Untitled [Set of 2 prints based on photographs taken during the 1869–70 expedition of the SS Great Eastern]
a) M. & N. Hanhart
Landing the Shore End of Bombay Cable at Aden
Circa 1870s.
Lithograph on paper
4.5 x 6.6 in (11.5 x 17 cm)
A finely tinted lithograph showing the dramatic moment when the submarine telegraph cable linking Bombay with Aden was hauled ashore. In the foreground, European officers direct the operation while Arab camel drivers and local onlookers gather on the beach; cable boats and ships stand offshore under a hazy sky. Lithographed by the distinguished firm of M. & N. Hanhart, the plate was issued in London to commemorate the completion of the Bombay–Aden section of the Indo-European Telegraph line.
This striking image records a decisive episode in the history of global communications: the landing of the submarine cable at Aden, which on 14 March 1870 made Bombay the eastern terminus of the telegraph network connecting India directly with Britain. The shore-end section was laid by the Chiltern over a distance of ten nautical miles, while the Great Eastern—then the largest ship afloat—laid the deep-sea portion. Work commenced on 14 February and concluded on 2 March 1870, after which the line was opened to public traffic.
The composition balances imperial authority with local presence: British engineers orchestrate the cable landing, while Arab and Indian figures, camels, and shoreline activity highlight Aden’s role as a relay station at the crossroads of empire. As one of a series of lithographs produced from Robert Charles Dudley’s watercolours of the cable expeditions, the print celebrates both the engineering triumphs of the Victorian age and Bombay’s emergence as the communications capital of the Raj.
Surviving examples of this plate are scarce and form an important visual testimony to the transformation of nineteenth-century Bombay into a hub of global telegraphy.
b) M. & N. Hanhart
Group on the Deck of the "Great Eastern" at Bombay
Circa 1870s.
Lithograph on paper
4.3 x 6.6 in (11 x 17 cm)
This tinted lithograph, printed by M. & N. Hanhart after a photograph, was issued in J.C. Parkinson’s The Ocean Telegraph to India (Edinburgh & London: William Blackwood & Sons, 1870). It depicts a large assembly on the deck of Brunel’s SS Great Eastern at Bombay (now Mumbai) in January 1870, on the eve of laying the submarine cable between Bombay and Aden—the final link in the first direct telegraph line connecting Britain and India. The Great Eastern – an iron steamship designed by Isambard K. Brunel – had arrived in Bombay in January 1870 as part of the British-Indian submarine telegraph cable expedition.
The scene records a rare group portrait of the expedition’s officers, engineers, and electricians, interspersed with local operatives, notably members of the Parsi telegraph staff, whose inclusion underscores the collaboration between British and Indian personnel in this landmark enterprise. Notably, this gathering took place during the layover of Great Eastern in Bombay Harbour (28 Jan – 14 Feb 1870) while the vessel was preparing to lay the undersea telegraph cable from Bombay to Aden. According to Joseph C. Parkinson – a journalist who documented the voyage – a photographer on board (Mr Lindley) arranged for these visitors for a portrait on deck. The resulting image (though posed rather stiffly, as Parkinson humorously notes) was used as the basis for this print. Coils of submarine cable, cable-handling machinery, and the immense superstructure of the Great Eastern provide a striking backdrop, anchoring the human subjects within the technological context of their achievement.
The Bombay–Aden section of the Indo-European telegraph route was laid by the Great Eastern and completed in March 1870. For the first time, messages could pass between London and Bombay in minutes rather than months, transforming imperial communications. The present lithograph, based directly on a contemporary photograph, stands as both a documentary image and a commemorative artefact, capturing the human scale of a technological revolution that forever altered Bombay’s role as the communications hub of the Raj. The Bombay group portrait thus captures a celebratory moment of Victorian technological triumph and the diverse people involved in the cable’s landing.
CONNECTING EMPIRES: THE GREAT EASTERN AND THE BOMBAY–ADEN TELEGRAPH EXPEDITION, 1870
Issued in J.C. Parkinson’s The Ocean Telegraph to India (1870), these finely executed tinted lithographs by M. & N. Hanhart commemorate the successful completion of the submarine telegraph cable linking Bombay to Aden, and thence to Britain—a technological feat that forever transformed global communications.
The plates, based on photographs taken during the 1869–70 expedition of the SS Great Eastern, document both the engineering triumphs and the human dimension of this enterprise. Landing the Shore End of the Bombay Cable at Aden captures the dramatic moment when the cable was hauled ashore under the gaze of British officers, Arab camel-drivers, and local onlookers, while Group on the Deck of the Great Eastern at Bombay presents a remarkable group portrait of the cable-laying expedition’s officers, engineers, electricians, and Parsi telegraph staff, framed against the machinery and immense bulk of Brunel’s ship.
Together, these prints not only memorialise a defining Victorian engineering achievement but also foreground Bombay’s emergence as the nerve centre of imperial communications. They offer a rare visual record of a project that collapsed geographical distance, binding India and Britain by instantaneous contact, and reshaping Bombay’s role within the economic and political framework of the Raj.
(Set of two)
This work will be shipped unframed.
NON-EXPORTABLE
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This lot will be shipped in "as is" condition. For further details, please refer to the images of individual lots as reference for the condition of each print.