On eBay Now...1890's RUDYARD KIPLING TRAVEL PHOTOS ? YOKOHAMA, KAMAKURA CAIRO TRAVEL CAB CARDS For Sale
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1890's RUDYARD KIPLING TRAVEL PHOTOS ? YOKOHAMA, KAMAKURA CAIRO TRAVEL CAB CARDS:
$699.99
[RUDYARD KIPLING, TRAVEL PHOTOS, JAPAN, EGYPT]
Offered here is a group of three VERY interesting travel photos of a man visiting Yokohama, Japan, Kamakura, Japan and Cairo, Egypt. The albumen images are mounted on card stock and are in excellent condition within a custom, annotated mat measuring 10.75 in x 23.5 in. We have no idea who the photographer is for these images. They have no backmarks save for the penciling shown.
The first image (from the left) is of a gentleman in a bowler hat sitting in a rickshaw. The rickshaw driver has his attention on the photographer as well. (measures 4.0 in x 5.5 in in mat)
The second image (center) is of the same man standing in front of the Daibutsu statue in Kamakura, Japan. The man is standing holding an umbrella and is shown with another man also holding an umbrella who could be a tour guide or translator ?? (measures 7.0 in x 8.0 in in mat)
The third image (far right) is of a man in a pith helmet in a light colored suit riding a donkey with two Egyptian men standing close by. (measures 4.5 in x 6.5 in in mat)
WE HAVE STRONG, SUBSTANTIVE REASONS TO BELIEVE THE MAN SHOWN IS THE BRITISH AUTHOR, RUDYARD KIPLING.
Kipling visited Yokohama Japan about the time these photos were taken (1892) and not only visited both Yokohama, but also visited Kamakura and even wrote a poem about the very statue the man is standing in front of. The poem 'Buddha at Kamakura' was written in 1892 and appeared in different forms in several of his books including 'Kim' (1901) and 'Five Nations' (1903).
Kipling also visited Cairo on several occasions, and also recalled a humorous rhyme a man told him after he had a donkey ride. He explains in a 1913 letter to his father the rhyme:
"...a silly rhyme that a man told me after a donkey-ride. It's hardly the thing one could write to a girl but I couldn't get it out of my head for days. You know of course that one sits right aft on a donkey. Here's the rhyme -
As I sat on my ass on the back of my ass
This paradox came to my mind
Two thirds of my ass was in front of my ass
And the whole of my ass what behind..."
Kipling smoked both cigars and pipes and we can also observe in the rickshaw image the man is holding a cigar in his left hand. We have found several other images of Kipling smoking a cigar and holding it in his left hand.
The preponderanceof the 'circumstantial evidence' would certainly suggest that if this isn't Kipling, it's definitely someone about the same time he was there (who also looks like him) going the exact same places he did wearing a bowler hat.
We are offering this up as a group of nice travel photos, but we ask buyers to do as much research and ask questions which we can hopefully answer. If this is in fact a set of Kipling images, of 3 key places he visited and wrote about (outside of India), it would be an EXTRAORDINARY addition to any serious literary collector or Kipling aficionado and worth many times our starting price.
By any assessment, a certain prize for the Kipling collector as it so tightly relates to Kipling and his literary canon.
Please email any questions -