Walter Scott, Marmion, Thomas Annan Photos 1stEd. 1866
"Marmion, a Tale of Flodden Field", by Sir Walter Scott (1717-1832), with 15 original albumen silver prints by Thomas Annan (1829-1887), published by A.W. Bennett, London in 1866.[Reference: Gernsheim Early Photography Collection, 323]
Provenance:
The book is from the private collection of Ashby Bland Crowder. His ex-libris [private book plate] - the crest of arms of Ashby Bland Crowder inside front cover.
Ashby Bland Crowder, Richmond, VA [1941-2019], Professor of English, American Literature, and the Humanities. He was a respected scholar on Victorian literature, published books on Browning, novelist William Humphrey, and poet Seamus Heaney. His edition of the poetry of John Crowe Ransom is scheduled for publication in 2019. He also contributed to many scholarly journals.
"Mr Alfred W Bennett stands foremost among the London publishers as a producer of beautiful Christmas books illustrated by photography. He chooses for illustration books that are worth having and keeping, and that admit of the best and most legitimate sort of sun-painting for adornment of the text. Printing his text and binding it with luxurious good taste, he enriches it with so liberal a supply of mounted photographs of the best quality, that the pictures alone are almost if not altogether worth the price of the book they illustrate...
Mr. Bennett's other photographic book is a gay and luxurious edition of Scott's "Marmion", illustrated with smaller photographic views by Mr. Thomas Annan, of Norham, Warkworth, Bamborough, Crichtoun, and Bothwell Castles, Holyrood Palace, Tantallon Hold, Durham Cathedral, Lindisfarne Priory, and Whitby and Dunfermline Abbeys, Linlithgow Palace, and Twizel Bridge; a photograph of Scott's monument at Edinburgh, serving as frontispiece.
The book is richly bound in gold and scarlet, has initial letters to each canto illustrated in woodcut, and is as dainty an edition of Marmion as any lady can desire. Its images of the scenery that lay in Scott's own mind as that of the poem suggest the right background of local colour to the fancy of the reader."[ The Examiner, No. 3017, 25 November 1865, p. 746.]
Thomas Annan (1829-1887) was a Scottish photographer, notable for being the first to record the bad housing conditions of the poor.After his initial apprenticeship as a lithographic writer and engraver at the Fife Herald in Cupar, he moved to Glasgow in 1849 and worked as a lithographer and engraver for Joseph Swan until 1855. He set up business with George Berwick at 40 Woodlands Road, Glasgow, listing in the 1855 - 56 Glasgow post office directory as calotypists, practitioners of this early form of photography. In 1855, he photographed the ship RMS Persia, under construction on the Clyde, which was probably a commission by engineer, Robert Napier. This photograph was part of a group of images sent to the Photographic Exhibition in connection with the British Association.
After dissolving his previous partnership, he established himself in a photographic studio at 116 Sauchiehall Street during 1857. In 1859, the business moved to 200 Hope Street and he was also able to establish a printing works in Hamilton in 1863. First interested largely in architectural photography and then portraits, as well as photographing artworks and maps, in 1866 Annan photographed slum areas of the city. These images were used by Glasgow City Improvement Trust to document the overcrowded, unhygienic conditions ahead of extensive redevelopments. It was this series of photographs, created between 1868 and 1871, entitled "Old Closes and Streets of Glasgow", that ensured his prosperity.
In 1869, Annan purchased the contents of Rock House, which belonged to David Octavius Hill, which included many of Hill's photographs and negatives. These were eventually exhibited by Thomas' son, James Craig Annan, and reproduced in photogravure in Alfred Stieglitz's journal "Camera Work".
In 2017, the Getty Museum curated an exhibition entitled "Thomas Annan: Photographer of Glasgow", the first to survey his career and legacy as photographer and printer.
US: Priority (c.2-4 days) --------- $18.50
Canada: Express (c.5-7 days) ------ $49.50
World: Express (c.5-10 days) ------ $67.50
Condition Report: Embossed hard boards, original publisher’s scarlet cloth with gold decorations [some wear and spine repairs: see photos]; 6.1/2" x 8" [20cm x 16.5cm]; nice ex-libris [private book plate] - the crest of arms of Ashby Bland Crowder inside front cover, front endpaper is missing, 206 pages, contains 15 original photographic plates by Scotland's pre-eminent photographer Thomas Annan, as well as smaller illustrations within the text. The photographs are attached to the heavy stock paper, tissue guards, gold page edges, a little soiling, all photos are present, very good condition.
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"Marmion, a Tale of Flodden Field", by Sir Walter Scott (1717-1832), with 15 original albumen silver prints by Thomas Annan (1829-1887), published by A.W. Bennett, London in 1866.[Reference: Gernsheim Early Photography Collection, 323]
Provenance:
The book is from the private collection of Ashby Bland Crowder. His ex-libris [private book plate] - the crest of arms of Ashby Bland Crowder inside front cover.
Ashby Bland Crowder, Richmond, VA [1941-2019], Professor of English, American Literature, and the Humanities. He was a respected scholar on Victorian literature, published books on Browning, novelist William Humphrey, and poet Seamus Heaney. His edition of the poetry of John Crowe Ransom is scheduled for publication in 2019. He also contributed to many scholarly journals.
"Mr Alfred W Bennett stands foremost among the London publishers as a producer of beautiful Christmas books illustrated by photography. He chooses for illustration books that are worth having and keeping, and that admit of the best and most legitimate sort of sun-painting for adornment of the text. Printing his text and binding it with luxurious good taste, he enriches it with so liberal a supply of mounted photographs of the best quality, that the pictures alone are almost if not altogether worth the price of the book they illustrate...
Mr. Bennett's other photographic book is a gay and luxurious edition of Scott's "Marmion", illustrated with smaller photographic views by Mr. Thomas Annan, of Norham, Warkworth, Bamborough, Crichtoun, and Bothwell Castles, Holyrood Palace, Tantallon Hold, Durham Cathedral, Lindisfarne Priory, and Whitby and Dunfermline Abbeys, Linlithgow Palace, and Twizel Bridge; a photograph of Scott's monument at Edinburgh, serving as frontispiece.
The book is richly bound in gold and scarlet, has initial letters to each canto illustrated in woodcut, and is as dainty an edition of Marmion as any lady can desire. Its images of the scenery that lay in Scott's own mind as that of the poem suggest the right background of local colour to the fancy of the reader."[ The Examiner, No. 3017, 25 November 1865, p. 746.]
Thomas Annan (1829-1887) was a Scottish photographer, notable for being the first to record the bad housing conditions of the poor.After his initial apprenticeship as a lithographic writer and engraver at the Fife Herald in Cupar, he moved to Glasgow in 1849 and worked as a lithographer and engraver for Joseph Swan until 1855. He set up business with George Berwick at 40 Woodlands Road, Glasgow, listing in the 1855 - 56 Glasgow post office directory as calotypists, practitioners of this early form of photography. In 1855, he photographed the ship RMS Persia, under construction on the Clyde, which was probably a commission by engineer, Robert Napier. This photograph was part of a group of images sent to the Photographic Exhibition in connection with the British Association.
After dissolving his previous partnership, he established himself in a photographic studio at 116 Sauchiehall Street during 1857. In 1859, the business moved to 200 Hope Street and he was also able to establish a printing works in Hamilton in 1863. First interested largely in architectural photography and then portraits, as well as photographing artworks and maps, in 1866 Annan photographed slum areas of the city. These images were used by Glasgow City Improvement Trust to document the overcrowded, unhygienic conditions ahead of extensive redevelopments. It was this series of photographs, created between 1868 and 1871, entitled "Old Closes and Streets of Glasgow", that ensured his prosperity.
In 1869, Annan purchased the contents of Rock House, which belonged to David Octavius Hill, which included many of Hill's photographs and negatives. These were eventually exhibited by Thomas' son, James Craig Annan, and reproduced in photogravure in Alfred Stieglitz's journal "Camera Work".
In 2017, the Getty Museum curated an exhibition entitled "Thomas Annan: Photographer of Glasgow", the first to survey his career and legacy as photographer and printer.
US: Priority (c.2-4 days) --------- $18.50
Canada: Express (c.5-7 days) ------ $49.50
World: Express (c.5-10 days) ------ $67.50
Condition Report: Embossed hard boards, original publisher’s scarlet cloth with gold decorations [some wear and spine repairs: see photos]; 6.1/2" x 8" [20cm x 16.5cm]; nice ex-libris [private book plate] - the crest of arms of Ashby Bland Crowder inside front cover, front endpaper is missing, 206 pages, contains 15 original photographic plates by Scotland's pre-eminent photographer Thomas Annan, as well as smaller illustrations within the text. The photographs are attached to the heavy stock paper, tissue guards, gold page edges, a little soiling, all photos are present, very good condition.
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