1. VITTORIO SELLA. Aletschhorn, from the Great Aletsch firn, c. 1879-1892, Sella number AIX 246. 11.1x15" collodion print, printed c. 1893, mounted on 12x16.4" brown board. Inscribed in ink on mount recto: Alps / 246. Aletschhorn, from the Great Aletsch firn / IX. Print recto embossed with artist's credit stamp in bottom right corner; inscribed in ink: 246. Stamped in ink on mount verso: Depose / Tous droits - reserves / V. Sella - Biella; inscribed in pencil: Loan 92.

2. VITTORIO SELLA. Alps Jungfrau from the Ebnefluh Col, c. 1879-1892, Sella number AIX 247. 11.1x15.1" collodion print, printed c. 1893, mounted on 13.6x17.3" dark brown board. Inscribed in ink on mount recto: Alps / Jungfrau from the Ebnefluh col. Print recto embossed with artist's credit stamp in bottom right corner; inscribed in ink: 247. Sticker on mount verso, inscribed in ink: gift of / Miss Ann Chase; inscribed in pencil: 211 / 1x 247.

The Aletschhorn, the second highest mountain of the Bernese Alps at 4,194 m (13,760 ft). It is the culminating point of a chain running parallel with the dividing ridge and surpassing it in the height of its principal peaks. Standing thus between the principal range of the Bernese Alps and the Pennine chain. The Aletschhorn is often thought to command the finest of all the panoramic views from Alpine summits. The Dreieckhorn is a sub peak of the Aletschorn.

The Jungfrau at 4,158 meters (13,642 ft) is one of the main summits of the Bernese Alps between the northern canton of Bern and the southern canton of Valais. Together with the Eiger and Monch, the Jungfrau forms a massive wall of mountains overlooking the Bernese Oberland and the Swiss Plateau and is one of the most distinctive sights of the Swiss Alps.

In 1877 Sella left school to serve in the Italian army, and then returned to Biella to carry on the family business since his father had died in 1876. Every holiday, summer and winter, Sella was in the nearby mountains, often carrying an old photographic apparatus that had belonged to his father. By 1879, the twenty-year-old Sella had become an accomplished photographer who had mastered the collodion wet plate process and learned to develop mammoth glass plates on site, even in harsh weather conditions. He also began working with dry plates around this time.

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. 246 Good: Mild wear, abrasions, dirt, corner and edge emulsion wear. Mount has dirt, marks, corner and edge wear. White area upper left corner.

2. 247 Very Good: Mild wear, abrasions, dirt, corner and edge emulsion wear. Mount has dirt, marks, corner and edge wear.