Oblong Folio (ca. 32,5x41 cm). With 112 gelatin silver prints of various size mounted on 21 stiff card leaves, including 10 large images, ca. 25,5x29 cm (ca. 10 x 11 ½ in), and three large colour photos, ca. 20x26 cm (ca. 8x10 ¼ in). Manuscript ink captions on the mounts. Original lacquered Japanese album with morocco spine, marbled paper endpapers, all edges gilt. Rebacked in style, boards slightly rubbed and neatly repaired on the corners, minor foxing of the endpapers, otherwise a very good album with interesting photos.

Interesting album with lively original views and portraits of the locals from Japan, China, Singapore, Samoa and Hawaii, taken by a British traveller during a trip around the world, in March-August 1900, and supplemented with several evocative studio photos. The album starts with seven photos of Port Said and Colombo where the compiler of the album arrived on board the P.& O. Steamer “Arcadia” (“Arab Coal Raft,” streets of Port Said and Colombo, “Singhalese boys at Mount Lavinia” etc.) and is followed by seven views of Penang and Singapore, including an attractive two-part panorama of Penang taken from R.M.S. “Chusan.” A dozen of interesting original photos of China include a view of the Hong Kong harbour with the building of the Club, “the Queen’s road” and the monument to Queen Victoria in Hong Kong, a view of Macao taken from “Boa Vista” hotel, three dreadful images of the execution of pirates in Canton (with dismembered bodies and “the crucifix on which the prisoner is fastened for the death by a thousand bats”), views of a crowd of native boats on the Canton river, a portrait of the travelling party at the balcony of “Li Hung Chang palace” (Li Hongzhang, 1823-1901, noted Chinese politician) etc.

More than half of the album are photos of Japan (over 60 images), where the traveller stayed from May 4 to June 20, 1900. Interesting views show Yokohama harbour taken from the bedroom window of the Grand Hotel, Tokyo (Kameido shrine, street views, private house owned by an Englishman named “Milne”), Nikko and environs (about twenty photos, including three large views of a “tea house at the entrance to the Temple of Iemitsu,” a “garden at Dainichi-do,” and the Daiya River; and smaller views of the Tosho-gu Temple, “celebrated Red Lacquer Bridge”, Karamon gate, bronze Torii, “Avenue of criptomenia trees”, street views, botanical garden, Lake Chuzenji, “fish flags at the Boys Festival;” and three photos of a temple procession, with a picture of “3 gold shrines, 75 men to carry each. These are not allowed to be photographed”). There are also over a dozen interesting photos taken around Lake Hakone and nearby resort towns, showing streets of Miyanoshita, Sengaku village, Hayakawa River, servant girls from tea houses at Dogashima, Miyanishita and Fujiya Hotel; a portrait of the compiler with his guide Hirakata, at the Otome Toge pass where “one gets a magnificent view of Fujiyama,” three coloured studio photos of Lake Hakone and Mount Fuji, etc. Other images show Nagoya Castle, Nara, and Kyoto (Golden Pavilion, Katsura River, a group of geishas). The album closes with eight views of Samoa, including two studio portraits and six snapshots of “Maoris,” “Cricket at Apia,” “Samoan natives,” “Annie” etc.; and six studio photos of Hawaii, including four views of Honolulu by a local photographer Frank Davey (harbour, Main road, royal palms, rice field). Overall an interesting album with a large collection of high quality lively original photos (some quite large) of tourist sites and lesser-known areas of Japan.