Group of original photographs from a Prussian expedition to the Far East and South Seas, 1874-77.

Six stereoscopic albumen print photographs, individual images 68 x 68 mm, mounted in identical pairs to the back of the original embossed mounts of thin black card, each 85 x 175 mm, rectos with the photographer’s original pencilled sequence numbers at lower right corners, versos with later pencilled sequence numbers corresponding to the numbers of the images as published in Riemer’s book on the expedition (1878); all of the albumen prints are in fine condition, with the exception of the left hand image of #29 (sailor on watch), which has a small amount of surface loss; the mounts are also in fine condition.

An officer in the Prussian navy, Gustav Riemer acted as paymaster on the voyage of S.M.S. Hertha to the Far East and the South Sea islands in 1874-77. Riemer was a keen amateur photographer, and he took several hundred photographs during the expedition, documenting the Hertha‘s visits to the Philippines, Hong Kong, Yokohama, Nagasaki, Vladivostock, Canton, Amoy, the Marianas, the Caroline Islands, the Palau Islands, Samoa, Tonga, Auckland, and King George’s Sound (Albany, Western Australia). In 1878 Riemer self-published a photographic album of the voyage, Tagebuchs-Auszug betreffend die Reise S.M.S. “Hertha” nach Ost-Asien und den Sudsee-Inseln, 1874-1877 (Wilhelmshaven : G. Riemer, 1878), copies of which are held in the National Library of Australia and State Library of New South Wales. All of the stereoscopic photographs in the present small archive were published in Riemer’s book, and their sequence numbers, along with Riemer’s text description for each, are as follows:

#29. Lookout (by night)

#61  Members of the crew working on board the ship.

#235. Korror, Palau Islands. Children of the King and their governesses.

#268 Samoa. Native group under breadfruit trees.

#277. Samoa. German cotton plantation at Falealili.

#284 Samoa. Avenue of coconut palms.