Chemin de fer du Nord. Ligne de Paris à Boulogne. Album de vues photographiques.

Obl. folio: [2] ff.; 50 photographic plates on salted paper, salted slightly albuminised paper and albumen paper printed from paper negatives and collodion glass negatives, ± 31,5 x 39,5 cm, laid on white and cream boards, ms. French captions (5 pl. detached at the beginning of the work, some spotting and/or foxing mostly in the margins, more concentrated on title).

Pub. green cloth, gilt fillets frame on covers, gilt title and initials "A.D." on front cover, gilt-orn. spine with raised bands, a.e.g. (rubbed, some white spotting on front cover, joints, endcaps and corners ± us.). Good overall condition.

Extremely rare album commissioned by Baron James de Rothschild (1792-1868), main shareholder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the "Compagnie du Chemin de fer du Nord", which he founded in 1845. Issue limited to 25 copies, this one for A. Dechamps (numbered 20 by hand). The 50 superb large-format photographs include a map ill. with 24 miniature views, railway line heightened with gold and red, and 49 views showing stations, bridges and viaducts, panoramas, towns and monuments (Saint-Denis abbey, Chantilly castle and stables, Amiens cathedral, etc.), as well as the port of Boulogne (several views incl. one of Queen Victoria's yacht). The 2 lithographed preliminary pages include the title in gold, red, blue and grey wash and the index with an illuminated title. A first album was produced in 1855 with views taken by É. Baldus (1813-1889) in just three days, on the occasion of the historic State visit of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert to France, at the invitation of Emperor Napoleon III. This first issue was given to the Queen as a souvenir. Baron de Rothschild commissioned the present edition, which includes some of Baldus's views and a dozen new views by A. Collard (1812-1893), to mark the inauguration of the branch via Chantilly of the line from Saint-Denis to Créteil.
Ref. BnF. - "Itinéraires et vues du chemin de fer du Nord [...]", in: Napoleon.org.
Prov. Adolphe Dechamps (1807-1875), administrator of the "Compagnie du Chemin de fer du Nord" and other railway companies in Belgium, was a former Belgian Minister of Public Works in charge of railways from 1843 to 1846 (nominative copy, gilt initials on front side and title; ref. Biogr. nat. XXXIII:219).