An Incunable of the German Photographically

Illustrated Book

MICHIELS, Johann Franz.

[From printed upper cover]: Die neuen Glasgemälde im Dome zu Köln, Weihegeschenk Seiner Majestät des Königs Ludwig I. von Bayern. Photographieen von Johann Franz Michiels. Directions-Mitglied der Königl. Academie zu Brügge.

Five plates each with a mounted orig. salt print within gilt borders forming lancet windows. One leaf of printed text in German, French, and English. Folio, orig. publisher’s printed boards (extremities a bit worn), cloth spine. Cologne: F.C. Eisen, 1854.

First edition of this early photographically illustrated book depicting the new stained-glass windows, created by J. Fischer and Hellweger, and donated by King Ludwig I of Bavaria. In the mid-19th century there was a great effort to complete the Cathedral of Cologne, begun in 1248 and finally finished in 1880.

“From the mid-1850s the photographically illustrated books, with widely differing subject matter including paintings, engravings,…sculpture, architecture, and the decorative and minor arts, were being produced in modest but ever increasing numbers throughout Europe. This type of publication mirrored the art book illustrated with engravings or lithographs which was prevalent during this period. In some cases photographic publishers ambitiously aimed at a European market which was being developed through burgeoning tourism. One such publisher was Franz Carl Eisen of Cologne who from 1853, in collaboration with the photographer J. F. Michiels produced a series of trilingual (in German, French and English) photographically illustrated publications. Most of these were on works of art and architecture.“–A. J. Hamber, A Higher Branch of the Art. Photographing the Fine Arts in England 1839-1880, p. 155.

Each of the plates are framed and printed in bright gold. Michiels was a Belgian photographer from Bruges.

In nice fresh condition. Text leaf and versos of plates with a small and inoffensive library stamp. Release stamp on verso of text leaf.

❧ See The Truthful Lens. Neite, “Der Verkauf photographischer Bilder in den frühem Jahren der Photographie” in Silber und Salz. Zur Frühzeit der Photographie im deutschen Sprachraum 1839-1860 (1989), pp. 548-73.

Price: $9,500.00

Item ID: 5220