4024 - Ceylon

Ceylon Photographers: Skeen & Co. (active 1860-1903), Scowen & Co. (active 1876-1893), and unknown. Views of Ceylon. 1880s. 13 albumen prints, mounted to boards. Each between 21 x 27,5 cm (mount 22,5 x 29,5 cm) and 21,5 x 28 cm (mount 25 x 31,5 cm). Some with the photographer’s credit and/or number printed in the negative; several mounts captioned in pencil, including “Ratnapura”, “Colombo from the Cathedral Tower”, “Kadugannawa Pass between Colombo and Kandy” and “Une rue à Colombo”. A varied late nineteenth-century photographic itinerary through British Ceylon, including tea pluckers on an estate, a bathing scene at a stepped waterfall, a village street, Ratnapura river craft, Colombo harbor and street views, a temple complex, hill-country roads and a mahout with elephant. The selection combines scenic views made for circulation in the colonial travel market with depictions of transport, agricultural labor and local daily life. – Mounts with some foxing, time-staining, handling marks, minor edge wear, occasional creases and small tears; prints with isolated scuffs and scratches and varying tonal strength, with fading around the edges of some prints, otherwise generally in good condition.