Various subjects, including a portrait of Cheang Hong Lim (1841–1893)

Title
Various subjects, including a portrait of Cheang Hong Lim (1841–1893)
Year/Period
around 1900s
Region
Singapore
Dimension
Frame size: 38.0 x 46.4 x 3.3 cm,
Image size: 25.3 x 33.6 cm
Accession No.
2018-00122
Collection of
Credit Line
Gift of Mr and Mrs Lee Kip Lee

This album leaf contains five photographs, including one from around 1905 of Peranakan businessman and philanthropist Cheang Hong Lim, dressed in the robes of a Qing Chinese official. The photograph on the verso shows a view of the Buddhist temple of Borobudur in Central Java, Indonesia. ‘Gallery View Boeroe Boeder by Neeijela’ is inscribed on the lower edge of the leaf. These photographs were probably taken by G.R. Lambert and Co.G.R. Lambert and Co was a leading and the most enduring of the European photography studios in Singapore. The studio was established in 1867 by Gustave Richard Lambert, who was originally from Dresden, Germany. Popular among the elites, the firm was often chosen as the official photographers for important state events in Singapore. In 1861 it was appointed as the official photographer of the King of Siam and the Sultan of Johore.