Autograph Letter, signed, writing from Trieste to palaeontologist Richard Owen [in a bound volume of extracts from the Anthropological Review and other publications] Burton, Richard F. History, Travel & Geography,Literature

Letter: 4 pp., on his Arabic Letterhead ( Abd Allah). Docketed in Owen s hand, An d 18 Aug. 8vo. Trieste, Austria August 12 Dear Professor Owen, I have brought home a small collection of skulls from Egypt. Total 108 Seventy-nine (79 with 6 fragments) come from the Gizeh pyramids and show signs of mummification. There are twenty-three (23 & 7 fragments) of white skulls, also from Gizeh, of doubtful antiquity. [Some?] years ago cholera patients were buried there. I want to see the question of Egyptian craniology reopened I will be happy to send the skulls to the British Museum if any one will undertake the inspection. Or perhaps yo uhave some other way in which you woul like to dispose of them. Believe me, yours truly R.F. Burton An evocative Burton letter, discussing craniology, one of his many interests. Bound into a miscellany of offprints and extracts from periodical articles, containing: Anthropological Review, vol. I, no. 1, May 1863. With wrappers, ads, index, title page. A. Burton, R.F. A Day amongst the Fans, pp. 43-54. [Gabon, cannibalism]. B. Unsigned review of Burton s edition of Marcy s The Prairie Traveller, a Handbook for Overland Expeditions (Trübner), pp. 143-149. Anthropological Review, vol. I, no. 2, August 1863. With wrappers, ads. C. Account of the Ordinary Meeting on 22 June, with response by Winwood Reade to Burton s paper on the Fans, agreeing with Burton on the cannibalism, pp. xix-xxii. Anthropological Review, vol. I, no. 4, February 1864. With wrappers. D. Burton, R.F. Notes on Scalping. pp. 49-52. Anthropological Review, vol. II, no. 7, November 1864. With wrappers, ad for Burton s Mission to Dahomey, index. E. Burton, R.F. Notes on Waitz s Anthropology, pp. 243-50. F. Winwood Reade, W.Burton s Mission to Dahome (review), pp. 335-43. Journal of the Anthropological Institute, vol. II (January, 1873). G. On Human Remains and other Articles in Iceland, pp. 342-4. Extract. Journal of the Anthropological Institute, vol. IV (June 1874). H. Owen, Richard. Contributions to the Ethnology of Egypt, pp. 1-32, with four plates (one folding). Ink presentation inscription from the author struck out. Fortnightly Review, December 1890. I. Cameron, V. Lovett. Burton as I Knew Him, pp. 878-84. Extract in partly printed wrappers. Nice groupt of Burton material, with a good letter from his days in Trieste (after 1873). Penzer, pp. 206-8; Casada 103, 148, 292, 601. Provenance: H. Bradley Martin (sold Sotheby s 14 June 1990, lot 3439, part) Half blue calf and pebbled cloth. Some rubbing, very good to near fine (internally clean). One article loosely inserted Letter: 4 pp., on his Arabic Letterhead ( Abd Allah). Docketed in Owen s hand, An d 18 Aug. 8vo