Early views of life in 19th century Japan include this scene of female musicians
This Saturday’s collectables auction features one of the most captivating picture albums we have seen. Compiled in the latter decades of the 19th century, it brings the long journey to the Far East to life, and contains some truly spellbinding images.
The album contains seventy-four albumen prints of Europe, Asia and Japan, placed in the order that a traveller would encounter the cities. The journey begins in Amsterdam before moving to Marseille, Port Said, Singapore, Hong Kong and finally Japan. Notable scenes include Happy Valley racetrack in Hong Kong, plus street views of Yokohama Town and Kobe.
An overturned crate, hastily stacked containers and conversing locals make for a vivid and natural Yokohama street scene
Possibly even more beguiling are the several posed views of ordinary people; these include a dancing party, singing girls, a dining room scene at a meal time and washer-women - all simply going about their daily lives.
Incredibly, Japan had been a closed country for hundreds of years. Existing in almost complete self-imposed isolation from the rest of the world, the nation had retained what was essentuially a feudal-based, mediaeval society long after the west had transformed itself into industrial economies. If you were ever curious as to how daily life in fifteenth century Britain would appear if photography had been invented three hundred years prior, then study this album’s views of a wooden clog emporium and porcelain shop, or those of the farm workers - the similarities would be uncanny.
Life had continued largely unchanged for centuries in Japan until the country began to open up
to the world in the 1850s, just a few short years before these photographs were taken
The photographs themselves are technically adept and are well composed whether the scenes are posed or natural, and each image seems to reveal more each time it is viewed, making the book a true window into the past.
The album is lot 820 in our Antique & Vintage Collectables sale this Saturday 9th October.
View the catalogue listing here: