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Auction: 15040 - Antique Maps sale during the International Exhibition
Lot: 204

Literature
Malaya
1907, Malay Peninsular (Straits Settlements & Federated Malay States), Original Photos .... by C.J. Kleingrothe, Medan, Deli. in original casing.

Cloth-bound portfolio measuring 460x365mm, with title 'Malay Peninsula' stamped on front cover beneath a laid-down photogravure image of a tiger in a trap. The portfolio contains a separate loose title page, a coloured map of the Straits Settlements and the Federated Malay States dated 1907. Contains 72 lithogravure pages, unusually complete as most examples, including that in the British Library, contain less. Contains Singapore (18 pages) , Penang (16 pages) F.M.S. (36 pages and Malacca and others (2 pages).

Little biographical information has come to light about the elusive Charles J. Kleingrothe, the photographer whose images of the Dutch East Indies and British Malaya are now highly sought after collector's items. In the late 1860s, Kleingrothe worked for G.R. Lambert & Co., a leading photographer of Singapore whose prints had been compiled in a similar though less sumptuous volume years ago. When the plantation economy of Sumatra flourished in the latter half of the 19th century, G.R. Lambert opened a branch of its studios in Medan in 1888, then part of the old Deli Sultanate, for which Kleingrothe was put in charge. His pictorial record of Sumatra plantations of the day are unrivaled and was probably one of the few sources on this largely-forgotten phase in the history of the island. When the Medan branch declined and was subsequently wound up during the Great War in 1916, Kleingrothe too seemed to have disappeared without a trace. Photo

Estimate
SG$12,000 to SG$15,000