Photography

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Fine photographs and photobooks with an emphasis on the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. We stock images by recognised masters such as Hill & Adamson, Roger Fenton or Julia Margaret Cameron as well as more eclectic examples illustrating the range of formats and processes used in the early years of the medium. This might include fine daguerreotypes, complete photograph albums, carbon or platinum prints by known or amateur photographers.

We are also interested in the work of early travel photographers, particularly those in the Middle and Far East. From later periods we hold work by British photographers specialising in fine art and documentary photography including Alvin Langdon Coburn, J. Dudley Johnston, Bill Brandt and Raymond Moore.

  1. MANTELL, A. M. (attr.).

    Views in North Wales.

    Circa 1880.

    A magnificent album of large-format views of North Wales and Chester, likely produced in celebration of the new harbour and hotel at Holyhead, which was opened by Edward, Prince of Wales in June 1880 – a group portrait of the event is depicted here.

    £6500

  2. PAGANORI, Vincenzo, photographer, and Riccardo MAGNELLI, attributed taxidermist.

    [Cover title:] Saggio della collezione...

    [c. 1880s?]

    An unusual and very rare photographic portfolio of taxidermy, featuring twelve displays – including flamingos, a brown bear, seabirds, and ibex – and one scene of work under preparation, showing the taxidermist and his young apprentice.

    £2500

  3. PENN, Christopher.

    The Nicholas Brothers & A. T. W. Penn: photographers of South India 1855 – 1885. With a foreword by John Falconer.

    London, Bernard Quaritch Ltd, 2014.

    An examination of the successful studios established by John and James Perratt Nicholas and Albert Penn in Madras and Ootacamund. The majority of the photographs are published here for the first time. Also includes a copy of the scarce Nicholas & Co. 1881 catalogue listing over 450 subjects.

    £45

  4. PIECK, Henri C.

    10 Dagen Die De Wereld Deden Wankelen.

    Amsterdam, Skovino, 1927.

    A rare lithograph of Pieck’s dramatic illustration for Ten Days that Shook the World (October in English), a silent film commissioned by the Soviet government to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of the October Revolution. Made by the director of Battleship Potemkin (1925), Sergei Eisenstein, the...

    £300

  5. PURSEY, Thomas.

    The last General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland.

    [Edinburgh, T. Pursey, 1900.]

    A photographic tour-de-force, assembling many hundreds of individual photographic portraits neatly incorporated into a painted scenario, and then reproduced as a photogravure, depicting all the attendees of the last General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland, held in May 1900. Evidently a...

    £2000

  6. RICCI, Giovanni and PORTA, Ercolano.

    Storia della missione francescana e del Vicariato Apostolico del Hunan meridionale dalle sue...

    Bologna, Stabilimenti tipografici riuniti, 1925.

    First and only edition of this history of the Franciscan Mission in South Hunan from its establishment to 1924, with particular attention to the persecution of the Christians during the Boxer Rebellion and the following years of restoration and progress of the mission. The appendix comprises letters,...

    £450

  7. SMITH, Hubert, and Thomas Charles BROMWICH, photographer

    A short Memoir of the late eminent Shropshire Genealogist...

    Madeley (Shropshire), J. Randall, 1879. 

    First separate edition, photographically illustrated, of this short memoir of the Shropshire antiquary William Hardwicke. 

    £150

  8. STACEY, George et al.

    Daguerreotype and ambrotype portraits of Stacey and members of his family.

    London, 1850s.

    A handsome set of photographs of the English Quaker and abolitionist George Stacey (1787-1857), his second wife Mary née Barclay (1797-1876) and members of their extended family, taken by some of the finest portraitists in England at that time.

    £7500

  9. [TAHITI.]

    Album of 21 silver gelatin prints relating to the construction of a new airport in Pape’ete.

    1960.

    Fa’a’a Airport, just outside Papa’ete on Tahiti is the only international airport in French Polynesia, built on reclaimed land on the coral reef off-shore. Its construction in 1958-60 was directly connected with the French government’s nuclear weapons testing programme in the region, but gave...

    £875

  10. TAYLOR, G. Oswald (photographer).

    Promotional photographic brochure celebrating the coronation of Elizabeth II.

    Nottingham, Fine Stocking Manufacturers Ltd., June 1953.

    An unusual coronation souvenir. The details on the lower wrapper indicate that Oswald Taylor produced the booklet, as well as photographed the series.

    £300

  11. VALENTINE, James (photographer).

    Album of Scottish views, mainly of Stirling and surroundings.

    Circa 1870s.

    A handsome example of a topographical view album by the Scottish photographer James Valentine, focusing on Stirling and the surrounding areas.

    £600