Price on request
Beato 1864
album of 29 original albumen prints from collodion wet plate negatives mounted on 15 sheets, front and back. As with Felice Beato’s first albums, most (26) of the prints are monochrome, another three being partly colored. All have penciled legends in French or English. The first flyleaf bears a date, also in pencil, though the year is difficult to make out: Yokohama, Jeudi 25 Décembre 1863 (?). “1868” is also possible, according to the Japanese calendar. At any event, the photographs were taken by Beato during his first months in Japan, and notably as a member of Aimé Humbert’s entourage. If, as seems likely, the latter dating is correct, the images survived the fire that destroyed much of Yokohama on November 26, 1866. Immediately under the date, there is the signature of the first (?) owner, which is undecipherable. The pages are oblong, 31.5 x 39.5 cm. The front and back of the work are covered in silk, originally gilded. The binding is in the Japanese style. In a corner on the front of the work there is a discreet handwritten label giving the collection reference