Description:

Francis Frith, The Circular Temple, +C27Albumen Photograph, 1857, signed and numbered 'P141' in photo lower left, inscribed 'Frith Photo 1857' and 'The Circular Temple, Baalbec' in mount below image, photo mounted (12 3/8 in. x 17 1/4 in.).

Francis Frith was an English photographer of the Middle East and the United Kingdom. Frith was born in Chesterfield, Derbyshire. He attended Quaker schools at Ackworth and Quaker Camp Hill in Birmingham, before he started in the cutlery business. In 1850 he started a photographic studio in Liverpool, known as Frith & Hayward and soon became a founding member of the Liverpool Photographic Society in 1853. Frith sold his companies in 1855 to dedicate himself entirely to photography. He used the collodion process, a major technical achievement in hot and dusty conditions. During three trips to the Middle East between 1856 and 1860, Frith made hundreds of negatives that he organized geographically and then printed in several illustrated books. Today his photographs can be found in numerous public and private collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the H. Paul Getty Museum, and the Conway Library of Art and Architecture at the Courtauld in London.

Measurements: Height: of image 6 1/4 in. x Width: 8 5/8 in.

Condition:

Overall good vintage condition, faint toning to photo and mount, foxing, wear to edges, minor creases to mount, very faint foxing marks in sky in upper right quadrant of photo. Overall good vintage condition, faint toning to photo and mount, foxing, wear to edges, minor creases to mount, very faint foxing marks in sky in upper right quadrant of photo.