Gsell, Émile (1838-1879), & others. Album with 95 Original Albumen Photographs of French Colonial Vietnam, Showing Saigon (Harbour, Arsenal, Grand Canal, Notre Dame Cathedral Basilica before and after its Construction was Completed, Mong Bridge, Buildings of “Banque de l’Indochine” and “Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation,” Barracks of French Marines, &c.), Hoa Nghiem Cave in the Marble Mountains, Cap St. Jacques, French Naval Boat Armed with Guns, Portraits of Vietnamese Indigenous People, Bull Cart Drivers, Boatsmen, Rickshaw Drivers, Peasants Planting Rice, an Elder, a Mother with Child (Apparently, Suffering from Leprosy), French Residents and their Mansions, &c. Ca. 1870s-1890s.

Oblong Folio album ca. 30x46,5 cm (11 ¾ x 18 ¼ in). 40 card stock leaves. With 95 mounted albumen photos of various size, including over seventy larger images, from ca. 27x39,5 cm (10 ¾ x 15 ½ in) to ca. 16x21,5 cm (6 ¼ x 8 ¾ in). The rest of the photos are from ca. 12x20 cm (4 ¾ x 8 ¾ in) to ca. 8,5x10,5 cm (3 ¼ x 4 in). Several photos are numbered in negative; eight are with period ink captions on the lower margins. Period black patterned cloth boards, neatly rebacked. Front board with a brown sheep label with a gilt-lettered name “C.-M. Devenet;” marbled endpapers. Several mounts slightly soiled, several images mildly faded, but overall a very good album of interesting photos.

Historically significant extensive collection of large early original photos of Vietnam. Two of the images are attributed to Emile Gsell, the first commercial photographer in Saigon (Ho Chi Min City), who became widely known after taking the first images of Angkor Wat in 1866. A medium-sized photo of Hoa Nghiem Cave in the Marble Mountains near Tourane, French Annam (modern-day Da Nang, central Vietnam), was attributed to Gsell by the Cleveland Museum of Art (see more). A group portrait of indigenous Vietnamese mounted on verso of the same leaf, was attributed to Gsell by Nguyễn Ðức Hiệp, a historian of photography in Vietnam (source). Nguyễn Ðức Hiệp dated the photo 1870, identified the portrayed group as “Stieng or the Mạ, who lived in the areas of Saigon or Lâm Đồng (Tây Nguyên)” and remarked that this is “one of the oldest images of indigenous peoples.”

The other photos include a series of views of Saigon. Among them are several excellent pictures of the city harbour with the Customs House and headquarters of the Messageries Maritimes, port facilities, French naval ships and river steamers, native boats, &c. Three views of the Arsenal or naval shipyards depict the wharf, administrative buildings and “dry dock workshops.” There are also photos of Grand Canal and Rue Charner (with the monument to Ernest Doudart de Lagrée and Notre Dame Cathedral Basilica on the far left), an arroyo (creek) in the Cholon neighbourhood (today the largest Chinatown in the world), Governor’s Palace (built in 1873, bombed and destroyed in 1962), buildings of “Banque de l’Indochine” and “Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation,” Mong Bridge (Pont des Messageries Maritimes or Rainbow bridge, built in 1893-94), monuments to Admiral Rigault de Genouilly (1807-1873) and Francis Garnier (1839-73), barracks of French marines (with the visible sign “Infanterie de Marine” above the entrance gate), mansions of French residents with owners and their servants posing in front, &c. Two very large views of Notre Dame Cathedral Basilica focus on its spires - still under construction and after the building was completed in 1880; another photo shows the cathedral’s apside. There are also two large photos of an industrial facility on the bank of a river – most likely, the Saigon River. Three photos at the rear show one of the French mansions, most likely in Saigon, from the front and both sides.

Several photos of a seaside community apparently show Cap St. Jacques (modern-day Vung Tau). There is also an image of a stone quarry at Cap St. Jacques and a general view of the town taken from a distance. Other interesting photos show ancient ruins (possibly, Angkor Wat, which could be taken by Gsell), a French naval boat armed with four automatic guns, a ship of “Messageries à Vapeur de Cochinchine,” an old fort, native villages, houseboats, portraits of Vietnamese bull cart drivers, boatsmen, rickshaw drivers, peasants planting rice, an elderly load carrier, a mother and a child (apparently, suffering from leprosy), French residents posing on the seashore, in front of a Chinese pagoda (possibly, in the Cholon quarter of Saigon), with rifles, &c. The gilt-lettered name on the front board likely refers to Claude-Marie Devenet (1851-1931), a French sculptor and medalist. Overall an extensive, historically significant collection of rare early photos of colonial Vietnam.

A list of manuscript captions: des appontements de l’Arsenal, Saigon; Un arroyo de Cholon; Partie de l’Arsenal de Saigon; Chantiers du bassin de radoube; Rive d’arroyo, Env. de Cho-Mai; Carrières du Cap St. Jacques; Ninh Binh; Arroyo de Ben Luc.