[Travel & Exploration] [Asia] Collection of 19th Century Albumen Prints of Asia

Circa second half nineteenth-century. Comprising 30 sheets with 93 mounted albumen prints and carte de visites, documenting the people, royalty, and scenery of Cambodia, China, Japan, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), the Seychelle Islands, Siam (Thailand), and Manila, Philippines; many with MS. captions in pencil; some hand-colored. Original green cloth scrapbook, stamped in black and in gilt, front and rear boards separated, spine perished; many sheets loose and/or starting; scattered chipping along edges.

Travel album entirely devoted to Asia, with the largest group of images set in China and Japan and the rest in Cambodia, Sri Lanka, the Seychelles Islands, Thailand, and Manila, Philippines. Some images are captioned, “1873”, but all seem to be from the late 1860s or early 1870s. While some of the images are commercially produced souvenirs, the photographer(s) of the rest is unclear. Images in China depict the Emperor Palace in Beijing, the Five-Story Pagoda in Canton (Guangzhou), the Mercantile Bank in Hong Kong, and a river steamer on the Yangtze River near Shanghai. The local people in China are depicted in various scenes, and feature low-wage laborers, barbers, and actresses, as well as portrait-style images that capture the fashions among wealthy families during the Late Qing Dynasty. Also captured are native Chinese laborers carrying a Sedan Chair. There are more than a dozen images of Japanese women in traditional Japanese clothing, some hand-colored. Also shown is a church, a Buddhist temple in Nagasaki, and the Bronze Statue of Dai-Bouts (Great Buddha) in Kamakura.

The album also contains images of Cambodian soldiers, women, children, statues of Buddha, native houses, and portraits of Norodom, the King of Cambodia. One photo is captioned, “Girl with Dorian,” followed by a MS. note on Dorian, a tropical fruit distinguished by its large size and spiky, hard shell. This interesting note sheds light on the curiosity of a possible Western traveler at their first sight of an exotic fruit. Also captured is an elephant in Thailand, street people in Manila, Philippines, and a boat used in the harbor of De Galle, Sri Lanka. One photo shows five Devil Dancers in Sri Lanka in special outfits. There are also photographs of a church and several business buildings on the Seychelles Islands.

An appealing and diverse collection of remarkable images of Asian countries taken from a Westerner’s perspective.