Lot 90
India - Sikhs
Photograph album of Sikh soldiers in the British Indian Army, c.1905-10
Auction: Other Properties | Wed 25 February from 10am | Lots 63 to 255
Description
Oblong folio album, two-tone cloth covers, containing approx. 80 gelatin silver print photographs mounted to rectos and versos of 17 gilt-edged thick card leaves (with further leaves in the album, blank), comprising:
17 large-format photographs (approx. 21 x 29cm), including 6 formal group portraits solely or predominantly of Sikh soldiers (several of these with studio's name of Holmes, i.e. W. D. Holmes, in the negative; 2 with manuscript captions to mount naming each sitter), 2 group portraits of a mix of British and Sikh soldiers (one with caption and studio's signature in negative, '2nd Class School of Musketry, Pachmarhi, 1910, H. Hands & Son), 2 of Sikh soldiers performing acrobatics, 3 of parades (two with manuscript captions: ‘45th Rattray’s Sikhs marching past the Sirdar Inayat Ullah, son of the Amir of Afghanistan, January 1905' and ‘45th Rattray’s Sikhs marching past the Prince of Wales, Dec. 1906'), the remaining large-format photographs being group portraits of British soldiers only (these with manuscript captions, e.g. Kasauli Sept 1097', Nowshera Feb. 1908'); and over 60 smaller photographs (various dimensions, mainly 8 x 12cm or similar, several larger, e.g. 9.5 x 29cm, 11 x 16.5cm), including informal portraits of Sikh soldiers, camp life, parades, mountain scenery, etc.); together with a small number of loose photographs, album block detached from covers.
Together with 2 related photograph albums (one including personal snapshot photographs of travels in Rhodesia, 1906, hunting and travels in India, 1909-13, etc.)
(3)