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An exceptionally uncommon pair of cartes mosaique by the San Francisco photography studio of Bradley and Rulofson, with "Celebrities" showing the heads of over one hundred actors and actresses of the period, while "Men of Mark" depicts a similar number of statesmen, noblemen, artists, authors, and soldiers from across the world. Bradley and Rulofson's cartes mosaiques were based on the of French photographer André Adolphe Eugène Disdéri's carte-de-visite mosaique, patented in 1863, which involved taking photographic prints, cutting out the various people in the pictures, and placing the cutout figures alongside, above, and below each other, allowing the photographer to combine the portraits of two or three people up to a thousand and sell them to the public for the same price as they would usually pay for the carte of a single person, thus making it even more affordable for the public to own photographic portraits of their favorite celebrities. By combining many images on a single card (far more than did Disdéri), Bradley and Rulofson created a dense and richly varied composition that pushed the boundaries of photographic art; their work is often seen as a precursor to the later development of photomontage in the art world. Bradley and Rulofson's "Celebrities" carte mosaique was described as "A photographic gem, in the shape of a group of 110 of the more celebrated actors and actresses…and every head stands out as clearly and distinct as if it were on a separate card." (Bradley & Rulofson), with "Men of Mark" considered "a companion picture to. 'Celebrities'" that "shows 110 photographs of 'men of distinction' on the Pacific Coast." Subjects include Hubert Howe Bancroft; Dom Pedro, emperor of Brazil; P.T. Barnum; King Kalakana of Hawaii; Mark Twain; Phil Roach, then editor of the San Francisco Examiner; Admiral Farragut; Charles Crocker; and Joaquin Miller among many others. Dom Pedro is quoted on the rear of the card as saying his photographic portraits by Bradley and Rulofson's were "The finest photographs I ever had." King Kalakaua is also quoted referring to Bradley and Rulofson as "The best in the World." Unlike "Men of Mark," the key to "Celebrities" was issued separately, and is not present here. Henry William Bradley (1813-1891) came to California from North Carolina during the Gold Rush and opened a San Francisco photography studio in 1850. William Herman Rulofson (1826-1878), a native of Canada, also came to California in 1849, and started prospecting in Sonora. He began photographing miners in 1850 from a mobile daguerreotype wagon and maintained a studio there for a decade. In 1861 he partnered with Bradley in San Francisco, with Rulofson managing the portrait gallery, and Bradley overseeing the photographic materials business and a growing publishing enterprise (Shields). These important cartes mosaique are exceptionally scarce. OCLC locates two copies of "Celebrities," at The Museum of Fine Arts in San Francisco and the State Library of Victoria (Australia), and three of "Men of Mark," held at the Bancroft Library, the National Library of Australia, and the Museum of Fine Arts in San Francisco. Robert A. Sobieszek, "Composite Imagery and the Origins of Photomontage, Part II: The Formalist Strain" in ARTFORUM (online). Henry William Bradley and William Herman Rulofson, Bradley & Rulofson's Celebrity Catalogue (San Francisco, 1878), p.30. David S. Shields, "Studio, Bradley and Rulofson" in Broadway Photographs (online). OCLC 1194007466, 1004849925, 299082356, 299082359, 1048895387. Both lightly bowed, edges rubbed, slight soiling to margins, a bit heavier to lower corner of "Men of Mark" verso. Adhesive residue and brief contemporary pencil note to verso of "Celebrities." Overall, both about very good.
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