Rare Book Monthly
Articles - February - 2004 Issue
100 Books With Photographs from<br>Hertzmann, Margolis & Moss
100 Books with Original Photographs.
Color photography was still many years away at this time, but Masterpieces of Mulready is one of the first attempts to create a color catalogue of an artist’s work. This 1867 book with black and white photographs of Mulready’s work includes hand-coloring of the images, “a bit garish in application,” according to the catalogue, but “quite professional.” Item 23. $450.
An impressive collection of photographs can be found in Samuel Kneeland’s The Wonders of the Yosemite Valley, and of California. Kneeland was a Boston physician and zoologist who undertook expeditions to such places as Brazil, Iceland, Hawaii, and the American West. Here he reports on the Yosemite Valley in the days before it was overwhelmed with tourists, 1871. Item 35. $950.
Every January anyone living outside of urban areas finds their mailbox overloaded with seed catalogues. Here’s one of the first. Vick’s Illustrated Catalogue and Floral Guide is an 1872 catalogue published by James Vick. Vick was a printer who cultivated a garden as a hobby. He began importing seeds from abroad to America by 1848 and he began to write for and publish various agricultural journals. This led him to becoming a pioneer in the mail order seed business, a major business to this day. Item 36. $450.
There are a couple of items those with an interest in astronomy will appreciate. In 1885, telescopes were not able to provide detailed photographic images of the moon. James Nasmyth had a clever way to get around this problem. He created plaster models of the moon from his own observations and lighted and photographed them to create convincing images. The book is called The Moon: Considered as a Planet, a World, and a Satellite and it is item 71. $850. Item 98 is Hamburgische Sonnenfinsternis-Expedition 1905, about the Hamburg Observatory’s expedition to Algeria that year to photograph a total eclipse of the sun. They were able to take five pictures before the sun emerged from the eclipse. $7,500.
In 1893, a portfolio of photographs from James Whistler’s exhibition in London the previous year was published. It contained his most famous works, including the one of “Mom.” Whistler supervised the production of the album and signed this copy. Item 90. $15,000.
Thomas Edison’s Electric Railway Company was involved in patent litigation with rival Brooklyn Road Company in 1893. The company put together two volumes of material to support its side, including 698 pages of depositions and 495 pages of exhibitions. Among the exhibitions are photographs of Edison’s electric rail cars. Item 89. $3,200.
