Fine Prints and Photography Auction

November 02, 2015

LOT 65

Lot 65

William Notman (1826-1891)

William Notman (1826-1891)
Lot 65 Details
William Notman (1826-1891), Canadian

CANADIAN ALBUM CONTAINING 34 ALBUMEN PRINTS, CIRCA 1866-1867

Impressive Canadian album containing 34 rare albumen photographs featuring remarkable composites and studio tableaux; The whole comprising 24 full plates and 11 smaller views (carte de visites), each photograph mounted on stiff leaves of the album containing one photograph per double-page spread (more for the carte de visite photographs), mounted to the right hand leaf only, some double-spread pages are blank (6 pages); most titled and captioned in sepia pen and ink to the mount, two dated 1867 (Queen’s birthday). Contained in a Royal folio, brown embossed morocco leather hardcover boards with engraved and gilt brass Gothic lettered monogram initials “A. f” mounted on cover; gilt ruled album pages, the cover fitted with brass corners on the front and back upper right corners.


Scenes including:
1) Montreal, and St. Helen’s Island: Arched Top (6.7" x 8.7" — 17 x 22.1 cms.);
2) Montreal, and Victoria Bridge (6.7" x 9.1" — 17.1 x 23 cms.);
3) Notre Dame, Montreal: Arched Top (7.7" x 5.9" — 19.5 x 15 cms.);
4) Protestant Cathedral, Montreal (9.9" x 7.6" — 25.1 x 19.3 cms.);
5) Champ-De.Mars, Montreal and Volunteers (7" x 9.1" — 17.9 x 23.1 cms.);
6) Victoria Skating Rink, Montreal – Sketch of the Interior – Lawford & Nelson
Archts (7" x 9.1" — 17.9 x 23.1 cms.);
7) Ottawa: Arched Top (6.9" x 9.1" — 17.5 x 23.2 cms.);
8) Parliament Buildings, Ottawa – Barracks, Ch. of Notre Dame (6.1" x 9.3" — 15.5 x 23.7 cms.);
9) Parliament Buildings, Ottawa: Arched Top (8.9" x 6.6" — 22.7 x 16.8 cms.);
10) Parliament Buildings, Ottawa, East Wing: Arched Top (6.6" x 9.3" — 16.7 x 23.6 cms.);
11) Parliament Buildings, Ottawa, Queen’s Birthday, 1867 (6.8" x 9.4" — 17.2 x 23.9 cms.);
12) Timber-Slide, Ottawa- 9.1" x 7.1" — 23 x 18 cms.);
13) Chaudière Falls, Ottawa- 7.1" x 8.9" — 18 x 22.6 cms.);
[Five Carte-De-Visite Size Landscape Views]:
14) Top Left: Parliament Buildings, Ottawa, Queen’s Birthday, 1867 - 2.2" x 3.7" — 5.7 x 9.5 cms.);
15) Top Right: Ottawa - 2.2" x 3.7" — 5.7 x 9.5 cms.);
16) Centre: Rideau Falls, Ottawa - 2.2" x 3.7" — 5.7 x 9.5 cms.);
17) Bottom Left: Sparks Street, Ottawa - (Signs on Buildings: ‘Hardware / Thomas Isaac / T. & W. Hunton, Importers of Dry Goods / Ottawa Boot & Shoe Manufactory / (Boot Shaped Sign With ‘Crosby’s’, Etc.) Crosby / the Ottawa Shoe Store’) - 2.2" x 3.7" — 5.7 x 9.5 cms.);
18) Bottom Right: Suspension Bridge, Ottawa - 2.2" x 3.7" — 5.7 x 9.5 cms.);
19) Quebec – [Albumen Photograph of a Painting After C.J. Way] (6.5" x 13.1" — 16.5 x 33.3 cms.);
20) River Near Quebec: Arched Top (9.3" x 7.2" — 23.5 x 18.4 cms.);
21) River Near Quebec: Arched Top– [‘17481’ In the Negative Lower Right (7.4" x 9.3" — 18.8 x 23.5 cms.);
22) Falls of Montmorency, Near Quebec, In Winter (9.9" x 8.1" — 25.1 x 20.6 cms.);
23) Canadian Hunting Scene (Around the Camp Fire, Caribou Hunting, 1866 (7.1" x 9.1" — 18.1 x 23.1 cms.);
24) Canadian Hunting Scene (Game in sight) (7.1" x 9.1" — 18.1 x 23.1 cms.);
25) Canadian Hunting Scene – [With Bear] (4" x 5.4" — 10.25 x 13.6 cms.);
26) Falls of Niagara (5.4" x 7.7" — 13.8 x 19.6 cms.);
27) River Below Niagara (3.4" x 6.5" — 8.6 x 16.5 cms.);
28) River Niagara (3.6" x 6.6" — 9.1 x 16.8 cms.);
[Two Hand-Coloured Albumen Prints, Taken From Painted Originals After Cornelius Krieghoff]:
29) a Horse Pulling a Sled With Three Standing Men (2.3" x 3.5" — 5.8 x 8.9 cms.);
30) Two Horses Pulling Two Three-Man Sleds (2.1" x 3.4" — 5.3 x 8.7 cms.);
[Two Hand-Coloured Albumen Prints, Taken From Painted Originals After Cornelius Krieghoff]:
31) a Horse With a Man on Sled, Carrying a Large Block of Ice(?) (2.3" x 3.5" — 5.8 x 8.9 cms.);
32) Three Standing Men on Horse-Drawn Sled Fleeing the Toll, Passing a Man Leaning on a Crutch, and a Barking Dog (2.3" x 3.5" — 5.8 x 8.9 cms.);
[Two Hand-Coloured Albumen Prints, Taken From Painted Originals After Cornelius Krieghoff]:
33) Two Horses In Single File Pulling Three People on a Sled (2.4" x 3.7" — 6 x 9.5 cms.);
34) An Indian Carrying a Canoe Above His Head, Portaging the Steep Side of a River (2.4" x 3.3" — 6 x 8.5 cms.

Spine missing, front cover board detached.
Album overall 14.6" x 13" — 37.2 x 33 cm.

Estimate $8,000-$12,000

Realised: $9,600
Price Includes Buyer's Premium ?

Lot Report

Additional Images
William Notman (1826-1891)
  • William Notman (1826-1891)
  • William Notman (1826-1891)
  • William Notman (1826-1891)
  • William Notman (1826-1891)
  • William Notman (1826-1891)
  • William Notman (1826-1891)
  • William Notman (1826-1891)
  • William Notman (1826-1891)
  • William Notman (1826-1891)
  • William Notman (1826-1891)
  • William Notman (1826-1891)
  • William Notman (1826-1891)
  • William Notman (1826-1891)
  • William Notman (1826-1891)
  • William Notman (1826-1891)
  • William Notman (1826-1891)
  • William Notman (1826-1891)
  • William Notman (1826-1891)
  • William Notman (1826-1891)
  • William Notman (1826-1891)
  • William Notman (1826-1891)
  • William Notman (1826-1891)
  • William Notman (1826-1891)
  • William Notman (1826-1891)
  • William Notman (1826-1891)
  • William Notman (1826-1891)
  • William Notman (1826-1891)
Provenance:

Ex. Libris monogram initials “A” lower case “F”;
Private Collection, Wellington, New Zealand whose father had purchased it from an antiquarian bookseller;
From whom purchased by the present Private Collection, New Zealand, circa 1970’s

Literature:

Edward Weston, “Outdoor Photographs Taken Indoors”, The Philadelphia Photographer, Vol. III, No. 29, May, 1866;
“’Men of the North’: Canadian Sporting”, pgs. 65-66

Note:

The highlight of this album being the three “Canadian Hunting” scenes (nos. 23, 24 and 25). Also of note are amazing topographic views: bird’s eye views of Montreal. Montreal being the largest city in Canada, the growth of the population had almost doubled by the 1860’s and depicts the engineering feat of 19th century Canada - the Victoria Bridge (nos. 1 and 2). Notman’s first commission was the documentation of the construction of the bridge across the St. Lawrence River. With vistas of Ottawa and its river that document the brisk logging industry of mid-19th century Canada despite the relatively small numbers of residential homes and businesses erected in the capital by the time of Confederation (no. 7 and no. 12). In the “River near Quebec,” a spectator sits by the rapids (no. 20). As well: historic and picturesque views of the Parliament Buildings, the visually striking recently erected complex of buildings in the Gothic Revival Style named as home of the Federal Government of Canada, one with a massive crowd celebrating the Queen’s Birthday in 1867 (nos. 8, 9, 10, 11, and 14). This lot offers amazing spectacles including: Falls of Niagara and the Niagara River (nos. 26, 27, 28), Rideau Falls (no.16), Chaudiere Falls (no. 13), and the Falls of Montmorency in winter (with a lone spectator standing at its summit) (no. 22). This album also offers handcoloured albumen prints after important 19th Century Canadian artists: Cornelius Krieghoff and Charles Jones Way (nos. 19, 29-34).

William Notman arrived in Canada from Scotland in 1856. He quickly established himself as Montreal’s most prominent photographer. Notman’s very successful photographic career spanned thirty-five years during which time he built the largest business in North America with studios in Canada, at several colleges and in the United States.

This Notman album dating from 1866-1867 demonstrates his great innovative talents with picturesque scenes, historic views and breathtaking composites that emphasize his unparalleled compositional sense, innovative photographic methods and his promotional skills. He developed complex composite pictures of large groups of people and innovative techniques for creating winter scenes in his studio hallmarked by the three incredible composite images of “Canadian Hunting” (photographs no. 23, 24, and 25) being among his most challenging and most highly praised studio tableaux.

The first of three sessions to create the hunt scenes (nos. 23, 24 and 25) represented in this album, was held at the Notman Studio in Montreal in 1866. The incredible project began with the characters identified as follows:
“The snow was piled high as Colonel William Rhodes and his hunting party arrived at their destination on a cold January day in 1866 as they headed to Notman’s Montreal photographic studio to set up the ‘photo-shoot’ for the Hunting scenes. Colonel Rhodes and his party carried all the props one would for a hunting trip: a large tent, numerous pairs of snowshoes, cooking pans, blankets, a rifle, snares, axes, caribou heads, field glasses, rope, boulders, backpacks, and clothing, as well as trees, bushes, branches, underbrush and cut wood, fur skins, and bushels of salt to act as artificial snow and magnesium to create the effect of campfire.

Notman sent a set of his “Canadian Hunt series” to Edward Wilson who reviewed them at length in “The Philadelphia Photographer” in May,1866. Notman gave readers an accurate, first hand account of the story being told in the series as he assisted Wilson with descriptions of each image for the journal. Wilson marvels at the realism conveyed: “Never have we been so much impressed with its truthfulness, as while looking at the series of pictures ... illustrative of “Caribou Hunting in Canada”... Each one tells a story, and the whole series combined give a truthful account of the sports, pleasures, and perils, of a Caribou hunt in snowy Canada.” Wilson comments further on the camping scene at night, which Notman called “The Camp Fire,” (no. 23): “This is a picture which could not have been made a year ago. After an exciting day, our heroes have seated themselves upon the ground to tell the adventures of the day’s chase. The pipe is in nearly every mouth and a happy, contented-looking group are they”. To create this naturalistic studio scene, replete with a campfire and caribou, Notman used a brilliant device not used previously- burning magnesium to create the effects of the glowing campfire. Wilson summarizes, “That it is night, no one can doubt when looking at the picture. The only light is from the fire in their mist, and this fire is magnesium light. This is a wider field than has before been attempted by photography, and is a decided success.”

CONDITION DETAILS

For condition information please contact the specialist.

LOT 65
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About Condition Ratings

  • 5 Stars: Excellent - No discernable damage, flaws or imperfections
  • 4 Stars: Very Good - Minor flaws or imperfections visible only under close inspection using specialised instruments or black light
  • 3 Stars: Good - Minor flaws visible upon inspection under standard lighting
  • 2 Stars: Fair - Exhibits flaws or damage that may draw the eye under standard lighting
  • 1 Star: Poor - Flaws or damage immediately apparent under standard lighting (examples: missing components, rips, broken glass, damaged surfaces, etc.)

Note: Condition ratings and condition details are the subjective opinions of our specialists and should be used as a guide only. Waddington’s uses due care when preparing condition details, however, our staff are not professional restorers or conservators. Condition details and reports are not warranties and each lot is sold “as is” in accordance with the buyer’s terms and conditions of sale. In all cases the prospective purchaser is responsible for inspecting the property themselves prior to placing a bid.