Linnaeus Tripe

Collection of Miss Agnes Cheetham

Collection of the Astley Cheetham Public Library, Stalybridge, Tameside (bequest of the above’s estate, circa 1931)

Withdrawn from the Tameside Public Libraries, Stalybridge, 1976

Private collection (acquired from the above)

By descent to the present owner

Janet Dewan, The Photographs of Linnaeus Tripe: A Catalogue Raisonné (Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 2003), pp. 368, 467-79, 481-87, and 500-01

One of the most important photographic innovators of the nineteenth century, Captain Linnaeus Tripe inarguably made the finest photographs of India from this period. Whether of sweeping landscapes, dazzling architectural details, or notable monuments, his images are often highly stylized, and his use of light and shade remarkably accomplished. The rare examples of Tripe’s photographs that remain in excellent condition, including the albums here offered in Lots 76-78, reveal him to be a master of photographic printing. 

Born to a prominent family in Devon, England, Tripe began his military career in 1839 with the East India Company Army, eventually attaining the rank of Captain. An early interest in photography emerged by 1851, and his first major photographic work was undertaken while in Burma in 1855. Owing to his success with this project, Tripe was appointed the official Government Photographer for the Madras Presidency in 1856, a post he held for four years. In this capacity, he journeyed across hundreds of miles to the major urban areas under the Presidency’s jurisdiction, with a goal to document the natural landmarks, celebrated monuments, and religious architecture “before they disappear” (Dewan, p. 9).

Out of several hundred negatives, a select number of images were ordered for printing and published in a series of albums organized according to geographic region. Although the project proved highly successful—aesthetically and historically broadening the views of its audience—it was a financial disaster, and Tripe’s photographic establishment was disbanded by the government in 1860. While it is not known definitively how many albums were originally produced, documents from the period suggest fewer than 40 copies of Photographic Views in Tanjore and Trivady were made.  

The album offered here comes originally from the collection of the Cheetham family, of which a “Miss Agnes Cheetham” is noted on the album's interior label. Although little is known of Agnes (c. 1833-1931), her family lineage is well documented. She was the daughter of John Cheetham (1802-1886), a Liberal Member of Parliament in the 1850s-60s and a prosperous cotton manufacturer in Stalybridge, a town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. Her brother John Frederick Cheetham (1835-1916) and his wife Beatrice Astley built The Stalybridge Public Library as a gift to their town in 1901. As John Frederick and Beatrice had no children, the Astley Cheetham art collection was bequeathed to Agnes and later to the town of Stalybridge upon her death. 

How these albums were acquired by the Cheetham family remains an interesting mystery. Between 1860 and 1865, a select number of Tripe albums were acquired by governments, institutions, and individuals, including a “F. Cheetham, Esq.” (see Dewan, p. 126). Detailing the Exhibition of the Madras Photographic Society of 1860, The Madras Journal of Literature and Science (1861) provides further details worthy of consideration:

“This valuable series was collected by an English gentleman of taste, F. Cheetham, Esq., who is now travelling in the East and who kindly lent his portfolio for two or three days, and made some extensive purchases of Photographs taken in this Presidency by Captain Tripe. . .” (p. 192).

Given the Cheetham family’s cotton business, it is certainly plausible that John Frederick Cheetham would have travelled to India and that he may indeed be the aforementioned “F. Cheetham, Esq.” At the time of Janet Dewan’s extraordinary 2003 catalogue raisonné, no further information was known about this individual and the present album was not recorded in Dewan's census. Dewan records only 8 surviving intact copies, all in institutional collections.

The plates in this album are as follows, with location in brackets and Tripe catalogue raisonné numbers in parentheses:

1. [Tanjore] Tanjore Fort, the Wall and the Ditch (CR6-195)

2. [Tanjore] The Monster Gun of Tanjore (CR6-196)

3. [Tanjore] The Palace and interjacent part of the Town (CR6-197)

4. [Tanjore] The Seven storied Tower of the Palace (CR6-198)

5. [Tanjore] Facade on the W. Side of the Nayakar Durbar Hall (CR6-200)

6. [Tanjore] Sivaji's Statue (CR6-201)

7. [Tanjore] South Facade of the Quadrangle of the Nayakar Durbar Hall (CR6-202)

8. [Tanjore] Great Pagoda from the Fort Glacis (CR6-203)

9. [Tanjore] Sculptured figure on the entrance tower of the Great Pagoda (CR6-204)

10. [Tanjore] The Great Bull from the Gateway (CR6-205)

11. [Tanjore] The Central Tower of the Great Pagoda (CR6-207)

12. [Tanjore] The Great Bull (CR6-208)

13. [Tanjore] Side entrance of the principal Temple (CR6-216)

14. [Tanjore] Porch and main entrance to the principal Temple (CR6-213)

15. [Tanjore] Western side of the Great central Tower (CR6-219)

16. [Tanjore] Northern side of the great central Tower and the Temple of Parvati (CR6-225)

17. [Tanjore] Subrahmanya Swami's Temple (CR6-220)

18. [Tanjore] The South Facade of Subrahmanya Swami's Temple (CR6-222)

19. [Tanjore] Sacred cistern and water spout belonging to the Subrahmanya Temple (CR6-224)

20. [Tanjore] Arcade on the inner side of the wall surrounding the Great Pagoda (CR6-226)

21. [Triviar] Buildings at Trivady used by the Rajah of Tanjore on his visit to the Pagoda of that Town (CR6-285)

22. [Triviar] The Ghats at Trivady (CR6-284)

23. [Triviar] The approach to the Temple at Trivady (CR6-286)