Description:

Two Francis Frith (English, 1822 - 1898), Universal Series, Albumen Prints, comprising 'Agra, Pearl Mosque, 3077' and 'Agra, The Secundra, Marble Sarcophagus, 3004', both mounted on paper, by Francis Frith & Co., part of his Universal Series of topographical photographs, titled and number in pencil lower left, and with 'The Universal Series' label and pencil inventory number on verso. Sheet size: 12 in. x 15 1/8 in.

Francis Frith was an English photographer of the Middle East and the United Kingdom. Frith was born in Chesterfield, Derbyshire. He attended Quaker schools at Ackworth and Quaker Camp Hill in Birmingham, before he started in the cutlery business. In 1850 he started a photographic studio in Liverpool, known as Frith & Hayward and soon became a founding member of the Liverpool Photographic Society in 1853. Frith sold his companies in 1855 to dedicate himself entirely to photography. He used the collodion process, a major technical achievement in hot and dusty conditions. During three trips to the Middle East between 1856 and 1860, Frith made hundreds of negatives that he organized geographically and then printed in several illustrated books. Today his photographs can be found in numerous public and private collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the H. Paul Getty Museum, and the Conway Library of Art and Architecture at the Courtauld in London.

Measurements: Height: of photos 8 7/8 in. x Width: 8 1/4 in.

Overall good condition, foxing and toning to paper, wear to edges of sheet, very minor wear and discoloration to edges of photo, photo fully mounted, 'The Secundra' with stain in border next to lower right corner of photo.