Lot 34: FREITAS HENRIQUES JUNIOR, JOSE CHRISTIANO DE. 1832-1902. 2 views of the Moon, from the Observatorio Nacional Argentino, Cordoba, Argentina, June, 1873,

2 views of the Moon, from the Observatorio Nacional Argentino, Cordoba, Argentina, June, 1873, albumen prints mounted, 7 x 7 inches (180 x 180 mm), printed captions and credits below, one framed.

THE MOON AS SEEN FROM THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE, INSCRIBED TO GEORGE B. AIRY. The National Observatory in Argentina was founded on 24 October 1871 by the American astronomer Benjamin Apthorp Gould [1824-1896]. Both photographs are inscribed on the verso, as follows, and with a similar inscription: "Sir George B. Airy, with best remembrances of B.A. Gould, Corboda, June 1873. The flint of the photographic object glass had been broken into two nearly equal parts, on the voyage hither, and is supported by a system of twelve adjusting screws, made in Cordoba." The lens in question was an 11-inch made by Rutherfurd, and Gould had a local watchmaker manufacture a clamp to hold it together. A new lens arrived in 1875.
Freitas Henriques, known as "Christiano Junior," was born in 1832 in the Azores. He emigrated to Brazil in 1855 and from there continued on to Buenos Aires in 1867. He appeared in the 1869 Argentine census under the name Christiano Junior, as a photographer.