Good morning, I am trying to find out in which archives could be the calotypes made by W. R. Baker (1810-1896) during a trip to Europe, including Switzerland and northern Italy (Lake Maggiore and Como). I would like to use two large calotypes made in Locarno (CH) between 1855-1860. I recognised them in the following book: The Romantic Era: la calotipia in Italia 1845-1860. Reverend Calvert Richard Jones 1804-1877, Reverend George Wilson Bridges 1788-1863, William Robert Baker of Bayfordbury 1810-1896, Alinari 1988, edited by Robert E. Lassam; Michael Gray.
The subtitles mentioned 'location unknown' and 'Private Collection'. In Florence unfortunately Alinari has no information.
I already thank those who will give me some useful information for my research.
Comments
Hello! There is a collection of Baker's calotypes including of Italy in the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum. The museum has a wonderful collection which extends to western photography. See: https://collection.topmuseum.jp/Publish/search?aate=%E3%83%99%E3%82...
Hallo,
thank you very much for the precise and quick indication. There are the two calotypes I was looking for!.
I will contact the museum in Tokyo immediately.
Best regards from Switzerland.
Let me know if you don't get a response as I know one of the curators. Also, Mike Gray is still around and may respond to this post
Dear Mr Pritschard,
after a long and laborious exchange of emails with the Tokyo Museum (paying 21,000 yen), I finally managed to obtain scans of two salted papers of Baker from Locarno for my research.
The problem is that the scanning was not done professionally. Both images are incomplete. For some reason, the corners of the primary support (dark border) of the photograph have been cut off in both photographs, and in two cases the corners of the image itself have also been cropped.
I asked for a normal scan but have not heard back.
I would like to ask your advice. Should I give up and make do with what they sent me, or is there another solution to be found in Tokyo?
Kind regards,
It's looks like they have been scanned with conservation corners in place holding the print on to a matte, instead of removing the print for scanning. I think asking for a rescan of the entire print isn't unreasonable.
Perfect. Thank you. By the way, I can precisely identify some of the locations photographed by Baker that are presented as unknown locations in the museum in Tokyo. I live a few kilometres from those locations in northern Italy (and Switzerland).