Album of 24 Photographs JAPAN c1900 Meiji Period Hand Coloured Nagasaki Kyoto Kobe Rare Street Scenes

This delightful Japanese lacquer covered album contains the following photographs:

1 Nagasaki – Four women standing around an ornamental lake

2 Nagasaki – street view (promenade?)

3 Bakan – pier with ship and boats

4 *Maikonohama – people walking in woods and rickshaw in background
[please refer to note below]

5 Kobe – great streetview

6 Wadanomisaki Kobe – lighthouse?

7 Dotonbori Osaka – buildings along riverside

8 Kyto [Kyoto] – woman with parasol walking in woods

9 Mount Fuji from Iwabuchi

10 Katase – people on a boat

11 Elderly man using both hands to hold the hand of a woman – appears to be a doctor taking her pulse

12 Yokohama – a woman and girl walking down a tree lined street

13 Four women posing – the background appears to be painted/studio

14 Yokohama – bridge over river and man near two large piles of straw

15 Two women sleeping on the floor (unusual)

16 Woman posing while undertaking artwork/calligraphy

17 Five women and one man – man is blindfolded and pulled on a red handkerchief that is being held by one of the other women

18 Two seated women pruning a tree (bonsai?)

19 Seated/crouching woman and standing man – he is using a ladle to pour into a glass (tea, street vendor?)

20 Four men working with wood

21 Female posing – middle aged and looking serious

22 Younger female looking in direction of camera

23 Two women drawing water from a well and another washing laundry. The woman drawing the bucket is wearing raised shoes

24 Young female with tambourine?

*Note: this image exists in a collection of Meiji period photographs in the Nagasaki University Library. Their observations are: “Maikonohama Beach facing inland, taken sometime between the mid- and late-Meiji Period. It is interesting to see the travellers’ apparel. There used to be thousands of pine trees here, but today only a fraction remain in Maiko Park. The scenery here changed dramatically in April 1908 when the world’s largest suspension bridge was built above this site to connect Maiko and Awaji Island”.

These are some amazing, wonderful and historic photographs of Japan lost in the mists of time!

This delightful little album captures the people and the places from over 120 years ago.
Based on the images and the information from the note in the Nagasaki Library Collection, this album dates from around 1900 although the images could be from around 1890.

These are NOT postcards! They are ACTUAL photographs printed on paper with handcolouring, particularly the red which can clearly be seen as hand done.

Each photograph measures 13.5cm x 8.5cm and is protected by a tissue sheet.

There is some fading of the gold on the front lacquer cover – e.g. the wheels of the rickshaw that were painted in gold. There are also some nibbles, minor scratches and blemishes on the covers (mostly confined to the edges). This is to be expected as a lot of the time, this time of lacquer cover has extensive damage.

The photographs are in very good condition as the tissue ‘guards’ have protected them.
The tissue guards have some wear & tear, lots of creases, small sections on some missing etc.
There is some minor foxing or spotting on some of the photographs.

The images are not faded but have that appearance as they were not the highest quality production. These types of albums were made for the tourists that were flocking to Japan in the latter part of the 19th century.

However, if you zoom in you can see not only the texture of the paper but wonderful details on the people and buildings.

There are some very similar albums available from antiquarian book dealers as shown in the last image.
They have slightly larger photographs and hence the high price!
Some dealers are selling similar photographs for between £40-£100 each.

Please also note the following which is from a 2016/2017 “Pale Pink and Light Blue
Japanese Photography from the Meiji Period (1868-1912)” exhibition held in Berlin:

Alongside the steam engine, gas lights, and the hot-air balloon, photography was one of the seven key hallmarks of the country’s ‘unconditional Europeanisation’. First introduced by the Americans and the British, photography was seen as the absolute embodiment of Western technology and progress among those sections of society keen for Japan to open itself up to the world and embrace the modern age.

After several foreign-owned photographic studios set up for business, Japanese photographers soon followed suit by opening their own. The clientele for both kinds of studios were typically long-term visitors and tourists, and there was a great surge in photography between 1868 and 1912.

I am always coming across rare and unusual antiques through my contacts and networks of dealers and collectors so please check back on my listings.

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