Photographs - Ethnography

  • "Group of Aborigines, Lake Alexandrina" (1862).

    # 46579

    BURNELL, George (1830-1894)

    “Group of Aborigines, Lake Alexandrina” (1862).

    [Title from contemporary inscription in ink verso]. Stereoscopic albumen print photograph, each image approximately 70 x 75 mm (arch-top format), on original flat mount of pale green/azure card, 85 x 180 mm; fully contemporary inscription in ink verso: ‘Group of Aborigines, Lake Alexandrina’, with the original owner’s initials ‘M.A.H.’ and their collection number ’79’; the …

  • Studio portrait of Māori chief Wiremu Tāmihana (aka William Thompson), "The Kingmaker", 1865.

    # 46462

    [WEBSTER, Hartley]

    Studio portrait of Māori chief Wiremu Tāmihana (aka William Thompson), “The Kingmaker”, 1865.

    Albumen print photograph, carte de visite format, 105 x 63 mm (mount); no photographer’s imprint; verso with fully contemporary note in pencil: ‘Wiremue Tomsana [sic] or William Thompson, The King maker’; both the print and the mount are in very good condition. This would appear to be a pirated copy, probably circulated after the death …

  • View inside the trading post of Oloff & Co. at Lome, Togoland Protectorate, West Africa, c.1890.

    # 46443

    [Photographer unknown].

    View inside the trading post of Oloff & Co. at Lome, Togoland Protectorate, West Africa, c.1890.

    Albumen print photograph, 100 x 140 mm, on original card mount, 185 x 220 mm, fully contemporary inscription in ink below the image: ‘T. Oloff & Co. / Factorei / Lome’; a very strong print with excellent clarity, in good condition; the mount is clean and stable. The Togoland Protectorate (Schutzgebiet Togo) was administered by …

  • Portraits of Himalayan types, including Nepalese and Tibetan, taken in Darjeeling, 1890s.

    # 46461

    [PAAR, Theodor, attributed]

    Portraits of Himalayan types, including Nepalese and Tibetan, taken in Darjeeling, 1890s.

    Group of 5 (five) albumen print photographs removed from the same late nineteenth-century album, all attributed to the Darjeeling photographer Theodor Paar. I. The Witch at Ghoom. [Caption on mount]. 200 x 150 mm, mounted recto of card mount; very good condition. The subject is believed to have been a Bhutia woman from Tibet, living …

  • Souvenir folding card ... Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition, Seatte, Washington, June 1st to October 16th 1909.

    # 46463

    A.Y.P. EXPO. CO.

    Souvenir folding card … Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition, Seatte, Washington, June 1st to October 16th 1909.

    [Seattle] : AYP Expo. Co., 1909. Colour-illustrated wallet, 105 x 155 mm, containing a concertina foldout with 24 postcard-size chromolithographed photographic images of buildings and First Nations groups from the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition held in 1909 in Seattle; the wallet has a few small marks, contents in fine condition.

  • The mechanical eye in Australia: photography, 1841-1900.

    # 46296

    DAVIES, Alan; STANBURY, Peter

    The mechanical eye in Australia: photography, 1841-1900.

    Melbourne : Oxford University Press, 1985. First printing. Quarto (290 x 220 mm), publisher’s black cloth in dust jacket (scattered foxing to inside of jacket); illustrated endpapers, 270 pp, profusely illustrated; contents clean throughout; a very good copy of the most useful reference work on Australian colonial photography yet published, now very scarce.

  • Studio portrait of Samoan London Missionary Society pastor and tutor Saanga and his family, (Apia?) 1906.

    # 46145

    [Photographer unknown]

    Studio portrait of Samoan London Missionary Society pastor and tutor Saanga and his family, (Apia?) 1906.

    Gelatin silver print photograph, cabinet card format, 185 x 135 mm (mount); original studio mount (without photographer’s imprint); verso with Saanga’s own inscription in ink identifying the sitters as Saanga, Madeline, Freddy, Sose, Rarotonga, Rita, Edward, and beneath this ‘With Saanga’s kind regards. June 12 ’06‘; a slightly later ownership inscription in pencil at the top …

  • Two stereoscopic views taken in Samoa, 1875.

    # 46142

    WALTER, Charles (Carl) (1831-1907) (attributed)

    Two stereoscopic views taken in Samoa, 1875.

    Two stereoscopic albumen print photographs, each image approximately 80 x 80 mm (square format), on original black card mounts, 85 x 176 mm, versos blank; the prints are a little pale, but are otherwise in good condition. This pair of Samoan stereoviews came as part of a small group of stereographic photographs by German-born Victorian …

  • Portrait of Wellington Ngu (later Second Crown Prince of Tonga) in military uniform, c.1878.

    # 45551

    DAVIS, John

    Portrait of Wellington Ngu (later Second Crown Prince of Tonga) in military uniform, c.1878.

    Albumen print photograph, carte de visite format, 106 x 64 mm; verso with the back mark of ‘J. DAVIS, PHOTOGRAPHER, 21 Botany Street, near Oxford Street, SYDNEY. View of Friendly and Navigators Islands.’; a superb print with excellent tonal range; [TOGETHER WITH] another carte de visite in identical format (but for some reason without Davis’ …

  • Bitter fruit : Australian photographs to 1963

    # 45848

    GRAHAM-STEWART, Michael; McWHANNELL, Francis; DICKSON, Jonathan

    Bitter fruit : Australian photographs to 1963

    Melbourne : Michael Graham-Stewart, 2017. Quarto (285 x 230 mm), cloth boards in pictorial dust jacket, 280 pp, illustrated in colour throughout with hundreds of photographs documenting the collision of Indigenous Australian and European cultures; the photographs, ranging in date from the 1850s to the 1960s and taken in every region of Australia, represent some …

  • Small group of original photographs taken in the Friedrich-Wilhelmshafen area, German New Guinea, circa 1910.

    # 45777

    [Photographer unknown]

    Small group of original photographs taken in the Friedrich-Wilhelmshafen area, German New Guinea, circa 1910.

    Group of 3 (three) sepia-tone gelatin silver print photographs printed on postcard stock, in 89 x 138 mm format, versos with fully contemporary manuscript captions in German (likely to be in the hand of the photographer) identifying the locations precisely; all are in good condition. These photographs were taken with personal camera and are almost …

  • Group of carnival performers including moko jumbies and musicians. US Virgin Islands, c.1930.

    # 45715

    [Photographer unknown].

    Group of carnival performers including moko jumbies and musicians. US Virgin Islands, c.1930.

    Gelatin silver print photograph printed on postcard stock; verso with AZO box with squares in corners (in use 1926-1940), no handwritten message or photographer’s imprint; a crisp image with excellent detail, in superb condition.

  • Reception of the foreign ministers by the Chinese Emperor, June 29 1873.

    # 35336

    RONJAT, Étienne Antoine Eugène, 1822-1912 (artist)

    Reception of the foreign ministers by the Chinese Emperor, June 29 1873.

    This Emperor, Toong Chir, died last winter of smallpox at the age of twenty. [Title from the inscription verso]. [U.S.A.? France? : s.n., probably 1875]. Albumen print photograph of a drawing by French artist Etienne Ronjat (after a Chinese painting), carte de visite format, 61 x 102 mm; verso with contemporary inscription in ink; both the print …

  • Types principaux des différentes races humaines dans les cinq parties du monde,

    # 13453

    BAER, Karl Ernst von (1792-1876)

    Types principaux des différentes races humaines dans les cinq parties du monde,

    modelés sous la direction du Pr. Baer de St. Petersbourg. St. Petersburg : s.n., [1862]. Portfolio, 500 x 330 mm, original embossed boards with title to front, original silk ties, inner front board with early collection inscription of the Königliche Präparanden-Anstalt (Royal Preparatory Institute), Herborn; containing [12] albumen print photographs, [7] in format 225 x …

  • Kuku Yalanji warrior posing with a shield and spear. North Queensland rainforest region, late 1890s.

    # 44911

    ATKINSON, Alfred (active FNQ 1895-1920) (attributed)

    Kuku Yalanji warrior posing with a shield and spear. North Queensland rainforest region, late 1890s.

    Albumen print photograph, 200 x 150 mm; laid down on its original album leaf of thin card; a very strong print with good tonal range; mount with scattered foxing. This type of ‘rainforest shield’ is called balan bigin by the Kuku Yalanji people. It is made from the soft wood of a fig tree known as magurra …

  • Basuto girl. Port Elizabeth, 1911.

    # 45013

    [Photographer unknown]

    Basuto girl. Port Elizabeth, 1911.

    Gelatin silver print photograph, 220 x 170 mm, on its original card mount (300 x 250 cm); photographer’s manuscript caption in lower margin ‘Basutu [sic] girl: taken at Port Elizabeth / June 1911’; print and mount are both in excellent condition. This lovely portrait study came from a small archive of photographs by an unidentified …

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