1. VITTORIO SELLA. Orny Glacier, c. 1879-1892, Sella number AIII 1535. 11.4x15.2" silver print, printed c. 1893, mounted on 12.3x16.5" brown board. Inscribed in ink on mount recto: 1535. Orny Glacier; inscribed in pencil: A III; Print recto embossed with artist's credit stamp in bottom right corner; inscribed in pencil on mount verso: Mt. B / & / Neighborhood; stamped in black ink: Depose / Tous Droits Reserves / V. Sella - Biella.

2. VITTORIO SELLA. Le Portalet, from the Orny Hut, 8,829 feet, c. 1879-1892, Sella number AIII 1533. 11.3x15.2" collodion print, printed c. 1839, mounted on 12x16.5" brown board. Inscribed in ink on mount recto: 1533. Le Portalet from the Orny hut, 8829 ft.; inscribed in pencil: A III; Print recto embossed with artist's credit stamp in bottom right corner; inscribed in pencil on mount verso: Mt. B / & / Neighborhood; stamped in black ink: Depose / Tous Droits Reserves / V. Sella - Biella.

3. VITTORIO SELLA. Saleynaz Glacier, Tour Noire, c. 1879-1892, Sella number AIII 1534. 15.4x11.3" collodion print, printed c. 1893, mounted on 16.3x12.3" brown board. Inscribed in ink on mount recto: 1534. Seleynaz Glacier, Tour Noire; inscribed in pencil: A III; Print recto embossed with artist's credit stamp in bottom right corner; inscribed in pencil on mount verso: Mt. B / & / Neighborhood; stamped in black ink: Depose / Tous Droits Reserves / V. Sella - Biella.

Vittorio Sella (1859-1943) was the leading large-format mountaineering photographer of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, renowned for his spectacular high-altitude photographs of glacial floes, peaks, and valleys. Sella traveled the world, photographing in the European Alps, the Caucasus, Mt. Saint Elias (Alaska Yukon Border), and the Himalayan Sikkim. In the early 1900s he photographed mountains in the Africa Ruwanzari and the Himalayan Karakoram. Vittorio Sella lived during the Golden Age of European mountain exploration when many peaks were being scaled for the first time. Prior to his era, mountains were mostly regarded as dangerous obstacles to be crossed, haunted by evil spirits. The early nineteenth century saw a dramatic shift in people's perception of mountains, heralded by the Romantic poets who lauded them as "palaces of nature" that embodied the eternal. To Wordsworth and others of the Romantic era, alpine pinnacles became symbols of the heights to which the imagination of man could aspire, toward the unattainable goals of understanding infinity, eternity, and the vastness of God. It was no accident that the beginnings of mountaineering as a sport coincided with the recognition that mountains were, in fact, beautiful. And the development of photography coincided with that very moment in the history of natural philosophy which has been called the "era of moralized mountaineering". This ushered in a sudden interest in landscape and natural scenery, along with poetry, painting, photography, and the art of travel as people sought out the heightened emotions brought about by a full experience of Nature.

1. 1535 Good, moderate wear, marks and dirty, 2" abrasion in lower L edge of print; multiple scratches especially in lower half of print; some silver mirroring in dark areas; small bubbles under print in center R. Mount missing edges and corners, fragile
2. 1533 Good: Minor wear, abrasions, dirt rub marks. Mount has edge and corner wear.
3. 1534 Very Good: Minor wear, abrasions, dirt rub marks. Mount has edge and corner wear.