Albumen print of photograph, slightly smaller than a carte de visite, showing two seated Africans: a younger man in and western evening dress, and an older woman in a bonnet.

An albumen print, mounted on a piece of plain white card. Dimensions of print: 94 x 57 mm. Dimensions of card: 104 x 64 mm. Aged and faded. The card is entirely blank, apart from the date '1853' written at the head of the reverse. Clearly an early portrait of black people: if the date on the reverse is correct it pre-dates by a year the patenting of the carte to visite by Disdéri. The couple are seated side by side, gazing slightly to the right of the camera. The young man, handsome and assured, is seated on the left of the picture, on a simple chair, in kufi and evening dress, with white shirt and no tie. Beside him sits the woman, old enough to be his mother, in bonnet and voluminous plain dress, her mouth slightly open. The woman has a brooch at the centre of her bust, and the man has a watch or pendant danging from the left hand side of his shawl-collared jacket. Both are seated with their legs apart, and their hands on their laps. The background of the photograph is difficult to make out, but the couple appear to be seated in front of a grand piano, indoors. From the papers of Charles Baron Clarke, eminent colonial botanist and Inspector of Schools (Bengal).