Fifty-three Hand Coloured Japanese Photographs in Lacquer Album]*. by [MEIJI ERA HANDCOLOURED JAPANESE PHOTOGRAPHS] - Circa1880

Japan.: No publishing details.. Circa1880. Japanese albumen photographs in lacquer album with pictorial cover. 9 large (21 x 27cm) hand coloured photographs and 44 smaller (13.3 x 18.3cm) hand coloured photographs. A black and white photograph showing a family group and crew on board a ship is laid down at the rear (13.3 x 18.3cm). It is clear that a number of leaves have been removed from this album but the photographs present are in good condition with relatively minor fading. Album measures 27.5 x 35.5cm. Loss of three pieces of inlay on upper cover, leather spine torn and a little torn, corners worn with loss. The handsome hand-coloured photographs in this album probably date from the 1880s. The main subject matter was Japanese young women in kimonos posing in different postures and attires in the studio. Scenic photographs include Yokohama foreign settlement, Daibutsu (large Buddha statue) in Kamakura, Mt Fuji, and Nunobiki Water Fall in Kobe. Among the smaller images there are 6 photographs of shops, their stock of fans, vegetables, chestnuts, cooking pots and wooden clogs very attractively displayed, as well as 9 images of tradesmen and images of women entertaining, a family group, lying in bed etc. .