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’ printed back mark) showing Tongan women in a dugout canoe; the print is a little faded.

ʻUiliamu ʻUelingatoni Ngū Tupoumālohi (1854-1885), grandson of King George Tupou I, was the second Crown Prince of Tonga from 1879 to 1885. He is also commonly referred to by his Anglicised name, Wellington Ngu.

John Davis arrived in Sydney from England in 1854 and worked as a professional photographer at premises in Pitt Street and George Street during the 1860s, before relocating to Apia, Samoa. He is now best known for his Samoan photographs taken in the 1870s and 1880s. (In fact, it has largely been overlooked that the Sydney John Davis and the Apia John Davis were one and the same person). Davis returned to Sydney briefly in 1878, setting up a studio off Oxford Street and advertising his views of the Friendly Islands (Tonga) and Navigator Islands (Samoa) – as exemplified by the back mark of the carte de visite offered here. The following notice appeared in the SMH, 30 August 1878:

‘MEDICAL PROFESSION. ELEPHANTUS. Operations by the Rev. G. A. TURNER, C.M.M.D., of Samoa. Photographs before and after operations. J. DAVIS, Photographer, late of Samoa, 21, Botany-Street near Oxford-street, Sydney. One case may be obtained by forwarding fifteen 2d. stamps’.