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Estimate: $ 1,400 - $ 1,800
SAMUEL BOURNE (1834-1912) A group of 10 photographs, primarily landscapes, including images made on expeditions to the Himalayas. Albumen prints, the images measuring 9 1/2x11 3/4 inches (24.1x29.8 cm.), and slightly smaller, and the reverse, four on mounts 18 1/4x16 1/4 inches (46.3x41.3 cm.), one mount slightly smaller, nearly all with Bourne's signature and inventory number in the negative, one with the title in the negative, and two with the printed title on mount recto. 1863-70
Waterfall and Bridge (#200) * Near Manirung Pass (#1472) * View from Kunzan (#1454) * Distant View (#1463) * Nelang Pass (Buspa Valley) (#1527) * Interior of Eastern Colonnade, Kutub, Delhi (#1374, mounted) * Waterfall (#2010) * Rocks, Snow - Nelang Pass (#1529, mounted) * Village of Sonamurc (mounted) * Merchants Houses on Duhl Canal (#814, mounted)
Bourne arrived in India in 1863 and opened a photographs studio in Simla. He made three expeditions to the Himalayas, which brought him significant recognition. Images and accounts were published in the "British Journal of Photography" in 1864 and 1870. On the last and most strenuous of these trips in 1866, from which images are included in this group, Bourne traveled with the botanist and geologist G.R. Playfair, and hired 80 porters to carry live animals as well as boxes of chemicals, glass plates, and a darkroom tent. He succeeded in treking to the origin of the Ganges River, despite significant hardship and risk, taking a photograph at 18,600 feet of elevation, a record at the time. Bourne's courage, along with his pursuit of incredible aesthetic standards, earned him the reputation as one of the best photographer-explorers of the period.
Bourne left India in 1870, and by then had produced over 2500 views. His record of India was exhaustive, meticulous, and highly appreciated by tourists, scientists, and collectors. About views like the ones in this lot, he wrote: "I never beheld such a splendid array of peaks and glaciers; they cropped up on either side, and stood thick around me like icebergs in a polar sea. And as I stood on the crest of the Pass and surveyed this vast region held in the icy fetters of eternal winter, I could not but feel deeply impressed with the sublimity and majesty of nature when beheld in scenes like these."
