Saddled camel with calf and owner
by Rubellin,Alphonse
- Used
- Condition
- See description
- Seller
-
Norwich, Norfolk, United Kingdom
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Albumen print with oval corners 17.2 x 20.0cm, pasted on original album leaf titled in ink in a contemporary hand Smyrna Turkey in Asia, preserved in an acid free mount.
The bearded and turbaned trader stands in front of his camel with its calf behind in a cobbled and flag stoned street beside a building with five columns at the side with shuttered windows. In the background can be seen the rear of another camel and beyond an archway.
Smyrna was one of the most important harbour settlements of Western Anatolia - the largest city of Asiatic Turkey and her greatest trade centre, and the second largest city of Turkey. The most mentioned issue by visitors are the camels that pass the lanes and narrow streets while carrying loads, Schubert wrote "When two camels came across in lanes, the one carrying less valuable load would sit down on its knees and the other one would jump over it. At this time, people on the streets would have to shelter in shops."
Maison Rubellin had a studio in Smyrna at 120 rue Franque from the 1870’s where they advertised themselves as Photographie Parisienne. They produced some fine views of the entire area around Smyrna...another speciality was Types et Costumes de l’Asie Mineure.
"A photographer most likely of French origin, established his studio in Smyrna (Izmir), Turkey, in 1860, advertising his business as Photographie Parisienne. Rubellin specialized in views of Smyrna and surrounding areas, focusing on ancient ruins. The firm also produced studio portaits, portrayed the types and costumes of Asia Minor, and photographed Istanbul and Athens. When at least one of Rubellins sons joined the studio it became known as Rubellin père et fils, becoming Rubellin fils in 1900". Getty Research Institute
Details
- Bookseller
- Hamish Riley-Smith Rare Books (GB)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- biblio110
- Title
- Saddled camel with calf and owner
- Author
- Rubellin,Alphonse
- Book Condition
- Used
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- Smyrna. circa 1880
- Publisher
- Rubellin
- Place of Publication
- Smyrna
- Date Published
- 1880
- Keywords
- photograph Turkey
Terms of Sale
Hamish Riley-Smith Rare Books
About the Seller
Hamish Riley-Smith Rare Books
About Hamish Riley-Smith Rare Books
Rare book specialist Hamish Riley-Smith, who died on August 10, did not originally intend to become a dealer.
He went to Trinity College Dublin, where he read economics and met our mother Brigitta (Gita) von Wagner. He planned to work in the family brewing business, John Smith's, and spent seven years learning the craft at Whitbread's. But after all the family interest in John Smith's was sold in 1972, he looked for a new career.
In 1974 he started Hamish Riley-Smith Rare Books. He had no formal training in the book business, other than an acute awareness of business and a degree in economics. He started, in his own words, as a runner, taking one book to another dealer and making a small margin.
Hamish quickly realised this was not for him and started to focus on Arabic and economic books and the social sciences. Through knowledge and research he built up a strong and friendly working relationship with the Japanese, travelling to Japan often. He also traded in Arabia, the US and Europe.
Sacks of catalogues
We can remember how sacks of catalogues would leave the house and go off to museums and institutions across the world, and answers would come back via telex. This was a world before the internet, mobile phones and faxes and computers were only just coming in.
Among his proudest sales were the 14th century Qur'an manuscript of Mameluk Sultan Al Malik Al Nasir Muhammad (pictured here); The Papers of Sir Roy Harrod; The library of Sir John Hicks; The Betjeman Library; typescript/manuscript of Ludwig Wittgenstein's Tractus Logico Philosophicus; The Felibriges Library of Musée Theodore Aubanel, Avignon; as well as collections of Isaac Newton; John Locke; Thomas Hobbes; Shakespeare; William Petty; Robert Owen and Adam Smith.
He was resolute in his independence and had many friends and colleagues in the book business, but he never did a book fair ("I am not a book fairy") and refused to join any trade associations.
He will be remembered by the family as a loving husband, father and grandfather, and a great source of fun and interest; for Hamish, above all, family came first. His business will continue to be run by his wife Gita and two sons, Damian, director of Paragraph Publishing, and Crispian, director of Crispian Riley-Smith Fine Arts Ltd.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes: