These 170-year-old images reveal what life was like in the world ’ s most famous canal city before it was mobbed by hordes of gondola-riding tourists . Some of the earliest photos of Venice – snapped in the 1840s and 1850s – show an empty piazza in front of St Mark ’ s Basilica , the Ca ’ d ’ Oro palace under restoration , and a Grand Canal with very little boat traffic . The tranquil scenes are a far cry from modern-day Venice , which is visited by an estimated 10 million tourists a year . Scroll down for video . This photo from the book shows Venice 's tranquil Grand Canal and Ca ' d'Oro palace under restoration in 1845 . The Ducal Palace ( right ) , Zecca di Venezia ( left ) and the St Mark 's Campanile bell tower are pictured , circa 1851 . The black and white photos , discovered in a UK country auction in 2006 , have been confirmed as daguerreotypes – images developed on a polished metal plate – that belonged to influential Victorian art critic and writer John Ruskin . The ‘ lost photographs ’ were taken mostly by Ruskin , who died in 1900 at the age of 80 , while he was working on his three-volume treatise on Venetian art and architecture . They include the largest collection of daguerreotypes of Venice and possibly the earliest surviving photos of the French and Swiss Alps . The photos have been preserved and identified by collectors and historians Ken and Jenny Jacobson , who have co-authored a book that documents Ruskin ’ s photography . A small group of people gathers at the piazza in front of St. Mark 's Basilica in Venice in 1845 ; today the square is teeming with tourists . These photos show animal heads ( left ) and Noah 's vine carved into pillars at Ducal Palace , which is now a museum . John Ruskin snapped or collected the images while he was working on his three-volume treatise on Venetian art and architecture . Based on their suspicion that the images belonged to Ruskin , the Essex couple acquired the lot at an auction in Cumbria , where Ruskin lived . A bidding war with another collector raised the price to £75,000 from an original estimate of just £80 . Ken Jacobson , who has been collecting historic photos with his wife for almost 45 years , said : ‘ The discovery of 188 previously unknown John Ruskin daguerreotypes has been the most exciting of our career . This photo shows Palazzo Gritti-Badoer with laundry hang drying on lines outside ( circa 1846-1852 ) Ducal Palace was a popular photography spot ; this image shows a south-facing window looking out towards a lagoon ( circa 1849-1852 ) This photo from John Ruskin 's collection shows moored boats in the harbour at Arona , Italy on a summer day in July 1858 . ‘ The propitious circumstances of this find were truly magnified many times over by the fascinating discoveries we made during our research and the generosity , intelligence and friendship we shared with other scholars and our conservators . ‘ We feel that the quality and unorthodox style of many of Ruskin ’ s daguerreotypes will come as a major surprise to both photographic historians and those in the field of Ruskin scholarship . ‘ It is an astonishing accomplishment for a polymath better known for his achievements in so many other disciplines . Ruskin ’ s daguerreotypes would be a sensational new revelation in the history of photography even if he were completely unknown . We hope the work will be as intriguing to others as it has been to us. ’ Published by Bernard Quaritch , the 432-page book , Carrying Off the Palaces : John Ruskin ’ s Lost Daguerreotypes , contains a fully illustrated catalogue raisonne of the 325 known daguerreotypes , plus details about the Jacobsons ’ research .
The 170-year-old photos snapped or collected by the influential art critic are some of the earliest of Venice . A view from a gondola in Venice, Italy, circa 1900. Daguerreotype , the first announced photographic process , involves images developed on a polished metal plate . Collection of daguerreotypes were purchased by collectors and historians Ken and Jenny Jacobson . They later confirmed their suspicion that the images belonged to Ruskin and have co-authored a new book . A bidding war with another collector raised the price to £75,000 from the original estimate of just £80 .