WILLIAM JOHNSON

The Oriental Races and Tribes, Residents and Visitors of Bombay, Vol. 1: Gujarât, Kutch and Kâthiawâr, London: W.J. Johnson, Bolton and Barnitt, 1863

Details

WILLIAM JOHNSON
The Oriental Races and Tribes, Residents and Visitors of Bombay, Vol. 1: Gujarât, Kutch and Kâthiawâr, London: W.J. Johnson, Bolton and Barnitt, 1863
One volume (of two) comprising twenty-six composite albumen prints, 9 x 7 in. or the reverse, mounted one-per-page on two-tone card with printed titles, printed title page, illustrations list, preface and letter-press descriptions by William Johnson, re-bound, titled in gilt on spine, g.e., lge. 4to.

Literature

Gernsheim, Incunabula of British Photographic Literature 1839-1875, p. 39, no. 207; Worswick and Embree, The Last Empire, pp. 4-5

Lot Essay

William Johnson was an official in the Bombay Civil Service who began working with daguerreotypes from a studio on Grant's Road, Bombay c.1852-54. From 1854-60 he worked as a commercial photographer and was editor with William Henderson of The Indian Amateur's Photographic Album (published monthly from 1856-59 under the patronage of the Bombay Photographic Society). He had been a founder member of the Society in 1854. In 1863, Johnson produced The Oriental Races and Tribes: Residents and Visitors of Bombay, which is thought to be the earliest Indian ethnographic work to make use of photographs.

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