THE CORONATION DURBAR, DELHI, 1903

Platinum prints on paper mounted on card
The Average size of each photograph is 8.9 x 11.5 in (22.2 x 28.7 cm)

Wiele and Klein Photographic Studio was perhaps the biggest studio of the time in South India. In its heyday, apart from its popularity for its studio portraits, it built up an enviable reputation for its collection of photographs not only of Madras and the Presidency it was capital of but also of major tourist centres in India like Mysore, Benares, Agra and Delhi. And all these were on glass plate negatives from which the firm made reproductions, ranging from postcards to large framed pictures to be hung in the homes of sahibs in India and at `Home'.

The firm was founded by an Englishman named Wiele, probably sometime in the late 1880s. Before long, he took as a partner a Theodor Klein, who was born of German parents in Madras. The earliest record of the firm Wiele and Klein is in 1890 when there's mention of it being a prize-winner at the Madras Fine Arts Exhibition. At 11, Mount Road, the studio was on the ground floor and Klein and his wife Valeska, whom he married in England in 1909, lived on the first floor, tending the store. Wiele, it would appear, preferred to move to the Blue Mountains, where the partners set up studios in Ooty and Coonoor around 1900.

(Set of three)

NON-EXPORTABLE

This lot will be shipped unframed and will be sold in "as is" condition. For further details, please refer to the images of individual lots as reference for the condition of each photograph.