“Group of Aborigines, Lake Alexandrina” (1862).

A$2,200 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

[Title from contemporary inscription in ink verso]. Stereoscopic albumen print photograph, each image approximately 70 x 75 mm (arch-top format), on original flat mount of pale green/azure card, 85 x 180 mm; fully contemporary inscription in ink verso: Group of Aborigines, Lake Alexandrina , with the original owner s initials M.A.H. and their collection number 79 ; the right-hand albumen print has a few tiny ink spots, otherwise both prints are in fine condition; the mount is clean but has some pinholes at left and right edges. This early and extremely rare stereoscopic photograph was taken at Point McLeay Mission on Lake Alexandrina, South Australia, in 1862 by George Burnell (1830-1894), at the end of his expedition down the Murray River from Echuca in Victoria with his friend (and possibly business partner) E. W. Cole. Burnell recorded the trip with a stereoscopic camera he had purchased in Castlemaine on the Victorian goldfields; Cole, whom he had trained, developed and printed the photographs for him. Burnell s views included a short series taken at the Point McLeay Mission, where Burnell s brother-in-law, George Taplin, was the superintendent. The only other example of this photograph we have traced is held in the Art Gallery of South Australia (Accession no. 805HP70(52)). The AGSA example is in square (not arch-top) format, on a buff-coloured mount. It also has a caption on the verso: Aborigines in their wurley, Point McLeay, Lake Alexandrina , along with 52 , which is

• Binding: Hardcover

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