Yamabe Photo Price List
SOLD October 2010 |
Vintage albumen print in octagonal format, a hand-colored photo-composite of eight Japanese images and wood-grained box, mounted as cover on a folding octagonal "Price List of the [...] Yamabe Photo Co. / No. 12, Bund, Yokohama." Circa 1890. Print size 4.25 x 4 inches (11x10 cm).
A unique and attractive example of Japanese photo-advertising.
Card in excellent condition. Mounted albumen print has good tones and color, some bumping around edges.
The text of price list is entirely in English, indicating that it was probably directed at visiting foreigners: "Price List of the Leading Photographers / The Yamabe Photo Co., No. 12, Bund, Yokohama / Only Strictly First Class Work Done at Our Gallery / We are the only firm making Bas Reliefs, Iridiums & Carbonettes in Japan." The interior offers "Prices of Portraits" in Cabinet, Cartes de Visite, "Paris Panels" and "10x12" format, as well as "Views...", colored and uncolored, and "Albums, Album Covers in Cherry Lacquer, Frames &c., in great Variety."
This photograph comes from a group of travel albums descending from the family of Charles Goddard Weld (1857-1911) and believed to be Weld's personal albums, as several bear his bookplate. Weld, a Boston-area physician, traveled to the East at the end of the 19th century and had important connections to Asian art as well as to the photographer Edward Curtis. He donated a collection of over 100 original Curtis images to the Peabody Essex Museum of Salem, Massachusetts and an important collection of Asian art to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. These photographs were likely gathered by Weld during his travels in the East.
Below: Book plate from one of Weld's travel albums:
