Estate / Collection: The Howard Phipps, Jr. Collection, Erchless, Old Westbury

COBURN, ALVIN LANGDON (1882–1966)

WELLS, H.G. (foreword). New York. London and New York: Duckworth/Brentano's, 1910. First edition. Publisher's tan calf over gray gilt-lettered boards. 16 x 12 inches (40.5 x 31 cm); [12] pp., with 20 (of 20) very fine hand-pulled photogravures tipped to gray paper sheets. The spine worn (as usual; the leather used was of poor quality) and with old staining that does not penetrate the text block; some rubbing and soiling to the boards, minor intermittent foxing to the text, quite heavy on the half-title, but with the remarkable plates in fresh condition.

Alvin Langdon Coburn was one of the triumvirate of photographers (along with Steichen and Stieglitz) that dominated the field of photography at the turn of the century. He had studied when younger with the American painter and printmaker Arthur Wesley Dow. Coburn prepared the plates for this work himself, and though he did not himself print them (other than some few proofs), he carefully oversaw the preparation of the book. Titles include: The Metropolitan Tower, circa 1909; Brooklyn Bridge, from a Roof-Top, circa 1905; The Battery circa 1909; Williamsburg Bridge, circa 1909; The Holland House, 1910; Broadway at Night, 1909; Brooklyn Bridge, from the River, 1910; The Flat-Iron, 1909; The Water Front, circa 1910; The Singer Building, Noon, 1909; The Ferry 1909; The Tunnel-Builders, 1910; The Knickerbocker Trust Company, 1909; The Chinese Quarter, 1908; The Unfinished Bridge 1910; The Singer Building, Twilight, 1910; The Stock Exchange, circa 1905; Fifth Avenue, from the St. Regis, circa 1905; The Sky-Line, 1910; The Park Row Building, 1909.