Late 19th-century photo album with views of New South Wales. The album contains 65 albumen prints of highlights in the region, primarily in Sydney and the Blue Mountains. It was bought by the civil engineer Clément van de Velde (dates unknown), who was born in Belgium and moved to Australia in 1884, where he attempted to set up a sugar-beet industry. He also served as the vice-consul for Belgium. He gifted the album to his friend Cobus in 1885, possibly as a keepsake for a trip they undertook together.
At least a third of the photographs show important buildings and other landmarks in Sydney, including the Government House, the Town Hall, the General Post Office, the Australian Museum, the different colleges of the University of Sydney, the Department of Lands building, and the public library in Bent Street that has been demolished in 1967. Most of these buildings were relatively new at the time these photographs were taken. Also included are photographs of Hyde park and the Captain Cook monument, the Man O'War steps, Argyle cut, Mrs Macquarie's Chair, and the botanic gardens. The other photographs in the album show the towns and nature surrounding Sydney, such as the Katoomba Falls, the Three Sisters, Govetts Leap, and Mount Victoria in the Blue Mountains, the Zig Zag railway, the Fitzroy Falls, Fort Denison, Broken Bay, various views of the Nepean River, as well as four portraits of Australian Aboriginals.
With a contemporary French inscription on the verso of the first flyleaf ("Mon cher Cobus, Je prie de vouloir accepter cet album en souvenir de nos bons rapporte. Votre dévote, Clément van de Velde. Sydney, 10 may 1885."). The binding has been professionally restored, the boards are somewhat scratched and dented. The leaves are warped and foxed, the lower corners of some of the leaves are torn, without affecting the photographs, the photographs have somewhat discoloured. Otherwise in good condition. Cf. McLennan, N. T., "Henri van de Velde (1878-1947)" in: Australian Dictionary of Biography 16, 2002.