Item #5440 The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album. Published Monthly, under the Patronage of the Bombay Photographic Society... Sold at the Photographic Depôt and Portrait Rooms, Fort, Bombay. Johnson, William Henderson, illiam J.
The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album. Published Monthly, under the Patronage of the Bombay Photographic Society... Sold at the Photographic Depôt and Portrait Rooms, Fort, Bombay.
The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album. Published Monthly, under the Patronage of the Bombay Photographic Society... Sold at the Photographic Depôt and Portrait Rooms, Fort, Bombay.
The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album. Published Monthly, under the Patronage of the Bombay Photographic Society... Sold at the Photographic Depôt and Portrait Rooms, Fort, Bombay.
The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album. Published Monthly, under the Patronage of the Bombay Photographic Society... Sold at the Photographic Depôt and Portrait Rooms, Fort, Bombay.
The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album. Published Monthly, under the Patronage of the Bombay Photographic Society... Sold at the Photographic Depôt and Portrait Rooms, Fort, Bombay.
The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album. Published Monthly, under the Patronage of the Bombay Photographic Society... Sold at the Photographic Depôt and Portrait Rooms, Fort, Bombay.
The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album. Published Monthly, under the Patronage of the Bombay Photographic Society... Sold at the Photographic Depôt and Portrait Rooms, Fort, Bombay.
The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album. Published Monthly, under the Patronage of the Bombay Photographic Society... Sold at the Photographic Depôt and Portrait Rooms, Fort, Bombay.
The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album. Published Monthly, under the Patronage of the Bombay Photographic Society... Sold at the Photographic Depôt and Portrait Rooms, Fort, Bombay.
The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album. Published Monthly, under the Patronage of the Bombay Photographic Society... Sold at the Photographic Depôt and Portrait Rooms, Fort, Bombay.
The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album. Published Monthly, under the Patronage of the Bombay Photographic Society... Sold at the Photographic Depôt and Portrait Rooms, Fort, Bombay.
The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album. Published Monthly, under the Patronage of the Bombay Photographic Society... Sold at the Photographic Depôt and Portrait Rooms, Fort, Bombay.
The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album. Published Monthly, under the Patronage of the Bombay Photographic Society... Sold at the Photographic Depôt and Portrait Rooms, Fort, Bombay.
The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album. Published Monthly, under the Patronage of the Bombay Photographic Society... Sold at the Photographic Depôt and Portrait Rooms, Fort, Bombay.
The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album. Published Monthly, under the Patronage of the Bombay Photographic Society... Sold at the Photographic Depôt and Portrait Rooms, Fort, Bombay.
The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album. Published Monthly, under the Patronage of the Bombay Photographic Society... Sold at the Photographic Depôt and Portrait Rooms, Fort, Bombay.
The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album. Published Monthly, under the Patronage of the Bombay Photographic Society... Sold at the Photographic Depôt and Portrait Rooms, Fort, Bombay.
The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album. Published Monthly, under the Patronage of the Bombay Photographic Society... Sold at the Photographic Depôt and Portrait Rooms, Fort, Bombay.
The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album. Published Monthly, under the Patronage of the Bombay Photographic Society... Sold at the Photographic Depôt and Portrait Rooms, Fort, Bombay.
The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album. Published Monthly, under the Patronage of the Bombay Photographic Society... Sold at the Photographic Depôt and Portrait Rooms, Fort, Bombay.
The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album. Published Monthly, under the Patronage of the Bombay Photographic Society... Sold at the Photographic Depôt and Portrait Rooms, Fort, Bombay.
The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album. Published Monthly, under the Patronage of the Bombay Photographic Society... Sold at the Photographic Depôt and Portrait Rooms, Fort, Bombay.
The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album. Published Monthly, under the Patronage of the Bombay Photographic Society... Sold at the Photographic Depôt and Portrait Rooms, Fort, Bombay.
The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album. Published Monthly, under the Patronage of the Bombay Photographic Society... Sold at the Photographic Depôt and Portrait Rooms, Fort, Bombay.
The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album. Published Monthly, under the Patronage of the Bombay Photographic Society... Sold at the Photographic Depôt and Portrait Rooms, Fort, Bombay.
The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album. Published Monthly, under the Patronage of the Bombay Photographic Society... Sold at the Photographic Depôt and Portrait Rooms, Fort, Bombay.
The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album. Published Monthly, under the Patronage of the Bombay Photographic Society... Sold at the Photographic Depôt and Portrait Rooms, Fort, Bombay.
The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album. Published Monthly, under the Patronage of the Bombay Photographic Society... Sold at the Photographic Depôt and Portrait Rooms, Fort, Bombay.
The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album. Published Monthly, under the Patronage of the Bombay Photographic Society... Sold at the Photographic Depôt and Portrait Rooms, Fort, Bombay.
The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album. Published Monthly, under the Patronage of the Bombay Photographic Society... Sold at the Photographic Depôt and Portrait Rooms, Fort, Bombay.
The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album. Published Monthly, under the Patronage of the Bombay Photographic Society... Sold at the Photographic Depôt and Portrait Rooms, Fort, Bombay.
The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album. Published Monthly, under the Patronage of the Bombay Photographic Society... Sold at the Photographic Depôt and Portrait Rooms, Fort, Bombay.
The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album. Published Monthly, under the Patronage of the Bombay Photographic Society... Sold at the Photographic Depôt and Portrait Rooms, Fort, Bombay.
The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album. Published Monthly, under the Patronage of the Bombay Photographic Society... Sold at the Photographic Depôt and Portrait Rooms, Fort, Bombay.
The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album. Published Monthly, under the Patronage of the Bombay Photographic Society... Sold at the Photographic Depôt and Portrait Rooms, Fort, Bombay.
The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album. Published Monthly, under the Patronage of the Bombay Photographic Society... Sold at the Photographic Depôt and Portrait Rooms, Fort, Bombay.
The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album. Published Monthly, under the Patronage of the Bombay Photographic Society... Sold at the Photographic Depôt and Portrait Rooms, Fort, Bombay.

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Johnson, W[illiam J.] and William Henderson.

The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album. Published Monthly, under the Patronage of the Bombay Photographic Society... Sold at the Photographic Depôt and Portrait Rooms, Fort, Bombay.

Bombay: January–October 1858, Nos. 15–24. Folio (17” x 12.8”), original printed buff wrappers. Each issue with 1 p. of letterpress and 3 albumen prints, for a total of 27 photographs between 6” x 4.75” and 9.5” x 8”. CONDITION: Overall very good, wrappers detached and frayed with occasional tears, photo tones vary from very dark to fair.

Striking and exceptionally early ethnographic, architectural, and landscape photographs of India published by pioneering professional photographers Johnson and Henderson, offered here in an unbroken run of nine issues of their rare monthly photographic journal.

Despite the word “amateur” in its title, many photographs in these issues of The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album are by its publishers, Bombay-based professionals William Johnson and William Henderson. The Photograph Album was established in 1856 by the Bombay Photographic Society and ran for a total of thirty-six issues, until 1858. The original printed lower wrappers advise:

The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Published Monthly, under the Patronage of the Bombay Photographic Society, contains three Subjects, not exceeding 10 in. by 8 in., with printed Title and Description of each on a separate Sheet.…In aid of this undertaking, Mr. Henderson will be glad to receive, from local and up-country Amateurs, the loan of Negatives, whether Glass or Paper ; Contributors being entitled in return to a Copy of the Album gratis for each Negative selected for publication. Mr. Henderson will also be glad to purchase good Negatives.

Among the amateur photographers represented in these issues, Archibald Robertson is credited for the two rare and distinctive studies of the Temple of Amarnath; H.D. Rae for three Ahmedabad views; Henry Hinton for St. Mary’s Church, Poona ; and “A.Z.” (Albert Zorn) for the Ancient Temple at Gokak “36 miles N.E. from Belgaum.”

With its regular “Costumes and Characters of Western India” feature, The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album “contains some of the earliest published photographs” of Indian people (Desmond, 55). One of the photos offered here is by both Johnson and Henderson, who in addition to their editorial collaboration on the Album also briefly shared a studio, and many of their subjects were later reprinted in the first ethnographic work to include photographs—The Oriental Races and Tribes : Residents and Visitors of Bombay (1863–65)—which Johnson published upon his return to England. Ethnographic portraits included in these issues of the Album document Jewish-Indian “Bene-lsrael Teachers”; “Smarta Brahmans”; “Bengali Hamals”; “The Native Knife Grinder and His Assistants”; “A Jaina Priest Instructing his Disciples”; “Mehtas or Native Writers”; “The Brahmachari Bawa, Vishnu Bhiku,” a religious celebrity who held widely-publicized debates in Bombay in 1857; and “Naka-Dole Waidyas,” wandering medicine men of questionable repute.

Architectural views in Bombay document “Fort Bombay, from the Apollo Bunder”; “The Colaba Memorial Church,” otherwise known as the Afghan Church; the “Temple of Dhakaleshwar at Breach-Candy”; the Campoolee railway yards, and more. Several views taken north of Bombay document Bassein (Vasai), including the crumbling “Main Entrance into the Inner Fort” of the Portuguese Fort; “The Church of St. Paul”; and “The Hindoo Temple of Mahdeo.” Other photographs show “Saint Mary’s Church” and “The Jamsetjee Bund” in Poona; “The Mastoid of Alimpu” and “The Gambaj of Ganj Bakshi” in Ahmedabad; “The Oldest English Tombs in Western India” in Surat; “Native Boats on the Creek” in Tanna; “Temple Excavation at Elora,” and more.

William Henderson was a clerk in the Uncovenanted Civil Service in Bombay between 1840 and 1844, and then for Peel, Cassels & Co from about 1845 to 1856. In addition to publishing The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album with Johnson, he maintained an active photographic studio from 1859 until the late 1860s, although he himself had returned to England in about 1857.

William Johnson worked as a clerk and assistant in the Bombay civil service between 1848 and 1861. He operated the first daguerreotype studio in Bombay between 1852 and 1854, after which he ran a photographic studio until the late 1860s (briefly partnering with Henderson). He was a founding member of the Bombay Photographic Society, and served as its secretary in addition to publishing the Album with Henderson.

REFERENCES: Falconer, John. India: Pioneering Photographers, 1850–1900 (London: British Library and Howard and Jane Ricketts Collection, 2001), pp. 138–39.

Item #5440

Price: $15,000.00

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