California: [circa 1900s].
Price: $1,500.00
Hardcover. Oblong quarto. Measuring 13" x 10". String-tied blue cloth album with "Photographs" stamped in gilt on the front board. A collection of 111 sepia-toned photos measuring between 1.5" x 2" and 5" x 8" without captions. Fine with about fine photographs affixed to stiff gray paper. A photo album compiled at the turn of the century in various places in California via San Francisco, Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Catalina Island. The album shows snapshots of well-dressed ladies and gentleman exploring California with train rides, boating, and beach visits, complete with sun hats and parasols, as well as photos of men at a shooting range. The pictures seem to be taken by a talented amateur photographer who posed friends. Photos include those of ladies playing guitar and mandolin, the group posing while applying makeup, combing a man's hair, and shaving another man's face, and one risqué photo of two young ladies, one of whom is revealing a finely turned ankle. There are also group photos of people posing by cliffs and in wooded areas. One photo shows two men posing on rocks on a beach in front of an enormous boulder which reads "Lash's Bitters" (probably for the company based out of San Francisco owned by pharmacists John Spieker and Tito Lash who claimed; "Lash's Bitters is a prominent medicine, claiming to cure Biliousness, Malaria, Dyspepsia, Indigestion, Headache, Sour Stomach, Neuralgia, Back Pain, and all afflictions of the Kidney and Liver.") There are also two photos of the San Francisco restaurant, The Cliff House, which overlooks Ocean Beach, a typical destination for the upper crust. An extensive collection of better than usual quality snapshots detailing upper middle class life in California at the turn of the century.
Item #397290