AntiquarianAuctions is offering a copy of Samuel Palmer Chapman's Stolen Minutes with the Muses, printed for private circulation, in 1877. The book is illustrated with a tipped-in albumen portrait of the author by his son. What makes this book of particular interest, other than the fact only three other copies have been traced, is that Samual Chapman was a professional phootgrapher in Swansea from 1860 and his son, Henry Alfred Chapman, also joined the business.
The book includes a poem titled Photography, an epigram ‘Sent to a Young Lady with my Carte [i.e. cdv], which she had requested to have' and an advertisement in which the author runs down the portrait work of an unnamed photographic rival whilst praising the work of ‘Chapman and Co.’ who ‘felt they well could depend / That merit would meet his reward in the end'.
Samuel Palmer CHAPMAN (1809-1895, poet & photographer). Stolen Minutes with the Muses. Poems. [No place, but Swansea, or Bristol?]: ‘Printed for Private Circulation’, 1877. Octavo. Pp. [iii-]iv-xviii; [1-]4-266 + a small format errata slip facing p. [3]. Mounted photographic portrait frontispiece of the author by his son, Henry Alfred Chapman.
Provenance: author’s presentation copy given to a relative (the ‘ghost’ of the inscription on the removed free endpaper can be read [in part] on the back of the frontispiece ‘Presented by the Author to his / ….. Chapman…/ … / … 1877’).
It is estimated at $250-350, with a reserve at $100.
Details: https://antiquarianauctions.com/bids/stolen-minutes-with-the-muses-poems
