Maps 184.q.1

Portfolio of 57 loose prints of European scenery, mounted on card, those by Baldi and Würthle with letterpress titles and photographer’s credit beneath the image. The views by Adolphe Braun, with pencilled captions identifying locations, bear photographer’s credit and the legend ‘Appareil panoramique breveté de Johnson, Brandon et Braun’ [Johnson, Brandon and Braun’s patented panoramic camera]. This refers to the pantoscopic panoramic camera patented in England in 1862 by John Johnson and John Harrison. Braun entered into agreement with the inventors and a camera for Braun’s use was built in Paris by David Hunter Brandon in the same year. Braun’s photographers used this panoramic camera extensively and other examples of their work in this format can be found in the collections. While the majority of the Braun panoramas were probably taken during the second half of the 1860s, at least two (the views of Belfort taken after its capitulation to the Germans in 1871), and possibly more, may date from the 1870s. It is noteworthy that the photographer’s credit on many of the views reads ‘A. Braun, Dorlach (Haut-Rhin) France,’ while the carbon prints (21c-e, 23b, 24, 27b) read ‘A. Braun, Dorlach (Alsace).' The omission of 'France' in this wording, presumably dates them (or at least their printing) to after 1871, when Germany occupied the province at the conclusion of the Franco-Prussian War. The collection appears to be a conflation of four batches of prints acquired by the British Museum at different periods between 1872 and 1878. The photographs by Würthle and Baldi and Würthle are variously stamped 7 July 1875 and 11 October 1876, while Braun’s albumen print views are stamped either 8 July 1872 or 12 June 1873. The six carbon print views by Braun of the Italian lakes are date stamped 1 November 1878. The prints are arranged alphabetically by country or region (Austria, Bavaria, France, Italy), and by place within these headings, so that the purchasing sequence of the batches of photographs has been broken. The following locations are represented in the collection: Aussee, Berchtesgaden, Bad Gastein, Gmunden, Grundlsee, Hallstatt, Bad Ischl, Königsee, Mondsee, Nassfeld, Reichenhall, Salzburg, Traunkirchen, Traunsee, Eibsee, Schwangau, Kochelsee, Belfort, Paris, Lake Como, Cernobbio, Florence, Lugano, Lake Maggiore, Milan, Naples, Porlezza and Rome.