Photographic Albums of Japan
Farsari, Adolfo
Place Published: Yokohama
Publisher: A. Farsari & Co. Photographers
Description: Three original lacquered albums of early photographs of Japan, with inside front cover stamp "A. Farsari & Co. Photographer, Yokohama", each containing 50 hand-colored albumen prints of Japanese sights and scenes from the early 1890s. Total of 150 hand-colored photographic prints. Large quarto oblong formats, with original beautiful, unfaded lacquered boards inlaid with gilt and mother-of-pearl. The original leather spines have badly deteriorated and the front board of one album is detached (but present). All of the mountings are still structurally sound, with all edges gilt. Each album contains 50 hand-colored albumen prints, with the tissue guards still present. The 150 prints are nearly all quite bright, with only a minimal amount of color fading. The English-captioned photographs depict numerous shrines and temples in great architectural detail at Nikko, Nara, and Ise, plus a large number of Tokyo scenes of the Imperial Palace and its gardens, along with many Ginza and other street scenes in that city. Also photographed are a number of landscapes, waterfalls, and country hourses around Lakes Yumoto, Hakone, and Chuzenji. Detailed architectural views of painted ceilings, tomb carvings, statuary, bridges, torii gates, pagodas, stone lanterns, bell towers, and other features abound. There are street scenes, a music pavilion, and hotels and guesthouses. Adolfo Farsari (1841-1898), born in Vicenza and living in America for some time, arrived in Japan in 1873 and began a photographic career about 1885 with Tamamura Kozaburto. In February of 1886 all of his negatives were destroyed in a studio fire, so he toured Japan for many months thereafter, retaking new photographs for his re-opened studio in 1887. While catering to the early Western tourist trade in Japan, he employed carefully chosen illustrators, resulting in surviving prints now as a major visual record of Meiji Japan. The Ginza scenes show very primitive power poles, and one scene depicts the early facade of the 1890 Imperial Hotel. Lack of any motorized traffic indicates the photographs must be before 1900. Farsari died in 1898, so the images can probably be dated to the early 1890s.
Book Id: 028146
Price: $25,000.00