Early Twentieth Century Hand-Painted Photography: Identification & Values

At long last collectors of hand colored photos have a guide. This book is well organized, with photographers being listed alphabetically, making a particular artist easy to locate. The background and regionality of each artist is discussed, with representative works and titles of each listed as well. There are full chapters each for the discussion of unknown photographers, regionality, and the conservation and preservation of hand painted photos. Particularly helpful is the 15 step guide to cleaning and restoration. This 1/2 inch thick book is crammed full of useful information, and would have earned 5 stars except for a couple of problems. The first is the exclusion of two Western photographers. Burton Frasher, of Pomona, California, and the McCulloch Brothers of Phoenix, Arizona. Frashers Photo is an important part of CA history, and his exclusion here is a serious one. His b & w postcards are well known, and while his painted photos are less numerous, they are beautifully done and deserve mention. The McCulloch Brothers likewise did outstanding artistic work with photos of the Arizona desert, rivaling even the best work of the Bear Studios. There are also some quality control issues. Some of the photo examples did not print correctly, appear out of focus and have little colored lines around them. The paper used seems poor quality, and I felt I needed to take care in turning pages to avoid undue wrinkling. Despite these problems, I still highly recommend this book. Very useful for collectors!