?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
FREDERICK DEBOURG RICHARDS (1822-1903) Group of 11 early views of public and residential buildings in Philadelphia. Salted paper prints, the images measuring 8 1/4x6 1/4 inches (21x15.9 cm.), and slightly smaller, and the reverse, all but three sheets slightly larger. Circa 1855-60
The subjects include: Chestnut Street above 9th Street, Markoe House, April 1860 * Arcade Hotel, north side of Chestnut Street, west of 6th Street, January 1858 * St. Paul's Church, east side of 3rd Street, opposite Willing's Alley, April 1859 * Bell Tavern, west side of 8th Street, north of Sansome Street (a primitive building), demolished May 1858 * Lemon Hill, Fairmount Park, circa 1855 * Banks and Custom House, south side of Chestnut Street, between 4th and 5th Streets, circa 1858 * Dr. Staughton's or Sansom, Street Baptist Church, south side of Sansom Street, east of 9th Street, March 1858 * Mercantile Library, southeast corner of 5th and Library Streets, December 1858 * First U.S. mint building, the "Old Mint," 37-39 7th Street, July 1854 * Merchant's Exchange Building, circa 1855-60
Provenance: The Estate of Richard T. Rosenthal, Philadelphia
Richards is known today as a landscape painter and photographer, though not a lot is known about his early training. He was settled in Philadelphia by 1848, and opened a daguerreotype studio at 144 1/2 Chestnut Street. He operated this space until 1855, and sold photographs to other well-known local artists. His documentation of the city begn around 1853 and was apparently commissioned by Philadelphia antiquarian Charles A. Poulson. The photographs were compiled by him into eleven scrapbooks, about 120 of which were by Richards. A wood engraving of one of three photographs Richards took of President-elect Abraham Lincoln raising the flag in front of Independence Hall was on the cover of Harper's Weekly on March 9, 1861. After 1865 his interest in photography appears to have diminished.
