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. BENNETT, Terry.

    History of Photography in China.

    London, Quaritch, 2009-2013.

    First editions of the three-volume set of Bennett’s comprehensive History of Photography in China, together providing a study and survey of the development of Chinese photography from 1842 to 1879 both by Chinese and by Western photographers. The work examines photographs and photographers...

    £175

  2. THOMSON, John.

    Illustrations of China and its People. A Series of two Hundred Photographs, with letterpress descriptive of the...

    London, Sampson Low &c, 1873–1874.

    A good copy of this rare work (vol. I marked second edition, the rest first editions), showing superb images of Imperial China including rare portraits of high government officials as well as a large number of architectural and scenic views; this item ranks amongst the most spectacular photographically...

    £35000

  3. [STEREOGRAPH.]

    James ELLIOTT, photographer.

    ‘The first Love Letter’ [and] ‘Difference of Opinion’. London, 1860s.

    Three hand-tinted albumen prints in stereo format featuring elaborate historical costumes, depicting the early stages of courtship and a lovers’ tiff.

    £175

  4. [FARSARI, Adolfo, Studio of.]

    Japanese flower seller.

    [Yokohama?, c. 1887.]

    A striking image of a Japanese flower vendor, with delicate contemporary hand colouring, most notably to the flowers. After time spent in America, where he fought in the Civil War, Adolfo Farsari (1841 - 1898) moved to Japan in 1873, establishing himself in Yokohama. In 1885 he opened his own...

    £200

  5. [ELIZABETH II.] KEYSTONE (PARIS).

    La Princesse Elisabeth fille du Duc d’York, et héritier, du trône d’Angleterre …

    1936.

    Princess Elizabeth on the day of the announcement of the abdication of Edward VII.

    £1200

  6. 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

  7. ANNAN, Thomas.

    Memorials of the Old College of Glasgow.

    Glasgow, T. Annan Photographer; J. Maclehose, Publisher and Bookseller to the University, 1871

    A very good copy illustrated with albumen rather than carbon prints.

    £3450

  8. 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

  9. [BENN, Anthony, father, and Charles Anthony BENN, son.]

    NICHOLS W., MAYLAND, GROOM, J., photographers. Photographic...

    Late 1850s–early 1900s.

    A charming collection of photographs and newspaper cuttings spanning some fifty years, compiled by a father and son during their Cambridge days, including a letter of thanks from Trinity Hall to the son, Charles Anthony Benn, for his endowment to the college, which now funds the Benn Bursary.

    £1200

  10. JACOBSON, Ken.

    Odalisques & Arabesques: Orientalist Photography 1839–1925.

    [London], Quaritch, 2007.

    Profusely illustrated, this is the most comprehensive survey to date of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century photography of the Middle East and North Africa. Using Orientalist painting as a counterpoint, it primarily relates the extraordinarily rich visual documentation of the peoples and cultures...

    £60

  11. [AGRICULTURE.]

    Photographs from the countryside around Beijing.

    [Early twentieth century.]

    Details of agricultural work and life, depicting the growing, transporting and selling of agricultural produce. Men carry loads on their backs, presumably to market or a storehouse; a camel caravan arrives in Beijing; other views show oxen ploughing, ponies carrying heavy loads, market stalls and a remarkable...

    £3000

  12. [EMPRESS DOWAGER and DALAI LAMA.]

    Photographs of religious traditions in Peking.

    Beijing, c. 1908.

    A record of religious cultures and traditions with rare images of the Dalai Lama’s visit to Beijing and the preparation for the Empress Dowager Cixi’s funeral procession, in 1908.

    £4500

  13. [LOVE TOKEN.]

    Portrait of a woman wearing photographic jewellery.

    [1850s].

    An ambrotype portrait of a young woman with a photographic brooch at her neck depicting a man, presumably her betrothed or spouse.

    £375

  14. 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

  15. HORACE.

    Quinti Horatii Flacci Opera cum novo commentario ad modum Joannis Bond.

    Paris, Didot, 1855.

    The deluxe issue of Didot’s Horace, a fine early photographically-illustrated work, complete with all the photographic plates, headpieces and maps, and printed on fine paper.

    £750

  16. [HAMBURG.] 

    A sammelband of material relating to the Great Fire of Hamburg. 

    [Germany, 1842.] 

    A fine and unusual volume of materials relating to the Great Fire of Hamburg of May 1842, comprising a long article by Joseph Mendelssohn published over five issues of Der Komet, special issues of several periodicals devoted to the disaster, a rare poem by Margarethe Hedwig Hülle, and...

    £850

  17. 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

  18. AH FONG, photographer.

    The Sino-Japanese Hostilities 1937.

    Shanghai, Nanking Road, 1937.

    Excellently preserved copy of this rare album of photographs documenting the bombing of Shanghai at the opening of the Second Sino-Japanese war, a haunting and moving visual record of what is considered by many to be the first battle of World War II.

    £3750

  19. JOHNSTON, J. Dudley.

    Snowbound.

    1923-’24.

    An attractive Swiss winter scene by J. Dudley Johnston. Johnston (1868–1955) was President of the Royal Photographic Society from 1923-’5 and again from 1929-’31. He was a leading Pictorialist photographer, a member of the Linked Ring Brotherhood, and responsible for establishing the historic...

    £2200