Oblong Folio album (ca. 27,5x38 cm). 49 paper leaves. With 49 mounted albumen photographs, including 47 larger ones, from ca. 23,5x29 cm (9 ¼ x 11 ½ in) to ca. 14,5x20 cm (5 ½ x 7 ¾ in); and two smaller photos ca. 9x13,5 cm (3 ½ x 5 ¼ in). Eighteen photos with captions and/or photographers’ stamps and signatures in negative. Period brown half sheep album with cloth boards, gilt-tooled with the gilt-lettered initials “A.L.” on the front board; moire endpapers. Photos seemingly mounted at a later date. Mounts slightly waved and crinkled, a couple of photos with minor losses on the corners or extremities, but overall a very good collection of interesting strong photos.

An attractive collection of large albumen studio photos of British India and Ceylon, by famous local studios. The photos of India, mostly attributed to Bourne and Shepherd, show the architecture of Agra (Taj Mahal, the tomb of Itimad-ud-Daulah, Akbar’s tomb), Ahmedabad (Rani Sipri’s Mosque, the Temple of Hathi Singh), Lucknow (Dikulsha Kothi), Kolkata (Buddhist Pagoda in the Eden Gardens); there are also views of the Elephanta Caves, a train turning on the Agony Point Loop of the Darjeeling-Himalayan Railway, a statue of Nandi Bull, etc. The other photos show Fort Ali Masjid in the Khyber Pass (by John Burke), sculptures decorating a Hindu temple (by “Nicholas & Co.”), a town in Darjeeling with the Himalayas towering in the background, hill stations, portraits of workers at burning ghats, cart drivers, girls, etc. The photos of Sri Lanka show Colombo (Queen Street with the old lighthouse, Grand Oriental Hotel), hills with tea plantations, the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy and portraits of Tamil tea pluckers (by “Scowen & Co.).” Overall a nice collection of large studio photos of British India and Ceylon.

A list of captioned photos: The Taj. Agra. 1080 (unsigned, but Bourne & Shepherd); 3133. A dunga, shikari & kitchen boat; [Lucknow, the Dikulsha Palace] (signed “Borne 1149”); Huthi Singh’s Tomb. Ahmedabad. 2236 (signed “Bourne & Shepherd 2236”); Ranee Seepika Musjid. Ahmedabad. 2233 (signed “Bourne & Shepherd 2233”); [Lucknow. View from the terrace of the Hooseinabad Emambara] (signed “Borne 1051”); The Mausoleum of Akbar. Sekundra. 1251 (unsigned, but Bourne & Shepherd); [Agra. The Mausoleum of Prince Etmad-Dowlah from the Gate] (signed “Borne 1232”); The Taj from fountain. Agra. 1077 (unsigned, but Bourne & Shepherd); An Ekka. 1128 (signed “B.+S.”); Ali Musjid. (signed “Burke 28”); [Sculptures on a Hindu temple] (signed “Nicholas & Co. Madras”); Pagoda in Eden Gardens. Calcutta. 1710. (signed “B.[ourne]”; Dalada Maligawa (Temple of the Tooth. Kandy) (signed “Scowen & Co.”); Tamil cooly plucking tea leaf (signed “Scowen & Co. Ceylon”); [A Fijian landscape with colonial buildings] (signed “Dufty & Co. Levuka. Fiji”); [A view of the Grand Oriental Hotel in Colombo] (signed “Photographers W.L.H. Skeen & Co., Colombo, Ceylon”); [The Angel of Cawnpore memorial] (signed “V. Pont. 69”).