Royal Pageant at Calcutta, January 5th 1912

CALCUTTA, Spearmen and State Camels at the Nawroz Procession, Jan. 5th 1912. An old album page with a professional 11 x 6½ ins impressive image [two very small areas of surface loss in lower half, not affecting any figures]. The other side has four amateur 5½ x 3½ ins photographs – Elephant with Banner, A Camel with drums & Elephants with banners, Elephant Salaaming to the King & Queen, Fuve mounted Nawbat Musicians. The interesting thing about this sort of private snapshots is that, although they lack the composition and quality of the professional images, they reflect what impressed an individual and may well be the only photographs of a particular moment in existance. Elephants, so sadly lacking from the 1911 Delhi Durbar itself, clearly captured the imagination in Calcutta, where the Royal party and their followers moved to after Delhi.    aug4/3