Early photograph album of Edinburgh sells for 20 times more than estimate at auction
A newly discovered album featuring some of the earliest photographs of Edinburgh was sold at auction by Lyon & Turnbull on Wednesday for over £85,000, more than 20 times the estimated price (£4,000).
Taken by pioneering photographer and architect Charles George Hood Kinnear (1830-1894) the salt prints formerly belonged to the Kinnear family of Kinloch House in Fife.
Kinnear became a founding member of the Photographic Society of Scotland in 1856 and the same year entered into partnership with Edinburgh architect, John Dick Peddie.
Peddie & Kinnear became one of Scotland’s most celebrated architectural firms of the day. The business was responsible for designing much of modern Edinburgh, including Cockburn Street, which winds its way from Market Street near Waverley Station to the heart of the Royal Mile.
Not only did Kinnear exhibit his innovative images in Scotland and across Europe, he also designed a folding camera, thus cementing his reputation at the dawn of photography.
Meanwhile a rare letter by Oliver Cromwell, also offered by Lyon & Turnbull in its Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs sale, went for for £17,640, more than three times the estimated price (£5,000).
Penned in the spring of 1648, the unique epistle which is written entirely in Cromwell’s own hand, discusses personal matters relating to the proposed marriage of his son to Dorothy, daughter of Hampshire gentleman, Richard Major.
A leading figure in the Parliamentarians’ revolt against Charles I during the English Civil War, Cromwell went on to oversee the execution of the King in January 1649, late appointing himself Lord Protector, a title he ensured was inherited on his death in 1658 by his son Richard.
Cromwell appeals to his friend, Richard, to whom the letter is addressed, to communicate his wishes to his son’s future father-in-law: “I desire you to carrie this businesse with all privacie, I beseech you to doe soe as you love mee, let mee entreat you not to loose a day herein, that I may know Mr Maiors minde…I much rely upon you.”
Lyon & Turnbull’s Rare Books, Manuscripts & Maps Specialist, Dominic Somerville-Brown, said: “There is always great anticipation on the day of a sale and we knew that the items being auctioned would attract a great deal of interest. That said, one can never know just how much interest there will be, nor just how much people will be prepared to pay to own a piece of history.”
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
