[Burma] Photograph album of scenes in Burma, 19th century

Rare and visually striking album containing 51 albumen prints (each approx. 26 x 20 cm) including evocative street scenes in Rangoon, harbour and river scenes in Rangoon and Moulmein, temples, pagodas, churches, working elephants and elephants being hoisted aboard a steamer and Burmese dancers. In half morocco over cloth boards. (spine and corners rubbed, edges bumped, some wear). Hand-written captions in English*. A few prints appear to have been commercially issued, the majority has no identification marks. A remarkable photographic document of colonial Burma, rarely found in such cohesive and well-preserved form.

The group view of dignitaries includes Prince Albert Victor, who visited Burma in 1889 and Sir Charles Crosthwaite who was Chief Commissioner to Burma from 1887 to 1890, which gives a clear indication of the date. In the 19th century Scottish firms were importing timber from as far a field as America, Carribean and Asia for use in buildings, for furniture manufacture and for shipbuilding. *The university of Glasgow archives holds a second album, in the same handwriting, suggesting that this album closely related theirs, which is part of the collection of Edmiston & Mitchells, timber brokers; Glasgow.