1891 New York State Capitol at Albany Photo Viewbook by Albertype Co. 19 Photos

Description

DESCRIPTION
This auction is for a rare 1891 original photo viewbook “The Capitol At Albany NY”. It contains 41 pages with 19 full page black and white photographs. This viewbook measures 7 1/2” x 9 1/2” and has a cloth cover hand bound with red twine.
There is no date listed on this viewbook but I used a few clues to get a good estimate of its date. We start with the history of The Albertype Company:
The Albertype Company was founded by Adolph and Herman L. Wittemann in 1890 as a postcard and viewbook publishing company. The Brooklyn-based company began to use what were then ‘new technologies’ such as the albertype to photomechanically reproduce images. An Albertype is a picture printed from a type of gelatin coated plate produced by means of a photographic negative. The Albertype Company both produced their own photographs from Adolph Wittemann as well as reproduced photographic images produced by other companies or individual photographers. Amassing photographic negatives of towns and cities across the United States, the Albertype Company produced over twenty-five thousand collotypes from 1890 to 1952.
We know the viewbook cannot be before 1890. In the introduction, it mentions the cost of the Capitol Building as of October 1, 1988. The building was completed in 1899, so we know the date is between 1890 and 1899.
In the Library of Congress I found a viewbook entitled “
Albany and the New York State Capitol from original negatives by the Albertype co. 1891”.
It contained the exact images found in this viewbook.
Condition of Viewbook:
I think this is an exceptional copy, especially in light of the fact it is nearly 130 years old. It is tightly bound, in fact, so tight that I could not open it enough to scan the pages. I had to hold it open and take photographs. It is a clean copy – no writing or dog eared pages. The pages are heavy paper and just slightly yellowed, as you can see from the photographs. The only flaw worth mentioning is there is some foxing on the 1st and last page of this viewbook.
This is a very rare viewbook. I have searched the internet and the major auction sites and have not found this viewbook. It is truly one of a kind.
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