This will take us from the icy depths of the Arctic and Antarctic courtesy of the Polar Sale (September 25) to the heat of the Indian subcontinent via the Arts of India (September 27), and a separate sale devoted to 19th century Indian Photographs from the collection of Kanwardip Gujral on the same day.
Mr Gujral, a Hamburg-based Indian businessman, was born into a Sikh family near Lahore and was just 12 years old at the time of the country’s independence and partition. He moved to Germany in 1960 and established a business in 1976, the year he also bought his first photograph of Delhi. He went on to build up an impressive collection, buying much of it through auctions and, wherever possible, acquiring works with a traceable provenance.
The sale at King Street includes images by many of the leading photographers of the day like Samuel Bourne and Felice Beato, works from the personal archives of Dr John Murray and Captain Eugene Impey; albums compiled for 8th and 9th Earls of Elgin and the 5th Marquis of Lansdowne, all former Viceroys of India, plus an 1880s album compiled by Lala Deen Dayal – the most successful Indian photographer of the period – for Sir William Lepel Griffin, agent to the Governor General of India.
Among the highlights of the collection are three impressive 1860s albums that may well have been the personal property of Samuel Bourne. Two of these comprise works by Bourne and other photographers; an album of 79 prints of riverscapes, scenic views and portraits, and another containing 103 architectural and landscape studies, each estimated at £15,000-20,000.
The third album comprises 119 prints of Himalayan views taken by Bourne during the course of three treks through the mountain range in 1863, ’64 and ’66, one of which is pictured here. This is an exceptionally extensive selection from his mammoth project and is estimated at £30,000-40,000.
Photo collection scales the heights
Themed series are all the rage in the salerooms these days. September 25-28 has been designated Travel Week by Christie’s King Street rooms and will be given over to a series of sales devoted to voyages, exploration and discovery.
