CARLETON E. WATKINS | 'El Capitan 3600 ft.' (Yosemite Valley)

mammoth-plate albumen print, mounted, with title in pencil on the mount, framed, 1861

Peter E. Palmquist, Carleton E. Watkins: Photographs 1861-1874 (San Francisco, 1989), pl. 5 Weston Naef and Christine Hult-Lewis, Carleton Watkins: The Complete Mammoth Photographs (Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2011) no. 126

Grading this albumen print on a scale of one to 10 – a 10 being an albumen print that has deep brown dark tones and highlights that retain all of their original detail – this print rates a 7 or 8. While the dark tones in the foreground remain rich, the background and highlights appear slightly faded overall. There is slight fading at the periphery of the image, most noticeably along the left edge. There are 2 small chips to the emulsion at the upper left corner. When examined in raking light, the following are visible: silvering in the darkest areas of the print, mostly near the edges; and scattered faint scratches, scuffs, and pinpoint-sized impressions overall. This photograph is mounted to thick, flexible board, which is darkened and bumped at the edges. There are scattered foxmarks and soiling overall on the front and reverse of the mount. There are hinge remnants along the edges of the reverse of the mount. '57th Mad 2 [circled]' is written in an unidentified hand in pencil.
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