Lot 122: Linnaeus Tripe 1822-1902 , 'namkal drug'

plate 10 from Tripe's Photographic Views of Ryakotta (Madras, 1860), salt print from a paper negative, on the original oblong folio mount, the photographer's 'Photographer to Government' blindstamp and a label, numbered '10' in letterpress, on the mount, matted, 1857-58

measurements note 9 5/8 by 14¾ in. (24.4 by 37.5 cm.)

Monterey Museum of Art, Passion and Precision: Photographs from the Collection of Margaret W. Weston , January - April 2003

Passion and Precision: Photographs from the Collection of Margaret W. Weston
(Monterey Museum of Art, 2003, in conjunction with the exhibition), p. 27 (this print)
Another print of this image:
Janet Dewan, The Photographs of Linnaeus Tripe: A Catalogue Raisonné
(Toronto, 2003), cat. no. 6-15, where the title is given as 'Namculdroog. Droog and tank.'

The photograph offered here originally comes from the collection of James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin and 12th Earl of Kincardine (1811-1863). Bruce was active in international politics throughout his life: Governor of Jamaica in 1842, Governor General of Canada in 1847, High Commissioner to China in 1857, and Viceroy and Governor General of India in 1861. Throughout his later life he was an avid collector of photography, evidenced by the Sotheby?s London sale of the family archives in 1998. The auction included no less than nine albums by Tripe, believed to have been acquired by Bruce during his residency in India. Tripe scholar Janet Dewan locates 9 surviving intact albums of Photographic Views of Ryakotta in institutional collections. Two further copies of the album have appeared at auction and been subsequently disbound, including Elgin?s copy of the album from which the present print was taken.