Priests & Kings Harold Peake 1927 1st Ed Blaenavon Provenance Illustrated Egypt
 
Title & Bibliographic Details
Title: The Corridors of Time IV: Priests & Kings
Authors: Harold Peake and Herbert John Fleure
Publisher: Oxford University Press at the Clarendon Press, Oxford
Date & Edition: 1927 First Edition
Printer: John Johnson, Printer to the University
Format: Hardcover
Illustrations: Illustrated throughout with photographs, maps, diagrams, pottery studies, archaeological illustrations, and chronological tables.
 
Historical & Bibliographic Context
This fascinating 1927 first edition forms Volume IV of the influential Corridors of Time series, an ambitious interwar attempt to synthesise archaeology, anthropology, geography, and early civilisation studies into an accessible chronological narrative of human development.
Priests & Kings examines the rise of organised civilisation through metallurgy, trade, priesthoods, kingship, and settlement culture, exploring regions including Sumer, Akkad, Egypt, the Aegean, the Danube Basin, and Central Asia. The work reflects the rapidly evolving archaeological scholarship of the 1920s, drawing upon discoveries from figures such as Flinders Petrie, Schliemann, Breasted, and Garstang.
The series became highly regarded among early twentieth-century readers interested in archaeology, anthropology, and comparative civilisation studies, and today remains an appealing collectible for historians of archaeology and interwar intellectual history. 
 
About the Authors
Harold Peake was a pioneering British archaeologist and anthropologist best known for his research into prehistoric civilisation, early agriculture, and diffusionist theories of cultural development. He later served as President of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 
Herbert John Fleure was an eminent British geographer, anthropologist, and Fellow of the Royal Society, widely respected for his interdisciplinary work linking geography, race studies, archaeology, and cultural history. 
 
Binding & Exterior Description
A particularly attractive and unusual institutional binding produced for the historic Blaenavon Workmen’s Library.
Quarter bound in green leather with blue textured cloth boards and curved board edges. The spine features gilt lettering within panels, including gilt titling for the “Blaenavon Workmen’s Library,” indicating that this copy was specially bound for the institution rather than remaining in the publisher’s standard cloth binding.
The volume retains strong shelf presence, enhanced by all-edge sprinkled page edges and decorative botanical pastedowns and endpapers in green and cream.
The binding remains intact, robust, and in good condition overall for its age. Cosmetic wear includes light rubbing at the extremities, a few minor marks and scratches, creasing to the spine, and some natural age-related discolouration to the leather.
 
Interior Condition
The pages are overall remarkably clean and well preserved for a heavily used institutional volume of this period.
Pages are only very lightly tanned with the occasional small mark, light foxing spot, or minor handling wear. The pages are predominantly uncreased and free from inscriptions within the text.
There are no tears to the pages. All pages remain secure, with only a very light crack in the gutter beside the title page.
The front pastedown retains substantial provenance material, as stated in the Provenance section below.
 
Provenance
 
This copy possesses unusually rich and layered institutional provenance.
 
Blaenavon Workmen’s Library
The gilt spine titling and lending plate on the front pastedown connect this volume directly to the historic Blaenavon Workmen's Institute, one of the most important surviving workmen’s institutes in Wales.
Founded in the nineteenth century and funded by local industrial workers through wage subscriptions, the Institute became a major centre for self-education, literature, lectures, political discussion, and community culture within the South Wales coal and iron industries.
Books from the Blaenavon Workmen’s Library are increasingly collectible as artefacts of working-class educational history and Welsh industrial heritage.
 
Ancient Egypt & Middle East Society
The later AEMES ownership label links the book to a specialist archaeological and Egyptological educational society associated with Horncastle Residential College.
 
Dylan Bickerstaffe
The handwritten donation inscription “TO THE AEMES LIBRARY FROM DYLAN BICKERSTAFFE” identifies the donor as Dylan Bickerstaffe, respected Egyptologist, lecturer, writer, and researcher specialising in royal mummies and Ancient Egyptian studies.
This scholarly provenance substantially enhances the appeal of the volume for collectors of archaeology, Egyptology, and the history of scholarship.
 
Physical Details
Pagination: 208 pages
Size: Approximately 20.2 cm x 14.2 cm x 2.3 cm
Weight: Approximately 517g
 
Rarity & Collector Notes
This is a scarce and highly desirable provenance copy of the 1927 first edition, combining archaeology with strong educational and institutional provenance.