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Rare album of Victorian Broads life sells for £52k

Clare Worden
BBC News
Roseberys Sepia photo of boats being sailed on the Norfolk broads. There are four vessels each with a sail. You can see there are three people in the boat closest to the camera. Roseberys
The book contains early photographs of the life on the Broads in the 1880s

A rare first edition book of photographs dating back to 1886 has sold for £52,480 at an auction in London.

The copy of "Life and Landscape on the Norfolk Broads" - by the pioneering Victorian photographer Peter Henry Emerson and artist Thomas Frederick Goodall - exceeded its £50,000 estimate.

The first edition contains 40 platinum prints of images of rural life in Norfolk and is only one of 25 copies every made.

An anonymous buyer from Suffolk said they were a fan of Emerson and the way he captured images of a "bygone way of life".

Roseberys View of a small river with grass on each side. In the left of the image are a group of cows some looking down and grazing and one looking up almost directly at the camera. Roseberys
The book contains images of rural life in Norfolk, like cows grazing near the waters

The book was put up for sale after being found in a cupboard in a house in Maryland, US.

The anonymous seller said their grandparents had been keen "yard salers" and probably only paid a few dollars for it.

The anonymous buyer from Suffolk said they already owned several Emerson works.

They said "It's a piece of Anglian heritage, yet Emerson had a strikingly modern aesthetic sensibility.

"He captured a bygone way of life, but his interpretation feels timeless."

It was sold in London by Roseberys auctioneer Jack Wallis.

He said he was pleased the book was coming back to the East of England after many years in the US.

Mr Wallis said: "I hope it's appreciated by generations of East Anglians to come".

Roseberys Picture shows Stephen Hyde holding the book "Life and Landscape on the Norfolk Broads". Stephen wears a blue jacket and cream trousers. The book is large, he holds it in front of his body with both hands. The book cover is pale with gold lettering spelling out the title. Roseberys
The photographer's great-grandson, Stephen Hyde, said the book was "a love letter to Norfolk"

Emerson (1856–1936) was born in Cuba and raised partly in America, before settling in England.

He is credited with elevating the new technology of photography to an artform, often focusing on the everyday life of people in East Anglia.

He met his co-author and fellow artist Goodall (1856-1944) on a trip to the Broads and the idea for the book was devised.

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