LONDON - S. GUITERMAN & CO.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Catalogue of photographic views. An exceptional display catalogue of large-format albumen photos. Numerous Victorian London locations are shown, populated with smartly dressed pedestrians, horse-drawn carriages, and smoky steamboats going about their daily business. The album was produced by Guiterman and Co., a wholesaler for importing photographic paper and cameras, printed textiles, steam toy models, and other technological devices. Guiterman and Co. likely made this volume to allow customers to create their own selection of photographs. Several images are annotated with their dimensions and the other sizes in which they were available. The images themselves were copyrighted, as is clearly stated at the front of the volume. That such services were popular is evidenced in the photographs themselves, which show multiple "photographic publishers".The particularities of Victorian city living abound in the photographs. Horse-drawn omnibuses with advertisements on their sides are present in many images, each with a top-hatted conductor on the rear staircase. Flower-sellers line the streets of Holborn, and human billboards parade down Regent Street. Several buildings, including Westminster Abbey, are darkened with soot from coal fires. Tower Bridge is shown in its early stages of being built. In King William Street, two small boys appear to be in the process of robbing a parcel van. Details from the photographs date them to around 1891. An image showing the Bank of England includ

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