Japanese Lacquer Postcard Album with Bone and Mother of Pearl (Nacre) Cover Onlays

1900. Japanese Lacquer. Very Good. Oblong Quarto. Large Japanese Lacquer postcard album with bone and mother-of-pearl onlays. Undated, circa 1900. With 22 total postcards, 18 of which are hand-colored collotype postcards, 2 are actual black and white photographs, most measuring 3½"x5½" and are laid into 6 thick leaves with silk covers, each hand-painted with flower prints in watercolor. (Oblong 4to) 9¾x13¼, Japanese lacquer album in black, front cover with carved bone & mother of pearl inlays, showing a Japanese man rowing a boat and transporting two Japanese women, black leather spine. Collection of hand-colored postcards of the Nagasaki area. All inside surfaces and end papers are of silk and hand painted with soft colors and a delicate hand, showing country-side huts, rivers, lakes, birds, and sprays of flowers. Each page is prepared to accept 4 post cards, with orange threads intact. The hand-colored postcards are over a collotype photograph, some are with messages and have early postmarks, most not used. Showing a wide variety of Nagasaki views, including: temples, street scenes, the Mogi hotel, Holy Bronze Horse at Suwa temple, Isenomiya, Inasa and Kotaji temples, Inasa Church; coal being loaded on a foreign vessel at Nagasaki port, plus a U.S. Army transport being loaded by a hoard of workers. A fascinating look at Nagasaki in the late nineteenth century. A nice addition to any collection. Front cover lacking a piece of the carved bone near the middle of the boat of which one of the women appears to have been holding, possibly a musical instrument or just part of the boat. Condition: Spine had been damaged, has been repaired; light wear to album edges, mild rubbing (slightly affecting hand-painted decorative margins); crack in lacquer on back cover; faint foxing to silk pages, paper residue on front inside cover, some of the postcards with minor edge wear; a clean and bright piece; about very good overall. See sample scans. LBB-B