An early album of salt prints by Rev George Bridges is being offered in an online auction by Sotheby's from 3-17 November 2020. Bridges was a contemporary of Talbot and these show some of the first Calotypes of Greece, Turkey and Italy. It is estimated at £20,000-30,000.
The lot description reads:
BRIDGES, GEORGE WILSON
Album of photographs titled 'Talbotype album Mediterranean', 1846-48
oblong 4to (208 x 275mm.), 24 SALTED PAPER PRINTS (each 150 x 208mm., or the reverse), each mounted by the corners without adhesive through slits in pale blue laid paper (no visible watermarks), recto only, each with contemporary manuscript captions in pencil and/or ink, one of Athens dated 1848, one of Pompeii dated 1847, contemporary black half morocco gilt, green cloth boards, upper cover with black morocco gilt label, flat spine gilt, patterned endpapers in green, purple and gold, preserved in a modern green cloth folding box, cloth boards cockled and dampstained, binding slightly rubbed
AN IMPORTANT ALBUM OF PIONEERING TOPOGRAPHICAL PHOTOGRAPHS WITH SOME OF THE FIRST CALOTYPES OF GREECE, ITALY AND TURKEY, comprising views of Athens (15), Rome, Naples, Pompeii (3), Sicily (Messina, Mount Etna, and Palermo), and Constantinople.
George Wilson Bridges (1788-1863) was the first photographer to use William Henry Fox Talbot's "Talbotype" (calotype) paper photographic process in Greece and Constantinople, and was one of the earliest calotype photographers in Italy. Bridges was an English clergyman who had lived in Jamaica and Canada and on his return to England came to know William Henry Fox Talbot. In December 1845 Bridges was instructed in the art of the calotype photographic process by Nicolaas Henneman (valet and assistant to Talbot), at Talbot's home of Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire. In March 1846 Bridges embarked on what was to be a seven-year tour of the Mediterranean, joining two other calotype pioneers, Calvert Jones and Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot in Malta. He then set out and travelled to Sicily, Italy, Greece, and the Holy Land, and during his travels he also visited Constantinople. Although Bridges produced around 1,700 calotype negatives during this seven year tour his photographs are rare.
PROVENANCE:
Unknown owner, "Malta, Februari, 1849" (ink inscription on verso of preliminary blank, with the original owner's name inked-out); in the 1850s this album was gifted to a friend in whose family this album was preserved until 2012 when acquired by the present owner
Details are here: https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2020/travel-atlases-maps-natural-history/bridges-album-of-talbotypes-photographs-of-athens
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