A collection of 24 carte-de-visite portrait photographs of Indigenous Australians, circa 1860s, most from the Yarra Valley and North-East Victoria
Large quarto, four thin card leaves sewn together, with a total of 35 mounted albumen silver prints (most approximately 90-95 × 55-60 mm).
Leaves a little cockled and lightly tanned around the edges; some prints a little unevenly discoloured; overall, in excellent condition, now housed in a custom-made cloth portfolio, with a contrasting leather title-label on the front cover.
The Aboriginal portraits of Thomas Jeston Washbourne (1832-1905) are rare on the open market and in institutional holdings, and their attribution can be problematic. The most readily-attributable images are a series of ten tableaux taken in or near Wangaratta around 1866. They show 'King' Billy Elengeit (Barwidgee) and members of his extended family and community in a studio setting adorned with eucalyptus foliage. All sitters have been identified (see Ruth E. Lawrence: 'Thomas Jeston Washbourne's photographs of Indigenous Australians', in 'The La Trobe Journal' Number 107, 2022). This group includes two prints of a single portrait of Maggie Stone, granddaughter of Billy and Queen Mary. The remaining images comprise individual or group portraits, most likely taken at Coranderrk Aboriginal Station. All but one are posed against a plain white cloth backdrop, but these portraits are less formal than the studio tableaux, with the sitters generally ungroomed, and in everyday clothes or partial undress. These are also likely by Washbourne. One of them, explicitly attributed to Washbourne by the National Library of Australia (PIC/18179), shows Thomas Bamfield, a Taungerong clan head, circa 1866, and the others are in the same style. Some are captioned in pencil, although these captions appear to be later and are not always accurate. One image, a half-profile portrait of a well-groomed man in his Sunday best, may be by Carl [Charles] Walter, as it is in keeping with his fine series of portraits of the inhabitants of Coranderrk produced for the 1866 Intercolonial Exhibition (although it does not feature in the panel held by the State Library of Victoria, H91.1/1-106). Several of these images have been attributed to Italian anthropologist and zoologist Enrico Hillyer Giglioli (1845-1909). Four are reproduced in Aldo Massola's 'Coranderrk: A History of the Aboriginal Station' (1975), and six are attributed to Giglioli (or 'Giglioli?') in the finding aid for the 'Aldo Massola Collection: historical photographs principally from Victoria' at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS). However, Giglioli was known as a collector rather than a photographer, and this attribution may have resulted from his habit of signing his name at the foot of the album leaves on which he mounted images by other photographers. Jane Lydon has added to the confusion in her 2005 book, 'Eye Contact. Photographing Indigenous Australians' (pages 95-98). Eleven further photographs are mounted on the same album leaves. The first is a contemporary view, captioned 'Dandenong State Forest. Sassafras Creek - view under the fronds' (155 × 206 mm). The remainder are of New Zealand interest, and comprise a view of Nelson College (135 × 210 mm); an oval carte-de-visite of Port Lyttelton; a very large view of eight giant moa skeletons (215 × 295 mm), most likely in the Canterbury Museum; a view of two individuals in traditional dress in front of a Maori house; and six carte-de-visite portraits of Maori people, some of whom we have identified from institutional holdings. (1) An unidentified man, captioned 'Fifeu | Reuboi Chief' (apparently in error); (2) Tomika Te Mutu, chief of Ngaiterangi, by John Crombie (miscaptioned 'Rewi | Maori Chief'); (3) Nopera Te Ngiha, a chief (miscaptioned 'Remera Teiko'); (4) An unidentified woman (captioned 'Maori Girl'); (5) Haniota Henere; (6) Haniota Henere with another woman.
Item #84432
Price (AUD):
$45,000.00