[Cricket]

A vintage group photograph captioned 'Cricket Match Feb 02 Furreedpore' ['1902 Faridpur' in another hand on the verso]

Image size 229 × 286 mm, on the original mount 252 × 304 mm (with the caption in ink below the image), behind a mat with interior quarter-round corners (maximum visible image size 223 × 282 mm), framed and glazed, with a gilt fillet behind the glass. The caption is not visible when the mat is in position; the bottom left-hand corner of the mount and photograph has been broken away and repaired, with a 75 mm diagonal crack across that corner visible but unobtrusive; there is a tiny amount of surface loss to the shirt of the player in the centre of the front row; overall, a very appealing period piece, in an early, but not contemporary, mat and frame.

Furreedpore (Faridpur), formerly in East Bengal, India (now Bangladesh), has important Australian connections, exemplified by this photograph. Silas Mead (1834-1909), a Baptist minister, emigrated to South Australia in July 1861; 'he preached at chapels in Adelaide and North Adelaide. Regular services began at White's Rooms and within a month a Baptist Church was constituted with twenty-six members. Inspired by Mead's enthusiastic leadership, the congregation decided to build a large church in Flinders Street; it was opened on 19 May 1863. When its cost of £7000 was cleared by 1864 he established at Furreedpore, India, the first constituted Australian Baptist Foreign Mission and later helped to found similar societies in other Australian colonies'. His son, Dr Cecil Silas Mead (1866-1940), followed closely in his footsteps; after graduating from the University of Adelaide in 1891 'he served as a medical missionary in eastern Bengal for twenty-nine years, returned to Adelaide to teach anatomy in 1923-39 and died in June 1940' ('Australian Dictionary of Biography'). Dr Mead is second from the right in the top seated row; we have no reason to doubt that this photograph was once in his possession, and for all intents and purposes, it is unique. A copy of 'Doctor Sahib: The Story of Dr Cecil Silas Mead' by Elva Schroeder (2013) is offered together with the photograph. [2 items].

Item #110709

Price (AUD): $900.00
other currencies