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LEONIDA CALDESI & CO (ACTIVE C. 1860-66)
Group of Japanese Ambassadors
c. 1862Albumen print, carte-de-visite | 8.8 x 5.7 cm (whole object) | RCIN 2914637
The first Japanese visitors to Britain included an embassy sent to re-negotiate commercial agreements in 1862. They arrived just as the fashion for collecting cartes-de-visite of public figures reached its height. For the first time, photographs of samurai became widely available to the British public, propelling this inaccessible warrior class to prominence.
