MUYBRIDGE, Eadweard (1830-1904); KLETT, Mark

Panoramic San Francisco, from California Street Hill, 1877; [Photobook] [offered with:] One City / Two Visions : San Francisco panoramas, 1878 and 1990 [Signed]

San Francisco: Thomas C. Russell [and] Bedford Arts, 1910 [and] 1990. Folding halftone (11 panels) of Eadweard Muybridge’s famed 360-degree panoramic view of San Francisco made from the original seventeen-foot-long photograph. With margins, the folding halftone measures 1511 x 171mm and folds into the original red cloth binding lettered in gilt. Offered with the First Printing (so stated), trade issue, of Klett's accordion-fold book revisiting and reinterpreting Muybridge’s panoramic view, with essays by Klett and Peter Bacon Hales. Royal 4to (305 x 241mm): 13ff accordion-fold black-and-white plates on card stock, 12pp of text. Bound concertina-style in publisher's pictorial covers (without dust jacket, as issued), saffron-yellow end papers. Signed by Klett on title page. Recto of accordion-fold reproduces the 360-degree mammoth panoramic view taken of San Francisco in 1878 from atop Nob Hill by Muybridge; on verso, same panoramic view taken in 1990 by Klett. Fine. Item #BB2059

In July, 1878, Eadweard Muybridge completed a seventeen-foot-long “Panorama of San Francisco from California Street Hill,” constructed from thirteen albumen prints taken with a camera using 18 x 22 inch plates from the tower of the Mark Hopkins mansion, then the highest point in San Francisco, commanding a sweeping view of the city, its harbor, and San Francisco Bay. Muybridge printed only nine copies, and only five are now known to exist (Thomas C. Russell issued this facsimile edition in 1910). One hundred and twelve years later, on April 12, 1990, Mark Klett stood on the terraces of the 16th floor of the Mark Hopkins Inter-Continental Hotel and re-photographed the same panoramic view. The result is One City / Two Visions, an accordion-fold book that illustrates back-to-back Muybridge’s and Klett’s views. It is fourth in the publisher's series of accordion-fold artist books, and was also issued in a limited edition of 100 copies in slipcases, each signed and numbered by Klett, with an original print by Klett, signed and numbered. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, with dust jackets carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).

Price: $1,135.00