Calling all sleuths, a mystery photo to identify.

[cad]

I know many of you like a little mystery so I thought I'd share a picture with you, see what you make of it!
I found this picture on a market stall so it's not a family picture, there's nothing written on the back and the print itself is small (maybe 10 by 15 cm) and printed on very thin paper. It's a testiment to lense makers of the day that you can see so much detail, even the pictures on the walls in the background show up enough to give some  clues to what the people living there were like.
The obvious questions are when and where? To me it looks colonial and about 1900-1910, but I'm convinced you can probably tell even more about the inhabitants of this house than that, so consider this a challenge.
By the way you may notice there are two people in this picture!
Bit spooky this but I put that last sentence there as an afterthought but when the picture came up on the screen I spotted a strange face I hadn't seen before, over the louvred door on the back wall, the extreme right of the picture, to the right of the crease there are two eyes and a nose- almost certainly an optical illusion but spooky none the less! So I guess there could be three people in the picture!!
Cad

[chinakay]

Hi Cad, what a superb photo!

By the way the lady is dressed and her hairstyle I would say 1900-1905 or so...a good estimate on your part. All photos of the time were printed on that very thin paper, which is why they were all mounted on stiff cardboard backing.

I'd love to see a very high resolution (600 dpi) scan of just the photos on the wall, it's like looking into someone's handbag

Sure does look tropical, doesn't it...maybe India or Burma...?

Cheers,
China

[cad]

Hi China,
I like your handbag analogy, that's exactly what it's like!
 I've looked at the picture with a large lense which bends the image making it look almost 3d, it's like wandering around the room! From the pictures on the wall I think I've seen a wedding group, various family portraits including a man in uniform, a group of landscape shots possibly coastal, one picture looks like a Mabel Lucie Atwell type image and on the back wall (far right as we look at it) what looks like a Rembrandt era portrait- a print I expect.
I'll get that scan for you, watch this space.
Thanks,
Cad

[Lydart]

The large plant in the pot left, I think is a Cordyline ... which is native to NZ, Oz and that part of the world ... so could this be an Antipodians house ?   

Are those feet on the extreme right, on a chair ??

[cad]

Oh thanks for that, I was hoping a botanist would get involved. Did you mean the one in the barrel, foreground of the picture- I thought it was a yucca?
I don't think they are feet, I'll look again, I thought it was someones rump- someone seated and leaning forward trying to keep out of shot.
The plant on the table next to the lady looks distinctive, and under it there is a pottery frog, I think they are Chinese or Japanese, there was a large one on the Antiques Roadshow a few years back.

[Lydart]

Yes ... and no, not a yucca, which has stiff leaves ... this one has softer floppier leaves ...
Its certainly got the feel of a colonials house ... the covered in veranda for the heat of the day ... no punkah wallah, so not India !! 

We had a very similar, though nothing like so affluent veranda in E. Africa ...

[Koromo]

The large plant in the pot left, I think is a Cordyline ... which is native to NZ, Oz and that part of the
world ... so could this be an Antipodians house ?   

Hmmmm, not so sure about that. A young (or pot-grown) cordyline's leaves are generally thinner,
and I'm not all that sure that it would have been used as a pot plant in c1900.

It all looks more tropical to me.  The wall on the left looks as if it opens to the outside and
architecturally is unlike any old house style that I remember in NZ.  The rattan floor covering
wouldn't be common then either.

I can't decide what it 'feels' like - South-East Asian, Malayasia?


Koromo

[Lydart]

Yes, there's that rattan ... perhaps far east would be a better bet ?    But no ceiling fan, which you might expect in Malaysia ... or did they not have electricity then ?   Hmmm !

Here's a cordyline in a pot ...

[Koromo]

Here's a cordyline in a pot ...

True,    but  I was thinking of the NZ 'Cabbage Tree' (Cordyline australis) rather than the Dracaenas
which are more tropical.  I guess we would have to know what species were more usually grown in pots
100 years ago.