[Carbutt, John (photographer); and others]

Thick quarto (12 x 9 in.; 305 x 229 mm). 123 albumen photographic portraits by John Carbutt and others, each mounted within a printed gilt border, on a thin card leaf, some leaves with a mounted photograph on both the recto and verso. Publisher's black calf, covers elaborately blocked in blind with a wide border built up from rules and a large Greek-key roll, central panel with large corner-pieces of stylised foliage around a large central arabesque lozenge shape, all blocked in blind, spine with semi-raised bands in five compartments, lettered in gilt in the second compartment, the others with simple repeat tooling in blind, marbled endpapers, gilt edges; neat repairs to joints.

Ante-fire Imprints 1287; Howes C363; Truthful Lens 13 or 30; Welling, Collector's Guide to Nineteenth Century Photographs, p. 105; Roosens & Salu 1652.

This is a work that traditionally includes anywhere from 62 to 99 images: the present example, with 123 images, is the largest that we have been able to trace. It is usually described as the second edition of a work with the same title published in 1868. However, the present work should arguably be treated as a new work as the changes and additions are so substantial. The text has been entirely reset and indeed mostly re-written with the entries brought up to date (e.g. the 1871 fire is mentioned on numerous occasions) and the number of individual biographies extended from 107 to 187.