[View Book - Albumen prints] Grenoble

Grenoble: papeterie des Alpes", EUGENE ROBERT, 1900. First Edition. Cloth. Very Good. First Edition. 7 leaves, not paginated. Oblong 7 1/4 x 10 1/2 inches. A album containing thirteen photographs on thick board stock, all edges gilt. 1/4 leather over red pebbled cloth boards with gilt decorations. Wear at the corners and the spine. Blank endpapers are fragile and high-acid. The first 6 leaves (thick board) have two albumen photographs affixed, verso and recto, affixed to the spine by tabs and linen strips. The main board is 7 x 9 1/2 inches. Each affixed image is 4 5/8 x 7 1/2 inches. Each image has a printed blue border around it, with title below and also at top in black. The printed border has a flourish in each corner with the initials "ND" which we believe is the photographer. Each image has a two numbers printed below it, the first varies (likely the image stock number), the second is "2217" which we suspect identifies this album.

With the exception of #13 below, each photograph is an albumen print.

1) "Panorama de Grenoble & de la Chaine des Alpes"
2) "Grenoble" and "Le Palais de Justice & la Statue de Bayard"
3) "La Grande-Chartreuse" and "Vue d'Ensemble du Convent"
4) "La Grande-Chartreuse" and "Entree du Desert, Route de Siant-Laurent-du-Pont" (faint "ND Phot" in the negative)
5) "La Grande-Chartreuse" and "Le Pont Saint-Bruno, Route de Saint-Laurent-du-Pont" ("ND Phot in the negative)
6) "Sassenge" and "La Grande Cascade"
7) "Triage-les-Bains" and"Vue Generale"
8) "Pont-en-Royans" and "Les Gorges de la Bourne"
9) "Les Points de Claix et le Col de l'Arc"
10) "Chateau de Vizille" and "Cote du Parc"
11) "Ligne de la Mure" and "Passage de la Rivoire, a Pic de 300 metres sur le Drac"
12) "Le Bourg d'Oisans et la Chaine de Belledonne"
13) "Vue d'une Fabrique de Gants Modele" (not an albumen print but a later silver print). Cloth. "ND Phot" or "ND" was the signature of the Parisian publishing house of the brother photographers Étienne (1832–1918) and Louis-Antonin Neurdein (1846–1914), founded in Paris ca. 1885. [Archnet] They were well known for photo-postcards, and many scenes in France and Algeria. They also produced a number of other handsome view books of other locations in various formats as well as single albumen images sold at local tourist haunts, where the tourist could build their own album. This album however, appears to be commercially produced and although we haven't been able to trace another, they no doubt exist.

"Grenoble is the prefecture and largest city of the Isère department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of southeastern France. It was the capital of the Dauphiné historical province and lies where the river Drac flows into the Isère at the foot of the French Alps." (Wikipedia)

Libraire Papeterie (proprietor Eugene Robert) was at 13, Rue St-Jacques, 13 in Grenoble. He no doubt sold these as a handsome keepsake to tourists and residents. (Inventory #: 29508)