WILLIAMSON HenryMareMagnum
YANGTZE RIVER PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTIONBiblio.com
A COLLECTION OF NINETEEN EARLY PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE YANGTZE ICHANG SHIN TAU THE
41051501China n.d. ca 1900.A group of nineteen sepia-toned original photographs each about 15.5 x 11 cm. many with captions or titles in ink some have corner numbers in the negative all very clean bright clear strong images. VERY RARE SET ! . . . AN EARLY COLLECTION OF SEPIA-TONED ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS . . . SHOWING THE CHIANG-JIANG YANGTSE RIVER & ENVIRONS . . This is a lovely early collection of genuine and original photographs of the Yangtze River and the gorges. . The English speaking foreigner who took these photographs put titles and captions on many. It begins with a voyage up the Yangtze River with the first date on December 16 1900 and continuing photographs through December 19 23-25th. . Each photo is mounted on a card likely extracted from an old photo album some cards have two images one on each side. . Captions are: 1. 2 Photos: "December 16th S.S. Kiang Ho arrived at Ichang arrived Ichang December 19th." and the verso: "H.M.S. Kinsha at Ichang." The 2nd image looks like a postcard or something other than a matching glossy photo the size is 14 x 8 cm. with hand written caption. . 2. 2 Photo views of "Shin Tan" anchorage & rapids . 3. 2 Photos: "December 24th Tung Ding Gorge" & "Christmas Day" 1900 "Shin Tan rapids." . 4. 1 Photo: "UP THE YANGTSE' . 5. 2 Photos: "THE FIRST GORGE" with '664' hand written on the negative. And verso blank no caption shows rocky mountain shore line. . 6. 2 Photos: "December 23rd the Padunzai Rapid" shows several junks & boats at anchorage with people looking on. Verso shows "December 23 rd" other small vessels and boat haulers along the shore. This second photo has a touch of fading at the center upper portion could be sunlight over exposure balance no issues. . 7. 2 Photos: "Tung Ding Rapid" shows river going large vessel with oars. Verso shows mountainous shore line with river junk. . 8. 2 Photos: No captions on either. First shows the river with three boats and steep shore line mountains. Verso shows large rock formation on diagonal entering the river. . 9. 2 Photos: First no caption but has hand written negative number '574' showing a tall pagoda on diagonal rock formation entering the river "Pa Ling" lightly written in lower right pencil. Verso shows river at low tide and a tiny river boat lower right corner pencil "Kwei Fu Gorge." . 10. 2 Photos: "Treking up Shin Tan." A dramatic view of two river vessels under sail both attached with long ropes and teams of coolies hauling the boats up against the stream. Verso pencil in lower right corner: " Isubau Gorge." H.M.S. Kinsha at Ichang a lovely steam paddle wheeler. First gorge Up the Yangtze trekking up Shin Tau Shin Tau Rapid Tung Ling Rapid & Gorge Padunzai Rapid &c. . SIZE Each photo is 15.4 x 10.8 cm. varying to about 15 x 11 cm. and slight other variant sizes similar to above. . Board sizes vary even though the photos are about standard size. Ranging from largest: 25.2 x 20.8 cm. smallest: 19.3 x 26.4 cm. . Color photos are posted to our website. . CONDITION: These are original glossy photographs each gently laid down some edges not fastened firmly a couple of loose or folds on edges. All clean vivid good focus no obvious fading a couple of the usual and typical less than perfect 'development' spots. By and large an excellent group of photographs developed most likely in China a souvenir of a foreign person's trip 1900down the river. Far and above the average photograph quality of this early period. . RARITY: Original early dated photos of the Yangtze river are RARE and seldom found during this period. Even rarer are photographs with captions and dates. Nicely done fascinating work. . . unknown
