Inscribed to Photo-engraver and Collector Edward Epstean
Old Chinatown ... with Text by Will Irwin.
New York: Mitchell Kennerley, 1913.
Price: $1,800.00
About the item
Genthe, Arnold. Second edition, enlarged. Illustrated with 91 photographs by Arnold Genthe, printed at the Plimpton Press; ix, [1], 208, [2] pp. 1 vols. 8vo. Inscribed to Photo-engraver and Collector Edward Epstean. Original gilt-stamped black cloth, fraying to cloth at extremities, nick to spine; very good. cf. Parr/Badger I, p. 75 (for first ed.).
Item #239558
An important work of documentary and ethnographic photography, " ... one of the first and most important examples of the candid-camera approach to documentary photography" (Parr/Badger I). INSCRIBED to Edward Epstean, "whose knowledge and patience are responsible for the excellent reproductions of my Chinatown pictures" and SIGNED ("Arnold Genthe, December 1912"). Epstean (1868-1945) was a pioneering photo-engraver and collector who assembled one of the greatest libraries on the history and science of photography. Though not formally credited in this book, it must be assumed by Genthe's inscription that Epstean was responsible for the book's stunning half-tone reproductions - so rich in tone and detail that they approach the quality of photogravures.
