SOULIER (Charles). Savoie and Switzerland. Paris, by the author, circa 1870. Oblong folio. Bound in full cloth, gilt title to spine. Superb album of photographs: 26 albumen prints pasted on cardboard, size 24.3 x 32.5 cm, with the mention "Photographié d'après nature par Ch. Soulier", mainly concerning the Chamonix valley (10 views) and the Bernese Alps (12 views). List of views: 1- L'aiguille Verte, 2- Chamonix et le Mont-Blanc, 3-Rochers des Grands Mulets, 5- Séracs du Mont-Maudit, 6- Gorge du Trient I, 7- Gorge du Trient II, 8- Gorge de la Tamine, 9- Eglise et glacier de Grindelwald, 10- Le Grand Eiger et le Moench, 11- Le Wetterhorn, 12- Le Wellhorn et le Wetterhorn, 13- La Jungfrau, 14- Le Staubach, 15- Glacier de Rosenlaui, 16- Chute inférieure du Reichenbach, 17- Chute du Reichenbach, 18- Brunnen and the Seelisberg, 19- Meiringen, 20- Thun and the Alps, 21- The Lion of Lucerne, 22- Le Montanvers, 23- L'aiguille du Dru, 24- Le hameau de Tréléchamp et l'Aiguille Verte, 25- Village des Praz and Aiguille du Dru, 26- Mont Valeria. Freckling and wetness, mainly on the boards and sometimes in the margins of the prints, exceptionally on the views. Some boards partially detached (one completely). Charles Soulier (Chalons-sur-Marne 1816 - Nogent-sur-Marne 1886) was a French photographer. From before 1850, he experimented with colouring photographs on glass, then founded his own photography studio in 1859. His fame led to his appointment as the Emperor's photographer in 1869. In the 1860s, he took many photographs in the Alps, mainly in Switzerland and on Mont Blanc. According to Sylviane de Decker, the first surviving photograph of the summit of Mont-Blanc is that of Charles Soulier, taken during the ascent on 27 September 1869 with the guides Cachat and Couttet. Sylviane de Decker - Photographier le Mont Blanc, Guérin, 2001, p. 37 - Daniel Giradin, Sans limite, photographies de montagne, Musée de l'Elysée, Lausanne, 2017, p. 69, 160-161 and 182