Osian's Auction Catalogue ABC Series III | March 2007

ABC Series III 131 144 A Yank’s Memories of Calcutta Album of original b/w photographs Clyde Waddell Houston: Privately Published, 1946 Album size: 10.3 x 13.2 in (25.5 x 34 cm); Photograph size: 8 x 10 in (20.3 x 25.5 cm) Cover: Black rexine 2 pp and 60 b/w tipped-in original photographs with typed titles Binding: Original Condition: Good. Photographs slightly yellowed A rare portfolio of original photographs. Waddell was a Houston Prress photographer who was sent to the India- Burma Theater in November 1943 and acted as personal Press photographer for Supreme Commander Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten. The photograph in this album were taken by Waddell in 1945 in his spare time, “primarily at the behest of many friends who had been constantly asking him for photos of Calcutta scenes” as the Introduction claries. Soon he was ooded with requests and thus decided to issue this album in a small number of sets. The title-page cum Introduction is printed in typewriter typeface. So are all the extensive facetious captions to each of the 60 photos. The back of the title page has dedication, acknowledgements and copyright notice, also printed. The photographs include such out-of-bound areas for the American GIs as a brothel and a Chinese opium den. A number of them show the GIs in context of Calcutta social life of those days. Others show Indian cremation ground, Jain temple, city scenes, some aerial views of Calcutta, Hindu priests, crowded railway platform, betelnut seller, washermen, people lined up in a kerosene queue or trying to enter a bus through windows. INR 100,000 – 125,000 USD 2,250 – 2,800 145 i. Views of Benares from the Riverside Presented by the Maharaja of Benares First Edition 4.8 x 5.8 in (12.2 x 14.8 cm) Each photograph: 3.5 x 2.5 in (9.9 x 6.4 cm) Gold-embossed cover in black rexin. 2 vertical and 17 horizontal sepia-toned photographs pasted on thick sheets back to back within printed ornate red borders and with the caption strips glued at the bottom of each. The rst photograph shows the Maharaja of Benares and the remaining 18 show the various ghats of the holy city. Binding: Hardbound (original) Condition: Good ii. Views of Benares from the Riverside First Edition 5.6 x 3.8 in (14.2 x 9.7 cm) Each photograph: 4.0 x 2.6 in (10.2 x 6.8 cm) Covered in red leather with gold embossed title. Contains 18 original sepia photographs pasted concertina fashion showing various ghats of the holy city. Each photograph is a vertical view pasted within red printed borders with caption-strips glued at the bottom of each. Binding: Hardbound (original) Condition: Good iii. Album of Indian Views London & Bombay: B. Rigold & Bergmann, undated ( c .1880s) First Edition of 24 postcard-sized views (6 each of Bombay and Calcutta, 4 each of Delhi & Agra, 2 of Benares and 1 each of Lucknow and Cawnpore), varnished engravings, issued concertina fashion 7.5 x 5.5 in (19.0 x 14.0 cm) Each photograph 4.7 x 2.9 in (12.1 x 7.5 cm) Cover: Original gilt-embossed and decorated cover in wine red rexin. Binding: Hardbound (original). Condition: Fair. Binding detached. INR 80,000 – 100,000 USD 1,800 – 2,250 (Set of 3)