Lot 89
"Archeological Frauds in Palestine" by Charles Clermont-Ganneau – Paris, 1885 – Chapters on the Forgeries of Moses Wilhelm Shapira – Signed by Clermont-Ganneau
Les fraudes archéologiques en Palestine, suivies de quelques monuments phéniciens apocryphes [Archeological Frauds in Palestine…], by Charles Clermont-Ganneau. Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1885. French.
A work on the forgery of antiquities in Palestine, with five illustrated plates and additional in-text illustrations. Two chapters of this work are dedicated to the forgeries of the Jerusalemite collector and antiquities dealer Moses Wilhelm Shapira (1830-1884). Inscribed on the front endpaper by the author, Charles Clermont-Ganneau.
French archeologist and Orientalist Charles Clermont-Ganneau (1846-1932) was one of the leading researchers of Palestine in the 19th century. Clermont-Ganneau came to Palestine in 1867 and began exploring its archeological sites. During the years 1873-1874, he led the Palestine Exploration Fund's archeological expedition to Palestine. With time, he acquired a reputation as one of the most important scholars of biblical archeology in Palestine. Today, Clermont-Ganneau is remembered due to his exposure of several archeological forgeries, including the forgeries of Moses Wilhelm Shapira – the Moabite collections of pottery and the scrolls allegedly discovered in the Dead Sea area.
357 pp + [5] plates, 17 cm. Fair-poor condition. Torn along spine; loose sections. The first plate is detached. Many pages unopened at upper edge. Creases and small tears to margins. Open tears to cover and spine (including a large open tear to front cover, affecting the text). One tear to back cover reinforced with tape. Small pen notation to back cover. Cover is partly stuck to endpapers.
