Travel Photo Album; 19th century; nineteen original photographs; Port Side Egypt, Japan, China
This stunning late 19th-century album, dating from around 1890, contains a remarkable set of nineteen original albumen photographs.
The album is preserved in its original half leather binding, with reinforced corners and spine, and shows minimal wear for its age. The cover is marked "Reiseerinnerungen" in gold lettering. Inside, the decorative endpapers add a refined, period-correct touch. Each photograph measures 28 x 22 cm; 26 x 20 cm; or 22 x 18 cm and is mounted on heavy pages.
Album boards have gilt edges.
The Port Said collection (8 images) is signed by the renowned Zangaki brothers. These prints offer a highly valuable documentary and aesthetic testimony of Egypt and the construction of the Suez Canal.
Zangaki brothers worked out of Port Said and Cairo from around the 1860s through to at least the 1890s.
The visuals include harbor scenes from Port Said, canal ships and street views.
Original photographs from Japan are albumen silver prints, hand-coloured. The prints show different scenes from everyday life in Japan - cooly, Jinrikisha (Rickshaw), dancing geishas, a woman in kimono and traditional Japanese hairstyle plays the koto, a kind of harp. The panoramic view of Nagasaki is included in the album.
From around 1860 to 1900, Yokohama-shashin (Japanese albumen prints sold in Yokohama) became very popular. These photographs depicting Japanese landscapes, people and culture were popular souvenirs for tourists at the time. Among the most famous photographers for Yokohama-shashin were Felix (Felice) Beato (1832-1909) and Kusakabe Kimbei (1841–1934).
Possibly some of the photos in the album are connected to the firm of Stillfried & Andersen. The photographic studio was founded by Baron Raimund von Stillfried and Hermann Andersen in Yokohama, Japan between 1876 and 1885. The firm also produced photographic prints from negatives by Felice Beato.
The greatest part of China images in the album can be attributed to William Saunders.
William Thomas Saunders (1832–1892) was a British-born photographer who settled in China and became the leading photographer in Shanghai during the late Qing dynasty. He was the first photographer known to produce hand-coloured photographs in China.
In the album one will find Chinese convicts, c.1880 and Excution of the Namoa Pirates Which Took Place on the 11th May 1891 at Kowloon City China. (The "Nampa Pirates" execution on May 11, 1891, is likely a misspelling of the "Namoa Piracy" case, which involved the execution of pirates in Kowloon Walled City, China, carried out by Qing officials.). William Saunders as well seems to be the author of photography Little Orphan Yangtze China (1870s).
The final picture in the album is a high quality image of opium smokers. The author is not credited.
Their rarity, the confirmed authorship, and the excellent preservation make this albuma highly collectible.