Search Results: Titles starting with A from Erin Waters Fine Photographs

Before everyone had snapshot cameras, shops like Visser's were all over Europe for tourists to browse photos for purchase to fill their albums at home. If you're familiar with European albums, you'll probably recognize the types of images illustrated, if not certain of the images themselves. Photographs were of course available in bookstores and photo studios as well but in a tourist center like The Hague, this shop probably did quite a business and even merited a mention in Baedeker. The card includes a map to the store and notes you can find delftware there as well.
This 4 page ad measures 4 x 6.5 inches closed. It's in very good condition with some light wear.

This 1920s album fools you from its cover, as it's titled 'Childhood Days'. The subjects pictured inside are a bit more serious as the men wade through swampy water to reach toppled power lines and encounter gators, snakes, turtles, and the occasional flamingo. They seem to be following in the aftermaths of storms like hurricanes and tornados, given the floods and snapped poles. There are also views of where they stayed, towns, a few electric plants, and a brief trip to DC and northern VA.
While there isn't much identification in the album, the men pose next to a Kansas route 40 road sign in a few photos and much of the vegetation (and animals) point to the south. There is also a sign for the Civic Club of Hialeah (Florida) and photos of cruise ships.
The album is a nice document of worker camaraderie. The album itself is a bit worn, but the photos are generally in very good condition.

The people in these photos knew how to have a good time and you can tell they enjoyed acting as much as they did posing for the camera. Whoever took the photos did a great job with early flash photography as most of them seem to have been taking indoors at night.
The men, women, and sometimes children in the images wear a variety of costumes, masks, face paint, and wigs. One recurring theme seems to be the "King of Hobes" [Hoboes?]. There are photos of people singing, with instruments, crossdressing, a mock wedding, of 'maids', and, as was common in this era, people wearing blackface.
The back of the album has some photos of local towns, including of a flood. All in all, there are some really incredible photos.
Since I purchased this in Pennsylvania and there is a sign in one of the photos for the Philadelphia and Ready Telegraph Co, I'm assuming the location is central PA.
The album binding is worn and some pages have split from it. That said, most of the photos are in fine condition. A few have come… Read More

While I haven't seen as many European photo albums as American ones, I can honestly say that I've never seen an album like this one before. I'm guessing it was made in Central or Eastern Europe. I bought it in the about five years ago somewhere in the middle of the US.
The album's interior is near fine. But, as you can see, the exterior has a lot of wear, although the faces don't have a lot of scuffing. I didn't have any luck searching for the artist.

An ink inscription on the first page suggests that the person was a student that the National Park Seminary in Forrest Glen, Maryland and that he put the book together in January 1901. The notebook is an art history course shown in cyan other from ancient Egyptian tombs and obelisks in 3800 B.C. to Raphael's Cherubs on the Sistine Chapel to the then Modern English School of Gainsborough and Rossetti. It may be interesting for current scholars of art history to see how one student put together his reference notebook and the captions.
The notebook's covers are loose and worn, with paper missing off the front and spine. Some of the pages are loose as well. It is not quite full. I get the impression that space was left for more images. The photos are generally in fine condition.

Sonya Zoe Little (1928-2011) was born in Chicago but grew up in Texas. After high school, she attended the Art Institute. It seems that she married, had children, and didn't pursue her art. That's too bad because I like her work. You can tell that in this album, she was working on finding her own style. There is even a page where she practiced her signature. The sketchbook is mostly figural work, a lot of nude female models. She used red and black ink, charcoal, and I think colored pencils. There are a few pages where she used a colored wash as well. As you'll see, she also tried her hand at channeling Picasso. There are some more cartoony images, mostly heads. There are some full color images as well. A few city scapes appear too, although they're more clumsy. A few of the pages have dates in 1950.
The 8 x10 notebook is generally in very good condition; the binding has separated a bit inside and the covers have wear. This is not surprising given the object's use. The interior pages are fine. Her… Read More

Charles F. Nicholson worked in Rochester, NY and invented of the Peerless tinting sets for photographs. He instructed people on how to properly tint photographs and made up pamphlets to mail out to inquiring minds. These pamphlets included a tinted photo. I don't know if these photos were meant to be included in the pamphlets or if they were examples done in a class he taught. The type of paper used is marked on the print and the colors used on the bottom. The sheets measure 7 x 9.25 inches. The photos measure 3.75 x 7 and 4.25 x 7. They are in very good condition with the sheets having a bit of of a wave and a few of the photos having some silvering.