Lot 28: Linnaeus Tripe , 1822-1902 'the rock through a gap in the wall from the west side, trichinopoly'

plate 3 from Tripe's Photographic Views of Trichinopoly (Madras, 1860), salt print from a paper negative, on the original oblong folio mount, titled, dated, and numbered in pencil in an unidentified modern hand, the photographer's 'Photographer to Government' blindstamp and a label, numbered '3' in letterpress, on the mount, matted, 1856-58

measurements note 9¼ by 14¼ in. (23.5 by 36.2 cm.)

Jill Quasha, The Quillan Collection of Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Photographs (New York, 1991), pl. 19 (this print)Other prints of this image:Janet Dewan, The Photographs of Linnaeus Tripe: A Catalogue Raisonné (Toronto, 2003), cat. no. 6-50, where the title is given as 'Trichinopoly: Rock from the west looking through a gap in the front wall.'Janet Dewan and Maia-Mari Sutnik, Linnaeus Tripe, Photographer of British India 1854-1870 (Art Gallery of Ontario, 1986, in conjunction with the exhibition), pl. 34Bruce Bernard, Photodiscovery: Masterworks of Photography 1840-1940 (New York, 1980), pl. 60

Collection of Wilberforce Eames, New York (the complete album)Acquired by the Newberry Library, Chicago, from the above, 1907Sotheby's New York, 31 October and 1 and 2 November 1989, Sale 5921, Lot 11Acquired from the above by Charles Isaacs Photographs, Malvern, PennsylvaniaThis plate acquired by the Quillan Company from the above, 1990

This photograph shows the massive granite Rock of Trichinopoly, which rises over the plains in the state of Tamil Nadu in Southern India. This dramatic feature of the otherwise flat landscape is beautifully rendered by Tripe in the robustly-toned salt print offered here. The rock's imposing height and precipitous sides made it the ideal site for a fortress, visible upon the rock's summit in this photograph. The fort-like structure visible in the lower left portion of the photograph is actually a temple. The album from which this photograph came, Tripe's Photographic Views of Trichinopoly, was owned originally by the American bibliographer Wilberforce Eames, whose collection was purchased by the Newberry Library, Chicago, in 1907. Eames, at one time the head of the American History division of the New York Public Library, amassed a large personal book collection, parts of which are now at the Library of Congress, The Huntington Library, and the New York Public Library. Tripe authority Janet Dewan records only eight surviving intact copies of Photographic Views of Trichinopoly in institutional and private collections.