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Photograph album


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Tibet caught on film and canvas including Dalai Lama enthronement

23 June 2025

Photo albums contain some of the first images of the remote country plus enthronement of the Dalai Lama

Street Life in London book

Early photographs on life in Victorian London to appear at auction

28 January 2025

Street Life in London was one of the first examples of photojournalism, captured by Scottish photographer John Thomson and writer Adolphe Smith in 1877

DD 2671 Mao Quotations (3)

'Unlikely to ever be equalled': Justin Schiller's remarkable collection of Mao's Little Red Books offered for £1m at Firsts Hong Kong

27 November 2024

From the world’s largest collection of the Little Red Book to the first atlas of China made in Europe, London's book dealers are bringing rare pieces of history to Hong Kong

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Ephemera provides treasure trove for a private press fan

08 April 2024

Archive offers glimpse into the golden age of small-scale publishing when tiny print runs were the norm

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Photo collection offers huge mix of eclectic subjects

22 January 2024

A huge collection of black and white, celluloid negatives was described by the Lincoln auction house that offered them as a ‘magnificent, massive, eclectic mix of subjects’.

An album of rare photographs of China

Album with rare photos of China takes £8200 at Flints

10 January 2024

Estimated at £3000-5000, an album containing rare - possibly unique - views in the Treaty Port of Chinkiang (Zhenjiang) was the top lot at an auction in Thatcham, Berkshire.

Florence Nightingale

The ‘final photos’ of Florence Nightingale

18 December 2023

A fascinating personal collection of items relating to Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) that sold in a south London auction included what are among the last photographs ever taken of her.

Victorian travel album

Indian and Egyptian travel photo album takes sensational £135,000

11 December 2023

An impressive result emerged at Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood on December 5 when a travel album titled The Ramblings and Adventures of an Indian Officer was knocked down at £135,000.

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Photos cover imperial visits in the days of the Raj

16 October 2023

The opening two lots of Gorringe’s (25% buyer’s premium) Fine Art & Antiques sale on October 3 were leather-bound albums of photographs from British India.

Circus photos

Pick of the week: Circus photo album puts on performance at Florida sale

04 September 2023

A photo album containing 60 cabinet card photos of late 19th and early 20th century circus acts was among the highlights of an August 27 sale in Sarasota, Florida, conducted by Freedom Auction Company in conjunction with the Circus Historical Society.

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Your photo calling card: the carte de visite craze

24 July 2023

Just as stereoscope images became a Victorian collecting craze, another notable photographic fad of the era was the carte de visite

Sophia Duleep Singh archive

Pick of the week: Fascination for the Indian princess then Suffragette

05 June 2023

As timing goes, the sale date for an album of handwritten letters, photographs and ephemera related to Sophia Duleep Singh (1876-1948) could not have been much better.

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Medal collectors increasingly keen on extras

30 January 2023

In its earliest days flying was frequently lethal, in and out of combat.

2577PV Edit Duke Windsor Southon

Acrimonious royal family split detailed in letters now up at auction

18 January 2023

Not THAT split, but the 1936 abdication of Edward VIII which also caused recriminations, as letters at Catherine Southon's sale show - plus other auctions offer many unpublished photos of Princess Di and paintings said to be by Queen Victoria.

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The £126,000 photos of Darwin’s evolution

14 November 2022

A rediscovered album of 19 cartes de visite portrait photographs documenting Charles Darwin’s changing visage over three decades sold for £126,000.

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Photos of Himalayan heights draw plenty of attention in Canterbury

14 November 2022

Henry Lee Shuttleworth (1882- 1960) worked for many years in the Indian Civil Service.

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Album reveals hidden Tibet and letter unveils polar expedition

04 April 2022

Polar material in a travel and exploration themed sale held on March 2 by Bonhams (27.5/25/20/14.5% buyer’s premium) produced a bid of £24,000 for a letter that Robert Falcon Scott wrote to a friend, Lady Goodrich, about his planned British Antarctic Expedition of 1910.

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Boxer Rebellion in stereo makes 12-times estimate at Chiswick Auctions

21 March 2022

The latest Photographica sale at Chiswick Auctions (25/12% buyer’s premium) included this rare set of 'China Through the Stereoscope'.

Cuddled up with a good read

17 May 2021

A couple of Winston Churchill letters were among the more successful lots in a second selection from a History in Manuscript collection* formed over the last 20 years and offered at Sotheby’s (26/20/13.9% buyer’s premium).

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Pick of the Week: Browning family archive sells in Somerset

14 September 2020

A cache of material related to the influential Victorian poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-61) and her family sold for close to £50,000 at Lawrences of Crewkerne.