Picturesque New Guinea. With an Historical Introduction and Supplementary Chapters on the Manners and Customs of the Papuans

LINDT, J.W.

Published by Longmans, Green, and Co, London, 1887

About this Item

London, Longmans, Green, and Co., 1887. Quarto, xviii, 194 pages plus 50 plates ('fifty full-page autotype illustrations from negatives of portraits from life and groups and landscapes from nature'), each with a captioned tissue-guard. Modern green binder's cloth (with new endpapers) lettered in gilt on the spine and ruled in blind, with the decorative gilt title from the original front cover now mounted as a large front cover title-label (a little mottled and flecked); top edge gilt, others uncut; a few minor repairs using archival tape; scattered foxing; shallow tidemarks to some tissue-guards; minor signs of age and use; overall, a good copy, with the plates in very good to excellent condition. A presentation copy - and a felicitous association copy - inscribed and signed by the author 'To Courtenay Luck Esq.| Secretary to Queensland Commission | C.I.E.M. [Centennial International Exhibition Melbourne] Xmas 1888 | With the writer's compliments'. John William Lindt (1845-1926) was born at Frankfurt on Main, Germany . At 17 he ran away to sea and joined a Dutch sailing ship. He deserted at Brisbane; by 1863 he was at Grafton as a piano-tuner and then worked in a photographic studio. He visited Germany in 1867 and on his return bought the business. Using the wet-plate process he photographed the Clarence River district and its Aboriginal traditional owners, producing albums in 1875 and 1876. He then sold out and went to Melbourne where he opened a studio in Collins Street. He soon won repute for his society, theatre and landscape photographs. In 1885 Lindt went with Sir Peter Scratchley's expedition to the Protectorate of British New Guinea as official photographer. He presented an album of his New Guinea photographs to the Indian and Colonial Exhibition in London in 1886. He went to Europe to publish his "Picturesque New Guinea" (London, 1887), to visit the optical institutions and manufacturers which he represented and to seek more agencies. He was elected a judge at the international photographic exhibition at Frankfurt, received a gold medal from the Photographic Association of Vienna and became a member of the Royal Geographical Society, London. He had already won medals in exhibitions such as those at Amsterdam, Calcutta and Frankfurt. He was official photographer for the 1888 Melbourne International Exhibition but was not permitted to contest any awards' ('Australian Dictionary of Biography'). However, he was awarded a gold medal there 'with special mention for his ethnological photographs, landscapes and photographs from shipboard; they are simply unique. From a technical point of view the mentioned pictures may be considered as the best in this Exhibition. The ethnological illustrations from New Guinea are even more interesting .' (judges' report). Provenance: Edward Harold Courtenay Luck (1859-1934), with his ownership stamp on the title page.

Seller Inventory # 135789

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Picturesque New Guinea. With an Historical Introduction and Supplementary Chapters on the Manners and Customs of the Papuans
• Publisher: Longmans, Green, and Co, London
• Publication Date: 1887
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition.
• Condition: Good
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • Photography
  • Papua New Guinea
  • Signed
  • Anthropology