Kathiawar Tour of His Excellency Sir George Sydenham Clarke, Governor of Bombay, £1300 at Gorringe’s. Among the photos is this image titled His Excellency, His Highness & Her Highness the Maharina on Motor Car [sic].
They carried presentation inscriptions from the international cricketer and Maharaja Kumar Shri Ranjitsinhji to a William Hunter.
While the Lewes auction house believed this was the Indian civil servant William Wilson Hunter (1840-1900), the dates suggest it was more probably William Slingsby Hunter (1848-1923), owner of Gilling Castle in North Yorkshire.
Sir William had been given his copy of The Imperial Visit to Delhi (Vernon & Co, Bombay) by Ranjitsinhji in Christmas 1912.
Durbar in Delhi
The Imperial Visit to Delhi published by Vernon & Co, Bombay, £5000 at Gorringe’s.
Bound in original red calf gilt, the 85 individual gelatin silver prints of different sizes show various scenes from the so-called Coronation Durbar and the tour made by King George V and Queen Mary to Delhi in 1912.
Vernon & Co was one of the studios commissioned to take photographs of the event. The composition of images in these albums is known to slightly vary to reflect the interests of the client.
One of the panoramas in this copy, titled General View at the Durbar Indians collecting dust, was torn but it took £5000 (estimate £2000-3000).
Sold at £1300 was a ‘souvenir’ guide titled Kathiawar Tour of His Excellency Sir George Sydenham Clarke, Governor of Bombay, 1910.
Published by another of the great Indian photographic studios, the firm established by Samuel Bourne and Charles Shepherd in 1863, this album of 160 gelatin prints carried an inscription reading In remembrance of your delightful visit to us, 1911-1912, WS Hunter Esq. from Ranjitsinghi of Nawanagor.
