About this Item
Oblong Folio album (ca. 34x40,5 cm or 13 ¼ x 16 in). 24 card stock leaves. With 77 mounted original gelatin silver and albumen photos, mostly from ca. 18x24 cm (7 x 9 ½ in) to ca. 14,5x19,5 cm (5 ¾ x 7 ¾ in); two smaller photos at the rear are ca. 9,5x15 cm (3 ¾ x 6 in). Over twenty photos are captioned and/or numbered in negative; seven photos with blind stamps "Henry King Photo, Sydney" in the right lower corners; nine photos with period pencil captions in Italian on the mounts. The first leaf with four mounted real photo and printed postcards, each ca. 9x13,5 cm (3 ½ x 5 ¼ in); all with period pencil captions in French on the mounts. Period full vellum album; gilt-tooled ornaments on the front board and the spine; decorative endpapers; all edges gilt. Binding slightly soiled, mild foxing on the mounts, a few photos faded or with mild silvering, but overall a very good album of strong interesting photos. Attractive extensive collection of large, well-preserved studio photographs of Australia and Tasmania, apparently collected by Italian travellers in the 1890s. The album opens with twelve photos of Perth and Western Australia, attributed to the local studio of spouses Charles G. Greenham (1853-1925) and Laura I. Evans (1865-1943); the captions are: R.M.S. "Omrah" in Freemantle. 14; Freemantle Harbour. 36; [Perth]. High Street. 76; [Perth]. Barrack St. 30; Karridale; St. Geo Terrace. 81; Mundaring Weir. 89; Perth from Terraces National Park. 28; Perth. 10; Falling Karri. Karridale Timber Station; King Karri, 242 feet high, 40 feet girth. G&E. About a dozen photos of Sydney by Henry King include several views of the city harbour and Circular Quay, St. Andrew's Anglican Cathedral, General Post Office with the clock tower, King Street, Sydney Spit with the Lyon's boatshed, &c. A series of views of Melbourne show the city with the Government House, Royal Botanic Gardens, Town Hall, Princes Bridge, Spencer Street, Federal Coffee Palace, Charles George Gordon Memorial, Royal Exhibition Building, General Post Office, Menzies Hotel, &c. There are also views of Adelaide (Rundle Street looking east, King William Street, Adelaide Arcade), Gippsland Lakes, R.M.S. Orizaba, portraits of Aboriginal Australians by Nicholas Caire ("Lubras' Camp, Maloga," "King Billy, Maloga," men spear fishing), gold miners, loggers, horse cart drivers, &c. Over a dozen views of Tasmania show a coastal lighthouse, the town of Strahan (by Albert Sargeant), Hobart (general views, harbour, Government House), Cape Raoul, country roads, "Huts at the Springs," "Fren Tree Bower," &c. Two smaller photos at the rear show the wharf at a Pacific island with the advertising of "Burns, Philp & Co. Ltd." The album also contains four mounted real photo and printed postcards, showing the ocean steamers, which took the travellers on different legs of their journey: from Ceylon to Australia (R.M.S. "Oceania"), from Melbourne to Tasmania (T.S.S. "Loongana"), from Sydney to Hong Kong and thence to New York and Liverpool. Overall an important, content-rich album of early, well-preserved photographs of Australia and Tasmania, by local studios. "Greenham and Evans was a commercial photographic company. It had studios in the following locations: Sylvester Street, Coolgardie 1895; Barrack Street, Perth 1895-96; 175 Barrack Street, Perth 1897; 151 Barrack Street, Perth 1898-1900 (Davies and Stanbury 1985, p.171). The company was eventually owned by Denis Brown Dease who arrived in Perth from Melbourne in 1893 (Cato 1955, p.179)". ( University of Cambridge ). "Henry King was born at Swanage in Dorset, England, and brought to Australia as a baby. Very little is known of his early years, apart from what can be gleaned from registers and directories: he served an apprenticeship under photographer J Hubert Newman, married Elizabeth Laing in 1879 and then entered into a partnership with William Slade. In 1880 Slade and King established a photographic studio at 316 George Street, Sydney, whi. Seller Inventory # PC75
Contact seller
Report this item
