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

Photographic Views of Sherman’s Campaign, embracing scenes of the occupation of Nashville, the great battles around Chattanooga and Lookout Mountain, the campaign of Atlanta, march to the sea, and the great raid through the Carolinas. [New York: Press of Wynkoop & Hallenbeck], [1866]

FIRST EDITION. George N. Barnard’s Photographic Views of Sherman’s Campaign is, together with Alexander Gardner’s Photographic Sketch Book, one of the two greatest photographic monuments of the Civil War. Its 61 original mounted photographs include some of the most famous images of the war.

$390,000

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

Gardner’s Photographic Sketch Book of the War. Washington, D.C.: Philp and Solomons, [1865-66]

FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE of the most famous photographically illustrated American book of the nineteenth century.

$310,000

Autograph letter signed as President to Adjutant General Lorenzo Thomas [with] American flag bunting from Lincoln’s box at Ford’s Theatre. Washington, Executive Mansion, May 27, 1861

Abraham Lincoln, writing at the outset of the Civil War, recommends that the Army admit three volunteers from the highly divided city of Baltimore. He advises Adjutant General Lorenzo Thomas, “I hate to reject any offered from what is called a Southern State.” [offered with] Bunting from the presidential box at Ford’s Theatre.

two items: $275,000

Monumental 5-part Panorama of Lower Manhattan from the Brooklyn Bridge Tower. New York, 1876

THE GREATEST NEW YORK CITY PANORAMIC PHOTOGRAPH. The images provided a never-before-seen sweeping panorama of lower Manhattan’s landmarks and commercial activity along the East River. 

$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

Portrait of Abraham Lincoln with his son Tad. Washington, February 5, 1865

Perhaps the most delightful of the Lincoln family photographs, this portrait shows an impish Tad leaning on a table as his seemingly bemused father sits on Gardner’s studio chair. Thomas “Tad” Lincoln was the youngest of the Lincoln boys.

$65,000

A collection of images associated with South Carolina physician and plantation owner Sidney Smith. South Carolina, 1845-50

A unique survival. This important collection of largely identified photographs documents the home and family of Dr. Sidney Smith and those he enslaved at Gravel Hill, his South Carolina plantation. The collection includes an extraordinary daguerreotype depicting Dr. Smith, his two daughters, and his brother, posed together with two enslaved African American men. This is one of the earliest known images—if not the very earliest photograph—of an identified plantation owner posing with enslaved African Americans.

$60,000

Ink and wash drawings of Jewish subjects and of musical instruments, Signed by Daguerre. “Dessiné le 12 Novembre 1822 LJM Daguerre.”, 1822

$38,000