Complete 1870s Album of New Zealand Photographs by Robert Bartlett - Auckland panorama, Pink and White terraces, Māori King Tāwhiao

Complete 1870s Album of New Zealand Photographs by Robert Bartlett 

"New Zealand Scenery"

Auckland, c.1875

-Robert Henry Bartlett (1842–1911), Photographer, Auckland

-Album of 24 large albumen photographs of New Zealand

-Images ~25 × 30 cm, Mounted on album leaves, approx 38 × 30 cm

-Original red morocco binding (rebacked) , decorated and lettered in gilt “New Zealand Scenery”

-Complete as called for. Foxing to leaves and some cockling of pages. Wear to corners of boards. Album rebacked.

A complete album of twenty-four large-format photographs of New Zealand by the pioneering Auckland photographer Robert Henry Bartlett (1842–1911), dating from around 1875. Despite Bartlett's early success, he had repeated financial difficulties and a history of alcohol abuse, sadly ending his days at Rockwood asylum in Sydney in 1911.

The photographs are of the North Island and include an early five-image panorama of Auckland taken from Partington's Windmill which depicts the urban landscape as well as showing Rangitoto in the background. The other photos in the album depict Whangārei Falls, the Waitākere Ranges, Lake Rotorua,  Rotomahana, and Māori. Particularly desirable are early photographs of the Pink and White Terraces at Rotomahana, which were destroyed during the eruption of Mount Tarawera in 1886.

The Māori photographs depict a Māori school, a group performing a haka, and King Tāwhiao (c.1822–1894), the second Māori King, holding a mere and seated with three companions outside the King’s residence at Whatiwhatihoe Pā, near Pirongia.

Robert Henry Bartlett was one of the leading photographers working in nineteenth-century Auckland. Born in Britain in 1842, he established his Auckland photographic studio during the 1860s and became particularly known for his portraits of Māori and his large-format views of the New Zealand landscape.

The album is complete and in original format as commercially assembled and issued by Bartlett himself. A very similar album is held by the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand (PA1-f-035). 

Reference: Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, PA1-f-035.