Photographs I've gleaned from flea markets, junk shops and sometimes ebay. The cheaper the better. Anything with a story that can be extracted from hand written notes, location research, local histories, census records......anything. A small band of fellow enthusiasts worldwide have helped me with many of these. Of course there are always mysteries that defy research, but there's even a story inside these. All images can be viewed at super-size on Flickr.

Sunday, 29 May 2011

Mystery man, New Zealand. 1870s.

Man. Christchurch, New Zealand. Interesting backstory.

A photo that didn't strike me as particularly interesting when I saw it the flea market bin, but I knew an expert collector in Christchurch who I was sure would be able to make something of it. I was not disappointed. As you can see from his blog, he has researched the career of photographer, Daniel Mundy, in some detail. To his surprise, he found that an exact copy of this portrait is held by the New Zealand National Archive. It is in a collection that was bestowed by renowned German geologist Sir Johann Franz Julius von Haast. The bearded man in the portrait remains unidentified, but was quite probably a friend of Haast's.
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