Platé and Co

Active Dates:

circa 1890 - circa 1949

Active Area:

Asia (continent)
Sri Lanka (nation)
Western Province (province)
Colombo (inhabited place)
Central Province (province)
Kandy (inhabited place)
Nuwara Eliya (inhabited place)

Likenesses:

None

Photographs:

See list of photographs

Publications:

Platé and Co (190?), 'The hundred best views of Ceylon'. Colombo.
The Royal visit to Ceylon, April 1901 (1901), Colombo. [Album with letterpress and 58 platinum prints by Skeen, Platé and Colombo Apothecaries Company].

Related Entries:

Andree Family
W L H Skeen and Co

The photographic firm Platé and Co was established by A.W.A. Platé and his wife Clara in a small studio in the Bristol Hotel in 1890. It moved to larger premises in Colpetty in 1892. Wright writes: 'Mr. Heinemann joined the firm as managing partner and the business continued to steadily expand, with the result that the present staff of the establishment comprises ten Europeans and over 60 natives. Beside their Colpetty studio and several others in Colombo, Messrs Plate have a branch establishment at Nuwara Eliya...and, in addition, book-stalls at the Queen's Hotel, Kandy, and the Galle Face Hotel, Colombo. The Colpetty studio and office practically represent the headquarters of the firm, and here are located extensive work-rooms, dark-rooms, show-rooms and other adjuncts to a photographic establishment, in addition to the spacious studio, reckoned to be one of the finest in the East (Wright 1907). The firm became a limited private company in 1900 and the business was enlarged to concentrate on the supplying of photographic apparatus and material. In 1907 the firm had an output of postcards of half a million. The firm probably took over the stock of W.L.H. Skeen and Co. Platé and Co were still trading in the 1940s.

Sources:

Wright, Arnold (ed.) (1907), 'Twentieth century impressions of Ceylon: its history, people, commerce, industries, and resources'. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Co.

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