American Beauty Personified as the Nine Muses, 1869

Heading:
Author: Fagnani, Joseph and Charles Astor Bristed
Title: American Beauty Personified as the Nine Muses
Place Published: Boston
Publisher:A.A. Childs & Co.
Date Published: [1869]
Description:

30 pp. Illustrated with 10 mounted albumen photographs of paintings. 18x15.5 cm. (7x6"), purple cloth pictorially stamped in gilt.

The book was meant to accompany the exhibition of paintings of the "Nine Muses" in 1869 in new York by Italian painter Joseph Fagnani, who used American models to stress the American, over the European, ideal of beauty. The paintings depicted in the book are now held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Each sitter identified by pasted-in newsprint captions, likely from a previous owner. Reportedly one of 50 copies produced. An early and significant example of a photographically illustrated book.
Condition Report: Light wear to covers; some internal toning and warping to pages with pasted-in plates, some soiling to pages; overall very good.