HAND COLORED & BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPHS OF 19TH CENTURY JAPAN

[PHOTOGRAPHS]. 141 HAND-COLORED & BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPHS OF 19TH CENTURY JAPAN AND ASIA. Archive consists of six groups of photographs. Most are mounted and are disbound from albums, four have ink and watercolor illustrations on the mounts, and 19 are loose b/w prints, probably early 20th century. A few mounts or photos have manuscript notes with dates (1896, late 1870's). Photographers not identified. Some negatives are captioned, and some of the mounts have manuscript captions. Image sizes range from 5.5 x 4 inches (three photos) to 8.5 x 11.5 inches. Mounts range in size, most are about 11 x 14 inches. Group 1: (4) mounted hand-colored albumen photographs, image size 7.5 x 9.5 inches, mounted on 12 x 14.75 inch paper covered boards with lovely original Japanese-themed ink and watercolor illustrations in the corners. Subjects: a tea house, a class of young students with their teacher, 2 views of Tokio. Very good. Group 2: (20) mounted albumen photographs, formerly from a side-bound album, one on each side of the mount. 19 are hand-colored, one is b/w. Mostly portraits and group portraits of women in domestic scenes, or illustrating dress. The b/w image is of mounted (European) officers on horseback. Mounts 11.5 x 13.5 inches, photos 8 x 10 or 11.5 inches. Some light foxing to mounts, a few images also have foxing. Very good. Group 3: (33) mounted albumen photographs, 9 hand-colored and 24 mounted b/w albumen photographs. Most of these probably from the same album (most boards have gilt edges). Subjects include views of Tokio, Ikegami, Shiba, Yenoshima, Kinkakuji, Kioto, Kobe, Fusiyama, Nagasaki, Yokohama, boats on rivers, acrobats, and a tattooed man. One photo on each side, some negatives captioned, some mansucript captions. One mount has three 5.5 x 4 inch hand-colored photos on one side. Moderate foxing to mounts. Very good. Group 4: (24) mounted b/w albumen photographs, with thin blue printed single rule borders, one photo per mount. Some negatives are captioned, some manuscript captions. Subjects include Biwah Lake/Karasaki (one wonderful image of a gnarled ancient tree), Kioto (including a cemetery and temple), Yedo (the Castle), Choin, Kinkakuji, Kiyomidzo, Shiba Temple, and the Tokaido Road. Some foxing to mounts, overall very good. Group 5: (41) albumen photographs, 34 hand-colored and 7 b/w, mounted in slots in a cloth album with sewn binding (spine Wes.