Early Photography of China Collection: A highly important collection in development.. Various places, 1850s-1930s

The most valuable collection of early China photography in private hands, the Early Photography of China Collection includes the greatest masterworks of China photography by the foremost photographers working in China in the nineteenth century and the first quarter of the 20th century. The collection has been assembled over the course of many years, and we continue to expand and refine it as worthy photographs and archives become available. This collection, unrivaled in quality and extent in private hands, provides a unique opportunity to own one of the greatest collections of Chinese photography extant. We are eager to acquire important China photographs, from individual objects to albums and collections. We invite you to contact us.

Collection in development

Photographs Showing Landscapes, Geological and other Features, of Portions of the Western Territory of the United States, obtained in connection with geographical and geological explorations and surveys west of the 100th meridian (seasons of 1871, 1872 and 1873).. Washington: War Department Corps of Engineers, 1874-75

This rare collection of 50 photographs is a monument of photography of the American West. “It is the individual nature of O’Sullivan’s production that makes him of such artistic importance today. Indeed, of all the photographers who worked on the great western surveys of this era, O’Sullivan remains the most admired, studied, and debated. It is to him, more than any of his peers, that contemporary photographers and historians first turn for inspiration and intellectual challenge” (Keith Davis, Timothy H. O’Sullivan: The King Survey Photographs, 9).

$680,000

Magnificent Album of Mammoth Photographs of the American West, with other subjects. various, ca. 1865-1880s

This magnificent American West photograph album contains an astounding 21 mammoth photographs by leading photographers including Carleton Watkins, Charles R. Savage, and Isaiah West Taber, as well as other important photographs.

$350,000

The Great West Illustrated in a series of photographic views across the continent, taken along the line of the Union Pacific Railroad, west from Omaha, Nebraska. New York: [by D. H. Prime] Published by Authority of the Union Pacific Railroad Company, 1869

First edition. One of the monuments of American photography, and Russell’s masterpiece, The Great West documents the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad and the land through which it ran. The 50 splendid large format albumen photographs depict scenes along the railroad, which ran from Omaha, through Wyoming and Utah, and ended in Sacramento.

$350,000

Large Format Camera from Mathew Brady’s Studio. New York, c. 1850s

A major relic of photographic history, this camera was owned by Mathew Brady during his years as the leading figure in American photography. Brady was the preeminent American portrait photographer of his day. He gained his greatest fame with his studio’s documentation of the events and figures of the Civil War. This camera’s association with Brady and his studio, which produced hundreds of iconic portraits and thousands of Civil War photographs, makes it an important historical artifact.

$250,000

Ambrotype Portrait of John D. Rockefeller. Cleveland, Ohio: Wiliam C. North, c. 1857-1858

This famous portrait of John D. Rockefeller at age 18 is the earliest known photograph of the greatest titan of American business and industry.

$150,000

An extraordinary collection of photographs of Central Park by its first official photographer. New York, 1862

Pioneering photographs of Central Park. One of the earliest photographers to work in New York

$135,000

Mammoth Plate Portrait of Abraham Lincoln. Washington, November 8, 1863

A classic mammoth portrait of Abraham Lincoln, showing the President just days before he delivered the Gettysburg Address.

$95,000

An extraordinary collection of 26 photographic portraits of leading photographers. Various processes, 1850s-1890s

This superb collection of photographs of photographers documents the spread of photography from its inventor Daguerre through the art’s earliest practitioners in the United States and ultimately to the great photographers of the Civil War and the American West.

$75,000

Photographs of the Holy Land comprising the following volumes: [I:] Sinai and Palestine; [II:] Lower Egypt, Thebes, and the Pyramids; [III:] Upper Egypt and Ethiopia.. London, Glasgow, and Edinburgh: William MacKenzie, [1862]

A handsome set of Frith’s photographs. This edition’s gold-toned photographs are preferred over the earlier editions for their “stronger quality” (Gernsheim).

$55,000