british burma

Earliest Photography Of Burma And India To Sell For £200,000 At Bonhams

http://www.bonhams.com/booksale

Linnaeus Tripe (1822-1902) a career army officer in the Madras establishment of the East India Company took the first ever images of Burma on an exhausting expedition which set out from Bangalore, India in 1885.

The 113 salt prints on wax paper negatives, some with captions are estimated to sell for £100,000 to £150,000 at Bonhams Sale of India and Beyond Books and Photography on 8 October in London.

After a furlough in England he returned to India, in December 1854, and captured the first photographs of the temples at Halebidu and Belur (Mysore), which were much admired by the 1855 Madras Exhibition. It was recommended that the photographs be purchased for the Court of Directors.

In June 1855, Lord Dalhousie, the Governor-General, recommended that Tripe be appointed to Arthur Phayre's mission to Ava. The climate, bad weather and Tripe's health meant that he had to telescope what he expected to accomplish in four months into thirty-six days, during which he made two hundred and nineteen negatives. Most of these are of the temple architecture at Amarapura, the capital of Upper Burma, or along the Irrawaddy, and in Rangoon.

On his return to Bangalore, Tripe assisted by Henry Yule, (who was to publish an account of the mission), chose one hundred and twenty negatives of which Tripe was required to produce fifty sets. This took most of 1856, (during which some of the negatives were spoiled by the sun's heat), after which each had to be mounted.

David Park, Head of Bonhams Books Maps and Manuscript Department, comments: “The actual value of these images goes beyond price as they are the first of their kind of Burma, using a very new technology, and taken in the most trying circumstances. When you hold them, you touch the history of the British Empire and the history of modern technology, and the glue that binds them is courage. They are remarkable objects and stunning images. That they survive at all is a miracle.”

There is no census of surviving sets, but seemingly very few complete (or as here nearly complete) sets have survived. They were not published as such. The sets were arranged in untitled portfolios. Twenty sets were sent home for the Court of Directors, and a further fourteen were distributed by the Indian Government. At some point it was possible to purchase individual prints produced by Griffiths & Co in Madras for two rupees each.

Another equally astonishing lot in this Bonhams sale is a set of images which emerged as the result of a scientific mission in 1861 to India and High Asia, including the Himalayas which produce brilliant images, estimated to sell for £30,000 to £40,000.

Three German brothers, Hermann, Adolf and Robert Schlagintweit, set off by order of the Court of Directors of the Honourable East India Company on a journey of discovery.

The result of their work which starts with a dedication to Queen Victoria, includes three magnetic survey maps, four geographical maps, four meteorological maps and tables, seven panoramic profiles, 34 mounted oleographic panoramas and views on 27 sheets within a complete set of this highly-prized large-format colour plate book. Bonhams has not been able to trace any other copy, complete with the text volumes, at auction for at least 30 years.

In 1854 the Schlagintweit brothers (on the recommendation of Alexander von Humboldt) were engaged by the East India Company to carry out scientific investigations within and beyond its territory, particularly in relation to terrestrial magnetism. The brothers landed in Bombay and crossed the Madras by different routes, before turning north. Hermann and Robert returned to Europe in 1857, while Adolf went to Chinese Turkestan. He was beheaded at Kashgar by the amir Wali Khan.

Images taken on the expedition include: Gaurisankar, or Mount Everest in the Himalaya of Nepál (illustrated); The Summit of Kanchinjinga in the Himalaya of Sikkim; cane Suspension Bridge over Témshang river, in the Khássia Hills; Fort and Lines of Udelgúri in the province Dárrang, Assám; Interor of the Buddhistic temple of the monastery Mángnang, in Gnári Khórsum (illustrated); The Salt Lake Kiúk Kiöl, in the Karakásh valley, Turkistan; Palm grove and Singhalése habitations near Gálle, Ceylon; The Buddhist monastery Hímis, near Leh, in Ladák; The Valley of the Yarkand river downwards from Déra Búllu, in Turkistan; The Summit of Parisnáth, in Bahár; Central Assám and the Brahmapútra jungles, from Ógri Hill near Tézpur; The Ganges near Pátna, Western Bengál; The Salt Lake Tsomognalarí in Pangkong, Western Tibet (illustrated); The Chain of the Kuenlúen from Súmgal, in Turkistan.

For more information and images from this sale please go to:
www.bonhams.com/booksale