Album with scenes of Japan

ca. 1880s-90s. Good. Forty 20.5 x 27 cm albumen hand-coloured photographs pasted into 28 x 35 cm laquer album. Each photo has number and short descriptive caption. Front board of album damaged where ivory was pried off. Board coming loose. Front free endpaper detached and chipped. Tissue guards between plates, some detached and folded or chipped. Last three photos detached. Accompanied by one 11.5 cm photograph of woman (Bernard & Co.) mounted on 19 cm card as well as twenty-one 9 x 13.5 cm photos, six with inscriptions on rear. Photos in very fine condition.

These tremendous photographs illustrate Japan during the Meiji Period 1868-1912. During this time period, Japan abandoned its centuries-old isolationism and began a period of industrial growth and Westernization. Prince Meiji (Mutsuhito) encouraged his people to work or study abroad and also invited Westerners to tour his country. During this era, Japanese photography began to blossom. A Greek photographer named Felice Beato went to Japan and started documenting the country's landscapes, villages, and people. When he started to delicately hand colour his black and white albumen prints, the Japanese themselves began to take an interest in his work. Soon there were numerous practitioners of the art of handcolouring albumen prints for tourists. These prints are now eminently collectable. The scenes in this album show tea houses, restaurants, temples, fishermen, rice growers, stores, a lantern maker, toy shop, basket seller, farm workers, and domestic scenes. The richly decorated album, once including ivory in its design, was meant for tourists to fill with various personally chosen commercial photos available for purchase.