1905
1905. Very Good. A collection of 153 photographs, mostly of women engaged in both solitary activities or with friends (reading, sailing, socializing) at various New England towns and coastal areas. The collection consists of one commercially produced photo album with 69 mounted prints, and 84 loose prints. The quarto album measures (10.5" x 12"), quarter bound in leather and cloth over boards, with white silk moiré endpapers. The loose prints are divided into several groups of related prints. Most of the photographs are platinum prints (including two cyanotypes) measuring about 7.5" x 4.5", with some dozens or so ranging in size from 1.5" x 4" to 6" x 8". Included are a few variant outdoor shots of the same or similar subject that have been trimmed into odd panoramic sizes. The leather spine back of the album is mostly perished, and the album itself is neatly split along the spine into three sections, else the photographs are very good overall, with scattered nicks and short tears to some of the edges. The collection contains many beautifully composed photographs taken by an unknown photographer at Vergennes, Vermont and nearby places in New England. It includes images of Vergennes streets and houses and indoor portraits of women reading; together with outdoor and landscape views of mostly women in the surrounding countryside and creeks, and boating on Lake Champlain. There are also several images of women vacationing and sailing off the Maine coast at Gerrish Island and Camden, and walking through the woods in New Hampshire. Among these latter images is one photograph of four women in the woods, one of whom is reaching her left hand behind a large format camera, and who may well have been the person who took many of the photographs in this collection. An intriguing and immensely appealing assemblage of images.
(Inventory #: 385616)