19th century Photograph of India by Samuel Bourne taken between 1864 and 1866. Individual photograph from a presentation album dated March 1868. The Picturesque Village of Dunkar, Spiti. c1866. Condition: Excellent contrast and tonality, edge fading on left and right (under mat), small tear in bottom left corner. Photographer : Samuel Bourne #1461. Size: 7.25 x 12.5 inches, 178 x 295 mm, mat opening 7 x 11.5 inches, 178 x 295 mm. Illustrated in Sieben Jahre Indien, pages 114/115. Bourne noted: At length we arrived at a curious and picturesque village called Dunkar, the outpost of the British territory in this direction. The houses were built into the sides of the hill, which have been scooped out by nature into holes and caverns; and the way these had been taken advantage of and built into, until the hand of man and the hand of nature seemed to unite, was ingenious and picturesque. I had taken two views of the village from opposite sites and one or two looking up at it from the Spiti valley, and proceeded to take a closer view of one particular part of the village more picturesque than the rest.

Excellent contrast and tonality, edge fading on left and right (under mat), small tear in bottom left corner.