Last month, London-based Forum Auctions sold an eight-volume survey of 19th century India for £42,000 (about $56,800), exceeding pre-sale estimates by more than £34,000 (about $45,662). The remarkable hammer price reveals an increased appetite not just for early photography, but for documentary projects that contend with complicated moments in history. In this particular case, that moment in time is the British colonization of the Indian subcontinent.
Titled The People of India: A Series of Photographic Illustrations…of the Races and Tribes of Hindustan, the collection encompasses hundreds of photographs from colonial India compiled by John Forbes Watson and John William Kaye in the aftermath of the 1857 Indian Rebellion. The volumes depict “different tribes, castes, religions, rulers, craftsmen, tradespeople, [and] beggars” throughout the country, making it one of the most ambitious 19th-century surveys from India, according to the lot description. The prints within can also be attributed to several photographers who worked across British India, including Willoughby Wallace Hooper, James Waterhouse, H.C.McDonald, Shepherd & Robertson, and Benjamin Simpson, among others.
Nearly 200 years later, The People of India still stands as a technological achievement, offering a glimpse into early documentary daguerreotypes. More than this, though, the volumes are a searing reminder of ethnographic imperialism and the racial taxonomies that governed colonial rule. Taken throughout the 1850s and 1860s, these photographs are filtered through British understandings of race, positioning their subjects not as individuals but rather as curiosities from an inferior population. Cataloging these various cultural groups in such a way only “othered” them further, transforming them from humans and into objects of study. The result is a collection that asserts English dominance, governance, and ideology, solidifying their occupation of the region.
“The collection was developed following nearly a century of violence and turmoil within this region between local populations and British representatives,” the Smithsonian Institution writes of the project. “The social and political relationships detailed here are inextricably related to the complex realities of international trade and the history of the British administration of colonies.”
Aside from this, what distinguishes The People of India is the fact that it’s largely complete. It contains 480 albumen prints and is apparently only missing one plate in vol. 6. The original decorated cloth bindings were generally retained, and the prints are all meticulously mounted on thick paper with printed caption labels. “[It’s] rare to find such a complete set,” Forum Auctions writes, as comprehensive photographic collections from the 1860s and 70s are uncommon on the market.
The People of India was included as Lot 50 in Forum Auctions’s “India” sale. The online auction comprised maps and drawings of Afghanistan, vintage accounts about India and the surrounding region during British colonization, and postcards from the early 20th century. The objects hailed from the late Malcolm Yapp, a professor of the modern history of Western Asia at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.
To learn more about The People of India and the auction, visit the Forum Auctions website.
A photographic survey from 19th-century India sold for nearly $57,000 at a recent auction, far exceeding pre-sale estimates.
Titled The People of India, the survey gathers hundreds of photographs from the 1850s and 60s, offering a critical glimpse into British colonialism throughout the Indian subcontinent.
All images via Forum Auctions.
Sources: Watson (John Forbes) & John William Kaye. The People of India: A Series of Photographic Illustrations…of the Races and Tribes of Hindustan, 8 vol., 480 mounted albumen prints, 1868-75; The People of India A Series of Photographic Illustrations, with Descriptive Letterpress, of the Races and Tribes of Hindustan. 1868; 19th Century Photographic Survey of India Far Sells for Nearly $57,000
Related Articles:
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter’s Paintings Are Heading To Auction
Newly Discovered Michelangelo Chalk Drawing Worth $2 Million Heads to Auction
Frida Kahlo Breaks Auction Records, Snagging $54.7 Million for 1940 Self-Portrait