Quarto (ca. 25x19,5 cm). 49 gelatin silver prints mounted on 30 stiff card leaves., including two large ones ca. 11,5x15,5 cm (4 ½ x 6 in); and the rest ca. 6x10 cm (2 ¼ x 4 in) or slightly smaller. With four original watercolours, including two larger ones, ca. 14x23 cm (5 ½ x 9 in), and two smaller ones, ca. 14x9 cm (5 ½ x 3 ½ in). With seven colour printed dinner menus of various sizes, two printed advertising leaflets, nine colour and fourteen black and white printed postcards. The majority of the images and printed materials are with period manuscript ink captions on the mounts. Period black half sheep album by “John J. Banks & Son” with cloth boards. Owner’s gilt stamp on the front board “H.C.F. 1905”. Album mildly rubbed and loosened at hinges, but overall a very good copy with a bright and interesting ephemera collection.

Beautiful keepsake album from the 1905 cruise of a group of English tourists along the Mediterranean coast of the southern Italy. The travelling party left London on the January 13th on board RMS “Orizaba” of the Orient Pacific Line and proceeded to Naples via Plymouth and Marseilles. They spent over a month in Palermo and afterwards visited Pompeii and a famous Flavian Amphitheater in Pozzuoli, before leaving from Naples on board SS “Ormuz” in the end of March. Most likely the album was compiled by “Miss H. Fawkes”: her name appears in the official printed list of passengers of RMS “Orizaba” mounted at the beginning of the album, and these initials coincide with the owner’s gilt stamp on the front cover of the album.

The majority of photographs show Palermo including its narrow streets and courtyards with laundry hanging out of the windows, old harbour with fishing boats, local shepherds and vegetable sellers. Several photos show views of the monastery of Santa Maria di Gesù and cloister of the abbey of Monreale. There are also images taken on a riding tour to Mount Pellegrino on the eastern side of the Bay of Palermo; the creator of the album apparently present on these pictures, together with her sister (?) “Miss V. Fawkes” and “Lady Esther Smith”. Among other images are portraits of lively “Nurses in the Villa Nationale, Naples”, views of the coast of Corsica and Sardinia, and the harbour of Naples.

The ephemera include seven colourful dinner menus finished in manuscript, and two advertising leaflets from RMS “Orizaba” and Italian hotels. Souvenir postcards show RMS “Orizaba”, Palermo and costumes of its inhabitants, ruins of Pompeii. Watercolours include views of the harbours of Gibraltar and Naples taken from deck of RMS “Orizaba”, and sketches of a boat in Marseille, and a flower from Monte Pellegrino. Overall a very attractive travel keepsake.