Arrangement
Scope and Contents of the Collection
Processing History
Acquisition Information
Publication Rights
Access
Biographical/Historical Note
Preferred Citation
Digitized Material
Contributing Institution: Special Collections
Title: Indian portrait album
Creator: Chintamon, Hurrychund
Creator: Hormusjee, Shapoorjee
Creator: Jamsetjee, Rustomjee
Creator: P. Vuccino & Co.
Creator: Bourne & Shepherd
Creator: Vussuntrao Hurrychund & Co.
Identifier/Call Number: 2011.R.17
Physical Description: 1 album(s)(133 photographic prints)
Date: 1880
Abstract : The album contains 122 carte-de-visite and 11 cabinet card portraits of Indian sitters and related subjects by various photographers
including: Bourne & Shepherd; John Burke; Hurrychund Chintamon; Photographie Parisienne, Bombay; Shapoorjee Hormusjee; Vussuntrao
Hurrychund & Co.; Rustomjee Jamsetjee; David Sykes; and P. Vuccino & Co.
Physical Location: Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the
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Language of Material: Collection material is in English.
Arrangement
In original order.
Scope and Contents of the Collection
The album presented to the Honorable M. Mowat from H. H. J. contains 122 carte-de-visite and 11 cabinet card portraits of
Indian sitters and related subjects by various photographers. The album may have been compiled by a member of the Jeejeebhoy
family, whose portraits predominate at the beginning of the album.
The portraits are arranged in groups identified by religion such as: Parsee gentlemen; Hindoo gentlemen; Mahomedan gentlemen;
Parsee ladies; Hindoo ladies; Hindoo songstresses; and Hindoo mythological idols. Portraits of Parsees predominate, although
Hindus and Muslims are also well-represented. Many of the sitters, who include maharajas, officials, and members of prominent
families, are identified by name. Others, including some of the family groups, are identified only by ethno-religious denominators.
Images of unnamed tradespersons are also interspersed in the album. Some of the portraits and religious images are photographic
reproductions of paintings; there are also photographs of sculptures.
While the makers of the majority of the photographs are as yet unidentified as the card slots obscure most of the photographers'
imprints, the following photographers or studios have been identified: Bourne & Shepherd; John Burke; Hurrychund Chintamon;
Photographie Parisienne, Bombay; Shapoorjee Hormusjee; Vussuntrao Hurrychund & Co.; Rustomjee Jamsetjee; David Sykes; and
P. Vuccino & Co.
The album is bound in brown morocco leather with a partial brass clasp remaining on the foredge of the front cover. The intials
M. M. are gilt stamped on the front cover. An embroidered inscription inserted in the first opening reads: To / the Hon'ble
/ M. Mowat / from H. H. J. / Bombay / 14th May 1880. A binder's ticket pasted on back free endpaper reads: W. Butcher and
Son / Blackheath / London S.E.
The category headings and individual sitter identifications written in brown ink on many of the mounts have been used as page
titles and titles of individual photographs respectively. The titles for pages and photographs lacking annotations have been
devised by the cataloger. The photographs are cartes-de-visite (four per page), unless noted as being cabinet cards.
Processing History
The finding aid was written by Beth Ann Guynn in 2012 and updated by her in 2020.
Acquisition Information
Acquired in 2011.
Publication Rights
Access
Open for use by qualified researchers.
Biographical/Historical Note
The album may have been compiled by a member of the Jeejeebhoy family, whose portraits predominate at the beginning of the
album.
Preferred Citation
Indian portrait album, circa 1880, The Getty Research Institute, Accession no. 2012.R.14
Digitized Material
The collection was digitized by the repository in 2013 and the images are available online:
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/2011r17
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Occupations -- India
Muslims -- Portraits
India -- Description and travel
Parsees -- Portraits
Studio portraits -- India -- 19th century
Albumen prints -- Greece -- 19th century
Group portraits -- India -- 19th century
Cartes-de-visite -- India -- 19th century
Cabinet cards -- India -- 19th century
Photograph albums -- India -- 19th century
Petit point -- India -- 19th century
Hindus -- Portraits
Hindu gods
Copy prints -- India -- 19th century
Sykes, David Harold