[ALBUM]

[probably India]: circa 1870. Hardcover. Striking photograph album with 22 hinged, thick windowed boards. This example include 36 original albumen photographs, most with London imprints, primarily portraits, some hand tinted. The name of bookseller P & F Schäfer of London is stamped in gilt on the inside front cover. Quarto. Original ebonized wood boards and hollowed, drop-back hinged spine, with hand-carved ornamental and floral borders, and floral decorated field with Indian temple and animals on the front panel; hand-carved ornamental borders, and floral decorated field on the spine; and a repetition of the front on the rear panel, wxcept with a variant temple. The binding also features silver hinges for the front and rear panels, and a silver pin and receiver clasp with ornamental bands and floral ornaments. All edges gilt, with blue moiré silk at the front and drop-back, and a buff endpaper in the rear. A bit of toning and wear along the extremities of the windowed boards, with a tear to one of the paper frames. Some mild fraying to the silk endpaper; else very good or better - a remarkable survivor! Provenance: from the Publishers' Bookbindings collection of Ellen K. Morris and Edward S. Levin. Item #80103

Price: $550.00