Cordier Auctions Sells Rare 1860 Photo Album of China for $410,000

Cordier Auctions sold a rare 1860 photo album of China in its Spring Antique & Fine Art Auction in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on May 17 & 18. The photo album contains 56 images of China during the Second Opium War in 1860, which are considered some of the earliest photos of that country. Felice Beato, an Italian/British photographer, was also one of the first war photographers. The photo album consists of 56 albumen prints including 10 multiple part panoramas, each titled and dated in English and German. Beato accompanied the British Army into China in 1860. His photographs captured not only strategic military positions and the aftermath of battle but also buildings such as the Summer Palace before its destruction by the British. The album was consigned to Cordier Auctions during one of its open appraisal days held every Wednesday at their auction house in Harrisburg, PA . The buyer was Stephan Loewentheil of the 19th Century Rare Book and Photograph Shop, a rare book, manuscript, and photograph dealer with shops in Stevenson, Maryland and Brooklyn, New York.

Gate of Pekin after the surrender October 21, 1860

Portraits of Prince Kung, Lt. Gen. Sir Hope Grant & Lord Elgin signers of the treaty of 1860 which ended The Second Opium War

Pagoda in the Summer Palace October 18, 1860

Pehtang Fort August 1, 1860