(CARTES-DE-VISITE).

Huge European album containing 504 albumen, bromide, and silver print cartes-de-visite by CAMILLE SILVY, DISDERI, CLAUDET, REUTLINGER, and others, comprising portraits in a wide variety of styles, including portraits of celebrities of the French stage, opera singers (including Emile Wangermann), portraits of London socialites, many wonderful vernacular images (with a humorous series of portraits of different people posing with the same birdcage and stuffed bird), portraits of children (including an image of two babies in a huge wicker perambulator), an interesting close-up view of several goldfish in a bowl, occupational studies (with several images of a wily-looking group of cobblers), 13 portraits of English gentlemen and officers taken in Calcutta by BOURNE AND SHEPHERD, HAMPIDGE AND CO., SCHWARTZSCHILD AND CO., and others, with two hand-colored portraits, and much more; many identified in pencil on mount verso, many with the photographer's imprints on mount recto and verso. Thick folio, embossed leather with oval brass plate on front cover, brass clasps (1 missing), all edges gilt. 1860s-1870s (CAMILLE SILVY PORTRAITS) This large and wonderful group of cartes shows a myriad of photographic styles. From Silvy's stylish and stylized portraits of the young women of London society to the homelier vernacular portraits of working people, one is struck by the care taken in composing each image, as well as by the willingness of the photographers to experiment with depth-of-field, perspective, unusual vantage points, and use of imaginative and evocative props. In itself, this album constitutes a fascinating study of the cartes-de-visite phenomenon. Camille Silvy (active between 1857-69) was an enterprising French photographer who operated one of the most popular photographic studios in England. His lavishly decorated studio became a locus for London society and it was considered" de rigeur "for persons of wealth, fame, or rank to sit for him. Silvy distinguished himself by his use of elegant props and backdrops, as well as by his talent for photographing women. His series of carte-de-visite portraits of ladies of London society, entitled "The Beauties of England," won him an international reputation. [SEE ILLUSTRATIONS].