19th-Century Mother-of-Pearl Photograph Album

We like to think we have many jewels in the Smithsonian Institution Libraries' collections in the figurative sense, but here is a lovely volume bound in precious mother-of-pearl with silver filigree ornamentation and gauffered (decorative blind-stamped) gilt edges, dating from the second half of the nineteenth century.

This exquisite book, currently on display through September 7, 2009 at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York City as part of the exhibition Shahzia Sikander Selects: Works from the Permanent Collection, was most likely an album for a collection of photographic portraits. The album is empty now, but the names of the Italian revolutionary Garibaldi and the French author Chateaubriand are still faintly visible in pencil on the interior leaves, which are decorated to look like picture frames.

The story behind the creation and history of this particular album is only partly known. Most likely the volume is of European origin (for instance, the lithographed pages of the album feature the French copyright notice, Déposé). The remarkable workmanship of the jeweled cover, however, may have originated in the Middle East or Asia, where there is a long tradition of fashioning decorative items using mother-of-pearl. An old ink inscription on the front free endpaper of the volume is signed Angela Matilde Aròstegui y Castillo, either a former owner or perhaps someone who presented this album as a gift.

This volume was accessioned into the Cooper-Hewitt library's collections in 1959, where it aptly illustrates the power of the art of design, combining the utilitarian album format with precious materials to create an unforgettable historical artifact. (Z269.3.F55M68 1850z CHMRB)—Diane Shaw