USUI SHUZABURO (active circa 1877 1894) Rare early album by

Sale 2240 - Lot 1

Price Realized: $ 1,920

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000

USUI, SHUZABURO (active circa 1877-1894)
Rare, early album by Usui containing 35 beautifully hand-colored photographs, including pastoral landscapes and glorious geishas. Hand-colored mounted albumen prints, sizes ranging from approximately 6x4 to 8x10 inches (15.2x10.2 to 20.3x25.4 cm.), and the reverse, only 8 pages mounted recto/verso and 2 pages with 2 prints each; some with the original tissue guards; many with an inventory number or a caption in English, in pencil, on the mount and/or an inventory number, caption or Japanese characters in the negative. Oblong folio, 1/2 leather over cloth with a mounted gilt-lettered leather label, backstrip partially perished and very worn; with light, scattered internal foxing. 1879-1881

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Additional Details

The initials that appear on the cover of this album, "W.B.B.," refer to William Baily, an officer on the U.S.S. Monocracy, which toured Asia from 1879 to 1881 (as inscribed, in pencil, on the front pastedown). The album descended through his family and was purchased by the current owner from his heir, John Crain (whose card also appears on the front pastedown), in 1995.