1. VITTORIO SELLA. Lyskamm, Matterhorn, and Dent Blanche, from Sesiafoch, 14,104 feet, torn corner, vintage repair, c. 1879-1892, Sella number AVII 1582. 11.1x15.5" collodion print, printed c. 1893, mounted on 16 1/2x12 1/4" heavy brown board. Inscribed in ink on mount recto: Alps 1582 - Lyskamm, Matterhorn, and Dent Blanche. VII; Print recto embossed with artist's credit stamp in bottom right corner; Stamped in ink on mount verso: Depose / Tous Droits Reserves / V. Stella - Biella; Inscribed in pencil: Loan 74.

2. VITTORIO SELLA. On the Signalkuppe, c. 1879-1892, Sella number AVII 1586. 11.3x15.2" collodion print, printed c. 1893, mounted on 16 5/8x12 1/8" heavy brown board. Inscribed in ink on mount recto: Alps 1586. On the Signalkuppe. VII; Inscribed in pencil: 1586; Inscribed in blue pencil: illegible/ partially erased; Print recto embossed with artist's credit stamp in bottom right corner; Stamped in ink on mount verso: Depose / Tous Droits Reserves / V. Stella - Biella; Inscribed in pencil: Loan 76.

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.

Sella became famous among climbing fraternities as far away as London for his 1882 winter crossing of the Matterhorn when he ascended on one side and descended another. The speed of his campaigns was astonishing. In 1887 between July 29 and August 11 he climbed the Weisshorn twice, the Mettelhorn, Mittelgabelhorn, Alphubel, Rimpfischhorn, Dent Blanche, and the Dufourspitze of Monte Rosa. In 1889 and 1890 he made the first of two self-financed excursions to the Caucasus (AMC Bulletin Vol. VII, 1893-1895).

1. 1582 Good: Moderate abrasions, wear and dirt, broken emulsion corner lower right repaired. Mount has chipping, corner wear, marks and dirt and is fragile.
2. 1586 Good: Moderate abrasions, wear and dirt. Mount has chipping, corner wear, marks and dirt and is fragile.