50 x 64 mm. (Oval image). A carte de visite head and shoulders studio portrait of Abraham de Smidt (1829-1908). A surveyor and amateur artist, de Smidt entered the Cape Civil Service as a clerk in the Commissariat Department in 1846 and was admitted as a government surveyor in 1848. During the years 1849-1850 and 1853-1856 he served on the re-survey commissions in the eastern districts of Cape Colony and was Surveyor-General from 1873-1889. He retired to England and died in Brighton. The backmark reads: 'Under the patronage of H.M. The Queen. H.R.H. The Duke of Edinburgh R.N. H.E. The Governor and Co. The Capetown Photographic Gallery , S.B. Barnard, Adderley Street, Cape Town, Cape of Good Hope. The negative is kept. Further copies can be ordered by this number'. The handwritten number '9277'' is inserted here. Abraham de Smidt's signature is beneath the print.