1. VITTORIO SELLA. Matterhorn, Dent Blanche, Gabelhorn, Breithorn. From the summit of Caston, 13,874 feet, c. 1879-1892, Sella number AVII 464. 11.4x15.4" collodion print, printed c. 1893, flush mounted on thin board, mounted on 13x16 5/8" grey board. Inscribed in ink on mount recto: Alps Matterhorn, Dent Blanche, Gabelhorn, Breithorn VII 464; Print recto embossed with artist's credit stamp in bottom right corner.

2. VITTORIO SELLA. Grand Tournalon and Grand Combin, scuffs, c. 1879-1892, Sella number AVII 472. 17.2x22.6" collodion print, printed c. 1893, flush mounted on thin board, mounted on 18x24" grey board. Inscribed in ink on mount recto: Alps Gathering of Great Storm of July 1888 472 from Sella Hut, at. 11,800 feet A VII; Print recto embossed with artist's credit stamp in bottom right corner; Inscribed in ink on mount verso: Alps - Storm of 1888 from Monte Rosa -; Inscribed in blue pencil: 472/ A VII.

The print in this lot like hundreds of others were in many exhibitions and the prints suffered damage. Thus, these exhibition prints are being offered here at bargain prices. In 1893 Elizabeth Denio, an AMC member, wrote about this in a Club Report: "The notable events of the year in the Department of Art have been the exhibition of the Sella Collection of Alpine and Caucasian photographs, and the purchase of the same by subscription for the Club.

Without doubt this collection, numbering some five hundred subjects, is one of the largest and finest ever seen in America. They differ from most mountain photographs in being largely taken from extremely high points, and in this, as in their superb technique, testify to Mr. Sella's skill both as a mountaineer and as a photographer. Several form panoramas: others are details of the upper portions of high mountains; and all combine to present a marvelous world of snow and ice, of crag and crevasse, of regions lonely, vast, and most fascinating. Old travelers quite familiar with the Alps thrill again as they see these pictures, and recall experiences in the Matterhorn, Mont Blanc, or Mont Rosa; all behold a hitherto unknown world of sublimity and beauty in the Caucasian mountains, while delighting in the infinite gradations of color, the magnificent cloud effects, the marvels of rock-structure in these perfect reproductions of Nature." In the United States, the Appalachian Mountain sets were shown at over 100 venues in the 1890s and 1900s.

1. 464 Good: Mild wear, moderate abrasions, edge and corner wear. Mount has edge and corner wear and loss, dirt and marks.

2. 472 Fair to Poor: Tears, abrasions, dirt edge and corner wear. Mount has edge and corner wear and loss, dirt and marks.