinia) to meet with

Wolde Selassie Wolde Selassie (; c.1736 - 28 May 1816) was Ras of the Tigray province between 1788-1816, and Regent of the Ethiopian Empire between 1797-1800. John J. Halls, in his ''Life and Correspondence of Henry Salt'', preserves a description of this power ...

Ras Ras or RAS may refer to: Arts and media * RAS Records Real Authentic Sound, a reggae record label * Rundfunk Anstalt Südtirol, a south Tyrolese public broadcasting service * Rás 1, an Icelandic radio station * Rás 2, an Icelandic radio sta ...

of Tigray to open up trade relations on behalf of the English. While visiting there, Salt gained the respect of Wolde Selassie. He returned to England on 26 October 1806. His journey home took him through Egypt where he met the

Pasha Pasha, Pacha or Paşa ( ota, پاشا; tr, paşa; sq, Pashë; ar, باشا), in older works sometimes anglicized as bashaw, was a higher rank in the Ottoman political and military system, typically granted to governors, generals, dignita ...

Mehmet Ali Mehmet Ali, Memet Ali or Mehmed Ali ("Ali"
''

Salt's paintings from the trip were used in Valentia's ''Voyages and Travels to India'', published in 1809. The originals of all the drawings were kept by Valentia, as also the copper plates after Salt's death. The format and style of the plates is similar to Thomas and William Daniell's work, "Oriental Scenery" (1795-1808). Salt returned to

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

in 1809 on a government mission to develop trade and diplomatic links with the Ethiopian Emperor Egwale Seyon. Upon arrival, he was unable to meet with the king due to unrest in the country, so instead he went to stay with his friend the Ras Wolde Selassie. During this venture, Salt took on the side mission of verifying and correcting the information about the region reported by the Scottish traveler, James Bruce many years earlier. Salt came back to England in 1811 with numerous specimens of both plants and animals. Most notable was a species of

dik-dik A dik-dik is the name for any of four species of small antelope in the genus ''Madoqua'' that live in the bushlands of eastern and southern Africa. Dik-diks stand about at the shoulder, are long, weigh and can live for up to 10 years. Dik- ...

that was previously unknown to the people of England. He would go on to publish in 1814, '' A voyage to Abyssinia, and travels into the interior of that country, executed under the orders of the British government in the years 1809 & 1810'', whose contents were on the culture, geography, customs, and topography of Ethiopia. He also published a collection of drawings entitled ''Twenty-four Views Taken in St Helena, The Cape, India, Ceylon, Abyssinia and Egypt''. He later returned and continued a friendship with the Ethiopian warlord

Sabagadis Sabagadis Woldu (; horse name: Abba Garray; baptismal name: Za-Manfas Qedus; 1780 – 1831) was a governor of Tigray Province of the Ethiopian Empire from 1822 to 1831. Sabagadis gained some notoriety in the first decade of the 19th century for r ...

Consul General in Egypt

Through his book and details of exploration, Salt had earned himself a name in the British government and when an opening for the Consul General of Egypt opened up in 1815, Salt was recommended to the position by Lord Valentia and appointed to be the Consul General in Egypt. In 1816, he arrived in Alexandria and traveled to Cairo where he would be stationed as consul. Once set up in Cairo, he began to work on his mission of securing antiquities and artifacts for the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

. In order to successfully do this, he believed that he must first be on good terms with the ruler of Egypt, the Pasha Mohamed Ali (aka Mehemet Ali). Salt was able to foster beneficial relations between the British government and Ali acting as a middle man, negotiating deals concerning trade and territorial rights, earning him the affection of Ali. Ali was able to provide Salt with a good residence in the city and a place in his court in return for his help in negotiations. Salt also sponsored the excavations of Thebes and

Abu Simbel Abu Simbel is a historic site comprising two massive rock-cut temples in the village of Abu Simbel ( ar, أبو سمبل), Aswan Governorate, Upper Egypt, near the border with Sudan. It is situated on the western bank of Lake Nasser, about ...

, personally carrying out significant archaeological research at the

pyramids of Giza The Giza pyramid complex ( ar, مجمع أهرامات الجيزة), also called the Giza necropolis, is the site on the Giza Plateau in Greater Cairo, Egypt that includes the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Pyramid of Khafre, and the Pyramid of Men ...

and the

Great Sphinx The Great Sphinx of Giza is a limestone statue of a reclining sphinx, a mythical creature with the head of a human, and the body of a lion. Facing directly from west to east, it stands on the Giza Plateau on the west bank of the Nile in Giza, E ...

which earned him praise from

Jean-François Champollion Jean-François Champollion (), also known as Champollion ''le jeune'' ('the Younger'; 23 December 17904 March 1832), was a French philologist and orientalist, known primarily as the decipherer of Egyptian hieroglyphs and a founding figure in t ...

for his ability to decipher

hieroglyphs A hieroglyph (Greek for "sacred carvings") was a character of the ancient Egyptian writing system. Logographic scripts that are pictographic in form in a way reminiscent of ancient Egyptian are also sometimes called "hieroglyphs". In Neoplatonis ...

. In 1825 Mr. Salt published, at his own expense, ''Essay on Dr. Young's and M. Champollion's System of Hieroglyphics; with some additional discoveries, by which it may be applied to decipher the names of the ancient kings of Egypt and Ethiopia.'' Furthermore, in his tenure as Consul General, Mr. Salt devoted himself to the task of assembling a collection of antiquities, although he was hindered in every possible way by

Bernardino Drovetti Bernardino Michele Maria Drovetti (January 7, 1776 – March 5, 1852) was an Italian antiquities collector, diplomat, and politician. He is best remembered for having acquired the Turin Royal Canon and for his questionable behavior in colle ...

, who, having been dismissed from his official post, now had the time personally to supervise the search of antiquities around the country. Drovetti had great advantages over his British rival because of his thorough knowledge of

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

, where he had been living for many years by this time, and also thanks to his close friendship with the

Muhammad Ali of Egypt Muhammad Ali Pasha al-Mas'ud ibn Agha, also known as Muhammad Ali of Egypt and the Sudan ( sq, Mehmet Ali Pasha, ar, محمد علي باشا, ; ota, محمد علی پاشا المسعود بن آغا; ; 4 March 1769 – 2 August 1849), was ...

. But Salt was not easily discouraged and resorting to the same methods as his rival, he surrounded himself with agents who would not stop for anything. The year he arrived in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metr ...

he had the good fortune to meet both

Giovanni Battista Belzoni Giovanni Battista Belzoni (; 5 November 1778 – 3 December 1823), sometimes known as The Great Belzoni, was a prolific Italian explorer and pioneer archaeologist of Egyptian antiquities. He is known for his removal to England of the seven-ton ...

, an extraordinary individual who immediately became his main agent, and ''Giovanni D’Athanasi'', a Greek known as ''Yanni'', who worked for him in the Thebes area from 1817 to 1827. Thanks to his assistants, Salt was able to begin selling his artifacts in just two years.

Death

Henry Salt died at the age of 47 on 30 October 1827 in

Desouk Desouk ( ar, دسوق, ) is a city in northern Egypt. Located 80 km east of Alexandria, in the Kafr El Sheikh Governorate and had a population of 137,660 inhabitants as of 2011. It is bordered to the west by the Beheira Governorate. Desouk ...

in Egypt. He was buried in Alexandria where he was stationed as Consul General. His paintings, papers, and artifacts he collected remain in the possession of the British Museum. Later, in 1849 ''

Saltia ''Saltia'' is a genus of moths of the family Noctuidae, endemic to the high mountains of East Africa. Species Two species have been described, both collected by George Salt in 1948: *'' Saltia acrophylax'' Tams, 1952 (Kilimanjaro) *'' Saltia ...

'' was published, it is a genus of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants t ...

s from Yemen and Saudi Arabia, belonging to the family

Amaranthaceae Amaranthaceae is a family of flowering plants commonly known as the amaranth family, in reference to its type genus ''Amaranthus''. It includes the former goosefoot family Chenopodiaceae and contains about 165 genera and 2,040 species, making i ...

. It was named in Henry Salt's honour.

Work and contributions to Egyptology

Collections

His first collection contained artifacts and pieces that Salt acquired from 1816 – 1818. When shipped to England and evaluated by specialists, the total value of the collection was estimated to be approximately ''£''8000, although it would be sold for much less. Records show that the collection ended up being sold in February 1823. The sarcophagus of

Seti I Menmaatre Seti I (or Sethos I in Greek) was the second pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt during the New Kingdom period, ruling c.1294 or 1290 BC to 1279 BC. He was the son of Ramesses I and Sitre, and the father of Ramesses II. The ...

, a major piece of the collection was bought by the British architect

Sir John Soane Sir John Soane (; né Soan; 10 September 1753 – 20 January 1837) was an English architect who specialised in the Neoclassical architecture, Neo-Classical style. The son of a bricklayer, he rose to the top of his profession, becoming professo ...

for ''£''2000 and the rest was bought by the British Museum for the same price. Following the assembly of his first collection, Salt began acquiring what would be known as his second collection, containing items he collected from 1819 – 1824. While Salt's primary intention was to sell to the British Museum again, this time for a yearly pension of ''£''600 for his service as the Consul, it would ultimately be rejected due to the price. Despite the British concerns over price, the French royalty wanted to buy the collection and display it at the Louvre, which they did in 1826 for a total of ''£''10,000. Salt would spend the rest of his life putting together a third collection which featured his antiquities acquired from 1825 to his death in 1827. This collection was sold years after his death when an agent of his sold it to the British Museum for over ''£''7000.

Notable artifacts

* Head of

Ramses II Ramesses II ( egy, rꜥ-ms-sw ''Rīʿa-məsī-sū'', , meaning "Ra is the one who bore him"; ), commonly known as Ramesses the Great, was the third pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt. Along with Thutmose III he is often regarded as t ...

(Young Memnon) * Sarcophagus of

* Head and arm of

Thothmes III Thutmose III (variously also spelt Tuthmosis or Thothmes), sometimes called Thutmose the Great, was the sixth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Officially, Thutmose III ruled Egypt for almost 54 years and his reign is usually dated from ...

* Mummy of Hornedjitef * Sarcophagus of

Ramesses III Usermaatre Meryamun Ramesses III (also written Ramses and Rameses) was the second Pharaoh of the Twentieth Dynasty in Ancient Egypt. He is thought to have reigned from 26 March 1186 to 15 April 1155 BC and is considered to be the last great mona ...

* Head and supporting Left Arm of

Amenhotep III Amenhotep III ( egy, jmn-ḥtp(.w), ''Amānəḥūtpū'' , "Amun is Satisfied"; Hellenized as Amenophis III), also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent or Amenhotep the Great, was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. According to different ...

* Head and upper torso of monumental limestone statue of

wearing nemes. * Granodiorite seated statue of

. * Granodiorite statue of

. The statue has been restored.

In popular culture

Salt was portrayed by

Robert Portal Robert Portal is an English actor. Portal is known for his role as Paul Critchley on the BBC television series ''The Amazing Mrs Pritchard'' (2006) and as the King in the film '' The Huntsman: Winter's War'' (2016). He is also known for his rol ...

in the 2005

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

docudrama ''

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

''.

Gallery

Henry Salt-05.jpg, Henry Salt-08.jpg, Riacotta in the Baramahal.jpg,

General references

Philosophy of Science Portal
*An excellent account of Salt and his trials and tribulations collecting antiquities in Egypt is in Maya Jasanoff

Knopf, 2005 * * *

Citations

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Salt, Henry 1780 births 1827 deaths 19th-century British archaeologists British consuls-general in Egypt English Egyptologists 18th-century English painters English male painters 19th-century English painters Fellows of the Royal Society People from Lichfield English male non-fiction writers 19th-century English male artists 18th-century English male artists Abu Simbel