fine art photos at heritage auction house

Calla Lily c1865, courtesy of Heritage Auctions

Toronto. As we sit out this pandemic and browse around the internet, we may discover a means to augment boredom and complement our image collection.

For example, PHSC member Ian Archer discovered this interesting auction of historical photos online. Heritage Auctions touts itself as “America’s Auction House” and has a series of photos up online for viewing and bidding – auction closes September 28th.

I did a screen grab of the image titled “Calla Aethiopica Lily, 1865″ Its an Albumen print some 9-1/4 x 7-3/8 inches (23.5 x 18.7 cm) and is lot 30003 in Auction 17163. The photo is from the “Fratelli Alinari ” archives. The photographic house of  Fratelli Alinari was established back in 1854 in Florence, Italy by Leopold Alinari, who founded his studio just two years earlier.  Alinari’s two brothers, Giuseppe and Romualdo, joined him in the venture, hence the “Fratelli” in the name. Today, it is “the oldest company in the world in the field of photography”. (Note Heritage Auctions show the company active from 1854 to 1920 while Wikipedia shows it active from 1854 to the current date).

Browse through their eclectic collection of old images, many taken by recognized photographers of the day. Note that the auction house is based in Dallas, Texas, and all amounts are in USD. A big thanks goes to member Ian Archer for sharing this find with us.

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