Stevenson, Robert Louis
Glass plate negative taken in Samoa
£479
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs
Auction: 19 June 2024 from 10:00 BST
Description
Showing Robert Louis Stevenson and Tuimaleali'ifano Fa'aoloi'i Si'ua'ana I, paramount chief of Samoa, 21.5 x 16cm, with some writing to the negative and three labels around the margins one reading “Stevenson copy Samoa 17/6/95: 229”
Footnote
This image can be found in Vailima Letters by Robert Louis Stevenson, published in 1895, opposite p.320.
The text on the negative: Stevenson copy Samoa 17/6/95: 229, suggests that this copy of the image was created seven months after Robert Louis Stevenson's death. It has been suggested that this negative belonged to the New Zealand-born photographer in Apia, Alfred John Tattersall, whom the photographer John Davis took on as an assistant in 1886. The number 229 seems to have been Tattersall's stock number. In April 1895 a large fire destroyed Davis' photographic Gallery and all of Davis' negatives were destroyed. However, for this copy to have been created, the negative must have been stored elsewhere and is therefore one of the few pieces from the Davis collection to have survived.
Extensive research suggests that this is the only negative in existence of this image of Robert Louis Stevenson with Chief Tuimaleali'ifano Fa'aoloi'i Si'ua'ana. Notably, it is the last known photograph taken of Robert Louis Stevenson prior to his death.
It would therefore make sense that any copies he had stored elsewhere would then become the only negative in existence after the fire destroyed the original negative(s).