Photographic Club (Roger Fenton, Oscar Gustav Rejlander and others) | The Photographic Album for the year 1857

Photographic Club (Roger Fenton, Oscar Gustave Rejlander and others)

The Photographic Album for the year 1857. London: for the Members of the Photographic Club by Charles Wittingham, [1857]

FIRST EDITION, folio (436 x 300mm.), title with mounted oval albumen print of a bust of Queen Victoria by Joseph Durham (185 x 136mm.), and 38 other photographs by Members of the Photographic Club (see footnote), mostly albumen prints, some dilute albumen or salted paper prints (various sizes from 170 x 145mm. to 303 x 237mm.), individually mounted on card, each with an accompanying leaf of descriptive text, paper guards, contemporary dark brown straight-grain morocco gilt, sides stamped with the title in gilt, spine in six compartments with raised bands gilt, gilt edges, modern yellow endpapers, light scattered spotting, some images with edge-fading or faded, joints and extremities rubbed, small burn hole to edge of lower cover

A VERY RARE COMPLETE COPY OF THIS EARLY PHOTOBOOK IN A FINE CONTEMPORARY BINDING. "This album was printed for the members of the Photographic Society Club and the publication was limited to approximately 50 copies" (Gernsheim). We have been unable to trace another example of this publication sold at auction in over 40 years.

The photographs cover a wide range of subjects including still life subjects, topography and travel (including a view of the mosque of Omar in Jerusalem, and the Alhambra), landscapes and portraits.

The members of the Photographic Club who contributed photographs to this volume comprise Hugh Welch Diamond, John Anthony, Mark Anthony, Alfred Batson, William G. Campbell, Sir John Joscelyn Coghill, Charles Conway Jr., Joseph Cundall, John G. Crace, Thomas Davies, Philip H. Delamotte, George Downes, Roger Fenton, Lord Otho Fitzgerald, Joseph James de Forrester, G.B. Gething, Capt. R. J. Henry, Rev. Dr J. Holden, John Dillwyn Llewelyn, Rev. John Richardson Major, John Jabez Edwin Mayall, Dr Thomas Lukis Mansell, Thomas G. Mackinlay, William Henry Nicholl, Henry Pollock, Dr John Percy and John Spiller, Arthur Julius Pollock, William C. Plunket, Dr. Ranking, Robert Charles Ransome, Oscar Gustave Rejlander, Alfred Rosling, George Shadbolt, George Stokes, John Sturrock, Jr., Benjamin Brecknell Turner (see also lot 148), Henry Thomas Wood, and Francis Bedford.

The text accompanying each image names the photographer together with the date and technical information, usually stating the process, exposure, lens and method of printing.

LITERATURE:

Gernsheim, Incunabula of British Photographic Literature 1839-1875, 72