Argentina.

Oblong folio (246 x 365mm.), 77 albumen prints (average 134 x 213mm., or the reverse), including two 4-part and one 3-part folding panoramas of Buenos Aires (largest 138 x 756mm.), 20 pencil sketches (average 180 x 270mm., or the reverse), 7 Argentine banknotes (issued 1844-64), all mounted on card, photographs mostly on the recto and the drawings on the reverse, modern brown crushed morocco gilt, upper cover lettered in gilt, gilt edges, fading to some photographs, occasional small loss or tears to drawings, brittle card mounts with chipped corners and edges, a little damage to fore-edge of upper cover

Sir Francis Clare Ford (1828-1899), armorial bookplate, signed and dated (Buenos Aires, 1866)

A very rare album of pencil sketches and early photographs taken in and around Buenos Aires, and collected by the British diplomat Francis Clare Ford (son of Richard Ford), while serving as chargé d'affaires to Argentina in 1865-1866 and as minister plenipotentiary in 1878. Most of the photographs can be attributed to either Esteban Gonnet (1830-1868) or Benito Panunzi (1819-1894), pioneers of photography in Argentina who were the first to publish albums of the urban landscape of Buenos Aires and surrounding Indian life. The photographs (most captioned in pencil on the mount by Ford), comprise 3 panoramas of Buenos Aires, 25 portraits or group shots (including gauchos and Patagonian Indians), 32 views, 10 of prints after Pallière and 5 others. The 20 pencil sketches appear to be after the French-Brazilian artist Léon Pallière's Album Pallière, Escenas Americanas, depicting colourful country scenes, which Ford included in this album as examples of the artist's direct influence on the photographers. Where possible, Ford has mounted a drawing facing a photograph treating the same subject, thus documenting the artistic connection between the two media.