Albumin print, Japan, hand-colored, Tategami dry dock, Nagasaki Harbour circa 1890

This historical photograph shows a rare, topographically highly interesting, and industrially historical panoramic view in Japan from the famous Meiji period, taken as an original albumin print mounted on cardboard. The albumin process used was the dominant photochemical technique of that era, in which egg white was used to bind the light-sensitive silver salts to the paper.

The motif documents the Nagasaki harbor area with the Tategami dry dock, which represents an absolute key site of modern Japanese industrial history. In an era of rapid modernization, this groundbreaking facility made it possible for the first time to dry-dock, maintain, and professionally repair large Western warships and steamers directly on-site in Nagasaki. The upper half of the image shows the wide harbor bay and the gentle rolling hills, while the center features the dock facilities with a large ship hull resting inside, along with the adjacent brick and workshop buildings. The absolute highlight of this artwork, composed in landscape format, is the elaborate hand-coloring. Japan was the absolute world leader in this precise hand-coloring technique, used to create the impression of a lifelike color photograph.

Since the exact authorship is officially considered unknown due to the lack of an artist's signature, the piece is attributed to the large commercial photo studios of the Yokohama school, which produced these views for the Western market. This document originated in the 1880s to 1890s. The antique collector's item features the photograph dimensions of 26,8 x 20,2 cm mounted on a 28,3 x 21,7 cm original cardboard backing and is in acceptable age-appropriate condition with an even, slight toning. It shows a waviness of the cardboard due to storage, partially somewhat yellowed cardboard margins. Slightly faded image surface, as well as the original white caption within the photo negative at the bottom right margin: "G (or C?) 75. NAGASAKI HARBOUR."