"Indien".

28 original photos (a.o. carbon prints), 12 x 28,8 cm, 11,4 x 28,6 cm, 24 x 29 cm, and 59,1 x 20,6 cm, two coloured photos signed "Plate", one larger panorama with fold. left part with stamp "Plâté & Co, Ceylon".

Kept in an obl. folio leather album with gilt title on cover, flat spine, gilt inner dentelles, gilt edges (corners rubbed and sl. bumped, edges and spine rubbed).

Beautiful album with photos of India and Sri Lanka. Small indications identify some of the places where the photos were taken such as a street sign "Kotta Road" which could be a small village road between the larger cities of Kannur and Kozhikode in India. Another street sign guids us to Ratmalana, now a suburb near the Colombo District in Sri Lanka. This album shows the splendor of Indian and Sri Lankan nature with photos of bursting vegetation (bamboe, banana trees, etc.) along dirt roads whereupon charriots, riskshaws, are moved by hand or by cows. Also the typical tea fields with women at work are subject of this album. 4 photos really stand out: a beautiful coloured portrait of an Indian/Sri Lankan girl with golden nose piercings and a coloured photo of men in hats standing on an outrigger fishing boat. Both coloured photos are signed "Plâté". The two other stunning photos are of a woman holding an umbrella seated on a riskshaw driven by a man with headscarf and a large river panorama with on the right bank probably a Western colonial wearing the typical white pith helmet. This last photo bears a stamp of Plâté & Co. Founded in 1890 by the German Alfred William Amandus Plâté and his wife Clara, Plâté & Cie was originally a small studio in the Bristol Hotel in Colombo. Both Plâté and his wife were enthralled by the natural splendor of the Sri Lankan island and decided to pursue photography as a career. The whole album gives us more than an important glimps into Indian and Sri Lankan cultural heritage and natural wonders with furthermore photos of villages, indigenous people, dirt roads, children, and an intriguing dinner party.