Lot 2: THOMAS ANNAN

THOMAS ANNAN
The Old Closes and Streets of Glasgow. T. & R. Annan & Sons, 1900.
Folio (384 x 280 mm). 50 photogravures, with guards. (Occasional light soiling and spotting.) Original navy cloth, spine lettered in gilt, arms in gilt on front cover (some rubbing, faint dampstain on front cover, joints and hinges starting).

ONE OF 100 COPIES OF ANNAN'S MASTERPIECE, printed for the Corporation of Glasgow, in which he records the city's slum clearance ahead of redevelopment. The compelling pictures in this important antecedent of 20th-century social documentary are "AMONGST THE MOST INTIMATE AND "MODERN" IN FEELING OF NINETEENTH-CENTURY DOCUMENTS" ( The Photobook). The Photobook, vol. I, p.49; The Truthful Lens, 185.