£14,000
Annan (Thomas) Glasgow City Improvement Trust. Photographs of Old Closes, Streets, &c., taken 1868-1877.
Circa-1878, forty mounted carbon prints, printed title and contents leaf, fully bound in green Morocco by R. Nelson & Son, the upper cover gilt-titled "Old Glasgow" beneath the city coat of arms, watered silk doublures, large folio, measuring approx. 53cm x 43cm, with Glasgow Municipal Library bookplate dated 1890
Note: In 1866, the Glasgow City Improvement Act was passed, putting into effect a plan of slum clearance that razed much of the "old" city. Thomas Annan was commissioned to record the condemned closes and wynds, in one of the earliest instances of documentary photography being used to illustrate the housing conditions of the urban poor. As such, his work serves both as a milestone in the development of the medium, and as the defining representation of the vanished architecture of historic Glasgow.
Annan's photographs were published over three editions: 31 albumen prints of images taken between 1867 and 1871; carbon prints, expanded to 40 views, taken up to 1877; and photogravures, with photographs taken up to 1899. It is the second edition to which the copy here offered belongs. The prior albumen prints were prone to fading and discolouration, hence Annan's adoption of the more resilient carbon format, the patents rights to which he had only recently acquired from Joseph Swan, for his second edition. This new method allowed Annan also to manipulate the tonal scale to a much greater extent, heightening the dramatic effect of his already compelling images.
See Lyon & Turnbull, Rare Books, Maps, Manuscripts & Photographs, 3rd September 2008, lot 221.
Wear to Morocco along edges, at hinges and to head and foot of spine, with some minor losses. Some finger marks and general discolouration to margins, though images themselves are largely unaffected. Plate 7 is somewhat detached from tape at hinge. Possible printing flaws to plate 9, giving a lightly pitted appearance. Plates 11, 18 and 22 with discoloured (foxed?) areas, always appearing in the sky. Plate 39 with a few small dark marks (more severe to margin). A very, very slight warp in the pages. Glasgow Municipal Library ink stamp appears throughout. Endpapers with variable discolouration, generally limited to edges.
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