Photographs of the Elliot Marbles; and other subjects; in the Central Museum Madras....

Imprint: [1859.]. Folio volume measuring 463 x 348 mm, quarter-bound in leather and cloth (new binding), with printed titlepage and index page. Inscribed on title-page, 'Recd. from Dr. A. Hunter Madras 10/2/62'. The prints are mounted one or two to a page, with each page blind-embossed with Tripe's stamp, consisting of the initials 'L.T.' surrounded by the legend 'Photographer to Government' and surmounted by a sun with human face with emanating rays. Most of the objects photographed are identified by the numbers allocated by Walter Elliot; these numbers are listed on the index page against the page where the piece occurs, since the majority of the prints show groups of several pieces, their numbers have also been written on the negatives over the relevant item. Where this is not so, the reference number has been handwritten beneath the piece. In the print listing the pieces have been identified according to these numbers, cross-referenced to the most modern and comprehensive catalogue of the sculptures, Robert Knox's 'Amaravati. Buddhist Sculpture from the Great Stupa' (British Museum Press, London, 1992). There are also a number of photographs at the end of the volume of pieces from the Madras Museum unconnected with the 'Elliot Marbles'. The volume was formerly in the India Office Library Printed Books Collection (pressmark X.610) and was transferred to the Prints, Drawings and Photographs Collections in 1996.Sir Walter Elliot of the Madras Civil Service made excavations at the stupa site in 1845, and transported the excavated pieces to Madras, where they were placed on the green in front of the College. After enquiries from the Court of Directors of the East India Company the stones were moved to a slightly less exposed site in front of the Museum. In 1853 the Curator of the Museum, Dr Edward Balfour of the Madras Medical Service, informed London that the condition of the sculptures was deteriorating due to their situation and in order for the Company to make a decision as to whether the stones were of sufficient artistic importance to merit transportation to London, Balfour arranged in 1855 for a series of drawings to be made of the pieces by an Indian artist, one P. Murugasa Moodaliar. Although in general these drawings gave a good idea of the sculptures, Balfour was not entirely satisified with their accuracy and also therefore persuaded Dr A.J. Scott to take a series of photographs, which were also forwarded to London. The drawings survive in the Oriental and India Office Collections (Madras Government Collections, 2242-2283); the photographs have not so far been traced. Tripe's series of views was made in 1858, and in the following year the collection was shipped to London on the orders of the Court of Directors. For a full account of their subsequent history and display, see Robert Knox, 'Amaravati. Buddhist sculptures from the great stupa' (London, 1992).The photographs are of variable quality, and the volume contains a short preface explaining the reasons for this: 'These photographs were taken by Captain tripe in the months of May and June, after a wearying tour through the Trichinopoly, Madura, and Tanjore Districts, during the preceding four months and a half. Many of the subjects being heavy masses, and therefore not easily to be transported into the open air, were taken as they were lying, in the rooms of the Museum. To enable him to attempt them at all he was obliged to use a dry collodion process, with which he had only recently made acquaintance. He would point to both these circumstances to account for the unsatisfactory pictures he has made of some of the Sculptures. In printing from the above mentioned negatives, their density, though apparently in their favor, increased the liability to yellowness in the lights, so much complained of in toning a print on albumenised paper with gold...'The volume is one of a series of publications issued between 1859-60 from Tripe's work as Government Photographer to the Madras Presidency (the complete series comprises Photo 950-958).

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