Lima; Views of Lima

Photographer: Eugenio Courret (1841-1900?). Views of Lima and portraits of indigenous people and well-dressed women of Lima. Late 1870s/1880s. 86 vintage albumen prints. Various sizes: portraits between 9 x 5,5 cm and 14 x 10 cm; landscapes and views circa 19 x 25 cm. Mounted to gilt-edged album boards (some foxing, some soiling at beginning and end of album), bound in red moroccan album (edges slightly rubbed) with gilt-stamped title Recuerdos del Perú, ornaments and photographer's name E. Courret Fot. Lima on front cover and brass corner reinforcement in lower right corners.

This comprehensive album shows the early boomtown of Lima with its ornate facades, populated streets, as well as the harbor district with train station and piers, showing circa 40 ships in the harbor, illustrating the city's role as the center of worldwide guano export for fertilizer and the production of gunpowder. In the second half of the 19th century Hamburg was one of the greatest transit points for the importation of guano. The photographer Eugenio Courret came to Lima from France in 1860. In 1863 he founded the "Photo Central" studio with his brother Aquiles and in 1887 he founded a studio with Adolphe Dubreuil. In the 1890s Courret returned to France. – Some prints with fading/spots, otherwise most in good condition and several with strong contrasts.