[TAHITI] A young Tahitian woman with her European husband, c 1870

A$220 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

Albumen print photograph, carte de visite format (100 x 62 mm), no photographer s imprint. Top right corner missing, surface soiling, but the image in particular the facial features of the sitters has retained its clarity and detail. The woman is dressed in the attire typically worn by members of the Tahitian female aristocracy she is quite possibly of royal descent. It was certainly not uncommon in the nineteenth century for a European man to marry a Tahitian woman of high standing, the most famous examples being the successful merchants John Brander and Alexander Salmon, whose clan became a powerful trading dynasty in the eastern Pacific through a combination of business acumen and intermarriage with the Tahitian nobility.

• Binding: Hardcover

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