"Jerusalem Album" – Lithographs after Photographs by Alois Payer – Vienna, 1866

Album von Jerusalem [Jerusalem Album]. Vienna: W. Zoeller, 1866. German.
A book in album format, with 25 lithographs after photographs by Alois Payer. Twenty-two of the lithographs depict the city of Jerusalem, and the others depict Bethlehem. Below each lithograph appears a printed legend for the sites marked with numbers.
Alois Payer was the official photographer of the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I. The photographs in this book were taken during Payer's visit to Palestine in 1865 and were dedicated to the Emperor.
Among the photographs taken by Payer in Jerusalem, especially interesting are those depicting Jerusalem outside the walls (photographs at that time depicted mainly the holy sites). His photograph of Mishkenot Sha'ananim at its early days (plate no. XXII in the book) is one of the earliest and most important photographs of this neighborhood.
Enclosed: a folded leaf with the title of the book and captions in French for the 25 lithographs.
[2] leaves, XXV plates, 30X42 cm. Good-fair condition. Numerous stains throughout the book. Minor creases and blemishes. Tears to first leaf (with dedication to Emperor Franz Joseph), reinforced with pasted pieces of paper. New binding and endpapers.
Literature: "First Photographs of Eretz Israel…". Editors: Eli Shiller and Menachem Levin with the participation of Dan Kiram. Jerusalem: "Ariel", 1989. p. 66.