Album of Meiji Era Japanese Photos [LATE MEIJI PHOTO ALBUM]. Art - Photography

49 hand-coloured albumen prints each approximately 9.2 x 13cm (or portrait), mounted on thick album card each edged with a decorative washi border, gilt and paint decorated bevelled enamelled covers; the front cover with a bamboo tree and a pair of birds in flight and the back cover a vine with butterflies, 14 x 20cm, renewed black leather spine and tissue guards, some fading and spotting to the images and to the card margins, the covers a little scratched (small chip from the top edge), a handsome album in good condition. A beautiful small album of hand-coloured photographs of Japanese people and scenes in a lacquered cover. An excellent example of the photo albums produced for visitors to Japan in the early Meiji Era. Images include photos of farmers tilling the field, and sowing, harvesting and threshing rice; street sellers peddling hats, vegetables, flowers and other wares; silk spinning and tea picking; a rickshaw puller and a woman being carried in a palanquin. There is also a picture of Japanese monks, and several shots of domestic scenes, including one of a koto player. Landscape views include fine photos of Mt. Fuji and of an avenue of cherry blossoms in flower. The images are after original prints by Felice Beato, Kusakabe Kimbei, Raimund von Stillfried and others.