BRASTAGI, SUMATRA PHOTO ALBUMBiblio.com
BRASTAGI PHOTO ALBUM 1921-1928
Best.-Nr. 25040201Brastagi 1921-1930 n.p. Silk covered oblong photo album 26 x 18 cm. very good minor edge rubbing contents clean contains 22 large b. w. photos each ca. 19.5 x 14 cm. one triple size panorama 55 x 13.5 cm. mounted on stiff paper. This early photo album was made by an English-speaking resi- dent of the area likely a British subject based on a photo of him in the ruins of a building probably burned down where he stands in shorts & walking stick with penned date of "22 September 1927" at the top. The album is bound in two-tone brown over buff colored silk cord tied. The last few photos have penned dates above stating "1921 1923 1924 1928" with an album cover date of "1930" penned in white as is the name Brastagi. It is possible that the first Brastagi Hotel was burned to the ground and was a steel-reinforced structure where the photograher stands and this album records the newly-rebuild structure. The album begins with a very lovely three-photo panoramic view of the Brastagi area a farming village just below a great volcanic mountain. The 2nd shows the hotel before that mountain nestled in the wooded area. The 3rd shows the int- erior of the hotel with its stair-case period rugs & lamp hat rack easy chairs. The next shows the "smoking room" with more easy chairs & small tables and a grand fireplace clearly this hotel was up in the highlands where quite cool temperatures are common. One can deduct from this that the Hotel was a great get-away resort for those foreigners who probably live and worked in the low lands where it is sultry with very tropical daily heat. Another shows the verandah with large view windows rattan chars and small tables. Next is a dance hall or entertainment room of grand scale it has many stuffed lizzards & animals on the walls. The formal dining room is beautifully set up with white table cloths napkins and silverware arranged. Then a nice view from what is possibly a large golf-course surrounding the hotel with a foreign guest in the background all decked out in his white tropical clothes and matching pith helmet. There are three superb photos of ethnic types: first a young girl in native jacket with elaborate silver necklace wearing a pillow-like head cover and some sort of a folded hand-woven sarong on top; an old woman with large safety pinned jacket wearing massive silver earrings that clip on to a folded cloth head cover; an old man wearing a cloth head cover & heavy cloth tunic and home-woven cloth over one shoulder with a Kris sword tucked into his elaborate silver buckle-belt. The next shows a very elaborate native "Long House" typical of Sumatra with its inverted "boat hull" grass roof & connect- ting buildings. Afterwhich is a lovely photo of a group of several Sumatrans-three young women sitting on bamboo poles on the ground picking lice from the hair of the girl who is seated before her while a nu mber of other on lookers are fascinated by the person taking the photo assuming its the Brit with a camera. Follwed by a few more photos of scenic Sumatran spots: river; six young children along the beach two girls have babies tied to their backs as they mug for the camera; small native buildings in the background. Another "Long House" complex with several buildings beneith the coco palms in an idyllic scene. A river scene with a boy standing on a water buffalo with many other buffalos in the water cooling off. A super shot of "Hotel Brastagi" with a good number of 1920's motor cars most of which are soft top types with one showing a foreign man and his two little daughters all dressed in tropical white clothing a lonely electric pole and light at the far right with penned date "1921" written above. A photo of a volcanic crator now a small lake with steam rising-with penned caption "Sibajah" above. Side view of the hotel and its outer buildings with "1923" penned caption. The ruins of a building shows the creator of the album."22 September 1924" penned caption sited above. Distant view of the hotel caption "20 Decemb- er 1928" which is the last of the group of 22 b.w. photos. Surely the record of some important job by the photographer nicely done with very clear sharp UNFADED images mounted on black stiff paper leaves there is a mild convex warp to all pages which does not detract from the overall album. Nicely done fascinating work. The faint greenish reflection on our scans are a product of our scanner and are NOT on the actual photos. The hotel was probably booked by foreign visitors or residents of tropical Sumatra as an escape from the heat which was a common way to take well deserved rest and local vacation which was a part of overseas life. unknown
