Views at Magnolia-on-the-Ashley
Charleston, S.C. Frank A. Norwell, 1883.
First Edition. Softcover. Very good. 6" x 9.5", oblong, pictorial wrappers. 12 heliotype views (image size 4" x 6.5") of the grounds of Magnolia plantation (then the residence of Rev. J.G. Drayton), with one page of descriptive text taken from Harper's Magazine. Some marginal soiling, large chip missing from back cover, otherwise very good. The photographer, Frank Nowell (not Norwell, as printed on the cover), was a successful commercial photographer who maintained a studio in Charleston from about 1870-1890. He specialized in portraits, but also produced views of local scenery. A visitor to his studio in 1883, writing for Photographic Times and American Photographer, was particularly taken with his views of Magnolia: "Wandering about from scene to scene among the ground, lakes, lawns, avenues of oaks and forests of camellias and azaleas blooming beneath huge magnolias and live oaks with a camera and a supply of dry plates, almost bewildered among such an embarrassment of pictorial richness, who is there that does not envy Mr. Norwell such chances? It is only fitting that we should say that in this artist the scenery has had an able exponent, one who knows not only how to make selection of a scene, but also possesses ability to photograph it." Norwell's work is quite scarce today, as is this book, which is unrecorded in OCLC.
Item #14121
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