Albumin print, Zangaki, Femme egyptienne, woman in traditional clothing, circa 1890

This historical photograph shows an ethnographically invaluable and fascinating portrait view of an Egyptian woman in traditional clothing, taken as an original albumin print mounted on cardboard. The albumin process used was the dominant photochemical technique of that era, in which egg white was used to bind the light-sensitive silver salts to the paper, giving the photographs their characteristic warm sepia tone, a soft glossy surface, and high detail sharpness.

The motif, impressively composed in portrait format, documents the woman in fine local attire with a traditional jug, while the focus centers on a very special cultural-historical detail, namely the prominent cylindrical nose jewelry which was referred to as "Arūsat al-Burqa" in 19th-century Egypt. In daily life, this ornate jewelry element served to secure the thin fabric of the traditional face veil centrally on the nose as well as to elegantly weigh it down, making this studio photograph a first-class visual primary document of Oriental costume history. The authorship is undisputedly attributed to the Greek Zangaki Brothers due to the original signature in the photo negative, who were world-renowned for their sensitive ethnographic portraits of the local population.

This print was produced around the year 1890, during the heyday of international interest in the culture of the Orient. The antique collector's item features the photograph dimensions of 27,4 x 21,5 cm mounted on a 27,9 x 22 cm original cardboard backing and is in good age-appropriate condition with a beautiful, even, slight toning. The bottom margin features the original white caption within the photo negative: "Zangaki - No 831 Femme égyptienne."