1. VITTORIO SELLA. Matterhorn, from Findelen, c. 1879-1892, Sella number AV 395. 22.8x16.5" collodion print, printed c. 1893, flush mounted on thin board, mounted on 24x18" grey board. Inscribed in ink on mount recto: Alps Matterhorn, 395 from Findelen, AV.; inscribed in ink on mount verso: Alps / Matterhorn from Northeast; inscribed in pencil: 395/AV.

2. VITTORIO SELLA. Matterhorn (enlargement), from Dent D'Herens, at 13,708 feet, c. 1879-1892, Sella number AV 280. 15x11.3" collodion print, printed c. 1893, flush mounted on thin board, mounted on 13x16 1/2" grey board. Inscribed in ink on mount recto: Alps Matterhorn V280.

Just as Ansel Adams grew up in Yosemite, Vittorio Sella was raised as a mountain climber and photographer in the Italian Alps.

In 1893 Elizabeth Denio, an AMC member, wrote about this in a Club Report: "The notable events of the year in the Department of Art have been the exhibition of the Sella Collection of Alpine and Caucasian photographs, and the purchase of the same by subscription for the Club.Without doubt this collection, numbering some five hundred subjects, is one of the largest and finest ever seen in America. They differ from most mountain photographs in being largely taken from extremely high points, and in this, as in their superb technique, testify to Mr. Sella's skill both as a mountaineer and as a photographer. Several form panoramas: others are details of the upper portions of high mountains; and all combine to present a marvelous world of snow and ice, of crag and crevasse, of regions lonely, vast, and most fascinating. Old travelers quite familiar with the Alps thrill again as they see these pictures, and recall experiences in the Matterhorn, Mont Blanc, or Mont Rosa; all behold a hitherto unknown world of sublimity and beauty in the Caucasian mountains, while delighting in the infinite gradations of color, the magnificent cloud effects, the marvels of rock-structure in these perfect reproductions of Nature".

1. 395 Fair: Moderate to heavy abrasions, wear and dirt 1/2x1/8" missing from upper R corner of print; 6" crease in lower L corner of print; 5/8" tear in L edge of print; 1" vertical scratch on lower L quadrant of print. Mount has corner and edge wear, dirt and marks.

2. 280 Very Good: Dirt, wear, abrasions and rub marks, corner and edge wear. Mount has corner and edge wear, dirt and marks.