Two Sepia Portrait Prints, of Aboriginal Australians one male and one female, mounted on printed mounting card.

Portrait One of Two:
Man wears suit jacket and an overcoat, he has a hand woven scarf tied around his neck, similar but different in design to the scarf worn by the Indigenous woman in the other portrait. His hair has been combed flat on his head and his beard also appears to have been manicured for the photograph. The Man is frowning and appears older than the woman in 'portrait two', but the lack of grey in his hair would suggest that he would not be much older than his mid to late 30s. On the front of the mounting card, printed in small capital letters is the following: ‘DURYEA [and] ADELAIDE.’

Portrait Two of Two:
Woman wearing a woven headscarf and wrapped in a blanket, tied with a rope of knotted [and hand-woven?] string. On the front of the mounting card, printed in small capital letters is the following: ‘DURYEA [and] ADELAIDE.’

On the reverse side of the mounting card of both portraits is a highly ornate print, identifying the prints as being produced by Townsend Duryea, at his studio on 66 & 68 King William Street, Adelaide. No dates are given on the print, however, it is likely that the dates are approximately post 1867.

The date of these images can be assumed to be post 1863, as the printed information on the reverse side of the mounting board is marked ‘T Duryea’ rather than ‘Duryea Bros’. The photographic company name indicates that the photograph is post 1863, as this was the year that Duryea dissolved his partnership with his Brother, Sandford Duryea. A further date qualifier is the crest of the Duke of Edinburgh, photographed by Duryea in the Royal visit of 1867. Various other crests on the back of this mounting board may supply further information in regards to dating these two photographs. The date is unlikely to extend beyond 1875, as 18 April of this year, Duryea's studio was destroyed in a fire, along with some 50,000 negatives and this fire also marked the end of his career as a photographer.

The South Australian Museum Archive holds two 35mm conservation negatives of items AA80/1/3/1 and AA80/1/3/2, which were produced by the State Library of South Australia in September 1989. [See AA80/1/4]