PHOTOGRAPHY - NIGERIA


GREEN (J.A.) and others. Album of views, portraits and groups, most relating to Bonny region, and neighbouring coastal areas, 51 albumen prints and one gelatin silver print, mounted on card (mounted recto and verso, all but 4 one per page), contemporary ink inscriptions beneath images, quarter morocco, worn, oblong 4to (225 x 285mm.), [c.1895-1902]
|"J.A. Green (1873-1905) was one of the most prolific and accomplished indigenous photographers to be active in West Africa" (African Photographer. J.A. Green, edited by M.G. Anderson and L. Aronson, 2017). Born in Bonny, Jonathan Adagogo Green studied photography in Sierra Leone before returning to to his home town to set up a studio, the first of its kind in Nigeria. His success was cut short when he died at the age of 32. Fifteen images in this album are illustrated in Anderson & Aronson (with differing captions), and approximately ten to fifteen others (mostly Bonny subjects) are easily attributable to him, including two identifying the photographer's brother Christopher Green. Images by Green include: "Qua Iboi Chiefs monumens..."; "Exterior of St. Stephen's Cathedral, Bonny"; "King of Benin. On Yacht Ivy" (2, one alone smiling, one with three guards); "Buying and trying 'Palm oil', New Calabar"; "Consul House. Bonny on Jubilee Day. 1897. On that day it was opened to the natives"; "Tunnicliffe House, Bonny"; "Yacht Ivy decorated for Jubilee Day"; "Chief Jamaica Allison's Girls. Making baskets and mats. Bonny"; "Last photo of Chief Henry Long John..."; "A bit of Bonny Scenery"; "Consul General, Dr. Shekelton... & Bonny Chiefs"; "Marriageable Girls. Niger Coast Protectorate"; "An 'at Home', W. Africa"; Portrait group including Ralph Moore, Mary Kingsley and Roger Casement.Images attributable to Green include: "Peterside Mission School. School teacher Christopher Green (now Chief)"; "A Tea Party in Christopher Green's House"; "Bonny Athletic Club" (cricket team, the names of the 12 players - of which three black - identified in pencil); "Native huts made of gin cases near Bonny"; "Bonny Cemetery"; Two views of Sapeli [Sapele]; 2 uncaptioned (one similar to Green photo of Azumini Palm Oil Market, N.C.P.).Others, perhaps by Green or other photographers include: "King Prempeh [of Ashante] and his chiefs at Sierra Leone"; Group including Archbishop Crowther, Rev. Macaulay and others; tombstones of British colonial administrators (2, one Hugh Lecky); "Funeral dancing. Kroo Coast"; "The Interior of a White man's bungalow, W. Africa"; "Touring on the W. Coast of Africa. Dahomey" [2 white suited men and "natives" drinking wine together]; Market Scenes (2, one Porto Novo, one Dahomey); "A Kroo Coast girl and her maid"; "Vai Girls... Types of African beauty"; "Kroo Coast woman with first born" "Making 'curry'/Fufu".Images of Accra, in modern day Ghana, include: "Wesleyan Chapel"; "Mode of travelling. Accra" [Jim Harding, Public Works Dept., Accra pulled in cart]; "An Accra Bride"; "Staff of African Assoc. Ltd. at Accra" [silver gelatin print]; six views of the African Association stores, factory and buildings at Accra; "Interior of the Holy Trinity Church"; "Messrs. Fischer (agent) & staff"; Street scene.Provenance: A. Loach (possibly an employee or trader on the S.S. Jebba, a cargo ship belonging to the African Steam Ship Company which is depicted in the first photo in the album, and later sank off the Devon coast on return from Nigeria in 1907), contemporary ink signature inside upper cover; A.M. Jones (possibly the author of Studies in African Music, 1959), pencil inscription; private British collection.