CONGO (DRC), BELGIAN CONGO, BOMA, AND A SEA VOYAGE, 1910–191 - Lot 59

CONGO (DRC), BELGIAN CONGO, BOMA, AND A SEA VOYAGE, 1910–1911 Album of 58 photographs documenting a stay in the Belgian Congo in Boma, then the colony’s capital, and the voyage aboard the steamer Bruxellesville operated by the Belgian Maritime Company of the Congo. Period silver gelatin and citrate prints, various sizes, mounted in a period school notebook (State Middle School, 1910–1911), with handwritten captions in ink and pencil. Stopovers in Tenerife, Las Palmas, Sierra Leone, and Dakar (February 1910); scenes from the ship’s christening at the Equator; colonial life in Boma (January 1911): verandas, a river patrol boat, portraits of named passengers and residents (Mr. and Mrs. Renard, Vogt, Michotte, the Caphel and Collyres families?), portraits of Congolese auxiliaries and women identified by name (Tshinkela, Oscar Kamandele, Camille Soko, Tshama, Losa)—a rarity in this type of album. Also included are views of Vlissingen, Walcheren, and the Zwin in Knokke, summer 1910. Some foxing and browning, a few faded prints; in good overall condition. Album dimensions: approximately 27 x 35 cm. Note: The three photo albums presented in lots [No. 57], [No. 58], and [No. 59] come from the same family collection and were compiled by the same person, a civil servant of the Independent State of the Congo attached to the judicial system, who served from 1903 to 1905 and again in 1907. Mounted in repurposed school notebooks from the École Moyenne de l’État, they feature the same handwriting, the same system of pencil captions, and continuous numbering of the prints.