Apr 15, 2021 - Sale 2564

Sale 2564 - Lot 281

Price Realized: $ 3,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
(PHOTOGRAPHY.) Image archive of the Bonine family of photographers. 40 mounted photographs, most being cabinet cards or larger, including multiple images on mounts by each of the 3 Bonine brothers, plus one brass nameplate; generally minor wear, only 2 in poor condition, faint musty scent. Vp, circa 1870s-1910s

Additional Details

Three Bonine brothers had substantial careers as photographers. Robert Atkinson Bonine (1836-1912) was a photographer in Altoona, PA for many years. The best known, Elias Atkinson Bonine (1843-1916) went to California in 1876, and is renowned for his Indian photographs taken on expeditions to Arizona through the 1880s. Archibald Franklin Bonine (1846-1907) was a photographer in Lancaster, PA from at least 1884-1892.

Offered here are a large group of photographs by and of the Bonine family, apparently from the family of niece Flora Jane Sener Weiand (1869-1955). They include:

20 promenade cards of Pasadena, CA views on matching mounts by Elias Atkinson Bonine, each personally inscribed on verso with notes such as "Snow on the mountains, from my windmill" and "My apricot orchard," plus another on similar mount of a cactus-strewn farm scene in Arizona (uncaptioned).

Set of 3 portraits on Elias Atkinson Bonine mounts, possibly self-portraits; one is marked "Sacramento Ranch--uncle & prospector."

6 numbered boudoir cards of an 1887 camping excursion in York Furnace, PA by the Algonquin Club of Lancaster by Archibald Franklin Bonine.

Family portrait of the Robert Atkinson Bonine family, along with a double portrait of the same young man captioned "Trick Photography," both on R.A. Bonine mounts, Altoona, PA.

Pair of cabinet card portraits of Ellwood Elias Bonine (1875-1946), another of Mrs. Archibald Bonine, and 5 other mounted photographs, none on Bonine family mounts; and small brass nameplate of E.M. Bonine (relationship unknown).