Unique Japanese Folding Album with 77 Photos with only known photo of Percival Spencer flying with balloon in Tokyo
[Japan] Very interesting folding album containing 77 photos and one small page of text. The album also has a very important photo that may well be the only known photo of British balloonist, Percival Spencer, flying in the air at the National Museum at Ueno Park in Tokyo on November 24, 1890. The caption in Japanese is dated and mentions Spencer by name. His flights in Kobe, Yokohama and Tokyo were covered comprehensively in the English and Japanese newspapers, but no references to photographs of the flights have been found. The album may have been compiled by a military person as there are also photos of a dry dock, one of the Chishima (a Japanese Navy cruiser that sank in November 1892 when the British merchant vessel Ravenna collided with it off Matsuyama), views of Enoshima, Matsushima, Nikko, Oiso, Kyoto, Ryounkaku in Asakusa, Tokyo, Kamakura, Captain and explorer Shigetada Gunji, Yasumasa Fukushima (with typed page about him on facing page), and Ikaho hot spring.
Folding album with 24 leaves with photos on both sides. 18 photos are approx. 13.5 x 9.5cm and 59 are approx. 8.6 x 5.2cm. The album measures 18 x 12cm.
In very good condition. Minor age wear and a some minor marks. Binding and pages all strong. nb33100002
