VITTORIO SELLA. Kangchenjunga, Zemu Glacier., 1899, Sella number HS 47. 7.4x9.4" collodion print, printed 1901, mounted on 10x12" heavy brown board. Embossed with Vittorio Sella stamp in lower right of print. Inscribed in black ink on mount recto: Kangchinjinga [sic] from the left side of the Zemu Glacier. Inscribed in pencil mount verso: 47 / HS 47.

In September and October of 1899, Sella and his brother Erminio joined Douglas Freshfield, the premier British mountaineer, on a circular tour around Kangchenjunga, in the Himalayas - the third highest peak in the world. This previously unmapped region lay on the borders of Nepal and Sikkim. They left from Gangtok, traveling to the east base of Kanchenjunga to the 20,200-foot pass of Jonsong-La before entering southern Tibet. The expedition endured blinding snowstorms, limited food supplies, and political unrest in Nepal, yet Sella returned with a magnificent set of images of this exotic part of the world.

from the AMC journal: This superb scenery, comprising the highest peaks of the known world, and the vast glaciers that encompass them, furnish forth a group of pictures doubtless without a parallel. The weather during the journey precluded all attempts to reach high summits, which gave the party ample leisure and provided a perfect atmosphere for photographic work, as is testified by the exquisite results."

The majority of the single pictures measure seven and a half by nine and a half inches; there are quite a number enlarged to eleven by fifteen inches, while in two of the fine five-sectioned panoramas the separate plates are fifteen by eighteen inches in size. These views were received unmounted, but during the summer were mounted with great care, and were ready for their first exhibition to the public at the Club-room from November 18 [1901].

Very Good: minor wear and edge wear, 1/8" scrape in emulsion to left of highest peak. Mount has edge and corner wear, small marks and scrapes, mount verso has tape marks.