ETHCDV27. J. Garrigues, Tunis. North African CDV of mother and daughter. VG. $125
ETHCAB9. Davis Garber, NY. William Taylor (1821-1902), Missionary Bishop of Africa, 1884-1896, of the Methodist Episcopal Church. VG. $600
ETHCDV45. No ID. On back is written “Negresse avec son eventail” (Negress with her fan). I believe this is Algerian. VG. $125
ETHCDV51. Attibuted to J. Tresorier. Native woman with bag. VG. $150
ETHCDV54. Attributed to Alary & Geiser. Native woman. VG. $100
ETHCDV77. C.D. Fredricks & Co., NY. Malay doctor & patient. VG. $450
ETHCDV90. Barton & Co., Secunderabad Hyderabad. A group of Indian children. G. $50
ETHCDV91. Barton & Co., Secunderabad Hyderabad. Group of Indian children. VG. $65
ETHCDV92. Barton & Co., Secunderabad Hyderabad. Group of Indians. VG. $65
ETHCDV107. Bourne & Shepherd, India. Tobacconists of Bombay. VG. $250
ETHCDV110. No photographer ID. On verso is written “Turco.” A Turco is an Algerian soldier in the French Army. VG. $125
ETHCDV111. No photographer ID. This is a Turco, an Algerian soldier in the French Army. VG. $125
ETHALB1. Fine CDV album of 144 CDVs, 28 of which are tinted. Most are Middle Eastern with an assortment of other nationalities. The CDVs are permanently enclosed in the album as the pages do not have slits at top or bottom for removal. 12″ x 9.” One of the clasps is missing. VG-E condition. $6500
ETHCDV118. R. Caracachian, Constantinople. Street vendor. G-. $35
ETHCDV119. Group of 4 in middle-eastern outfits. Unidentified. VG. $65
ETHCDV120. Three women around a grinding mortar stone. Unidentified location. VG. $75
ETHCDV121. Image is labeled “Coolie,” no location. Merchant with primitive scale and merchandise. Probably Japan, my guess. VG. $75
EthnicAlbum9. Rare Early Carte-de-Visite Photos of Egypt. Several images by Hammerschmidt, Wilhelm; Desire, Ermé; & David Robertson & Co. Album of Fifty Early Original Cartes-de-visite Albumen Photographs of Egypt and Its People, Showing Cairo (General Views, Muhammad Ali Mosque, Sultan Hassan Mosque, the Pyramids of Giza, the Sphinx, &c.), Beirut, Portraits of Arab Merchants, Street Sellers, Officials, Musicians, a Barber, a Shoe Cobbler, “Arab Beggar,” “Arab Washwomen,” “Bedouin Soldier,” Water Carriers, and Others. Ca. 1860s-1870s. Small thick CDV album with 25 album leaves. 50 albumen CDV photos, all ca. 2 ¼ x 3 ½ in. Various photographers. All images are shown above. If there is a backmark or anything written on verso the verso is shown. If the verso is blank, it is not shown.
The album contains thirty-two portraits of Egyptians and scenes from their life (merchants in their shops, government officials, musicians, a barber and his client, “a seller of sugar cane,” a shoe cobbler, “Arab beggar,” “Arab coffee merchant,” “Arab washwomen,” “Bedouin soldier,” water carriers and sellers, women and children, &c.). The other images show Cairo and its environs: general views, photos of Muhammad Ali Mosque (general view, a view of the courtyard and fountain), the Mosque of Sultan Hassan (exterior and interior) and other Mamluk mosques, the Pyramids of Giza and the Great Sphinx, &c. The collection also includes two general views of Beirut, Lebanon. Overall a beautiful album with well-preserved early carte-de-visite photographs of Egypt.
“Born in Berlin, Wilhelm Hammerschmidt was already a professional photographer when he settled in Cairo, Egypt, around 1860. There he established the Hammerschmidt shop, where he sold photographic materials to other early photographers such as Henry Cammas. Hammerschmidt exhibited ten views of Egypt at the Société Française de Photographie in 1861 before becoming a member the following year. He also made costume and ethnographic studies, exhibiting those at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1867. Hammerschmidt also made photographs in Syria and Nubia, now Sudan” (Wilhelm Hammerschmidt / Getty Museum Collection; https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/person/103KH1). Hammerschmidt is considered one of the first photographers to produce high-quality detailed images of Egypt and his travels and photographs of Upper Egypt and Nubia predate popular tourism in Egypt. He appears to have collaborated with the pioneering photo chemist Hermann Wilhelm Vogel (1834-1898) which would explain the high quality of Hammerschmidt’s photographs.
Ermé Désiré opened his photo studio in Cairo in ca. 1864 and became known for the series of views of the construction of the Suez Canal and numerous photos of Cairo, produced on the assignment of Ismail Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt. He also took classical ethnographic portraits of local people, from beggars and street sellers to Egyptian dignitaries and officers of the Khedivial army. VG. $4500
ETHALB10. CDV album measuring 6″ x 5″. Title page reads “Album Photographique.” The album contains 47 CDVs and a later cut-down postcard, 48 images in all. Images are captioned in ink on the album mount and often a variant title on versos in pencil on many of them. Places identified in the captions are Malta (2); Suez Canal and environs (10); Penang (2); Singapore (2); Hong Kong (2); Japan (4); China (19, including 8 photographs of illustrations, and a later postcard of a street barber in Batavia, mislabeled as China); and Melbourne (7). Only one photograph, that of an illustration of Yeh, ‘the celebrated Chinese poisoner,’ is credited to “Nam-Ting, Photographer & Portrait Painter, No. 84, Hong Kong.” The page mounts are decorated with stickers naming various vessels. This album was found in Australia. A fine album, fully intact, maintaining its integrity all these years. VG. $4000
ETHCDV124. Chas. Paxson, New York. Learning is Wealth. Wilson, Charley, Rebecca & Rosa. Slaves from New Orleans. No. 6. Copyright 1864. “The net proceeds from the sale of these Photographs will be devoted to the education of Colored People in the Department of the Gulf, now under the command of Major General Banks.” CDV. VG. $750
ETHCDV125. Kimball, New York. Rebecca, Charley and Rosa, Slave Children from New Orleans. Copyright 1863 by P. Bacon. “The net proceeds from the sale of these Photographs will be devoted to the education of Colored People in the Department of the Gulf, now under the command of Maj.-Gen. Banks.” CDV. VG. $500
ETHCDV126. H. Delie & Cie, Caire, Egypte. Written on verso: “From Wm. Howland, Cairo Mch’bg?” VG. $50
ETHCDV127. Indien artificier. VG. $100
Ethcab27. James E. Bruton, Cape Town, South Africa. Cetshwayo kaMpande c. 1826-8 February 1884) was the king of the Zulu Kingdom from 1873 to 1884 and its Commander in Chief during the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. His name has been rendered as Cetywayo or Cetshwayo. Cetshwayo consistently opposed the war and sought fruitlessly to make peace with the British and was defeated and exiled following the Zulu defeat in the war. He was later allowed to return to Zululand, where he died in 1884.
Cetshwayo was born in 1826, the son of future Zulu king Mpande and Queen Ngqumbazi. He was a half-nephew of the reigning Zulu king Shaka and grandson of Senzangakhona. His father became king in 1840. In 1856 Cetshwayo defeated and killed in battle his younger brother Mbuyazi, Mpande’s favourite, at the Battle of Ndondakusuka. Almost all of Mbuyazi’s followers were massacred in the aftermath of the battle, including five of Cetshwayo’s brothers. Following this Cetshwayo became the ruler of the Zulu people in everything but name. However, he did not ascend to the throne as his father was still alive. Stories from that time regarding his huge size vary, saying he stood at least between 6 ft. 6 in. and 6 ft. 8 in. in height and weighed close to 350 lbs.
His other brother, Umthonga, was still a potential rival. Cetshwayo also kept an eye on his father’s new wives and children for potential rivals, ordering the death of his favorite wife, Nomantshali, and her children in 1861. Though two sons escaped, the youngest was murdered in front of the king. After these events Umthonga fled to the Boers’ side of the border and Cetshwayo had to make deals with the Boers to get him back. In 1865, Umthonga again fled across the border, apparently making Cetshwayo believe that Umthonga would organize help from the Boers against him, the same way his father had overthrown his predecessor, Dingane.
Furthermore, he had a rival half-brother named uHamu kaNzibe, who betrayed the Zulu cause on numerous occasions.
Mpande died in 1872. His death was first concealed to ensure a smooth transition; Cetshwayo was installed as king on 1 September 1873. Sir Theophilus Shepstone, who annexed the Transvaal to the Cape Colony, crowned Cetshwayo. Shepstone eventually turned on the Zulus, as he felt he was undermined by Cetshwayo’s skillful negotiations for land area and compromised by encroaching Boers, as well as the fact that the Boundary Commission established to examine the ownership of the land in question had dared to rule in favor of the Zulus. The report was subsequently buried.
After his coronation, as was customary, Cetshwayo established a new capital for the nation and called it Ulundi (the high place). He expanded his army and readopted many methods of Shaka. Cetshwayo also equipped his impis with muskets, though evidence of their use is limited. He banished European missionaries from his land and may have incited other native African peoples to rebel against Boers in the Transvaal.
In 1878, Sir Henry Bartle Frere, British High Commissioner for the Cape Colony, sought to confederate the colony the same way Canada had been and felt that this could not be done while there was a powerful Zulu state bordering it. Frere thus began to demand reparations for Zulu border infractions and ordered his subordinates to send messages complaining about Cetshwayo’s policies, seeking to provoke the Zulu king. They carried out their orders, but Cetshwayo kept calm, considering the British his friends and being aware of the power of the British Army. He did, however, state that he and Frere were equals, and since he did not complain about how Frere administered the Cape Colony, Frere should observe the same courtesy concerning Zululand. Eventually, Frere issued an ultimatum that demanded that Cetshwayo de facto disband his army.
His refusal led to war in 1879, though he continually sought to make peace after the Battle of Isandlwana, the first engagement of the war. After an initial decisive but costly Zulu victory over the British at Isandlwana and the failure of the other two columns of the three-pronged British attack to make headway – indeed, one was bogged down in the Siege of Eshowe – the British retreated, other columns suffering two further defeats to Zulu armies in the field at the Battle of Intombe and the Battle of Hlobane. However, the British follow-up victories at Rorke’s Drift and Kambula prevented a total collapse of the British military positions. While this retreat presented an opportunity for a Zulu counterattack deep into Natal, Cetshwayo refused to mount such an attack; he intended to repulse the British offensive and secure a peace treaty. However, Cetshwayo’s translator, a Dutch trader he had imprisoned at the start of the war named Cornelius Vijn, gave warnings to Lord Chelmsford of gathering Zulu forces during these negotiations.
The British then returned to Zululand with a far larger and better-armed force, finally capturing the Zulu capital at the Battle of Ulundi, in which the British, having learned their lesson from their defeat at Isandlwana, set up a hollow square on the open plain, armed with cannons and Gatling guns. The battle lasted approximately 45 minutes before the British ordered their cavalry to charge the Zulus, which routed them. After Ulundi was taken and burnt on 4 July, Cetshwayo was deposed and exiled, first to Cape Town and then to London. He returned to Zululand in 1883.
From 1881, his cause had been taken up by, among others, Lady Florence Dixie, correspondent of The Morning Post, who wrote articles and books in his support. This, along with his gentle and dignified manner, gave rise to public sympathy and the sentiment that he had been ill-used and shoddily treated by Bartle Frere and Lord Chelmsford.
By 1882, differences between two Zulu factions—pro-Cetshwayo uSuthus and three rival chiefs led by Zibhebhu—had erupted into a blood feud and civil war. In 1883, the British government tried to restore Cetshwayo to rule at least part of his previous territory, but the attempt failed. With the aid of Boer mercenaries, Chief Zibhebhu started a war contesting the succession, and on 22 July 1883, he attacked Cetshwayo’s new kraal in Ulundi. Cetshwayo was wounded but escaped to the forest at Nkandla. After pleas from the Resident Commissioner, Sir Melmoth Osborne, Cetshwayo moved to Eshowe, where he died a few months later on 8 February 1884, presumably from a heart attack, although there are some theories that he may have been poisoned. His body was buried in a field within sight of the forest, to the south near Nkunzane River. The remains of the wagon that carried his corpse to the site were placed on the grave and may be seen at Ondini Museum, near Ulundi.
Cetshwayo’s most prominent role in South African historiography is being the last king independent of the Zulu Kingdom. His son Dinuzulu, as heir to the throne, was proclaimed king on 20 May 1884, supported by (other) Boer mercenaries. A blue plaque commemorates Cetshwayo at 18 Melbury Road, Kensington, London. G. $375
ETHCDV128. A carriage runner, Cairo, Egypt. VG. $50
ETHCDV129. How to ride a camel, Egypt. G. $50
ETHCDV130. Turkish Women at Cairo, Egypt. VG. $65
ETHCDV131. A Bedouin of the Desert, Cairo, Egypt. $50