Flute players, Ambrym, New Hebrides, circa 1890

A$750 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

Silver albumen print, cabinet card format, 105 x 165 mm, inscribed in the negative No. 59 Ambrym, New Hebrides ; recto of mount embossed in gilt Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year ; verso blank; the albumen print is in fine condition with excellent tonal range. A rare image capturing a performance by a group of Ambrym men playing traditional single bamboo flutes. The photograph was probably taken by German-born Australian photographer J.W. Lindt, who visited the New Hebrides in 1889 and 1890-91. For an illustrated essay on this type of musical instrument, see Kirk W. Huffman, Single bamboo flutes , in Joël Bonnemaison, Kirk Huffman, Christian Kaufmann, Darrell Tryon (eds.), Arts of Vanuatu , Honolulu : University of Hawaii Press, 1996, p. 150 ff.

• Binding: Hardcover

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