About this Book
Bourne & Shepherd’s Royal Photographic Album of Scenes and Personages: Connected with the Progress of H. R. H. The Prince of Wales, through Bengal, the North-West Provinces, the Punjab and Nepal with some descriptive letterpress, Calcutta, Bombay and Simla: Bourne and Shepherd, 1876. Folio (370 x 270mm).
79 pages of descriptive text for the Photos; 140 photos plus frontispiece (141) by Colin Murray depicting rulers, military costumes, ethnic, maharajas, shikar etc. The album includes photographs of significant Indian sites such as the Taj Mahal, important Indian locations (including Amritsar, Lahore, Agra and Fatehpur Sikri, Delhi, Gwalior, and Benares), portraits of local princes, groups of types (including Beluchi chiefs, Dancing Gadis, Yarkandis with hunting hawks, women of Kashmir, Tibetan mendicants, and Men of Bikaner), shikar, hunting and elephants, mostly mounted. Each photograph is accompanied by a written explanation. The Prince of Wales started his eight month tour of the Indian subcontinent in October 1875. He travelled extensively across the different regions and met many prominent Indian rulers.
This album was published commercially by Bourne & Shepherd, the leading photographic agency in India. Bourne and Shepherd was the longest running photographic firms in the world, established in Calcutta in 1863. A devastating fire shattered the business archives and collection in 1991 and the studio finally closed it’s curtains in 2016. Additionally, in 1911, they were the official photographers of the Delhi Durbar held to commemorate the coronation of King George V and Queen Mary as Emperor and Empress of India.
Condition: The frontispiece is loose with tears/stains to edges, slight damp-staining to margin of mount to approximately 15 leaves, minor spotting to the edges of two photographs, early reverse calf, red morocco gilt-lettered title panel on upper cover, red edges, worn with some loss to spine.
Provenance- Charles Bayard Rich, Royal Field Artillery. Included with the album is a small archive containing a portrait of Rich, a postcard addressed to him, etc.
A beautiful, collector’s item!
