Photo-Sleuth

Edward Foster: Part 5, A good hand at spinning a yarn

2011-11-09T01:07:00.000-08:00

Edward Foster, Derby, 8 November 1864
When I started to research the life of Edward Foster, silhouettist and book publisher of Derby, there was no shortage of material on which to draw. As described in Part 4, the accounts of this man's remarkable life continued to grow throughout the century and a half following his death, the latest article appearing in Derbyshire Life just two years ago. During the course of his reputed 102 years there appeared to be little that Mr Foster did not accomplish. Born of noble parentage, reduced by circumstance, he had a notable military career, became an accomplished miniature painter, with royal appointments, was an inventor, then became a silhouette artist, capturing the profiles of many eminent persons of the day, and finally was a compiler, publisher and distributer of educational charts and texts.

Profile of Thomas Marseille of Canterbury, by Edward Foster, 1822
His career as a prolific painter of profiles, which I covered in Part 2 of this series, was relatively straightforward to document. A series of newspaper advertisements and trade directory entries from 1809 to 1833 is supported by an impressive body of extant signed work, often with trade labels, an example of which I even managed to purchase for myself (pictured above).

Foster's Elementary French Grammar and Exercises, 1839
Then in the late 1830s and 1840s Foster and his son Edward Ward Foster (1819-1851) together compiled and published a number of educational texts and charts, discussed in part 3. After his son's death in 1851 Edward senior continued peddling scholastic charts throughout the United Kingdom, also easily verified through newspaper advertorials.

20th Regiment of Foot uniforms
His earlier life, however, proved to be far more difficult to corroborate. Although the events described in the reports of his military service did take place, details of his actual connection to them have been particularly elusive. Much has been made of his royal patronage, but I have not been able to unearth a single piece of contemporary evidence that Foster was ever a miniature painter to the Royal Family. Besides the single purported self portrait used to illustrate a 1907 article which I reproduced in Part 4, I have yet to find unequivocal evidence of a single miniature portrait, as opposed to a profile, painted by him.

from Derbyshire Gatherings by Joseph Barlow Robinson, 1866
With the first contemporary evidence of his activities only to be found in June 1809, when he was already reputedly in his mid-40s, I then began to wonder about the veracity of the stories concerning the years prior to his establishment as a silhouette artist. To this end, I carried out a comparison of the accounts which have appeared. Most, if not all, of the material in reports about Foster's early years written in the 20th century has most likely been taken from a chapter in Robinson's 1866 book Derbyshire Gatherings (PDF), with the usual slight embellishments that are expected with time. Although his sources are not stated, Robinson, in turn, appears to have based his account mostly on the text of a speech by Henry Adams at the "conratulatory dinner" to Foster in November 1862, probably supplemented by newspaper and other reports of the period.

A Veteran, The Derby Mercury, 7 May 1862
Click image to enlarge
The earliest of these reports that I've been able to find - at least in the 19th century British Library Newspapers selection presented online by Gale - is an undated article from Aris's Birmingham Gazette reprinted in The Derby Mercury on 7 May 1862. While primarily a promotion for his "admirable chronological charts," it states that Mr Foster will complete his 100th year in a few months" and refers to his military service, but strangely makes no mention whatsoever of his artisitic career. One very definitely gets the impression, on reading it, that Foster provided the information to the Gazette reporter himself. Likewise, much of the biographic material used by Henry Adams in his speech is likely to have been put forward by Foster who, as I demonstrated in Part 1, was particularly adept at self promotion using a variety of media.

The stories of Edward Foster's family and pre-silhouette years can be separated into the following "events," each of which will be dealt with separately:

Noble ancestry, birth, numerous wives and children, including:
a. birth at All Saints, Derby on 8 November 1762,
b. descendant of Duke of Norfolk,
c. centenarian grandparents,
d. father was land steward to Sit Robert Burdett, Baronet of Foremark,
e. married 5 times and had 17 children.
2. Entered Derby militia, aged 17, c.1780
3. Military service as junior officer in 20th Regiment of Foot, c.1781-1805, including:
a. under Marquis Cornwallis in latter part of American Revolution, c.1781,
b. under Duke of York in Holland, c.1793-4,
c. under Sir Ralph Abercrombie in Egypt, 1801,
d. at Deal/Walmer, Kent, c.1801-5,
e. resigned on ther day Nelson died, 21 October 1805.
4. Involved with "Ragged schools."
5. Appointed miniature painter to the Royal Family, with rooms at Round Tower, Windsor Castle.
6. Invented and patented machine for taking profiles.

Birth in 1762, noble ancestry, family

Much of the legend which surrounds Edward Foster derives from his longevity. His claims of a great age can be traced somewhat earlier than the 1862 article, with his stated ages in the 1851 and 1861 Census records being 90 and 99 respectively. Reports in The York Herald (27 April 1861) and The Hull Packet (3 May 1861) also gave his age as 99 years. Unfortunately, I've as yet been unable to locate him in the 1841 Census.

Baptism: Edward Foster, 13 November 1774, Egginton
Click image to enlarge

I was hoping that finding a record of his baptism would be a relatively straightforward matter, since the International Genealogical Index (IGI) has good, albeit not complete, coverage of the parish registers of Derby town, as well as the non-conformist registers. Disappointingly there was no sign of a suitable baptism in the IGI, and a trawl of microfilms of the parish registers for All Saints, St Werburgh, St Alkmund, St Michael and St Peter between 1760 and 1765, kindly carried out for me by Frank Wattleworth, also turned up empty. Spreading the net (and the fishing euphemisms) a little wider, both location- and time-wise, produced a baptism for an Edward Foster on 13 November 1774 at Egginton, a parish seven miles to the south-west of Derby, the son of Edward and Anne Foster.

Marriage: Edward Foster & Ann Haward, 7 June 1774, Egginton
Click image to enlarge

Further research reveals that Edward Foster senior's wife, whom he married at Egginton in 1774, was Ann Haward, Heyward, Hayward or Haywood (but never Howard), baptised on 25 February 1753 at Egginton, one of six children of Robert and Ann Heyward. This is almost certainly the family of our Edward Foster, given the number of coincidental facts.

Ann Haywood senior was buried at Egginton on 12 September 1798. Her children were born between 1750 and 1763 so, given the oldest likely age of child bearing in the 18th century was about 45. Her earliest possible date of birth was therefore c.1718, and she is unlikely to have been more than 81 years old when she died, a far cry from the 103 years claimed by Robinson.

Henry Howard (1628-1684), 6th Duke of Norfolk

If her husband Robert was of a similar age, even give or take a couple of decades, the only Duke of Norfolk of that era to have been producing children was the 6th Duke, who died in 1683/84. The 7th, 8th and 9th Dukes died without issue, and the 10th was only born in 1720. The chances of his being a Howard of that family are, in my view, very slim indeed!

Foremarke Hall, 1805, seat of Sir Robert Burdett, 5th Baronet

Was Edward Foster senior ever land steward to Sir Robert Burdett, 4th Baronet, of Foremark Hall, Derbyshire? After all, the dates seem to fit, and Foremarke Hall is only four miles to the east of Egginton. I believe he was probably born in nearby Doveridge in 1748, so would have been in his mid-20s by the time Edward junior was born. In 1791, Burdett's land steward in Foremark was Robert C. Greaves, Esq. (Universal British Directory, 1791), and by 1821-22 William Crabtree was performing that duty (Pigot's Derbyshire Directory, 1821-1822). However, Foster's father may well have been the incumbent at some other time between those dates. This awaits further research, perhaps in the extensive collection of Burdett papers at the Derbyshire Record Office. A quick look at the catalogue contents, for example, reveals the names of further agents John Brand (1783), Benjamin Redfern (1783-1789) and Robert Banton (1808-1816), but no sign of Foster.

In the celebratory speech given by Adams in 1862, which I think we can now assume was based largely on information supplied by Foster himself, he boasted of having been married five times, and to have fathered 17 children, with the oldest daughter born c.1784. The last of these claims is obviously unrealistic, if we now accept that he was born in 1774, and would have been a mere 10 years old at the time. While I have only found evidence for two children, I accept there may well have been several others.

Marriage: Edward Ward Foster & Isabella Magdalene Graham, 22 December 1841, Islington

Edward Ward Foster was probably born at Scarborough, Yorkshire around 1819, son of Edward and Elizabeth Foster. He married Isabella Magdalene Graham at Islington in 1841, died in Peckham and was buried at Nunhead Cemetery, Linden Grove, Southwark on 3 May 1851.
Phillis Howard Foster was born at Barony, a suburb of Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland on 2 November 1852 and baptised on 13 June 1855 at the High St Presbyterian or Unitarian Chapel in Portsmouth, Hampshire, daughter of Edward Foster and Margaret Mothersill (IGI). After Foster's death she moved to Southport, Lancashire but was back in Derby visiting in April 1881 and married Matthew Brunskill soon after. They had five children, and lived in Barrow-in-Furness, Waterloo and then Liverpool, where he was a grocer's assistant and coal merchant's agent. Phillis Howard Brunskill died in 1927, aged 74.

Death: Eliza Foster, The Derby Mercury, 4 August 1847

Edward Foster had married Margaret Mothersill, the mother of his youngest child, at Manchester in late 1851, the 1851 Census having described him as a widower. Four years earlier, a report in The Derby Mercury stated, "DEATHS. On Tuesday, July 27, in London, Eliza, the beloved wife of Edward Foster, Esq., formerly of St. John's Terrace, Derby, aged 67." It seems likely, given her age, that she was the Elizabeth Ward that Edward Foster married at St Margaret's, Leicester on 10 October 1818, and was presumably the mother of Edward Ward Foster.

Death of General Abercrombie at Alexandria, 28 March 1801

Military Service

While Edward Foster may have served in a Derby militia of some kind, if he was born in 1774 then his stated military service as a lieutenant with the 20th Regiment of Foot in America and Holland was impossible. I confirmed that the 20th Regiment were in Minorca in early 1801, travelled to Egypt in June that year, and went to Malta in September. I also found a note that 80 men suffering from ophthalmia were sent back to England. He would have been 25 for the expedition to Egypt, but it is physically impossible that he witnessed General Abercrombie's death in the moment of triumph at Alexandria, since that event occurred on 28 March, prior to the regiment's arrival in Alexandria. Nor have I have been able to find any record of his service with that regiment. It seems to me to have been a complete fabrication.

Rev Guthrie at Ragged School, Princes Street, Edinburgh, 1851

Ragged Schools

The Ragged Schools movement has been fairly well documented in a number of texts, but I've been unable to find any mention of either Edward Foster or his son, who described himself as an "Author Lecturer & Professor of Elocution &c." in the 1851 Census, having a prominent role in their promotion or growth.

Advertisement in The Hull Packet, 26 December 1809

Miniature Painter and Royal Patronage

Mention is made of two "water-colour miniatures" and a miniature of a lady signed in ink on the reverse "Edward Foster / York" and dated 1803 by Daphne Foskett in Miniatures: Dictionary and Guide (1987). He is also mentioned in Harry Blättel's International Dictionary of Miniature Painters, Porcelain Painters, Silhouettists (1992). Once again, I've been unable to find any contemporary evidence of supportive this claim of patronage. He did, however, include a royal coat of arms in some of his advertisements, such as the 1809 example above, which also claims "By His Majesty's Royal Letters Patent."

Advertisement in The Leeds Mercury, 17 June 1809

Invention and Patent of Profile-Taking Machine

The first indisputable contemporary evidence found during this study of Foster's commercial artistic activity is an advertisement that he placed in The Leeds Mercury of 17 June 1809. The words "By His Majesty's Royal Letters Patent" suggest that a Royal patent had been granted for the newly invented machine for sketching profiles in a short space of time, accurately and in great detail, although Foster in this particular case neither implicitly states that he was the inventor of the machine nor the grantee of the patent.

Patent application for physiognotrace by Schmalcalder, 1806

Later descriptions of the machine render it likely to have been a pantograph, which had been invented at least some two centuries earlier, or at the least an adaptation of one like the physiognotrace, but was perhaps not in common everyday use. Cynthia McKinley described a similar process in use by profile miniature artist James H. Gillespie, who also claimed to have invented a "new optiocal contrivance" which enabled him to draw likenesses in one minute. Although I have not carried out a search at the British Patent Office, I think it rather unlikely that such a patent in Foster's name exists.

Conclusion & Foster's Legacy

I believe the clue to all of these stories lies in the series of four educational charts which Foster was hawking for the last decade of his life. He stated in 1862 that these had been compiled by him at the British Museum, covering histories of the scriptures, England, France, Rome and the British Empire. It is my view that he developed his own "early history" during this voyage of discovery, and used it to good advantage in the years following. As his friend John Haslem stated in 1882, "He was a good hand at spinning a yarn, and in doing so appeared at times to draw somewhat on his imagination."

So, after that hatchet job, what remains of Edward Foster's legacy? He is unlikely to have had noble ancestry, he does not appear to have served in the miltary, probably never had royal patronage, let alone a royal appointment, and did not live to be a hundred (he was ninety years old when he died). For me it is his fine body of work that stands out, dozens - perhaps hundreds - of gilt-tinged black and reddish brown silhouettes in public and private collections, most signed simply below the bust with "Foster Pinxit" (Foster painted it) and a date, and a good proportion with the trademark "Foster & Crown" brass hanger. If you have a Foster silhouette in your collection, I'd very much appreciate seeing a scan or photograph of it, and if you would be happy for it to be shared via this blog, so much the better.

Sepia Saturday 100: Edward Foster, Part 4 - Growth of a Legend

2011-11-09T01:05:00.000-08:00

Turning one hundred is an event to be celebrated with much fanfare, whether one receives a traditional letter from the Queen - in the case of the United States, it's the president - or prefers a more muted affair. Alan Burnett's Sepia Saturday series marks its hundredth weekly post this week, with many thousands of historical images and supporting words submitted as part of the weekly themes over the last two years.

Although I've only participated in slightly under a third of those, I've been following the series for a good deal longer. The contributions from all over the world, by participants from a variety of backgrounds, have given me a great deal of enjoyment, as well as providing a very useful regular flow of ideas for my own blog. Congratulations to the originators, Alan and Kat, and to all contributors. By the way Alan, what happened to the first ten in the series?

Edward Foster, Derby, 8 November 1864
Carte de visite by John Burton & Sons, Derby
Image © & courtesy of Virginia Silvester
In three previous Photo-Sleuth articles (Parts 1, 2 and 3) I have talked about the lengthy and intriguing life of Derby celebrity Edward Foster, silhouettist and publisher of educational charts. From c.1808 until at least the mid-1830s he established something of a reputation as a silhouette artist, leaving an impressive residue of work with portraits still valued in collections all over the world. In the 1840s and 1850s, he turned to the compilation and publishing of various educational aids, including scholastic charts. He spent much of his time travelling throughout the British Isles selling these - even in his old age, he was a sprightly fellow.

For much of his life he had made Derby his home town, and on 8 November 1862 a congratulatory dinner was held in honour of "a gentleman who has attained to the ripe old age of one hundred." Thomas Clarke, the town's new mayor, various town councillors and other town worthies were among the 38 guests, while the editor of The Derbyshire and Chesterfield Advertiser, the local Liberal newspaper, Henry Adams proposed the toast of the evening:

Our juvenile friend who sits on my right, looking more like a young Archbishop than a centenarian, betrays no signs of rapidly failing health, notwithstanding a life of great activity and vicissitude. Born on the 8th of November, 1762 - in the first American war, many years ago, he joined the militia [as an ensign], and when the French revolution broke out he went to Egypt with Gen. Abercrombie, and at his death Mr. Foster returned home with 104 men all more or less afflicted with ophthalmia. His friends persuaded him to leave the army, which he did on the day Nelson died.
Being of an active turn of mind, and having also a taste for the fine arts, he in the first instance invented and patented a machine ; and, in the second instance, he turned his attention to the fine arts.
At the death of his son he took to the publishing trade, having compiled some charts, many thousands of which have been sold to clergymen and other ministers, and have found ready acceptance in public and private schools ... our guest has been the husband of five wives, that he has seventeen children, that the first born, if now living, would have attained her 78th year, and that the last and only one which has been left, we hope, to solace and comfort him in his declining days, only a few days ago celebrated her 10th birthday.

Thomas Rose, timber merchant and future mayor, continued:

... many persons had expressed their surprise that their guest was so old a man, but for himself he was not at all surprised, for, judging from the conversations he had had with Mr. Foster, he had found him to be a history within himself - a sort of walking encyclodpaedia.

The Derby Mercury, 15 March 1865
Although he continued to actively tour, Foster appears to have experienced a downturn in sales of his educational aids, and by late 1863 was in such "straitened circumstances" that the Mayor of Derby applied for and was granted £60 from the Royal Bounty Fund for his benefit. The visit to John Burton & Sons' photographic studio in Derby took place in November 1864. His financial situation did not improve, and a further subscription for his benefit was called for by the proprietors of The Derby Mercury and The Derby Advertiser in January 1865. By then, he was ailing rapidly, and he died on Sunday 12th March 1865.

The Derby Mercury, 22 March 1865
Ten days later The Derby Mercury carried a report of his funeral at the New Cemetery in Nottingham Road, Derby on Thursday 16 March.

On Thursday last the remains of Mr. Edward Foster, 'the Derby centenarian' were interred at the new cemetery. The ceremony was conducted by the Rev. W. Oates, and was witnessed by many friends.

from Derbyshire Gatherings by Joseph Barlow Robinson, 1866
It did not take long for the legend of Edward Foster to take hold. Just a year later, in April 1866, Bemrose and Sons of Derby published a handsome volume entitled Derbyshire Gatherings; a Fund of Delight for the Antiquary, the Historian, the Topographer, the Biographer, and the General Reader, by sculptor and author Joseph Barlow Robinson. This included a section on several "remarkable and eccentric characters," the first of whom was "Mr. Edward Foster, the Derby Centenarian." As can be seen from the full text of this article (transcribed PDF), the biographical notes elaborated considerably on those presented by Henry Adams in Foster's birthday speech, and included several plaudits in prose and verse written during Foster's lifetime.

Reputed self portrait by Edward Foster (Bailey, 1907)
In 1882 a brief mention was made by contemporary John Haslem of Derby of Foster's silhouettes, his longevity and, curiously, his being a "good hand at spinning a yarn, and in doing so appeared at times to draw somewhat on his imagination." An article in a 1907 edition of The Connoisseur, An Illustrated Magazine for Collectors outlined Foster's background, made specific reference to his career as a miniature painter, and included a reputed self portrait by him, in the form of a miniature in a cameo frame - reproduced above - although the source was not given. The author claimed to have "gathered and authenticated" information from Foster's sole surviving daughter, then "living in a suburb of Liverpool, in poor circumstances."

By the time knowledgeable silhouette collector Emily Nevill Jackson published the first significant text on that art form in 1911, Foster's body of work had become sufficiently well known to warrant a siginificant mention. Desmond Coke's The Art of Silhouette, published two years later, espoused the view that Foster was not sufficiently appreciated for his innovative techniques. More recently McKechnie (1978) has written what is possibly the most complete account of Foster's career as a profilist, with a detailed study of extant works, advertisements and trade labels. The biographical material included appears to be a conglomeration of those from the earlier works mentioned above.

Writers of Derbyshire history have also paid periodic attention to Foster over the last century and a half since his death. John Woodiwiss' 1962 article, timed to coincide with the bi-centenary of Edward Foster's birth date, consisted of a re-hash of Robinson's Derbyshire Gatherings biography, a description of some of his extant red and black profiles, and illustrations of three examples from his personal collection. Most recently Peter Seddon has reprised the subject in 2009, with a number of fine illustrations of Foster's work and a well written article, but no new biographical information.

Edward Foster's grave site, Nottingham Road Cemetery, Derby, 2011
Image © & courtesy of Nigel Aspdin
Even to this day, visitors on a tour of Derby's Nottingham Road Cemetery are shown the site Edward Foster's unmarked "pauper's grave," and regaled with the legend of Derby's much lauded centenarian.

So much for the legend. In the concluding article (Part 5) of this rather drawn-out series, which I intend to also publish this week, I will investigate the nature of this legend, and address some of the uncomfortable discrepancies in the various accounts of his life.

References

Anon (1862) Congratulatory Dinner to a Centenarian, The Derby Mercury, 12 November 1862.

Anon (1863) Mr. Edward Foster, the Centenarian, The Derby Mercury, 2 December 1863.

Anon (1863) Death of Mr. Edward Foster, The Derby Mercury, 15 March 1865.

Anon (1882) Silhouettes, or Black Profile Portraits, Notes and Queries, April 1882, s6-V (121) : 301 - 320

Bailey, J.T.H. (1907) Edward Foster, the Centenarian Miniature Painter, in The Connoisseur, An Illustrated Magazine for Collectors, Vol. XIX (September-December 1907), p.120, Archive.org

Coke, Desmond (1913) The Art of Silhouette, M. Secker, 230p.

Haslem, John (1882) Silhouettes, or Black Profile Portraits, in Notes & Queries, Oxford University Press, 6th S. VI. July 15, 1882, from Google Books.

Jackson, Emily Nevill (1911) The History of Silhouettes, The Connoisseur, London.

Jackson, Emily Nevill (1938) Silhouettes - Notes and Dictionary, Methuen Ltd., Republished 1981 as Silhouettes - History and Dictionary of Artists, New York: Dover Publications, 154 p., 103 pl.

McKechnie, Sue (1978) British Silhouette Artists and their Work, 1760-1860, London: Sotheby Parke Bernet, 799p.

Robinson, Joseph Barlow (1866) Derbyshire Gatherings: A fund of delight for the antiquary, the historian, the topographer, the biographer, and the general reader, London: J.R. Smith, 106p, (Mr. Edward Foster, The Derby Centenarian, p. 81-84), Internet Archive (Transcript by Brett Payne, PDF).

Seddon, Peter (2009) Edward Foster: A Master in Profile, Derbyshire Life, July 2009, p.170-173.

White, Francis (1857) History, Gazetteer and Directory of the County of Derby, courtesy of Neil Wilson

Woodiwiss, John (1962) Edward Foster: Derby Silhouettist and Centenarian, Derbyshire Countryside, 8 Nov 1962.

Sepia Saturday 99: Brass bandsman, by J.J. Gascoigne of Mosborough

2011-11-03T03:23:00.000-07:00

Unidentified bandsman with cornet, c. late 1890s
Cabinet portrait by J.J. Gascoigne of Mosborough
Image © and courtesy of Brett Payne
In the 1890s and early 1900s, when this portrait was probably taken, Mosborough was a small hamlet a mile north of Eckington church, south-east of Sheffield. I thought his uniform might suggest that he was a member of a military band, perhaps even a local militia, but a knowledgeable member of the Victorian Wars Forum has suggested that he was more likely to have been a civilian bandsman. The instrument appears to my untrained eye to be a cornet, but perhaps a sharp-eyed and more musically minded reader will provide the chapter and verse on this. Nor can I offer much in the way of useful comments on the rather large sheepskin or the small dog seated very obediently at the bandsman's feet.

Image © and courtesy of Brett Payne
The painted backdrop is rather crude, suggesting a somewhat earlier time period than the rest of the portrait's attributes, in particular the card mount, which is a typical generic "flowers and cherub" design popularised in the mid-1890s. The photographer's name is only printed on the front of the card mount, and has been partly worn off, but reference to my index of Derbyshire photographers shows him to be J.J. Gascoigne (or Gascoyne) of Mosborough, near Sheffield.

John Joseph Gascoigne was born at Bolsover, Derbyshire in 1875, son of a chimney sweep Enoch Gascoigne (1838-1916) and his wife Matilda Godfrey (1843-1916). He married his first cousin Matilda Esther Godfrey (1873-1969) in 1896, and they had at least four sons. John Gascoigne was described only as a chimney sweep, like his father, in the 1901 and 1911 censuses, but trade directories reveal that he practised as a photographer from his home in South Street, Mosborough from at least 1908 until 1912.

Although I haven't had the opportunity to devote as much time as usual to this week's Sepia Saturday theme, I think it does still qualify as a themer. Hopefully a lot more will be forthcoming for the centenary celebration next week.

Sepia Saturday 98: Cart, Coach and Carriage Drivers and the Day Excursion

2011-10-27T13:03:00.000-07:00

Reverse of card mount by George Renwick, Burton-on-Trent
Image © and courtesy of Marion Oubhie
Marion Oubhie sent me an image of an unidentified man, possibly from her Showell family, asking if I could estimate a date. It is a standard carte de visite by the Burton-upon-Trent (Staffordshire) studio of George Renwick. From the design of the card mount (see image below) and the negative number, I believe that the photograph was produced around 1883-1885.

Unidentified man with a whip, c. late 1870s/early 1880s
Carte de visite portrait by George Renwick, Burton-on-Trent
Image © and courtesy of Marion Oubhie
The date of the portrait sitting is a little more difficult to estimate, partly because the studio setting and furniture are not visible, but also because my knowledge of the subject of men's clothing fashions is meagre. It is possible that the subject sat for the portrait in the early to mid-1880s, as suggested by the mount, but I think it more likely that it is actually a copy of a slightly earlier photograph, taken perhaps in the mid- to late 1870s. Perhaps the man visited a studio first in the late 1870s, and then ordered a further copy of the portrait half a dozen or so years later.

I was intrigued with the object in the man's right hand, which appears to be a whip and suggests an occupation involving driving a team of horses or draft animals. He was probably a wagon, coach or carriage driver. Marion's Showell ancestors were agricultural or brewer's labourers and farmers, so it seems likely that this man drove a wagon transporting farm produce or supplies for the brewing industry in Burton.

William Mottram and his daughter Sarah, c. late 1860s/early 1870s
Carte de visite portrait by John Clark of Matlock Bath
Image © and courtesy of Linda Snyder
These two images sent to me by Linda Snyder, and taken by Matlock Bath photographer John Clark, portray an occupation which is far less equivocal. William Mottram (c.1813-1879) is shown as an ostler in the 1861 Census, and as a labourer ten years later, but Linda tells me that he was employed as a coachman at the time these portraits were taken.

William Mottram, c. late 1860s/early 1870s
Carte de visite portrait by John Clark of Matlock Bath
Image © and courtesy of Linda Snyder
The clothing certainly gives that impression, with the short ornamented jacket, top hat and leather riding boots. He also has a special leather side flap fastened with buckles to the outer side of his lower right leg, presumably to protect his boots, clothes and calves from the horses harness or something similar. I'm sure there's a name for these, something like leggings or chaps, although neither of those terms seem to quite fit this item.

Reverse of card mounts, John Clark of Matlock Bath
Although clearly taken at the same sitting the card mounts used for these two portraits are different. Together with the studio setting and clothing and hair styles of the young woman, the card designs suggest to me that the portrait was taken in the late 1860s or very early 1870s. Sarah would have turned 18 years old in late 1871 or early 1872.

The last image in this series was sent to me by Ann Bruce, whose great-grandparents James and Ann Smith (nee Gosling), he standing up in the carriage, are about to head off on a day's excursion from Aberystwyth. They lived in Smethwick, near Birmingham so would have travelled by train to the coastal town in north Wales, and stayed in a hotel there before taking the excursion. Unfortunately the driver is mostly hidden by a passenger in the front seat anxious to show his best side to the camera.

From the size of the "leg of mutton" sleeves of the dresses that the two visible women members of the party are wearing, I estimate the photograph to have been taken in the mid-1890s. The number "935" appears to have been written in black ink on the negative, this printing out white on the print. The photographer is likely to have handed out tickets with this number printed to members of the excursion party, and they would no doubt have been able to buy a print upon their return, much as Bailey did in Bournemouth between the wars (Sepia Saturday 92: All Aboard the Bournemouth Queen). It also suggests that the photographer was a regular habitue of excursion parties, and it may well be that there are other such photographs surviving out there. Actually, I'm being somewhat disingenuous, because I have already featured an Aberystwyth excursion photo by Gyde, using an identical card mount, and with the negative number "1139," on Photo-Sleuth three years ago.

I see there is a second, as yet unoccupied, horse drawn carriage behind the first, presumably waiting for the next party to arrive, and I suspect that the large, double storey building in the background was some sort of inn or hotel. There is something behind and to the left of the main carriage, but I can't work out exactly what it is. The printing on it, "THE DE... WATER ... AND G..." is tantalising, but as yet unrevealing.

Thank you very much Marion, Linda and Ann for these excellent examples of occupational photographs, which have slotted nicely into my take on this week's Sepia Saturday theme. I trust you will now head over there to check out what the other slaves to sepia have on offer.

The Crystoleum: Bringing the Art of Photo Colourisation into the Home

2011-10-26T16:54:00.000-07:00

Crystoleum sounds like the name of a Victorian fairground attraction, an entrance for which you might expect to see between Strange and Wilson's Aetherscope and the helter skelter. In fact it was another of the many photographic formats which appeared in the 1880s and 1890s and enjoyed a period of popularity which lasted until the Great War.

Edith and Maud Barnes of Ashbourne, c.1883-1885
Cabinet card portrait by Alfred Cox & Co., Nottingham
Image © and courtesy of Nigel Aspdin
This is a standard cabinet portrait, showing Edith and Maud Barnes dressed for a stroll in the noon day sun, complete with fake boulders and a landscape backdrop to complete the outdoors scene. Although they lived in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, where their father William Barnes was an ironmonger, it appears the family visited Nottingham frequently, because several of their photographic portraits were taken at the studio of Alfred W. Cox & Co. Edith was born in mid-1877, Maud roughly two years later, which places this portrait sitting around 1883-1885.

"Bamboo and Fan" card design by Trapp & Münch, Berlin
Cabinet card by Alfred Cox & Co., Tavistock Chambers, Market Place, Nottingham
Turning over the cabinet card reveals a design printed on the reverse which is very similar to "Bamboo and Fan" from Marion of Paris, described by Vaughan (2003) as introduced in 1884, although this particular example is by Trapp & Münch of Berlin.

The card stock used is of a medium intensity grey colour and has the appearance of having been made from recycled pulp in which the darker fibres are still visible, as shown above, of a type which became more commonly used in the mid-to late 1880s.

Edith and Maud Barnes of Ashbourne, c.1883-1885
Colourised cabinet card portrait by Alfred Cox & Co., Nottingham
Image © and courtesy of Nigel Aspdin
A second cabinet portrait, taken from the same negative, is likely to have been produced on the same occasion. The card mount is identical - albeit this one has not been trimmed at the base - but it shows signs of having been hand coloured. Although somewhat faded, the yellow in the hair, pink cheeks and dresses, brownish fur and red hat bands and cloth are still visible. The studio did, after all, bill themselves as "Photographers Miniature & Portrait Painters," and had offered "portraits in oil or crayon" from at least the early 1870s.

Edith and Maud Barnes of Ashbourne, c.1883-1885
Crystoleum portrait on glass
Photograph by Alfred Cox & Co., Nottingham
Image © and courtesy of Nigel Aspdin
The third in this series of similar portraits, while appearing in this image to be somewhat similar, bar the different colouring, is quite another format altogether. Closer examination of the original shows it to have been printed on the back of a slightly convex rectangular piece of fully translucent glass, roughly the same size as the original cabinet card.

Recycled carboard backing of crystoleum portrait
This is backed with a piece of card, apparently reused from an unwanted cardboard-backed print of an engraving, possibly of some European city. (Full marks to the first reader who can tell me what city it is, although it's not likely to have much relevance to this post).

Colourised back of crystoleum portrait
Carefully separating the cardboard from the glass, the owner (not myself) revealed a rather surprising picture, appearing similar to the efforts of a young child in a "paint-by-numbers" book. It was obvious, though, that the colours of this crude picture on the concave side of the glass matched perfectly those visible through the convex side and were, in fact, directly responsible for the not altogether displeasing colourised portrait.

Section of Crystoleum (Jones, 1911)
This portrait is a crystoleum, a format distinct from the crystalotype, an albumen-on-glass process patented by the American John Adams Whipple in 1850, used first for negatives and later for positives. The clearest description I have found of the process involved in producing a crystoleum portrait is by "P.R.S." in Cassell's Cyclopedia of Photography (Jones, 1911), which includes the following brief summary:

A is the front glass, on which a photograph B is pasted face downwards. When dry the photograph is made transparent, and delicate details coloured with ordinary oil colours, but the broad masses of colour are not put on. Another glass D, of the same size and shape as A, as put at the back, but is prevented from touching the photograph by means of strips of paper H, which leave a small space at C. On the back E of the second glass are painted the broad masses of colour. The whole is backed up with a piece of flat cardboard or other backing G, leaving a space F. When viewed from the front the coloyrs are seen through the transparent photograph and the whole has the appearance of a delicately painted picture on glass.

Disassembled crystoleum portrait (Whitman et al, 2007)
Whitman et al (2007) show a disassembled crystoleum portrait (above) and describe the process:

The Crystoleum process was popular from the 1880’s until the 1910’s, and was usually a albumen print face-mounted to convex glass with gum or paste. The paper is then rubbed away with sandpaper until the emulsion layer is exposed. What was left of the paper was made translucent, if needed, with a dry oil, wax or varnish. The fine details were then painted on the back of the photograph, a second piece of convex glass that has been broadly coloured is layered behind the image glass, and the package is bound with a paper backing.

Crystoleum portrait of unidentified young girl, undated
Chromo-Photographie, Jules Delarue, Genève
Image © and courtesy of Nordiska museet/The Nordic Museum
This crystoleum portrait of a young Swiss girl from the Nordic Museum, also usefully disassembled, has the same components, and the web site provides an image showing the back of the front glass with the "fine details" (below).

Crystoleum portrait, back of front glass and front of second glass
The first mention of the crystoleum that I have been able to find in the British newspapers is an advertisement in The Morning Post in June 1882 offering "Lessons given in this new and easily acquired Art of Painting in Oils. Proficiency guaranteed or money will be returned," in Oxford Street, London. This suggests to me that, provided one had an albumen print with which to work and the materials, which could readily be had at the local chemist, no great artistic skills were required to transform the photograph into a work of art.

Crystoleum portrait, back of second glass and front of backing card
Indeed by July 1885 the process was being described in full for readers of The Observer (Anon, 1885). It took another decade for it to reach such far flung parts of the Empire as New Zealand, but in August 1896 residents of Dunedin were regaled with details of how to participate in the delights of the "crystoleum craze" by an enthusiastic contributer to the Otago Witness (Anon, 1896).

Crystoleum portrait, unidentified place and photographer, undated
Image © and courtesy of Länsmuseet Gävleborg/Gävleborg County Museum
As shown by this scene of a country estate, perhaps somewhere in Sweden, the crystoleum process was not limited to portraits, and could be used to very good effect on landscape photographs.

The portrait of Edith and Maud Barnes was taken in the early to mid-1880s, which roughly equates to the period when the crystoleum started to become popular, transforming into something of a do-it-yourself style process. The Barnes crystoleum may of course have been created some time after the original cabinet cards, but it is interesting to speculate whether it was done by the Nottingham studio of Alfred Cox, or perhaps by a member of the Barnes family. Either is conceivable, and we are unlikely to ever know for sure, unless the reused engraving print can be identified as coming from the Barnes household.

If you have a crystoleum in your own collection, I'd be interested in hearing from you and seeing some images, particularly if the subjects are members your own family. Although it appears to have been very popular in late Victorian and Edwardian times, many examples won't have survived and they may not be very common.

References

Anon (1885) All About Crystoleum Painting, Observer, Volume 7, Issue 345, 18 July 1885, Page 4, Courtesy of Early Canterbury Photographers.

Anon (1896) A Lesson in Crystoleum Painting (by Cigarette), Otago Witness, 27 August 1896, p.42, Courtesy of Papers Past.

Anon (2009) Victorian Crystoleums - How they were made, Arthaul.com

Jones, B.E. (1974) Crystoleums, in Cassell's Cyclopedia of Photography, Ayer Publishing (Reprint of the 1911 Edition by Cassell, London), p. 154-155.

Vaughan, Roger (2003) Dating CDV photographs from the designs on the back: The 1880s Page Two, Victorian and Edwardian Photographs - Roger Vaughan Personal Collection.

Whitman, K., Osterman, M. & Chen, J.-J. (2007) The History and Conservation of Glass Supported Photographs, George Eastman House, Advanced Residency Program in Photograph Conservation, p. 36.

Sepia Saturday 97: Geo W Holden, Brother of the more famous Jack

2011-10-20T01:11:00.000-07:00

I've long enjoyed the catchy title of Barbara Trapido's book, and this is an excellent opportunity to appropriate it for my own use. The glimpses into the life and career of this elusive photographer that I've unearthed are intriguing, albeit sporadic and far too brief. However, they pale into medocrity beside the bizarre trail of tall tales left by his older brother.

I don't wish to distract either the reader or myself by the adventures of John Watkins Holden (1844-1917), Imperial prestidigitateur - I've taken a small liberty here in calling him "Jack" - so if you wish to read more of him, please visit Old Crone's fascinating account of The Mad Magician. Suffice to say, he was a man of many talents, not the least of which were a keen sense of self-aggrandisement and a tendency to accrue wives and children.

Pennoyre Mansion, near Battle, Brecon, c.1895
© Brecknock Museum & Art Gallery Courtesy of Culturenet Cymru
This account concerns the younger of the two brothers: George Watkins Holden was born on 3 September 1846 at Peckham in Surrey and baptised on 15 November at Christchurch, Camberwell. Although his brother was born two years earlier at Albany Terrace, Claines, Worcestershire, both were illegitimate sons of Emma Holden (1817-1887), and most likely fathered by the Welsh Liberal politician and Lord Lieutenant of Brecon, militia Colonel John Lloyd Vaughan Watkins (1802-1865). Watkins may well have provided for his mistress and her children - the 1851 Census shows them visiting a house in King Street, Laugharn, Carmarthenshire, and Emma is described as an annuitant.

King Street, Laugharn, Carmarthenshire
Image © and courtesy of Google Maps
There doesn't seem to be much chance that George or John ever saw much of either their father or his grand residence, the mansion of Pennoyre near Battle in Brecon, built c.1846-1848. The colonel's wife Sophia Louisa Henrietta née Pocock, daughter of a baronet, remained ensconced there with her two sisters, childless but attended by a retinue of fourteen servants, until her death in May 1851. By this time Lloyd Watkins' attentions had strayed again, and he had fathered further illegitimate children by another woman.

By 1861 they had moved back to London, Emma described herself as a house proprietor and George, then aged 14, was working as a miniature painter. He disappears from view for a decade or so, although a girl he later claimed as his daughter was born at Ashburton, Devon in late 1866.

Unidentified family, possibly in Yorkshire, c.1874-1878
Carte de visite by G.W. Holden of Windsor
Image © and courtesy of John Rivis
Then in December 1871, a report in The Era described a "portrait of [a] Welsh bullock ... from a photograph by Mr. George W. Holden of Portmadoc." This is the first evidence I have found of his photographic career, and a trade directory confirms that he was operating a studio in the High Street, Portmadoc, North Wales in 1874. The engaging carte de visite portrait of a large, but as yet unidentified family, probably taken somewhere in Yorkshire in the mid- to late 1870s, is by George W. Holden. By this time he was based at 12a William Street, Windsor, Berkshire, but clearly travelling widely in search of clients.

St Andrew's Middle Class School, Litchurch, Derby, c.1877
Carte de visite by G.W. Holden of 12a William St, Windsor
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
As early as 1877, when this school photograph including my great-grandfather was taken at St Andrew's Middle Class School in Litchurch, Derby, Holden had identified the niche of scholastic photography as one in which he could specialise.

The card mount is very similar, although not identical, to John Rivis' family group portrait. Judging by the remnants of Holden's output that I have found on the net, schools would be his main clients for at least the next two decades.

Class 1, unidentified group of school girls, c.1881-1883
Carte de visite by "Pen aur" G.W. Holden of London, Paris, Bristol & Swansea
In April 1881 George was in Oxford with his daughter Ada, aged 14, and a young wife Emily Ann, aged 21. It seems unlikely they were there for long because, from the evidence of several carte de visites from the early, mid-, and late 1880s, he appears to have been at least partly based at 42 City Road, Bristol. He operated under the "registered title" of Pen aur, an obvious reference to his father's former estates. The fact that his father died virtually penniless in 1887 was, of course, irrelevant from the point of view of self promotion.

It was during this period that Holden started to advertise his "instantaneous portraits of children with a new patent apparatus." Amongst the numerous extravagant and unverifiable claims made were that he was "under the patronage of several members of the Royal family, colleges, yacht clubs, 'Graphic' &c &c," and that he had studios in London, Paris, Bristol and Swansea. His firm of Holden & Co., described as scholastic group and landscape artists, were able to take "views,groups, machinery &c. ... from C de V to life size, in any part of the Kingdom or France at the shortest notice."

While I have little doubt that he was kept a busy man, I view with some suspicion his claims of such a widely distributed branch studio network, supported by a printing works in Bristol. He stated categorically that he used "no agents," and I suspect that, as was common amongst travelling photographers, he listed the locations that he frequented as "studios." Roger Vaughan, in his extensive list of Bristol Photographers, makes no mention of Holden. On one of the carte de visite mounts displayed on Roger's web site, Holden warns, "As the negatives of this photograph is not kept copies should be ordered without delay," an unusual statement among photographers who normally tried to encourage their customers to make return visits.

Class 1, at Horninglow, Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, c.1888-1892
by Geo. W. Holden, Manager of The Elementary Schools Photographing Co. of Leeds & Hull
Image © and courtesy of Sophie Dickerson
An 1887 trade directory suggests that he was operating from "Pennoyre House" in Castle Street, Swansea. Sophie Dickerson sent me this school photo which includes family member Amelia Francis (born c. 1880), probably taken in Horninglow, Burton-on-Trent in the late 1880s or early 1890s. George Holden was by this time probably based in Hull. At least that's where two daughters were born in 1888 and 1889, and card mounts showed him as manager of the The Elementary Schools Photographing Co. at Leeds and Hull, but also visiting an exhausting list of 22 other towns throughout the England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. There is no mention of Burton!

Class 1, at Plymouth, Devon, c.1895
by Geo. W. Holden, Manager of The Elementary Schools Photographing Co. of Leeds & Hull
Image © and courtesy of Stephen Cook
This portrait sent to me of Maud Eva Pike (born 1888) and her class was sent to me by her grandson Stephen Cook, who believes it was probably taken around 1895 in the vicinity of Lipson Vale, Plymouth, Devon, where they lived at the time. Plymouth, for once, is included in the list of places visited by Mr Holden. In the census of early April 1891 his "family" were living in Hull, although he was recorded as a visitor in South Bishop Wearmouth, Durham.

Class 6, Mt Street School (?), unidentified location, c.1896-1898
by Geo. W. Holden, The Home & Colonial Photo Co. of Plymouth & Johannesburg
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
The last two examples are from my own collection, purchased on eBay and their provenance is unknown. The first has the locations "Plymouth & Johannesburg S.A." printed on the front and is inscribed in pencil on the reverse, "about 1899 Mt Street Scool [sic]." George Holden married Maud Louise Warnes at Plymouth in early 1894, and a son George Ernest was born at Belfast, Ireland the following year. It seems likely that they returned to the south of England soon after, as I estimate that this class photo is from the late 1890s.

Class 11, Gendros School, Swansea, Glamorgan, c.1900-1904
by Geo. W. Holden, The Home & Colonial Photo Co. of Cardiff & Johannesburg
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
In mid-1898 George Holden married Alice Norman, his previous wife's former "mother's help," 24 years his junior, settling in Cardiff, where they were living at the end of March 1901. This example is a slightly larger format mounted print, and has "Cardiff & Johannesburg S.A." printed on the front. The name of the school at which this portrait was taken is written on a large blackboard held up by the children in the front row: "YSGOL Y GENDROS (MORGANWG)" translates, I believe, to "Gendros School, Glamorgan."

Gendros Primary School, Swansea
Gendros Primary School, in Swansea, built in 1897, is still going and, from the look of the buildings seen over the wall in this Google StreetView, may have many of the original buildings - perhaps even the ones that formed the backdrop to my 110 year-old class photo.

I have pondered on the mention of Johannesburg, South Africa on Holden's later card mounts at some length, without coming to any firm conclusion. It is possible he visited South Africa at some stage, perhaps even intending to cater to the large number of troops heading out there during the Boer War. His brother John claimed, in his fanciful book A Wizard's Wanderings from China to Peru, to have travelled widely, and I think it likely that Johannesburg may also have been the the result of George's lively imagination.

George Watkins Holden continued to operate his photographic business out of the family home at 55 Tudor Street, Cardiff from 1907 until his death in 1921, aged 75, probably the longest settled period of his very busy life. He had five children, at least two of them illegitimate, by three different women, and lived for a time with a fourth. All of his partners were a good deal younger than him. They say that apples don't fall far from the tree.

Many thanks to John Rivis, Sophie Dickerson and Stephen Cook for the use of images from their personal collections.

If you, like me, have a penchant for old school photos, I can thoroughly recommend a visit to this edition of Alan Burnett's Sepia Saturday, where this week's charming image prompt depicts a group of young lads on a break from class, being asked to "Look up" by the photographer. A couple of them did! The rest ... well, they did what all school boys do when asked en masse to pose for a school photograph.

References

Alderman, Mari (2006) Victorian Professional Photographers in Wales, Sept 2006, GENUKI

Anon (2007) The Mad Magician (Old Crone Holden), The Family Tree Forum.

Vaughan, Roger (2003) Bristol Photographers 1852-1972.

Sepia Saturday 96: The Khaki Boxing Squad

2011-10-13T21:28:00.000-07:00

For this week's Sepia Saturday photo prompt Alan has has vacillated somewhat between the World Wars, so I thought I'd present my own little World War conundrum.

Among my grandfather's photographs was this snapshot of a group of seven soldiers. Although my grandfather wasn't included, and I didn't recognise any of the others, since the reverse had a piece of paper attached with a number of names inscribed, I thought it would be a relatively simple matter to work out why he had the photo.

The back of the loose paper photographic print has written on the back what appears top be the oldest inscription, in blue ink, "3 Sept. 1943 Yours truly from Johny Basham." Then below it, in different blue ink but in my aunt's handwriting, "FRIENDS OF DAD'S FIRST WORLD WAR," and "FRONT ROW LEFT - DAD" crossed out. This is what introduces the conundrum. The date suggests the photograph was given, probably to my grandfather, by "Johny Basham" during the Second World War, but my aunt's inscription suggests the friends were from the First. My next thought was that perhaps my aunt had simply made a mistake. A cursory examination of the uniforms, however, suggests they are indeed from the earlier of the two world wars.

Private Leslie Payne, CASC, 1916 (left) Major Leslie Payne, Pioneer Corps, 1941 (right)
My grandfather served in the CASC and the Canadian Machine Gun Corps (Canadian Expeditionary Force) during the First World War, but if these soldiers were from the Great War, their cap badges suggest they were not Canadians. He later served as an officer in the Pioneer Corps in England during the Second World War, which would correspond with the date written on the back.

The attached scrap of paper has the following names hand written in pencil and blue ink: Will, Pat O'Keefe, J. Basham, Dick Smith, Jimmy Wilde, Capt Bruce Logan, Jimmy Driscoll. When I started Googling these names, it very quickly became apparent that boxing was the common thread. An article about "Peerless Jim Driscoll" in particular has the following:

The Great War deprived him of a chance of further world champion bouts. He joined the army and belonged to a famous khaki boxing squad that included Bombardier Billy Wells, Pat O’Keefe, Johnny Basham, Dick Smith, Captain Bruce Logan and the ‘Mighty Atom’, Jimmy Wilde.

On the Welsh Warriors web site, devoted to Welsh boxing legends, there is even a reproduction of exactly the same group photograph. The Wellington Evening Post of 8 March 1919 carried a story with the heading, World's Boxers International Luncheon:

A luncheon was given at the Savoy Hotel on 13th December to the boxers of the world's Services who had fought and won and lost in the two days' battle at Albert Hall for the King's trophy ... Side by side were Jimmy Wilde, and Joe Lynch, the American. Lynch on Wednesday was pummelled by Wilde ; he left the ring with a nose all askew. Yesterday Wilde and Lynch delighted to exchange autographs ... an epoch-making event, and one that never will be forgotten. It brought the English-speaking races together to engage in a great national sport."
Captain Bruce Logan, the old amateur boxer, oarsman, and all-round sportsman, the captain of the British Army side, and Sergeant Jim Driscoll, trainer, in a few well-chosen words ... "We of the American team believe Jimmy Wilde to be the greatest boxer the world has ever seen, or will ever see. He is a most wonderful boxer, and it has given us the greatest possible pleasure to see him in the ring."

For those readers who are boxing devotees - I am not one - I've put together some links to biographical details of some of the Khaki Boxing Squad members: Bombardier Billy Wells, Peerless Jim Driscoll and Jimmy Wilde (The Mighty Atom).

Johnny Basham and his manager W. T. Dodman, Wrexham, c. 1920s
Image © Wrexham County Borough Museum and courtesy of Culturenet Cymru
So who was Johnny Basham? Casglu'r Tlysau/Gathering the Jewels, the web site of Culturenet Cymru, provides a potted biography to accompany this excellent image of the young boxer with his manager, taken between the wars.

Sergeant Johnny Basham, c. 1914
Image © Royal Welsh Fusiliers Regimental Museum and courtesy of Culturenet Cymru
John Michael Basham (1890-1947) was born in Newport, Monmouthshire and joined the Royal Welch Fusiliers in 1912, when he was posted to Wrexham, Denbighshire.

Signed photo of Johnnie Basham, c. 1920s
Image © and courtesy of Jo Sports Inc
There are obviously a few autographed photos of Johnny (or Johnnie) Basham still around, including this one that I found on the net, which has a very similar inscription to my grandfather's photo.

John Michael Basham's WW1 Medal Index Card
Image © The National Archives and courtesy of Ancestry.co.uk
The medal index card for Basham confirms that he served with that unit during the Great War, being entitled to both the Victory medal and the British War medal. The biography goes on to say that "He was stationed at the barracks in Wrexham for many years and attained the rank of sergeant." Denbighshire rang a bell for me, as I knew my grandfather was stationed there during the Second World War, so I checked the records that my father and I have put together over the years.

Major Leslie Payne, c.1943
Image © and courtesy of Barbara Ellison
In early June 1943 Major Charles Leslie Lionel Payne was the Officer Commanding 315 Pioneer Corps at Newport, Monmouthshire. By early November that year he had been transferred to Pool Park Camp at Efenechtyd, near Ruthin in Denbighshire (now Clwyd), Wales, where he was O.C. of the 88 Company, Pioneer Corps. He remained there throughout that winter and at least until March 1944, probably housed in pre-frabricated wooden huts such as the one pictured above.

View Larger Map
The remains of Pool Park Camp, Efenechtyd
Thomas (2003) records the existence of Pool Park as a Prisoner of War camp, but not much else. The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW) has a little more:

World War 2 camp for Italian prisoners of war, consisting of several huts to the west of the B5105 road and a sewage works on the opposite side, set within the grounds of Pool Park ... The barracks for personnel serving at the camp was built in Park Road, Ruthin

It also includes grid coordinates for the location. Brett Exton, in his list of POW camps in Great Britain, shows it as Camp 38.

Site of old POW camp, near Ruthin
Image © Eirian Evans and courtesy of Geograph.co.uk
Licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
Unsurprisingly much of the physical evidence of these camps, which were only ever meant to be temporary, has disappeared. Somewhat belatedly, efforts are now being made by English Heritage to collate and research from what surviving information there is, largely held at The National Archives, and even to preserve some sites.

Malcolm Sanders on his web page about Prisoner of War Mail provides some useful background information on the formation of these camps and thestatus of the Italian prisoner of war.

From October 1942 until January 1943, with the El Alamein campaign, 130,000 mainly Italian and some German POWs, were sent to England ... From September 1943, with the fall of the fascists in Italy, the status of Italian POWs changed. In May 1944, Italian POWs were asked if they wished to work in the UK as 'cooperators'. Those refusing were held in 'non-cooperator' camps; others were referred to as members of Italian Labour Battalions, rather than as POWs.

Major Payne (3rd from left) with Italian POWs and RC clergyman
Image © and courtesy of Barbara Ellison
This group photo, which regular readers will recognise as having been the subject of a photo quiz (Sepia Saturday 80), shows my grandfather with four Italian POWs and an older man who I presume is a Roman Catholic priest. It may have been taken at Pool Camp during the winter of 1943/1944 - the trees certainly look bare enough for that time of year. However, by August 1944 Major Payne was O.C. of 584 Italian Working Company at Carfax Estate (Camp 584), near Tongham in Hampshire, so it may have been taken there the following winter. He remained in charge of that company until October 1945, although they moved to Puckridge Camp, near Aldershot, Hampshire in spring or early summer.

Getting back to the original signed photograph of the Khaki Boxing Squad, the date of 3 September 1943 corresponds to when he was based at Pool Park, near Ruthin, which in turn is not far from Wrexham. I think it quite likely that my grandfather either worked with or met Johnny Basham during his spell in North Wales. I've not been able to dig up any details of the former boxer's Second World War service, but since he was of a similar age to my grandfather, it's unlikely that he would have been sent abroad.

Image © fleamarketinsiders and courtesy of Flickr
As an epilogue to this story, when I was a young lad I was given a pair of child's boxing gloves which had belonged to my father as a boy. I tried them on a few times, but never did much more than tap the wall to try them out. Unfortunately, I don't recall what my father said about who had given them to him or why (he was probably an even more unlikely boxer than I am). I pondered on whether it was likely that Mr Basham had been any kind of influence on my grandfather's choice of present, but by the time he met Johnny, my Dad was 15 years old, and his hands would have been far too large for the gloves that I recall.

Now head over to Sepia Saturday, where you'll find a wealth of alternative takes on this week's theme.

References

Anon (1919) World's Boxers International Luncheon, Evening Post (Wellington New Zealand), 8 March 1919, p10.

Exton, Brett (nd) Location of POW Camps in Great Britain, Island Farm Prisoner of War Camp: 198 / Special Camp: XI, Bridgend, South Wales.

Malaws, B.A. (2006) Pool Park Prisoner of War Camp, Efenechtyd, Ruthin, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW)

Sanders, Malcolm (nd) Prisoner of War Mail and POW Camps in UK, King George VI - Great Britain (Postal History).

Thomas, R.J.C. (2003) Prisoner of War Camps (1939-1948), English Heritage.

Zoncada, Pietro (Sgte.) (1944) Letter to "Maggiore Payne," The O.C., 584 Italian Working Company, Carfax Estate, 14 August 1944, Collection of Brett Payne.

Peerless Jim Driscoll, the most famous son of Newtown, Ireland, Wales and Europe: Poems, History and Language

Welsh Warriors, by Johnnyowen.com

Patrick Colbert (c1845-1901) of Bunmahon & Whiterigg

2011-10-13T00:28:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I discussed a photographic portrait coloured in oils of a middle-aged man. Diana Burns has sent me the rather harrowing tale from her husband's family history and, rather than summarise it, I've decided to present it here in full, in her words and partly illustrated with some of her own photographs.

Mahon River and Bunmahon, Co. Waterford, 2006
Image © Copyright Hector Davie and courtesy of Geograph.co.uk
Licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
Bunmahon is a quiet village in Co. Waterford, Ireland, lying in an area still called the Copper Coast. Copper was discovered there in the 1820s, transforming the former holiday resort into a major industrial region for much of the nineteenth century. However, a series of crises – deterioration in the quality of the ore and its increasing inaccessibility, famine, transatlantic migration and strikes – led to the decline and ultimate closure of the mine in 1877.

Patrick Colbert (c1845-1901) of Bunmahon & Whiterigg
Image © and courtesy of Diana Burns
Against this backdrop were two families, the Colberts and the Hurleys. Patrick Colbert was born to James Colbert, foreman at the mine, and his wife, Catherine Flynn, around 1854. Mary Hurley was born to Timothy Hurley, the mine’s paymaster, and his wife, Julia O’Sullivan, around 1856. Patrick and Mary married in 1875 and their first child, Bridget Mary, was born in Bunmahon in 1877.

Tankardstown Mine, Bunmahon, Co. Waterford, 2007
Image © Copyright Philip Halling and courtesy of Geograph.co.uk
Licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
The conditions in Bunmahon following the mine closure had become appalling. At the 1877 half year AGM of the Mining Company of Ireland, it was reported, “It was as if an angel of death had swept over Bunmahon… [The mining area is] now deserted and the misery and wretchedness of the people who survived painful almost beyond description… They are in a state of destitution to amount almost to starvation.”

The Colberts were one of the last families to leave, along with the Wheatley family whose eldest son, John, went on to become Minister for Health in the first Labour Government in 1924. Both families headed for industrial Lanarkshire in Scotland. Although the reason behind their choice of destination is not clear, it is likely that recruiting agents for the Scottish coal and ironstone companies had come over to Ireland.

The Road to Whiterigg, January 2010
Image © and courtesy of Diana Burns
The Colberts moved into Airdriehill Square, Whiterigg, a custom-built village erected in 1874 by United Collieries Ltd. 49 single storey, brick houses were laid out in rows to form a square. The walls were damp, there were no sinks in the homes and sanitation took the form of open privy middens in front of the rows. The Colberts had seven more children. Their only son, James, died aged seven after a building had collapsed on his leg and necrosis developed.

Whiterigg Moorland, January 2010
Image © and courtesy of Diana Burns
The remaining children grew to adulthood, and Bridget Mary married William Burns, my husband’s grandfather. William reportedly served in the Black Watch. He was a Pioneer Socialist and ambivalent about WW1. In 1915, he obtained compassionate leave to go the funeral of Keir Hardie where he was an honorary pall-bearer. When he returned, his colonel sent for him and said that “Keir Hardie was a Socialist who should have been shot, and we won’t miss you!” Reputedly, this reached Ramsay McDonald, who was to become the first Labour Prime Minister in 1924. McDonald was a pacifist in WW1 and the Government was anxious to keep the Labour Party and the British trade union movement onside during the war. He intervened, with the result that William was shipped out to India instead of to the Western Front and almost certain death. William went on to become John Wheatley’s election agent in Lanarkshire East in the 1920s.

Signpost, Whiterigg, January 2010
Image © and courtesy of Diana Burns
In the spring of 1901, two of the seven girls were bringing in a wage. The family also had a boarder, in a house that probably had three rooms at the most. On 29 December 1901, Patrick Colbert died aged 47 from acute pneumonia. The conditions under which he worked almost certainly led to his death - damp, poor ventilation and the constant inhalation of coal dust. I cannot imagine how his widow managed to raise seven children aged between three and eighteen, but I have found no evidence of her applying for poor relief.

St David's School, Whiterigg, September 2009
Image © and courtesy of Diana Burns
Little remains of Whiterigg now, at least on the surface. All the houses have long been cleared from the site. Only the old school remains. I visited the area last February, a very unforgiving time of the year to view a lost village, and was left with a deep impression of the bleakness of the landscape and the bitterly cold wind blowing across the deserted moorland.

References

Cowman, Des (2006) The Making and Breaking of a Mining Community: The Copper Coast, County Waterford 1825-1875+, Grannagh, Waterford: GK Print.

Lucas, H., Devlin, E. & Reilly, J. (2001) The Lost Villages: Whiterigg, Darngavil, Arden, Ballochney, Craigmauchen, Meikle Drumgray, North Standrigg, South Standrigg, self publ., Glasgow: Craig & Stewart Printers Ltd.

Crimson curtains and carpets of burgundy: photographic portraits "finished in oils"

2011-10-09T17:37:00.000-07:00

Many photographers throughout the carte de visite and cabinet portrait era advertised portraits enlarged, colourised or finished in oils. These were perhaps an preferred option for those who harked back to the pre-photographic days of framed oil portraits and painted miniatures, and had the money to pay a bit extra. These embellishments could vary from a fairly light layer, with some of the photograph occasionally showing through, to that painted with a much heavier hand, in which none of the photo appears to have survived unblemished.

Patrick Colbert
Oil paint on large format carbon print, mounted on card
Unidentified artist and photographer
Image © and courtesy of Diana Burns
The example presented above, sent to me by Diana Burns, is from that end of the "hand colouring" scale in which little of the photograph remained visible. Although it is not dated, from the style of sitting I estimate it was originally taken in the late 1880s ot 1890s. I have previously posted examples of an early carte de visite from Cape Town and somewhat later large format prints from Yorkshire which were coloured in a similar style.

Although the outline of a rectangular sheet of thin paper underneath the oil paint is obvious, the thick layer of paint and somewhat garish colours used obscure almost all signs of the photograph, and only small remnants are visible at the edges in the top right hand corner.

The painting is, for the most part, rather rough, and in places almost seems intentionally crude, to the extent where I would suggest that it is either unfinished or perhaps was not carried out by a professional. The rough texture of the pale blue-grey backdrop contrasts with the smooth surface covering the gentleman's body, although the brush strokes are still very evident. The beard is asymmetrical, the tie is just a collection of blotches, the shoes merely vague elongated blobs at then end of his trousers, and very little effort has been made to give the chair much semblance of a means of support. In fact, the longer one looks at the portrait, the less one notices the chair - it almost seems to vanish into the background, leaving the subject precariously perched in mid-air.

There is a strip of semi-transparent, cracked, varnish-like substance around the edge of the card mount, and partly encroaching onto the print, which may be the remains of an adhesive used to affix the mount to some kind of frame.

The back of the card mount has "14488 Col" written in large digits, while "Colbert Whitrigg 1/125" and "Special" are in much smaller writing at the top left and lower left, respectively

There is also a strip along all four edges along which the surface appears to have been taken off, perhaps by the removal of tape previously used for mounting or framing.

There's not much more to say about this colourised portrait. If it had been me sitting for the photographer, I'd like to think that I'd have chosen an uncolourised photograph, but I'll admit that it must have been enough of a novelty in the day to have attracted at least a few customers. Besides, one could never be sure how slick the oil finished portrait would turn out.

Sepia Saturday 95: Working Women at Rolls-Royce in the Great War

2011-10-06T17:23:00.000-07:00

Alan Burnett's chosen image for Sepia Saturday this week celebrates the election of Denmark's first woman prime minister. The image, from the Royal Library of Denmark's Flickr Commons Collection, appears to be a lithographed poster showing a group of women from the Socialdemokratiet (Social Democratic Party) marching with banners. I'm going to follow this with the theme of women taking on roles previously reserved for men. I have written before about women who worked in the Land Army during the Great War, but a photo sent to me recently from the studio of W.W. Winter portrays a group of women who took on a very different set of tasks while their menfolk were away fighting.

Group of women workers with a male "supervisor" from Rolls-Royce, Derby, c.1916-1917
Large format mounted print by W.W. Winter, Midland Road, Derby
Image © and courtesy of Chris Elmore
This image was sent to me by Chris Elmore, who wrote:

I believe the attached photograph was taken by W W Winter of Derby in 1916 or 17. It shows women who were recruited by the Rolls-Royce factory in Derby during the Great War. These ladies were perhaps the earliest to perform engineering tasks previously only performed by men. My grand mother Ada May Morris née Rudkin is in the photograph (seated second row from the front next to the last right) dressed in black out of respect for her husband Henry Augustus Morris D.C.M. who had died at the Battle of the Somme in July 1916.

Rolls-Royce Armoured Car, unknown date and location
Much has been written about the women who worked in the Rolls-Royce factory in Derby during the Second World War, assembling Merlin engines which powered the celebrated Spitfires, but I've not been able to find a great deal about their role there during the Great War. When war broke out and orders for luxury cars all but disappeared, the factory initially took in some small orders for the manufacture of shell casings and ambulance wagons. The chassis of the Silver Ghost was also adapted for use in the construction of armoured cars, employed by T.E. Lawrence in his desert campaigns, but this was not enough to keep the factory running.

Handley Page Type O Bomber, nr Dead Sea, Palestine, c. 1918-1920
Image courtesy of Middle East Pictures
Although the British government had intended that the Derby factory manufacture existing aero engine designs under license, Henry Royce had other ideas. First tested in early 1915, the Eagle was designed from scratch by Royce and his engineering team, and subsequently became one of the mainstays of the British war effort, used to power a number of aircraft, including the Handley Page bomber. By the end of the war, the plant was making 50 engines a week.

If anyone can shed any further light on the women who worked at the Rolls-Royce Factory during the Great War, the kind of work they did, etc., Chris Elmore will be very grateful for the information.

Here's a quiz for all you budding and practised sleuths out there. What did it take New Zealand and Australia over a century to achieve, while Great Britain and Argentina almost managed it in half a century, and yet countries like India, Sri Lanka and Israel could do it in two or three decades? By the way, the United States has yet to do it, and Saudi Arabia can't do it.

References

Rolls-Royce Eagle and Rolls-Royce Limited, Wikipedia.

Botticelli, Peter (1995) Rolls-Royce and the Rise of High-Technology Industry, in Creating Modern Capitalism: How Entrepreneurs, Companies, and Countries, Triumphed in Three Industrial Revolutions, Thomas K. McCraw (ed.), pp.96-129.

Clegg, George (1968-1970) George Clegg Reminisces, Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts' Club.

King, Peter (2003) A Woman's Place in the Factory, Derby, BBC WW2 People's War.

Annie Orchard's crowning glory - An opalotype from Derby

2011-10-05T17:28:00.000-07:00

Some years ago Karen Cross sent me these images of what Marcel Safier eventually identified as an opalotype. Although I have displayed the images previously on my web page for the Derby branch of A. & G. Taylor's huge network of studios it's worth revisiting them, not only because it is an unusual example from that studio but, in keeping with the series of images I've discussed recently, it has been hand coloured. I have also delved a little further into the background of the family, and unearthed one of those coincidences which happen to many of us who have ancestors who lived in one area for a number of generations. It turns out she's closely related to someone else that I've researched for Photo-Sleuth, and in fact discussed at great length in a previous article. More of that later.

Annie Goodwin née Orchard, c. 1880-1882
Opalotype (165x215mm), A & G Taylor, 63 London Road, Derby
Created from copy negative or print c.1889-1890
Image © and courtesy of Karen Cross
The following is what I originally received from Karen:

The subject is Annie Goodwin née Orchard, twin sister of my great-grandmother Fanny Orchard. They were born on 27 February 1863 at Holy Trinity, Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire. She seems fairly young in the portrait so it may have been her eighteenth birthday or done so her twin could bring the picture with her to Australia. My great-grandmother Fanny married Arthur John Kidd of Kings Bromley and immigrated to Queensland Australia in 1882. They lived in Emerald until her death in 1946. The photo came into my family's possession through my grandmother Edith Annie Francis (née Kidd).

This vignetted studio portrait shows a young woman, probably in her late teens, with her very long hair worn loose and down at the back, a fashion which was popular for unmarried girls up to the age of about 18, but not usually acceptable for married or older women. Geoff Caulton - on his British Photo Detective web site - refers to this style in Edwardian times being called a woman's "Crowning glory." The clothing appears to be roughly equivalent to the fashions from the early 1880s.

Detail of opalotype
The soft nature of the image, an effect largely due to the white glass used as a backing and often compared to watercolours or pastels, is demonstrated well in this example. Enlargement of the image demonstrates that the photograph has not only been coloured, but also significantly retouched, with much of the texture of her hair and the fabric of the clothing having been overpainted. Her lace collar has been very thickly embellished resulting in a three-dimensional effect. She may be wearing some kind of thin silk head covering.

Opalotypes - also known as opal types or milk glass positives - were introduced by Joseph Glover and John Bold of Liverpool, who patented their invention in 1857, but a number of methods of preparation were in common use by the mid-1860s (Towler, 1866; Waldack, 1865). They were made by applying photosensitised emulsion to the surface of an opal glass substrate, usually with a gelatine binder layer. The plate was then exposed to the negative either by contact printing or by use of a specially designed copying camera, and the image developed. The surface of the print was often colour-tinted by hand, and they were often cased in the same way that daguerreotypes and collodion positive portraits (ambrotypes) had been previously. Whitman et al (2007) describe opalotypes being produced until the 1940s, although the process was never very popular, perhaps due to the relatively high cost.

Reverse of opalotype, reproduced c. 1887-1890
Image © and courtesy of Karen Cross
The back of the opalotype shows several notable features, as follows.
- It has an underlying beige-coloured patina, worn away in places to reveal the milky white, translucent glass forming the base on which the photograph was made.
- A small rectangular label is affixed to the top right hand corner of the back, inscribed "Derb 22468" in handwritten pencil, probably a negative number from the Derby branch.
- The remains of four pieces of printed trade label are affixed roughly centrally on each edge, perhaps used to hold it within a frame or mount at some stage in its history.
- At intervals around the edges are what appear to be yellowed tape marks, perhaps also used for framing or mounting, but more recently than the trade label fragments. The serrated leading edges and residue are typical of those produced by sellotape.
- Written on the patinated surface in what appears to be blue ball point pen, is: " Miss Annie Goodwin (Grandma Kidds twin Sister."

Reconstructed trade label, A. & G. Taylor, 63 London Road, Derby
I've managed to reproduce an image of three quarters of the trade label using digital reconstruction, and this is enough to show that it was for A. & G. Taylor's branch studio at 63 London Road, Derby, operated by managing partner William Middleton, who also controlled branches in Sheffield, Nottingham, Goole, Doncaster and Barnsley. Although not definitive proof that the opalotype was made there, in conjunction with the negative number of presumed Derby origin ("Derb 22468"), one could certainly make a strong case for it.

The address of the Derby branch changed from 57 London Street to 63 London Road some time between October 1887 and October 1888, although I am fairly sure that this reflected a renumbering exercise and street name change rather than a physical move of the studio premises. It remained open until at least 1903. The Sheffield branch studio was at Furnival Chambers, 101 Norfolk Street from 1879 till 1904, while the Nottingham branch address was at 107 Parliament Street - also known as West End Chambers, Chapel Bar - from around 1882 until at least 1901. Victoria Street, Goole was home to a branch for a relatively short period between 1889 and 1891. Doncaster also had a branch at 32 Scott Lane from 1881 until 1889, and Osman (1996) records W. Middleton being a partner c. 1890. The only recorded date for a Barnsley branch (Sheffield Road) is 1904.

If one excludes Barnsley, the only period when all five remaining branches were open simultaneously was from 1889-1890. Although this dates the trade label rather than the opalotype itself, it is likely that the latter was produced around that time. The following comments were made by fellow photo researcher David Simkin, who very kindly looked the image:

The evidence seems to suggest that the photograph was originally taken around 1881/1882 in Derby (perhaps at A. & G. Taylor's studio in 57 London Street and at a later date (late 1880s/early 1890s) the image was transferred to [opal glass] by the studio that still held the negative or a copy photograph.
A number of reasons could account for wanting to transfer the image to a ceramic plaque - one that cannot yet be discounted is that Annie died young and the plaque was a sort of permanent memorial. If she wanted to send a copy of her photograph to Fanny a number of years after she had departed to Australia, why not a more recent photograph and why on a relatively heavy and fragile base? It would have been easier to send a cabinet or carte de visite portrait on a card mount. Alternatively, another relative could have brought the ceramic photo to Australia, or it could have been collected if Fanny ever returned to England for a visit to her family.

In April 1881, at around the time this portrait was originally taken, Annie Orchard was living with her widowed mother Harriett (née Goodwin) at 185 Newton Road, Winshill, Derbyshire, on the opposite bank of the River Trent from the Staffordshire brewing town of Burton-upon-Trent. Her twin sister Fanny was employed as a nurse in the household of Robert Ratcliff - partner in the famous Burton brewing firm of Bass, Ratcliff & Gretton - and his wife Emily née Payne (my 3g-grandfather's frst cousin) at Newton Park, Newton Solney. The girls' father had died in 1866, leaving Harriet with four children under the age of six to bring up alone. Her youngest child, a boy named Samuel, died in 1871.

Although I've been unable to locate Annie in the 1891 Census, in 1901 she was single and living in Kensington, London, where she worked as a parlour maid for a brewery manager. It is tempting to conclude that she found this position through brewery trade contacts in Burton. Her elder brother William was still living in Winshill and working as a brewery labourer in 1891 and 1901. Her unmarried status is a little difficult to reconcile with Karen's description of her as "Mrs Annie Goodwin née Orchard," although she may well have married after 1901.

Orchard-Botham-Smith outline tree
Click to enlarge
Finally, I discovered during the course of my research that Annie's father Henry Orchard (1826-1866) was second cousin to Jacob Botham Smith (1840-1925), who featured in a series of articles on Photo-Sleuth two years ago, entitled "A mystery marriage in Barton-under-Needwood."

Annie Orchard (left), the wedding party of Jacob Botham Smith & Mary Ann Hoult (right)

References

Osman, Colin (1996) The Studios of A. & G. Taylor, the Largest Photographers in the World, Supplement to The PhotoHistorian, No. 111, March 1996.

Payne, Brett (2008) A. & G. Taylor of the Royal Studio, 57 London Street and 63 London Road, Derby, Derbyshire Photographers' Profiles.

Towler, J. (1866) The Silver Sunbeam: A Practical and Theoretical Text-Book on Sun Drawing and Photographic Printing, New York: Joseph H. Ladd, 5th Edition, p. 392-403.

Vaughan, Roger (2004) The Studios of A. & G. Taylor, Victorian & Edwardian Photographs.

Waldack, Charles (1865) Treatise on Photography, Cincinatti: H. Watkin, 4th Edition, p. 247-251.

Whitman, K., Osterman, M. & Chen, J.-J. (2007) The History and Conservation of Glass Supported Photographs, George Eastman House, Advanced Residency Program in Photograph Conservation, p. 25-26.

The Man with Piercing Blue Eyes

2011-10-03T12:34:00.000-07:00

Unidentified man, c. early to mid-1870s
Carte de visite portrait by unidentified photographer
Image © and courtesy of Diana Burns
This carte de visite, like the hand coloured portrait which I described in the previous post, was sent to me by Diana Burns, who says:

In the case of the "Man with Strange Eyes," I had at first thought the CDV had been tampered with, but close inspection would suggest that his eyeballs were 'enhanced' over the original photo, although why I don't know.

There is a very simple explanation to why the young man's eyes look as though they have been tampered with - they have! The photosensitive emulsions used on early photographic glass plate negatives were far more sensitive to blue, violet and ultraviolet light than that of other wavelengths. This made the colours from the blue end of the spectrum appear abnormally dark on the negative, and hence very light on the albumen print produced, for example, on a carte de visite.

To counter this effect, a retoucher would be often employed by the photographer to pencil in the eyeballs appropriately on a print or, less frequently, to alter the negative. It was a tricky process to get right, particularly on the small format of cartes de visite, but obviously worked to the customer's satisfaction in most cases. Over time, while the emulsion on many examples has faded, the retouching has not, leaving the very odd "piercing eyes" effect which is very commonly observed in many old portraits from the first few decades. In this particular portrait, the dots of black ink have not been added very carefully, so now that the contrast has been enhanced by fading of the sepia, the large size, odd shape and misplacing of the surrogate irises seems very odd indeed.

Digitally recreated negative
This peculiarity of early photographic emulsions being not equally sensitive to all wavelengths of light, also resulted in the "shades of grey" - actually sepia - that were produced on prints from the 1850s through to the 1880s not being the same shades as those that might be produced by the same sets of clothes, skin tones, hair and backdrops in a studio today. In addition, too much white or light coloured clothing could easily result in an over-exposed, washed-out effect. Studio photographers would therefore often provide detailed guidelines on what colour clothes their customers should and shouldn't wear when visiting for a portrait.

Post Script

Example of unretouched albumen print, showing "pale" eyes
Detail from stereographic print of family of Charles and Lucy Stratton, c. early 1880s
Image © and courtesy of Liz Stratton
After reading this article Liz Stratton very kindly sent me some scans of a stereographic portrait of her ancestors (Stratton family photo), which demonstrates how such a lightening of the eyes would look in an unretouched state. Being from the early 1880s, by which time technology had developed somewhat, the effect is somewhat less than it might have been in earlier years. I have some earlier examples which show the effect and, if I can find that "safe place" where I put them, I'll feature scans in a future Photo-Sleuth article.

P.P.S.
I remembered that the photograph in my collection which most obviously demonstrates the "pale blue eyes" phenomenon was this carte de visite portrait of Colonel Fitzmayer and his wife which I featured in a previous Photo-Sleuth post, An artillery officer and Crimean hero of the old school.

Gilding the Lily - More hand colouring of carte de visite portraits

2011-10-02T20:44:00.000-07:00

Carte de visite portrait of Emily Stuart of Brisbane
Unidentified photographer, c. late 1860s/early 1870s
Image © and courtesy of Diana Burns
This example of a hand coloured carte de visite portrait, probably taken in the late 1860s or early 1870s, is typical of the embellished photographs produced in great numbers during the first two decades of popular studio portraiture, the era almost completely dominated by the carte de visite. The studio furnishings, with an elaborately painted backdrop suggesting the supposedly modern idea of "indoor-outdoor flow," an ornate-backed chair and a patterned carpet, are typical for the 1860s or 1870s.

Ladies Spring and Summer Wrappings, 15 May 1869
Image courtesy of Victorian Fashions and Costumes from Harper's Bazaar 1867-1898 by Stella Blum
The young woman pictured, who looks to me to be in her early to mid-20s, is dressed for a walk complete with umbrella, decorated hat and fashionable clothing of similar styles to those which appeared in Harper's Bazaar as "Ladies Spring and Summer Wrappings" in May 1869.

In an attempt to restore some vibrancy to the sepia reproduction of what was obviously a stunning outfit on a similarly attractive young woman, the photographer - or an "artistic" assistant - has concentrated mostly on her accessories. Her large pendant earrings and the brooch at her neck have been painted bright yellow - presumably to signify gold - while the flowers and leaves decorating her hat have been transformed with additions of purple and green. The trim on her skirt has been coloured blue, rather inexpertly (not visible in this close-up), and he or she has taken the liberty of adding a little blush to her lips and cheeks.

Although the colours may appear somewhat garish now, this effect has partly been caused by a deterioration of the photosensitive emulsions over time, resulting in fading, and enhanced contrast with the added colours. As an aside, the fact that her is partly let down at the back, some falling onto her shoulders, suggests to me a slightly earlier age, so perhaps she is in her late teens.

A final "enhancement" only becomes apparent when the image is enlarged further. The eyes have also been retouched, with a slight asymmetry to the additions giving the game away. It was common practice in many early portraits, and I will discuss this further in my next post.

Many thanks to Diana Burns, to whom I am indebted for both the scan of the cdv and the title suggestion.

Sepia Saturday 94: Ride a Cock Horse to Banbury Cross

2011-09-29T15:57:00.000-07:00

Ride a cock-horse to Banbury Cross,
To see a fine lady upon a white horse;
Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes,
And she shall have music wherever she goes.

Traditional

Only time and the collective judgement of fellow Sepia Saturday contributers will tell, but I may be able to make a claim as the closest follower of Alan's theme this week. I believe this young lady, pictured in an unnamed 4¼" x 3¼" paper print from c.1910-1914, and doing her best to ignore the persistently annoying younger brother still in nappies, is well into her training for a career to be spent astride ponies of the inanimate kind. Judging by her apparent age, she may even be the same curly-headed young Queenslander who later caught the roving eye of that wheeled toy horse in 1937.

Here, however, she is less concerned with pretending any skill at polo or other frivolous pursuits. It is clear that she is determined to ride her steed through the jungle ahead, but is just starting to appreciate the importance of an unexpected photo opportunity. For more of those captured moments presented by a squad of sepia sycophants, check out Sepia Saturday's offerings.

Jonathan Adlington (1839-1884), Music teacher of Derby & Aberdeen

2011-09-28T17:46:00.000-07:00

In the 1860s, after the carte de visite format was introduced, the colourisation of photographs became a little easier, and one would hope that the photographic studios would have taken heed of the "less is more" mantra. By the looks of many of these early portraits on albumen-based paper prints it may appear that the lesson was not well appreciated. However, a criticism of these early practitioners may be a little hasty, because the effect that we see now may not be that which was intended. Indeed the appearance may differ radically from how it appeared originally, either due to significant fading of the sepia-toned photographic emulsion or to changes in the original water colour dyes used, both of which effectively enhance the appearance of the added colours.

Jonathan Adlington of Derby, July 1863
Hand coloured carte de visite portrait by J. Brennen, Derby
Image © and courtesy of Derby Local Studies Library
This carte de visite portrait of young Derby music teacher Jonathan Adlington (1839-1884) by James Brennen, held by the Derby Local Studies Library (by whom permission has been kindly given for reproduction), is typical of early paper prints mounted on card and hand coloured in either water colours or oils. I think this one has been done in water colours (apart from the gold), which look pretty garish now, but the appearance is likely to be different from that originally intended. The young man is bearded, dressed in a frock coat with the top button done up, as was the fashion, dark waistcoat and light coloured peg-top trousers. He is wearing a bright blue tie with gold tie pin, a gold watch chain, and carries a light walking cane and pale blue, soft, low-crowned hat, perhaps something akin to a deerstalker without the ear flaps.

The reverse has the sitter's name "Jno Adlington" and a date "July 1863" inscribed in pencil, in what appears to be a roughly contemporary hand. Several other Brennen portraits in the DLSL collection have inscription in a similar hand, possibly written by Brennen himself. I suspect they were speculative portraits of local celebrities produced to cash in on the carte de visite craze which swept the country in the early 1860s.

Choir at Southwell Minster, Nottinghamshire
Image © 2008 Martin Beek and courtesy of Flickr
Jonathan Adlington was born in 1839 into the musically talented family of Southwell (Nottinghamshire) tailor William Adlington and his wife Keturah Pope. His father was for some years a member of the choir at Southwell Minster under the tutelage of rector chori Edward Heathcote.

Advertisement, The Derby Mercury, 19 December 1849
Image courtesy of Gale CENGAGE Learning
They moved to Derby in the late 1840s, probably shortly after the death of William's father Jonathan Adlington at Southwell on 2 June 1849. An advertisement which appeared in The Derby Mercury seeking an apprentice was a clear sign that the Adlington children were not destined to follow their father into the rag trade. The census of 30 March 1851 shows all three of the Adlington children - William (14), Jonathan (11) and Sarah Ann (10) - as music scholars, and it occurred to me that their move to Derby may have been motivated partly for musical reasons, for example to be close to a respected music teacher.

St Peter's Church, Derby, c.1880s
Lithograph published by W.W. Winter
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
Whatever the reasons for the move, it seems to have paid off. In January 1850 Master Adlington - probably Jonathan's older brother William, then twelve years old- was reported in the Mercury as "one of the youthful band of choristers belonging to [St Peter's Church Sunday School], presiding at the pianoforte, with great ability," during a church function in the large dining room of the King's Head Inn in the Cornmarket, a popular meeting place for both cultural groups and philosophical clubs.

Church of St Paul's, Chester Green, Derby
Image © 2010 Russ Hamer and courtesy of Panoramio
William junior became something of a local sensation, with regular performances in Derby, such as at the opening and consecration of the new church of St Paul's at New Chester (now Chester Green), near Derby in May that year. The Adlingtons appear to have been at the centre of a a minor renaissance of the music scene in Derby. The St Peter's Madrigal Society "gave the second performance to their subscribers and friends" in September 1850, at which "Master W. Addington presided at the pianoforte, accompanying the glees, songs, &c., in a very efficient style."

The Athenaeum (at left), Royal Hotel & Post Office, Victoria Street/Cornmarket, Derby, c.1850s
Image © and courtesy of Nigel Aspdin
At a Christmas concert held in the Athaenaeum that same year, "Master Adlington was also encored in the song, 'Why do summer roses fade,' which he sand with considerable effect, accompanying himself on the pianoforte ... A fantasia on the piano by Master Adlington was remarkable for its brilliancy of execution."

William Adlington senior had become the choir master at St Peter's, and no doubt played a significant role in the training and advancement of his son, although by then it appears that he was shortly to study under John Cramer of Loughborough.

Lecture Hall, Mechanics’ Institution, Derby, 1839
Hand Coloured Lithograph Print, from a drawing by Samuel Rayner
Image © and courtesy of Derby Museum & Art Gallery
Numerous concerts were held throughout 1851, culminating in a "Grand Miscellaneous Concert" at the Lecture Hall, Derby:

Master W. Adlington's performance of Hummel's Rondo Brilliant, in A, opera 59, on the piano forte, was played with a spirit, taste, and cleverness which would have done credit to any player. This youth is only fourteen years of age, and from the abilities displayed in the performance of this piece, there could be but one opinion, that in all probability he is likely to become a first class performer. The subject, although long, was executed by Master Adlington in a manner which was appreciated in a high degree by his patrons, as was shown by the warmth and unanimity of their applause.

Jonathan Adlington received instruction under William Wolfgang Woodward (1821-1882), professor of music in Derby, and conductor of the Derby Choral Society, and by September 1856 had become the organist at St Peter's Church, aged only 17. That year a new vehicle for the promotion of music in the town was formed, the Derby Vocal Union, under the direction of William Adlington, and with Jonathan "presiding at the pianoforte." Unfortunately, at their inaugural concert Jonathan was taken ill, and his place had to be taken by his older brother.

Advertisement, The Derby Mercury, 5 November 1856
Image courtesy of Gale CENGAGE Learning
At this stage William Adlington senior must have grown confident enough in both his abilities and in the local demand, since he appears to have become a music teacher. His first advertisement offering vocal elementary instruction appeared in the Derby Mercury on 5 November 1856. White's trade directory for 1857 shows him still working as a draper, but by the census of 7 April 1861 he described himself only as a "professor of music, singing."

Jonathan, then 21 and still living at home, was a "professor of music, organ & pianoforte," having announced 18 months earlier "his intention of commencing a popular elementary class for singing, at the Mechanics' Institution. As a teacher of singing, Mr. Adlington is as widely known as he is highly appreciated, and possesses not only the talent required to conduct such a desirable instruction, but also aptitude and the peculiar advantages of temper and judgement." (The Derby Mercury, 14 September 1859)

Readers will perhaps not be surprised to learn that the Adlington residence in the late 1850s and early 1860s was at 14 Wilmot Street, immediately next door to the premises which studio photographer James Brennen occupied at number 12 from around 1860 until c.1865. Sadly, these buildings no longer exist, much of Wilmot Road having disappeared to make way for the new A601 ring road. Jonathan's older brother William had the previous year "received the degree of associate of the Royal Academy of Music," while Jonathan himself was widening his repertoire, with the direction of a concert for the Trinity Church Working Mens Association and instructing music to the Diocesan Institution for Training Schoolmistresses. He had also become a member of The Derbyshire Provincial Grand Lodge of Freemasons, and of The Derwent Rowing Club - clearly a young, but up and coming, man-about-town.

St Andrew's Cathedral, Aberdeen
© 2007 Colin Smith and courtesy of Geograph.co.uk
Licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
In the early 1860s William Adlington junior had taken up an appointment as a music teacher in Aberdeen, and by August 1866 Jonathan too had moved to Aberdeen. Apart from having a large private practice offering singing, organ and pianoforte lessons, he was organist at St Andrew's Cathedral, became music master to the Normal College and pianoforte teacher at the Aberdeen Church of Scotland Training College, and was appointed Director of Music to the of the Provincial Grand Lodge at the Aberdeen Masonic Hall. He was "organist of the Choral Union under Mr Latter for a period ... frequently play[ing] at the Saturday evening entertainments," and was also a composer, publishing several songs and duets.

In late June 1877, however, he resigned his numerous positions and moved to Edinburgh where he took over an "influential" teaching practice recently vacated by his older brother William. Their parents had moved to Aberdeen in the early 1870s, perhaps after the marriage if their younger sister Sarah Ann to Alexander Gowan Gillespie at Edinburgh in July 1873, and then to Edinburgh in the early 1880s.

John Adlington, as he appears to have been known after his move to Scotland, died at his father's home in Edinburgh on 10 March 1884, at the relatively young age of 44. An obituary in the Aberdeen Journal included the following:

Mr Adlington had the winning faculty of endearing himself to his friends, and, modest of his accomplishments, he always carried his honours in such a way as to merit the esteem of those with whom he came in contact. In his professional life he well maintained the musical reputation of his family. Many in Aberdeen will grieve to hear of the early death of one who gave so much promise as a musician, and will sympathise with the relatives in the loss they have sustained ...

References

19th Century British Library Newspapers, courtesy of Gale CENGAGE Learning
The Aberdeen Weekly Journal
The Caledonian Mercury
The Derby Mercury
The Nottinghamshire Guardian & Midland Advertiser

1841-1911 UK Census Collection, The National Archives of the UK, courtesy of Ancestry

International Genealogical Index (IGI), from FamilySearch

Descendants of John Jaffray

White, Francis (1857) History, Gazetteer and Directory of the Country of Derby, Francis White & Co., Derby, transcript courtesy of Neil Wilson

Sepia Saturday 93: Collodion positives, early coloured portraits in Derby

2011-09-23T17:31:00.000-07:00

For want of a photograph of a sleeping man for this week's Sepia Saturday contribution I'm going to choose the theme of early photography and the negative influence of Talbot, by continuing with another in what will be a series of posts on hand coloured portraits.

Early Derby photographers, 1854-1864
The development of commercial photography was in the doldrums throughout England in the early 1850s, largely due to Henry Fox Talbot's fierce protection of his calotype patents and his contention that Frederick Scott Archer's collodion process was merely an extension of his own discoveries. When his court case against Laroche was thrown out in December 1854, the way was clear for portrait studios to produce collodion positives on glass, and there was indeed a very rapid uptake of the by then four year-old technology. In the United States it was patented in that same year by Boston photographer Ambrose Cutting as the ambrotype.

Although Marcus Guttenberg had visited Derby briefly in 1852 (Adamson, 1997), the town's first permanent photographer of the 1850s appears to have been James Brennen who is reported to have "[taken] up Daguerreotype and turned out portraits as good as could be found at the time" in 1854 (Keene, 1886, in Birks, 1934), or perhaps even slightly earlier in 1853 (Craven, 1993). It seems likely, however, that he would have adopted the collodion positive process by early 1855, when both he and Edmund Stowe were listed in a trade directory as "photographic artists" (Kelly, 1955).

William Seville's advert in The Derby Mercury, 15 August 1855
Image © British Library Newspapers and courtesy of Gale
Later that year four more photographers - James Wilson, William Seville, Richard Smith and E.N. Charles - had opened their doors. Seville appears to have been the first to have advertised the new "collodion portraits" in the local newspaper in August 1855. Although some practitioners did not stay the course, either moving elsewhere (Seville and B.W. Botham) or into other fields (George B. Coggan and Frederick Parkes), by the end of the decade, even before the advent of the hugely popular carte de visite, the town could boast of having nine active photographic portrait studios. Thomas Roberts, Derby's first resident daguerreotypist, had returned to the fold in 1856 (White, 1857), and newcomers included John Westmoreland, James Mills and his son, also named James, Arthur Neville, William Pearson, John Thornhill and George S. Bristow (Anon, 1860).

Either Christina or Elizabeth Slater of Derby, c.1854-1858
Collodion positive portrait on glass by unidentified photographer
Image © and courtesy of Nigel Aspdin
This delicately coloured portrait of a young girl on glass belongs to Nigel Aspdin, and he believes it to be one of two sisters Christina or Elizabeth Slater of Derby. Christina and Elizabeth, then aged five and three, are shown living with their parents John and Ann Slater and two younger brothers in Fowler Street, Derby in the 1851 Census. I'd say this young girl is about seven or eight years old, which fits fairly well with my estimated date for the portrait of between 1854 and 1858, based on the clothing, hair and sitting styles. Unfortunately the sisters are too close in age for me to be able to deduce which is shown in the portrait without further information.

Deconstructed cased collodion positive portrait
Image © and courtesy of Nigel Aspdin
Nigel also sent me this photograph of the collodion positive which he had taken apart. Although I thought it would be instructive to include this image so that readers could get an idea of how such portraits were usually mounted in a case, I'm definitely not recommending that others try this with their own. Without professional knowledge and extreme care, it may result in significant, irreparable damage, particularly to the delicate photographic emulsion.

Digitally reconstructed underexposed collodion negative
Trade magazines of the time, such as The Photographic News, were full of practical advice to both professionals and amateurs, including the correct amount of exposure to give a plate which was intended for a collodion positive image. This resulted in something along the lines of what I have reconstructed digitially (above), which could then be hand coloured. After colouring, the glass plate was backed with either black varnish or felt, protected behind another layer of thin glass, and then mounted behind a brass matt or finisher with a pinchbeck surround (also known as a preserver), inside a wooden, papier mache or thermoplastic case.

B.W. Botham's advert in The Derby Mercury, 15 August 1855
Image © British Library Newspapers and courtesy of Gale
In 1858 and 1859, the The Photographic News published a series of articles containing detailed instructions on colouring collodion positives, extracts from which will serve to illustrate the process:

Photographic powder colours ... furnish the only suitable and simple means of colouring collodion positives on glass. They are applied in the form of impalpable powder, with a dry pencil, to the collodion film. They should, if properly prepared, be brilliant in colour, transparent, and, as far as possible, permanent; they should, at the same time, "bite" well, or adhere readily to the surface of the plain or varnished wet collodion film. Brushes ... For general use camel's hair is more suitable than sable ... for fine lines a few small sables will be desirable ... they should be agitated in a glass of clean water, and brought to a point by drawing them through the lips ... An India-rubber bottle, with tube attached, to blow away superlfuous colour, will be required ... Some colour on the collodion film, and leave it so; others colour thus, and then finish with varnishing; whilst others varnish first, and colour on the varnished film ... A coating of some black varnish is usually applied to the reverse side of the plate to produce the shadows. This is rarely the best method for coloured pictures ... We prefer, for this purpose, a backing of deep maroon velvet, which warms the shadows, and harmonises with the ... tints used in portraiture.

From what I can tell, this portrait only has a single colour added, decorating the girls dress a pale blue. It is a little blotchy, but does not give an unpleasing effect. The portrait itself, even though the photographer has not succeeeded in putting his subject completely at ease, is well composed and in focus, and I think demonstrates at least a moderate degree of skill. Sadly, it's not yet possible to determine who this photographer was. As further examples of portraits from the 1850s are unearthed, however, a more detailed understanding of the photographic community active at that time may bring new clues.

References

Adamson, Keith A. (1997) Professional Photographers in Derbyshire 1843-1914, Supplement to The PhotoHistorian, No. 118, September 1997, Royal Photographic Society, ISSN 0957-0209.

Anon (1858-1859) Lessons on Colouring Photographs, The Photographic News, Google Books.
Vol. 1, No. 12, 26 November, 1858, p. 138.
Vol. 1, No. 14, 10 December, 1858, p. 162.
Vol. 1, No. 15, 17 December, 1858, pp. 174-175.
Vol. 1, No. 16, 24 December, 1858, p. 186.
Vol. 1, No. 17, 31 December, 1858, pp. 199-200.
Vol. 1, No. 18, 7 January, 1859, pp. 208-209.
Vol. 1, No. 19, 14 January, 1859, p. 222.
Vol. 1, No. 20, 21 January, 1859, p. 234.
Vol. 1, No. 21, 28 January, 1859, pp. 245-246.
Vol. 1, No. 22, 4 February, 1859, pp. 258.
Vol. 1, No. 23, 11 February, 1859, p. 269.
Vol. 1, No. 24, 18 February, 1859, p. 281.
Vol. 1, No. 25, 25 February, 1859, pp. 292-293.
Vol. 1, No. 26, 4 March, 1859, pp. 302-303.

Anon (1860) Directory & Gazetteer of Derbyshire, London, England: Harrison, Harrod & Co.

Anon (1861) Census of Derby, Derbyshire, England, RG9-2505, London, England: National Archives.

Birks, Frank Elliott (1934) History of the Derby Photographic Society 1884-1934.

Craven, Maxwell (ed.) (1993) Keene's Derby, Breedon Books, Derby, pp. 200-202.

Kelly (1855) The Post Office Directory of Derbyshire & Nottinghamshire, Digital Library of Historical Directories, University of Leicester.

Rosenblum, Naomi (1984) A World History of Photography, New York: Abbeville Press, pp. 194-196.

White, Francis & Co. (1857), History, Gazetteer and Directory of the County of Derby, with the town of Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, Sheffield, England: Francis White & Co.

Fancy dress or the height of fashion?

2011-09-22T14:25:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth Adshead of Belper, c.1883-1886
Cabinet card by J. Schmidt of Belper
Image © and courtesy of Robert Silverwood
While compiling a new profile for Belper photographer Jacob Schmidt this week, including a large number of new examples of his work, I rediscovered this striking image of a cabinet card sent to me some years ago by Robert Silverwood. It depicts his relative Elizabeth Adshead (1849 - 1917) and, at the time he sent it to me, Robert was of the view that she may have been garbed in some type of fancy dress costume. The cabinet card is of particular interest because it has been hand-coloured. Whether the clothes actually were those colours is now uncertain, but it seems quite possible that they would have been represented in as realistic a fashion as possible. Unfortunately, the retouching has also given the subject's face a rosy-tinted appearance which does not help with estimating an age.

Jacob Schmidt arrived in Belper in the early to mid-1880s, and must have established his reputation quickly. This much is clear from the fact that a good number of examples of his work have survived, in spite of his death in 1893, after only a decade in the town.

Since Schmidt did not change his card mount designs frequently during this period, it is not easy to date the portrait with much accuracy from the card design alone, but other examples of this mount are probably from the mid- to late 1880s. The use of a very crudely painted classical "column" as part of the backdrop (at the left hand side), however, suggests to me that perhaps this may have been a fairly early work, and I estimate it was taken c.1883-1886.

Spring Styles, from Harper's Bazaar, 10 February 1883
Image courtesy of Victorian Fashions & Costumes from Harper's Bazaar 1867-1898 by Stella Blum
As I've made clear before on Photo-Sleuth my knowledge of fashions is fairly limited, and I tend to rely on several well-thumbed books and web sites. One of these is Stella Blum's collection of Harper's Bazaar engravings, from which the above 1883 illustration has been extracted. Although perhaps made from somewhat different materials, Elizabeth Adshead's dress shows many similarities with the outift depicted on the right, including a high collar, short sleeves with flounces immediately below the elbows, and an overskirt gathered back at the sides, towards the prominent bustle at the back. The blue skirt looks as though it may be a fine wool weave.

The headgear is the only notable difference: she is wearing what is commonly referred to as a mob cap, rather than the more fashionable straw bonnet trimmed with ostrich feathers worn by the Harper's ladies. Although most popular in Georgian England, the mob cap was still used by servants and nurses during Victorian times.

Although I am hesitant to question Robert's identification of the subject as Elizabeth Adshead, she would have been in her mid-30s at the time I estimate this portrait was taken, and it is my feeling that this woman is a little older than that. However, her looks are masked somewhat by the hand colouring, so I can't be sure. What do you think, both about her age and the clothing? If you are familiar with fashions in the 1880s, I'd appreciate your comments.

Derby Photographers: Leonard Norman

2011-09-18T04:33:00.000-07:00

I have previously written about the photographic studio on the top floor of 36 Victoria Street, Derby, the building known to Victorian Derbeians as Clulow's bookstore. After being first used as a branch studio in the early to mid-1860s by the Leicester firm of John Burton & Sons, it was subsequently occupied by a succession of photographers: Clement Rogers from c.1870 to 1874, J.W. Price (1874-c.1880), Harry J. Watson (c.1887-c.1893) and Layton & Lamb (1898).

Uunidentified young woman, c.1899-1900
Cabinet card by Leonard Norman, 36 Victoria Street, Derby
In late 1898 or early 1899 Leonard Norman took over the studio
and was in business there for the compilation of the 1899 edition of Kelly's trade directory. He was born in Litchurch, Derby in 1864, one of seven children of engine smith William Gilford Norman. Adamson (1997) shows Norman operating in Victoria Street as a photographer in 1900, but by April 1901 he had moved on. The census found him boarding in Ipswich, Suffolk, employed as a photographer. Details of his movements after this date are unclear, although there is a listing of a Leonard Norman, photographer at 63 Abbey Street, Nuneaton, Warwickshire in 1912.

With such a brief period of operation in Derby his output there must have been very limited, perhaps a few thousand at most. I am fortunate, therefore, to have been sent this image of a fine cabinet portrait of an unidentified young woman from Norman's studio by Robert Silverwood.

The reverse of the card mount has only the words Norman and Derby printed across the diagonal in a "signature style." This simplified type of design became increasingly popular towards the end of the 1890s, perhaps a reaction to the classical excesses of the 1880s and early 1890s, with their fluted columns, Grecian vases, toga clad maidens, naked cherubs and other "artistic" motifs (see Roger Vaughan's 1890s CDV backs).

Norman's card design is very similar to that used in the mid-1890s by former 36 Victoria Street occupant Harry J. Watson, shown above. It is so similar, in fact, that I wonder whether Leonard Norman was previously an assistant of Watson's prior to opening his own studio, either in Victoria Street in the late 1880s/early 1890s or in Burton Road in the mid-1890s.

Presumably Leonard Norman settled in Ipswich, because he died at Henham, Crofton Road in that town on 13 April 1937. His son John White Norman was also described as a photographer at the time.

Many thanks to Robert Silverwood for the use of these images.

Sepia Saturday 92: All aboard the Bournemouth Queen for the Isle of Wight

2011-09-16T03:35:00.000-07:00

When in 1914 Uncle Hallam and Aunt Sarah Payne handed over the family grocery and off-licence at 83 St James' Road, Derby to his younger brother Fred and retired to live Dale Cottage, Ingleby, they were only in the mid-forties. Hallam's mother had died in February that year, his father seven years earlier, and he had inherited a number of residential properties in Derby, from which he must have received a reaonable income.

What did they do to occupy themselves, apart from collecting - and presumably reading - the piles of newspapers and books which filled much of their house? Well, the photographic record suggests that they regularly spent at least a part of their summers visiting various seaside resorts. In Sidewalk Photographers I presented a series of "walking pictures" taken of them with various other family members in Great Yarmouth (1931, 1937 and 1938) and Bournemouth (1932 and 1933).

Passengers aboard the Bournemouth Queen, 15 September 1923
Image © and courtesy of Barbara Ellison
This snapshot was also taken by a professional, but is not a "walkie." Here the photographer has opted to capture his tourist clientele en masse, conveniently gathered together on the top aft deck of an excursion boat. The boat appears to be tied up on the western side of the Bournemouth Pier, the characteristic Dorset cliffs being visible in the background, and possibly the Bournemouth beach huts and amusement arcade at the foot of the cliff. In some respects, it could be considered the same genre of commercial portrait to that of a charabanc outing that my Dutch grandparents had on the Isle of Wight, also in the early 1920s.

Mobile sales tent for Bailey's postcards
Image © Martin Parr, Photography: a critical introduction, Liz Wells
Courtesy of Google Books
Provided the excursion was long enough, as soon as the boat departed the photographer would have time to nip into his dark room, possibly even a small booth on or close to the pier, develop the negative and have a couple of dozen postcard prints of each on display and for sale by the time the boat returned.

The negative was inscribed in black ink - reversed to white on the print, of course - with "Queen 15.9.23" at the lower left, the latter being the date of the photograph, 15th September 1923, and the number "1999" on the funnel, presumably a negative number. An enlargement of the lifebelt hanging over the railings shows that the boat was the Bournemouth Queen registered at Southampton.

Red Funnel Steamers postcard of Bournemouth Queen
Image © and courtesy of Alwyn Ladell
According to Ian Boyle's comprehensive web site Simplon Postcards, devoted to passenger ships, the Bournemouth Queen was a paddle steamer of the Red Funnel Line serving as an excursion ship out of Bournemouth for most of its lengthy career, which included service in both world wars, before being finally scrapped in 1957. There was another Bournemouth Queen based in Poole who also operated on the Bournemouth-Isle of Wight run from 1968 to 1973.

Bournemouth Queen advertising signboard
Image courtesy of Ian Boyle/Simplon Postcards
This photograph of the later ship taking on passengers shows a signboard on the gangway advertising daily trips to the Isle of Wight departing from Bournemouth at 10.15 a.m. and returning at 6 pm, with the opportunity to spend 4½ hours ashore, and coach tours of the island available if booked in advance. Granted this was several decades later, but it indicates that there would have been plenty of time for photo developing and printing before the customers returned.

The back of the postcard reveals the photographer to be "Bailey, 228 A Christchurch Rd., Bournemouth." Alwyn Ladell tells me that Ernest Benjamin Bailey operated first from 240/242 Old Christchurch Road, then later at Glen Fern Chambers/Glen Fern Studios in Bournemouth, and the range of dates that I've seen on similar postcards extends from 1914 to 1940. The negative number clearly visible on most examples could be used to order copies at a later date. This might suggest that negative numbers could therefore be used to establish a date sequence, and thus lead to an estimation of the number of photographs he was taking.

Analysis of postcard negative numbers, Bailey of Bournemouth, 1914-1938 © Brett Payne
However, after a preliminary analysis of the numerous examples of Bailey's postcards available on the net - a selection can be seen on Alwyn Ladell's Flickr photostream - there doesn't appear to be a single sequence of negative numbers, and it's possible he started a new series each season.

My aunt has inscribed the reverse of the postcard in blue pen, with the suggestion that her father (CLLP) is seated 5th from left in the front row, and "Sarah & Hallam also CVP right of funnel ... three rows behind," CVP being CLLP's father and Hallam's older brother. I've had a good look at a higher resolution image of the postcard and, while Sarah and Hallam (shown above) are unmistakeable, I don't think either CLLP or CVP are on that boat.

Passengers aboard the Bournemouth Queen, 16 August 1923
Image © and courtesy of "Billy Voak, The Pagham Wanderer"
paghamwanderer.wordpress.com
This postcard, also by Bailey and taken only a few weeks before Uncle Hallam and Aunt Sarah were in Bournemouth, shows the same vessel but is a far more interesting view of passengers on the foredeck. Apart from the wonderful detail of the excursionists sporting a fine array of hats, clothing and accessories, there is a magnificent view of the holidaymakers arrayed in their deckchairs or promenading past the beach huts and amusement arcades on Bournemouth beach, a few ankle deep in the water, some even preparing to board a smaller pleasure boat. What a different feel it has to the one showing Uncle Hallam and Aunt Sarah, where all are dressed in heavy overcoats, the sun does not appear to be showing its face, and there is no action in the background to liven things up.

Passengers disembarking from Bournemouth Queen, 25 April 1935
Postcard by Bailey, Glen Fern Studios, Bournemouth
Image © and courtesy of Scott Henderson/Striderv
Sometimes he would photograph the passengers disembarking from the steamer, presumably on their return from the Isle of Wight. Perhaps they were given tickets by an assistant, printed with the negative number, and told they could return the next day for the prints.

Coloured Postcard view of Bournemouth Pier from the West Cliff, n.d.
Image © and courtesy of David Gregory/Postcards of the Past
This early postcard view from the West Cliff by an unknown publisher - possibly James Valentine or Photochrom - shows the popular beach and the pier, and a paddle steamer moored beside the latter.

Postcard photo, Bailey, Glen Fern Studios, Bournemouth, 1939
Image © and courtesy of Doreen Smith
As shown by the photograph above of an exuberant group of swimmers at the beach, and another of more sedate beachgoers occupying deckchairs below, Bailey did not restrict himself to the pier, and when there were no excursion boats to be serviced he no doubt touted for business along the waterfront.

Postcard photo, Bailey, Glen Fern Studios, Bournemouth, n.d.
Image © and courtesy of David Vickers/Reminiscene

Pier Approach, Bournemouth, 20 August 1935
Postcard view by Bailey, Glen Fern Studios, Bournemouth
Image © and courtesy of Dorset Coast Digital Archive
A further postcard by Bailey of the Pier Approach, Bournemouth is of a different genre, which indicates that he also produced more general views, and probably had them on sale along with his specific excursion oriented group shots at the tent shown earlier.

Don't forget to head over to Sepia Saturday to be entertained by more photographs, perhaps along a similar theme to either this one or Alan Burnett's image of a London & North Western Railway Co. office in Waterford, Ireland.

Derby Photographers: Pollard Graham

2011-09-13T01:01:00.000-07:00

Barker Pollard Graham, like many photographers of his day, went through several "boom and bust" cycles during his lengthy career. Some of these phases of activity were in the form of partnerships, often with local businessmen who would have provided financial backing to his various schemes. It's difficult, perhaps impossible, to assess now how much his failures were due to poor business sense, and how much to unfortunate turns of events - most likely a bit of both.

Carte de visite portrait of John Hunter, junior, September 1880
by Pollard Graham of New Road, Belper & North End, Wirksworth
Images © and courtesy of Ron Cosens
His first venture appears to have been started around 1878 - I don't yet have a firm date - working as a photographer and gelatine dry plate manufacturer at New Road in Belper, but also operating in Wirksworth. Reports of financial difficulties in mid-1881 assert that he traded as "Pollard Graham & Co." Although I have yet to see any other evidence for use of this name at this early stage, I suspect that the "& Co." referred to his brother-in-law Michael Charnock, also a photographer, who was living him on census night in April 1881. In February 1886 there is another report of court proceedings between the "Derby Photographic Dry Plate Company" and "Pollard Graham & Co." but no details of location or are given. To my knowledge the suffix "& Co." never appeared on any of his card mounts or trade directory entries during this period.

Carte de visite portrait of unidentified woman, c.1886-7
by Pollard Graham of New Road, Belper & The Zoological Gardens, Southport
Images © and courtesy of Ron Cosens
Around 1886-1887 Graham replaced his Wirksworth sideline with one at The Zoological Gardens, Southport, as shown only by the addresses on several carte de visites. It seems probable that his visits to Southport were merely seasonal, catering to the zoo's summer visitors, and he is unlikely to have occupied permanent premises there.

In early 1887, together with several Derby businessmen, he registered "Pollard Graham and Company, Limited" in the business of gelatine bromide photographic dry plate manufacturers. In that year he was operating from premises in Agard Street, Derby. Again it appears that the business did not thrive, and three years later, in March 1890, the "stock in trade and working plant" of Pollard Graham & Co., Ltd., Agard Street, Derby was offered for sale. A liquidation notice for Pollard Graham & Co., Ltd., Derwent Dry Plate Works, Agard Street, which had been operating since 1886, appeared in June 1890. As I've not seen any card mounts with the Agard Street address, I'm not sure whether he ever operated a studio from there.

Carte de visite portrait of unidentified woman, c.1891-3
by Pollard Graham of Rodney Chambers, Corn Market, Derby
Image © and courtesy of Lies Ligthard
The portrait business, however, continued, and it is clear from mentions in the local newspaper that he was taking portraits from premises at Rodney Chambers, Corn Market in August 1890. By March 1891 it is likely that his son James Charnock Graham was working for him. This studio appears to have then remained open, possibly continuously, until his death in 1932. I have no clear, unequivocal evidence for it, but I suspect that the portrait studio operated outside the framework of both of these early "Pollard Graham & Co" businesses, which appear to have been formed specifically for the commercial manufacture of dry plates, presumably for supply to local studios.

Carte de visite portrait of unidentified woman, c.1895-7
by Pollard Graham of Derby & Burton on Trent
Images © and collection of Brett Payne
Pollard Graham's next venture was to open a branch studio in the nearby brewing town of Burton-upon-Trent, probably some time between 1893 and 1895. The entries in trade directories for 1896 and 1900 show him with the addresses 12 and 113a Station Street respectively. I believe this branch remained open until around 1900, but again I don't have a firm date for its closure. It is complicated by the firm possibly using card mounts with both "Burton & Derby" and "Derby" addresses simultaneously during this period.

Carte de visite portrait of unidentified woman, c.1905-7
by Pollard Graham of Burnley, Leigh, Peterboro' & Derby
Images © and collection of Brett Payne
From 1903 until 1910, Pollard Graham also operated several other branches, of varying duration, in other Midland towns. According to my research, these were in Peterborough, Burnley, Leigh and Wigan, and all examples that I have seen from these branches were styled "Pollard Graham," with no suffix.

Large format mounted portrait of Lily May Campbell, c.1910
by Pollard Graham & Co. of Burslem, Longton, Coventry & Northampton
Image © and courtesy of Diane Lilley
Some time prior to March 1915, when the partnership was dissolved, Pollard Graham went into a collaboration with Albert Hutchinson. This firm was styled, "Pollard Graham & Co." and at the time of dissolution was operating "in the trade or business of Photographers" at Friar-gate, Derby. From what I can tell, all of the card mounts with "Pollard Graham & Co." printed on them can be ascribed to this pre-war period of operation, when they had branches in Burslem, Longton, Coventry, Northampton, Rotherham, Luton and Lincoln. From an analysis of the photographs which have the "& Co." suffix - sadly, none are dated - and various trade directory entries, I believe that the partnership between Hutchinson and Graham probably corresponds to the use of the "& Co." title, and commenced around 1910. I have not seen any photograph with "Pollard Graham & Co." printed on it, or a trade directory entry for "Pollard Graham & Co." prior to 1910 or after 1915.

Postcard portrait of unidentified man, c.1914
by Pollard Graham of 108A Friargate, Derby
Images © and collection of Brett Payne
The Great War seems to have had a significant impact on Pollard Graham's business. Apparently all of the branch studios were closed around 1914-1915, with only the "Head Office and Works" remaining open until around 1920. It is not clear what happened to the studio at Rodney Chambers, Corn Market during the War, because it the address is not shown on extant postcard backs from 1915-1920. It may have been closed temporarily until business picked up again in peace time.

Postcard portrait of Caroline Sadler, c.1921-5
by Pollard Graham of Derby & Northampton
Images © and courtesy of Caroline Dean
In about 1920, perhaps sensing business was indeed rejuvenating, he opened a new branch in Northampton.

Postcard portrait of unidentified man, c.1925-6
by Pollard Graham of Derby, Northampton, Kettering & Wellingborough
Images © and courtesy of Rob Jennings
Around 1925, he went into a short-lived partnership with his son James, and they opened more branches, successively, in Kettering and Wellingborough. Postcards and card mounts bear the name "Pollard Graham & Son" and "Pollard Graham & Son's Studios," respectively. This would not last long, however. The partnership was dissolved in October 1926, Pollard Graham keeping the Corn Market studio, and his son retaining the others.

Postcard portrait of Ada Mary Oxspring, c.1928-32
by Pollard Graham of Rodney Chambers, Corn Market, Derby
Images © and courtesy of Graham Robinson
From late 1926 until his death in 1932, Pollard Graham continued to take portraits at Rodney Chambers, Corn Market.

AcknowledgementsI would like to thank all of those who have kindly contributed both images and information over a period of some years for my revised profile of the Derby photographer Pollard Graham - without them, this study would be very patchy.

Nigel Aspdin, Hilary Booth, Betty Bowler, Boz, Kerrie Brailsford, Pat Cahill, Grace-Ellen Capier, John Copley, Brian Coxon, Helen Cullum, Joss Davis, Caroline Dean, Sophie Dickerson, Chris Elmore, Jack Fletcher, John Frearson, Helen Frost, Gillian Fynes, Angela Galloway, Brian Goodhead, Angus Graham, Clive Greatorex, Carole Haywood, John Hoddinott, Martin Jackson, Rob Jennings, Kim Klump, Lies Ligthart, Diane Lilley, Dorothy Livesey, Marilyn McMillan, Cynthia Maddock, Barry Muir, Sarah Nash, Margaret Page, Graham Pare, Fran Powles, Alan Radford, Kevin Rhodes, Graham Robinson, David Roughley, Robert Silverwood, Derek Smith, Valerie Stern, Lynne Tedder and Andrew Wryobek.

Chesterfield Photographers: H. Brawn

2011-09-09T22:26:00.000-07:00

This image of a cabinet card which I found on the net depicts a young man posed outdoors, dressed in uniform, perhaps of a policeman, but I think he is more likely to be a member of some volunteer yeomanry regiment. No details of the subject are provided, but it is the photographer that interests me in particular today.

The back of the card displays a cabinet-sized version of Marion & Co's "Bamboo & Fan" design which Roger Vaughan describes (CDV card designs) as having been issued in 1884 and used until 1892. This more or less equates with the fact that thick, dark purple glossy card has been used, although my estimate would perhaps tend towards the early to mid-1890s.

The only photographer named Brawn or Braun that I can find with the initial "H" is from the 1901 Census. Henry Braun, then aged 27 and born in Islington, was living at 71 Somerset Road, Tottenham with wife and child, and described himself as a photographer (own account, at home). There was, however, a Henry Brawn who was married at Chesterfield in the 4th Quarter of 1903, about whom I have been able to unearth nothing further.

I'd be interested to hear from anyone else who has come across this photographer, or might be able to shed some light on the uniform of the subject of the cabinet card portrait.

Post Script 11 September 2011

Nigel found this image of a Victorian Blue Cloth Helmet of the Sherwood Foresters on an auction site. It looks very similar indeed to the helmet shown in the Brawn portrait.

606. Sherwood Foresters at Clumber Park, 1913
Postcard by H.P. Hansen, Ashbourne
The uniform is also not too different to the dress uniform worn by the Sherwood Foresters in this pre-Great War group portrait by Ashbourne photographer H.P. Hansen which I wrote about previously on Photo-Sleuth (Sherwood Foresters at Clumber Park).

Photographic Ephemera: Posting envelopes and their relevance

2011-09-09T17:50:00.000-07:00

Portrait of young man by Pollard Graham of Derby
Mounted print 250 x 350mm
Last week I wrote in the article "Which sibling is it?" about the importance of dating photographs in the process of identification of subjects. Today I return to this topic with an image sent to me three years ago by Graham Pare, who provided some background to the photograph:

It is the only photo I have from this area - my father's family were from Derbyshire, my great grandfather was Francis Willoughby Pare born Belper 1909 and his father was Robert Stanley Lee Pare, born Ripley 1887 - I guess it could be either of them, depending on your estimated year? There again it could be neither of them!

Imprint: Pollard Graham & Co, Head Office 108A Friar Gate, Derby
Negative number 68770
My response was as follows:

I believe that it was taken just before or during the First World War, perhaps between 1911 and 1916. This is from a comparison of the young man's clothing with other photos in my collection, as well as the number 68770 which you quoted from the reverse, and which I think must be a negative number. I have a post card photo of my own family by this studio with the negative number 70932, which is accurately dated at 13 Jul 1917, and I think yours must have been taken not too long before this date. I think it must therefore be the father, Robert Stanley Lee Pare, born in 1887, as the son would have been a maximum of seven years old, while the father was somewhere between 24 and 29. Does this fit with any conclusions you might have come to?

Portrait of young man by Pollard Graham of Derby
Mounted print
Then two years later I heard from Graham again with an update on the portrait:

I have now discovered that it is from my mother’s side of my family and not my father’s, as I originally thought. My brother had the same photo, but smaller, in his collection, and it was still in its original envelope!

Photograph envelope used by Pollard Graham of Derby
The envelope from Pollard Graham & Co. with Head Offices and Works at 108a Friar Gate, Derby is addressed to "Mr. S. Harding, The Rookery Cottage, Brixworth, Nr. Northampton," with a Derby postmark dated 31 July 1914, and the hand written negative number 68770.

The gentleman in the photo we now believe to be Sidney Harding, my grandfather’s brother. At the outset of WW1, Sidney enlisted as a Private, regimental number 25220, with the South Wales Borderers (formerly 8145 Army Cyclist Corps) at Northampton, where he was working as an engineering apprentice. He spent periods attached to 229 Company Royal Engineers and the Machine Gun Corps. Sid was born in Wendover, Buckinghamshire, on 4th February 1894 and would have therefore been around 20 years old at the time of this photo.

How nice for Graham to have not only an approximate date for the photograph, but also an address and a positive identification for the subject. I would be a little bit wary about the date, though, because the smaller mounted print posted within the envelope may have been an additional copy ordered after the original portrait had been received.

For me, however, the second portrait and the envelope with which it is associated provide additional information, rarely seen because these envelopes often don't survive.

View Pollard Graham Studios 1878-1932 in a larger map
Firstly it demonstrates that in mid-1914, on the eve of the British declaration of war on Germany, Pollard Graham & Co. was operating, in addition to the Derby studio, seven branches in Coventry, Northampton, Burslem, Longton, Rotherham, Luton and Lincoln simultaneously. This appears to have been the peak of a rapid period of expansion for the firm, commencing around 1904. Between then and 1905 Pollard Graham opened new studios in Peterborough, Burnely, Leigh, Wigan and Northampton. Around 1910, he went into partnership with Albert Hutchinson - hence the "Pollard Graham & Co.." The Peterborough and Burnley branches were closed, followed by Leigh in 1911 and Wigan in 1913, balanced by the opening of several branches in other, presumably more attractive, towns elsewhere in the Midlands.

As discussed in a previous article, lack of business due to wartime hardships quickly caused the closure of all the branches, and the partnership between Graham and Hutchinson was formally dissolved in March 1915. The Derby studio appears to have remained in business for much of the war's duration, judging by the number of portraits of servicemen taken there (see Pollard Graham portfolio), although the number of customers was no doubt significantly reduced.

Environs of 108A Friargate, Derby, c.1912, by F.W. Scarratt
Image courtesy of Rod Jewell's Yesterday's Derby and its Districts
Secondly it indicates that the exposed negatives of portraits taken at the branch studios, in this case the Northampton branch, were sent to the firm's Derby headquarters for printing. I had already suspected this, since they included the words "Head Office and Works" in their card mounts from c.1910 to 1915, and because most, if not all, of the negative numbers used between 1895 and 1922 appear to fit into a single sequence. However, it's good to have confirmation that it was happening in July 1914. Presumably increased efficiencies in the postal service of the time made it feasible, and both economies of scale and the reduced capital requirement for individual branches made it worthwhile.

Sending large numbers of glass plate negatives from around the Midlands by post to the Derby Works in Friargate seems to me a venture fraught with risk. Perhaps I'm underestimating the transport methods available at the time, but I can't imagine that even a small proportion of losses due to breakage would have been acceptable to either the firm or their clients. I wonder, therefore, if they were by this stage using roll film rather than dry-plate glass negatives, rapid developments having been made in roll film technology on the 1890s and early 1900s. Kodak introduced 9 new roll film sizes - from 3½" x 3½" up to 7" x 5" - to the commercial market in 1898 alone. I appreciate that glass plates still provided higher quality prints, and remained popular for some years. It's clear that this subject needs more research, but perhaps a reader or two can help with some in depth knowledge of the cameras used by studios at that time.

Sepia Saturday 91: A Black Horse, a Black Hearse and Fast-fading Flowers

2011-09-07T19:04:00.000-07:00

"Western funerals: black hearses, and black horses, and fast-fading flowers. Why should black be the colour of death? Why not the colours of a sunset?"
Daniele Varè, The Maker of Heavenly Trousers

Funeral group at unidentified location
Image © and courtesy of Rachel Thomson
I was sent this photograph of a funeral scene a couple of years ago by Rachel Thomson, who wrote:

I found it in my parents' estate and no one seems to know its origins. It's morbidly fascinating as it's of a child's funeral. It could quite well be taken in Scotland. What is interesting is the reflections of peoples faces in the glass hearse. I thought someone might have a theory of its origins.

I did have a good look at the photograph at the time, and did some research into horse-drawn hearses, but didn't come to any conclusions as to location, and didn't feel that I had anything useful to contribute. Then, I'm afraid the query was neglected under the usual pile in my Inbox.

The image chosen for the Sepia Saturday this week is of a quite different topic, in a generalised sense, but Alan chose to make a point of the contrasting action within. I think this photograph shows similar qualities, and it is easy to be drawn into the scene. It depicts what must be the funeral of a young child, the funeral party arranged for the photographer around a horse-drawn hearse, which is itself parked in front of a long, single-storey building.

Detail of funeral group: the central characters
The "morbidly fascinating" aspect of the image centres around the tiny open white coffin, held by two young men at a slightly alarming angle, obviously so that the well-draped deceased baby would be in full view of the camera lens. This group of five each hold a silver candlestick. I'm not familiar enough with funeral rites and accoutrements to know whether these are characteristic of any particular denomination. I found this account of Scottish Burial Customs, but it makes no mention of candlesticks.

Detail of funeral group: the grieving parents
On the left of this central group are a couple who I suspect are the parents of the deceased child. Their eyes are turned downwards, but perhaps they are primarily concerned with how their older child, shown below, is managing with her candlestick. The woman's hair and clothing style, including the wide lace collar, lead me to tentatively suggest a date of perhaps the late 1870s or early to mid-1880s.

Detail of funeral group: the big sister
The child dressed in white, with a frilly bonnet and her mouth partly hidden by a ribbon or flower posie, is perhaps two to three years old and could easily be an older sibling of the dead child. She looks cautiously at the photographer.

Detail of funeral group: the coffin bearers
The two young men holding the child's coffin - actually only one of them seems to have a good grip on it - could be uncles of the deceased. They are both holding candlesticks and while one faces directly into the camera lens, the other is more intent on something off to the left - perhaps the the child's mother is his sister. Be

Detail of funeral group: the supporting cast
To the right there is a large group of young men, two or three of who are holding candlesticks and are holding up the decorated coffin lid, and one young woman. The latter's face is partly hidden in this image, but her dress is visible in the larger image above. All face the photographer except for one on the left who looks down at the lid.

Detail of funeral group: faces through the glass
Just visible through the glass of the hearse - and therefore probably standing behind it - are the ghostly faces of at least four, possibly five, women, and potentially another man. In light of the Scottish custom of the burial at the cemetery only being attennded by the menfolk, mentioned in the previous reference, it's interesting to note that most of the men are off to the right, and the women behind the hearse.

Detail of funeral group: the undertaker and his horse
The undertaker in his spotless coat and top hat, and the horses with their shiny polished bridle and harness, are off to the right. Yes, there are two horses, although one is pretty well hidden - look at the shadows. The undertaker, no doubt doubling as driver of the hearse, has his hands behind his back, and is probably holding the reins to keep the horses still. Leaning against the wall at the left is a dustpan with a handle, which may or may not have something to do with the horses.

Detail of funeral group: Finial on hearse
I found images of several horse-drawn hearses of a similar shape to the one in the photograph, but one feature renders it a little unusual. The hearse appears to be of a design that was more or less standard during the latter half of the 19th Century, but I've not been able to find anything similar to the five carved finials attached to its roof. Finials were not always used, but when they were present they were usually turned, and thus with a circular-section, or carved into shapes resembling drapery, rather than this square-section form.

The building itself is constructed from roughly shaped and dressed stone, with a slate roof bordered at the left with lead flashing, and topped by two stone chimneys, each with two pottery chimney pipes. The three visible glazed windows each have substantial wooden shutters on iron hinges, suggesting to me that the location may be a coastal one which commonly experiences adverse weather conditions. There is an open doorway behind the hearse, only just visible over the top of it.

My commentary is therefore long on observation, and rather short on both interpretation and conclusion. I'd welcome further contributions from readers, please, because I'm a little bereft of ideas to progress the investigation at the moment. Perhaps you have a different reading of the way people are standing and interacting with each other? Please leave your comments below, and then head over to Sepia Saturday 91 to enjoy the other interpretations of this week's theme.

The Compleat Angler, a Derbyshire fishing trip

2011-09-05T17:44:00.000-07:00

Back in March I used this photograph of my great-grandfather Charles Vincent Payne (1868-1941) and a group of friends outside an ivy-clad building to illustrate an article about his leisure activities.

At the time I had no idea of the location, but suspected it was somewhere in Derbyshire, and perhaps formed a suitable watering hole and starting point for excursions by walkers and fly-fishermen. More recently I was going over some notes made by my Dad in 2002, and came across the following:

... in J.B. Firth's "Highways & Byways in Derbyshire" where CVP pencilled many marginal asterisks and underlined passages which caught his eye, e.g. Apropos Beresford Dale: "... for peaceful loveliness and sheer prettiness nothing in Derbyshire excels it." ... As far as I know, fishing was his (CVP's) only outdoor pursuit in later years, unless you count attending sales all over the place and doing whatever he did at the Cromford Nursery.

Boy fishing, unknown location, undated, Loose paper print
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
I've long known that Charles Vincent was a keen trout fisherman, because my Dad inherited his rods and tackle and, although I was given my own cheap but perfectly adequate split cane rod - probably made in Hong Kong - at a fairly young age, I used an old reel of his, which I carried around in an old Great War gas mask bag brought back from the Western Front by my Grandpa.

Hallam fishing, Upper Waihou River, 27 July 2011
I think my brother Hallam, who has since become a far more knowledgeable and skillful trout fisherman than I, used the old rods until they disintegrated. Not surprising, really, because they must have been all of fifty or sixty years old by then.

Marchant Brooks & Co. auction sale notice, Fishing Rights and Fishing Lodge, Cromford Bridge, 22 July 1947, Collection of Brett Payne
In the 1930s Charles Vincent owned, along with Bow Wood Farm and the Cromford Bridge Chapel, about which I have written previously, a small fishing lodge adjacent to Cromford Bridge and 3000 yards of fishing rights on the River Derwent. He died in 1941 and, after the war had ended, my grandfather Leslie Payne sold Bow Wood Farm. Jobs were scarce at that time, in the post-war economic depression, and it was some time after his demobilisation from the Pioneer Corps before he eventually found a job with Gleeds, the Nottingham quantity surveyors, so money must have been tight. The Lodge and Bridge Chapel were gifted to the Derbyshire Archaeological Society, who I believe still own it.

Fisherman on the River Derwent, near Cromford Bridge
Image © and courtesy of Mick Martin
When the Matlock & Cromford Angling Association invited him to become a vice-president in 1942 they promised there would be "no irksome duties." I don't know if the fishing rights went with it, but Grandpa wasn't much of a fisherman, and from the surviving correspondence in our family archives it appears to have been more trouble than it was worth. Since no keeper had been employed the river had been neglected during the war, compounded by problems with effluent from a nearby fluorspar quarry. It appears that the family's connection with Cromford Bridge and the Derwent ended shortly thereafter.

Richard Arkwright's Fishing Lodge, Cromford Bridge
© Copyright Peter Barr Courtesy of Geograph.co.uk
and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
The fishing lodge was originally built in the late 18th Century by Richard Arkwright junior, then living nearby at Willersley Castle, as accomodation for his bailiff. An inscription on the lintel above the doorway - "Piscatoribus Sacrum" - provides a clue to the lodge's origins.

Charles Cotton's Fishing Lodge, Beresford Dale
© Copyright Neil Gibbs Courtesy of Geograph.co.uk
and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
It is supposed to have been based on a similarly adorned - but rather more picturesque and architecturally pleasing - lodge built in 1674 on the banks of the River Dove at Beresford Dale by Charles Cotton, and made famous in his friend Isaac Walton's A Compleat Angler, or The Contemplative Man's Recreation.

The Fishing House, Beresford Dale
from Highway and Byways in Derbyshire, by J.B. Firth (1905)
A plate from Firth's 1905 Highway and Byways in Derbyshire, so lavishly annotated by Charles Vincent, displays the temple carefully restored after having been much neglected in previous times.

"Piscatoribus Sacrum," Walton and Cotton's Fishing House, Beresford DalePostcard by unknown publisher, c.1920s-1930s
That Walton and Cotton's fishing retreat was still a well known landmark in the 1920s and 1930s is evidenced by this postcard, showing it within a couple of metres of the streambank in a particularly tranquil setting. Unfortunately it is on private land, and therefore only visible to the general public from the opposite bank close to where the path from Hartington reaches the river.

Beresford Dale
Postcard 0171 by G. Hill & Sons, c.1920s-1930s
Another postcard view from the same era shows a peaceful scene which is probably little changed from Walton and Cotton's time ...

Land the Trout, Engraving from The Compleat Angler by Izaak Walton and Charles Cotton (4th Edition, 1844)
... and I have little difficulty envisaging Charles Vincent and a friend casting a line or two on these waters, much as those good friends Cotton and Walton had done two and a half centuries before.

Fisherman at Dovedale, c.1850s-1860s
One half of a stereoview by unidentified photographer
Image © and courtesy of John Bradley
Further downstream through Wolfscote Dale the valley deepens considerably, and by the time one reaches Dovedale the vistas might better be described as spectacular than tranquil. Steep, thickly wooded hillsides are punctuated by bare prominences such as Dove Holes, Ilam Rock, Reynard's Cave, Lion Head Rock, Tissington Spires and Lover's Leap.

Fisherman at Dovedale, c.1850s-1860s
One half of a stereoview by Poulton & Son of London
Image © and courtesy of John Bradley
By early Victorian times, a steady stream of day trippers were visiting Dovedale (see previous Photo-Sleuth article, Donkey Rides at Dovedale), and serious anglers no doubt had to plan their excursions a little more carefully to avoid the throngs.

Fisherman heading home with his bag, Dovedale, c.1850s-1860s
One half of a stereoview by John Latham of Matlock Bath
Image © and courtesy of John Bradley
Click image for animated 3-d view
This stereoscopic view shows a fisherman crossing the Stepping Stones over the Dove, at the southern end of Dovedale. He is perhaps on his way home at the end of a pleasant day's outing.

The The Izaak Walton Hotel, Dovedale, c. 1856-1859
One half of a stereoview by Sedgefield (English Scenery No. 720)
Image © and courtesy of John Bradley
He may even have been heading back to the very popular Izaak Walton Hotel, situated close to the entrance to the Dale, shown here in another mid-century stereoview. The entrance on the right hand (eastern facade) of the building looked somewhat familiar ...

The Clarion Cycling Club Easter Meet, Izaak Walton Hotel, Dovedale, 1895
Image © and courtesy of the National Clarion Cycle Club

Wedding at the Isaac Walton Hotel, Dovedale
Image © and courtesy of the The Izaak Walton Hotel
... and a further search for images brought up several which show it in sufficient detail to be able to identify it as the ivy-clad building in front of which Charles Vincent and friends were standing in the photograph displayed at the head of this article. It seems very likely that they were about to spend a pleasant day on the River Dove. Which leaves us with a satisfactory outcome to the quest, and at a convenient point at which to conclude our own brief tour of some of Derbyshire's very pleasant trout fishing spots.

View Cromford Bridge & Dovedale in a larger map
Walton & Cotton's DerbyshireLocations mentioned in this incomplete and rather superficial tour of Derbyshire trout streams are shown on the annotated satellite image from Google Maps above.

Cover of Penguin edition of The Compleat Angler, 1939
Image courtesy of A Penguin a Week
Finally, to round off a rather lengthy post, I recently adopted this postcard showing the cover of the 1939 Penguin edition of The Compleat Angler, receiving it under separate cover, and then sending it back with an appropriate trout fishing stamp to postcard collector Emilie Staubs of Massachusetts. A fitting post script to this line of research, I think.

Sepia Saturday 90: What did you do in the war, Grandpa?

2011-09-02T03:46:00.000-07:00

This week's Sepia Saturday photo prompt is a cutely posed studio portrait of a young Princess, taken in Spain in 1916 when she was seven years old. Of course Spain remained neutral throughout the Great War, and visits to the studio may have continued unabated, even by ordinary folk. In Britain, however, the war had been going on for two years, times were tough, and many studios experienced reduced business, or were even closed due to the lack of customers.

Corporal Robert Hollis, Machine Gun Corps
Postcard portrait by Pollard Graham, 108A Friargate, Derby, c.1917-1918
Image © and Courtesy of Fran Powles
Derby photographers were no exception, and it is informative to note that Pollard Graham shut eight of their branches in the Midlands - from Northampton to Burslem to Lincoln - between 1913 and 1916, leaving only the headquarters studio serving customers. Even after the war, it would be some time before business picked up sufficiently for the firms to contemplate expansion again, with their first post-war branch opening in 1920. Understandably, their clientele had changed too, with the majority of clients being uniformed soldiers about to head off to war. Postcards tended to be the predominantly used format. For most people there wasn't much spare cash around for the fancier mounts and frames.

Corporal Hollis of the Machine Gun Corps probably had this portrait taken on a visit home from the front, perhaps even after a period of recuperation, since he is sporting a wound stripe on his left sleeve.

The Brown family, Postcard portrait by Pollard Graham,
108A Friargate, Derby, 13 July 1917
Image © and Collection of Brett Payne
While most portraits tended to be a single figure, or perhaps couple, I am fortunate enough to have a group portrait of my grandmother's family, the Browns, taken in the summer of 1917. The older two of her three brothers are dressed in uniform. Arthur was a Corporal/Sergeant Dispenser, RAMC, and served with the 57th North Midlands Field Ambulance Unit. He became a chemist after the war. I'm not sure what unit Frank served in, and the insignia on his lapels are not clear enough for me to make out. Ethel worked as an apprentice milliner before the war, but during the war both she and her mother Edith served in some medical capacity, probably at a hospital in Derby. Edith has what appears to be an RAMC badge pinned to the front of her dress, Ethel some other type which I've been unable to identify. Percy was still at school, while Fred Brown, at 47, was presumably too old to be called for active service.

Unidentified Royal Navy man, perhaps with his father
Postcard portrait by Pollard Graham, 108A Friargate, Derby, c.1917-1918
Image © and Courtesy of Grace-Ellen Capier
This rather nice vignetted portrait shows an unidentified Royal Navy man seated with an older bearded gentleman who may be his father. I can't decide whether the single stripe on his left arm signifies that he holds the rank of "Able Seaman, Higher Grade," or whether it is a "Good Conduct" badge. Also just visible on his right sleeve is part of another badge. By comparison with Royal Navy Badges used during the First World War, it may be something like an Armourer's badge.

Thomas Frederick (Fred) Green, Royal Garrison Artillery
Postcard portrait by Pollard Graham, 108A Friargate, Derby, c.1917-1918
Image © and Courtesy of Betty Bowler
A very young Fred who also visited Pollard Graham's studio, probably on the eve of his departure for the front, is wearing standard Great War issue uniform with an RGA (Royal Garrison Artillery) shoulder title. The Medal Index Cards show a Thomas F. Green, 189835, Gunner in the Royal Garrison Artillery, entitled to the Victory and British War Medals.

Unidentified young man, Army Ordnance Corps, c.1914-1918
Postcard portrait by F.J. Boyes, 22 & 24 Osmaston Road, Derby
Image © and Collection of Brett Payne
Frederick J. Boyes was another Derby photographer who attended to portrait requirements of those dutiful young men during the Great War. The AOC shoulder title of this unidentified young man with his very neatly combed hair show that he served with the Army Ordnance Corps, which dealt "with the supply and maintenance of weaponry, munitions and other military equipment."

Uncle Bill (Notts & Derby Regiment) and Auntie Hilda, c.1914-1918
Postcard portrait by F.J. Boyes, 22 & 24 Osmaston Road, Derby
Image © and Collection of Brett Payne
This young man and his new bride (I presume from the prominently displayed wedding ring) are identified on the reverse only as Uncle Bill and Auntie Hilda, but he wears the shoulder titles of the Notts and Derbys Regiment, as well as a circular badge containing a red cross, similar to that of Arthur Brown, above, which may signify that he is some sort of medical orderly.

Charlotte and Alfred Horobin with their nieces, c.1915-1916
Postcard portrait by F.J. Boyes, 22 & 24 Osmaston Road, Derby
Image © and Courtesy of Sally Jackson
Sally Jackson sent me this portrait of her grandparents Alfred Irvin Horobin and his wife Charlotte Louisa née Brady with their nieces, daughters of his half brother, Arthur Swinfield Newton and his wife Lillia née Tomlinson. Alfred is dressed in uniform, wears shoulder titles of the RFA (Royal Field Artillery), and has a crown on his sleeve, suggesting he was a warrant officer. His finely waxed moustache, not clearly visible in this image, is certainly in keeping with that rank - all he needs is a swagger stick - but I've been unable to find an appropriate Medal Index Card for him.

Frederick William Lomas of Derby, c.1914-1916
Postcard portrait by R. & R. Bull, Ashbourne
Image © and Courtesy of Derek Smith
Unfortunately this portrait of a fresh-faced Frederick William Lomas, taken by the Ashbourne firm of R. & R. Bull early during the war, is not clear enough for me to read his shoulder titles.

Unidentified man and woman, c.1914-1918
Postcard portrait by H. Hinge, Ashbourne
Image © and Courtesy of Ellen Oakley
Henry Hinge, also of Ashbourne, took this rather wooden - and now pretty battered - portrait of a non-commissioned officer, identified on the reverse only as "Gran's brother," and his presumed wife. He has sergeant's stripes on his lower sleeve, as well as two wound stripes, and is also holding a swagger stick, which makes me wonder whether he is a drill or staff sergeant. His shoulder titles are not visible, and I'm not familiar enough with regimental badges to recognise the one on his cap.

Louisa and Doris McAuslan at Green Hall Hospital
Postcard portraits by Frederick Holbrook, George St Studios, Belper
Images © and Courtesy of Robert Silverwood
Louisa McAuslan and her daughter Doris were working for the Red Cross at Green Hall Hospital in Belper during the war, when Belper photographer Frederick Holbrook visited and took these two fine portraits.

Frank Tomlinson, c.1914-1918
Panel print portrait by Seaman & Sons, Chesterfield
Image © and Courtesy of Phil Gregory
This less common format by Seaman & Sons of Chesterfield is often known as a panel print, although it is not too different from a postcard cut into three, and I have often seen them constructed in that manner. Phil Gregory's relative Frank Tomlinson obviously served in a Scots Regiment during the war, as evidenced by his Glengarry hat, but I have no further information about him.

Sergeant George Manning, Royal Field Artillery, c.1917
Mounted print by W.W. Winter, Derby
Image © and Courtesy of Christine Hibbert
Sergeant George Manning of the Royal Field Artillery paid a visit to the studio of W.W. Winter in Midland Road Derby "whilst at home on leave from the battlefields of Europe." The single bar on his lower left sleeve is a wound stripe, indicating that he had already been wounded in the line of duty.

Geoff Caulton's PhotoDetective web pages have some excellent descriptions and images of uniforms, badges, shoulder titles and other tips for identifying subjects on portraits from the Great War.

Roger Capewell has an extensive web site devoted to Military Images, including a comprehensive list of badges with images.

For questions about the Great War, both of a specific and more general nature, the Great War Forum is well worth trying. Chris Baker's The Long, Long Trail gives valuable advice on how track a particular soldier's service during the war, including an excellent article on how to interpret Medal Index Cards.

Which sibling is it? The importance of a detailed date

2011-09-01T16:42:00.000-07:00

Portrait A - Carte de visite, Burnley-Leigh-Peterboro-Derby, #15008
Probably the most common problem I'm asked to solve by clients is to identify which of several family members the subject of a photograph could be. Is it the father or the son, the mother or the daughter, or which of several brothers or sisters could it be? Sometimes it's as easy as estimating the approximate age of the subject and which decade he or she visited the studio.

Portrait B - Cabinet card, Derby-Burnley-Peterboro-Leigh, #15008
All too often though, and particularly in the case of sibling identification, a more accurate date and a firmer handle on the age are required. Age evaluation is a subjective process, and I usually leave open the widest possible margins for error. When the subjects are younger, I usually ask my own teenage children what they think - they seem to have a better idea than I do, probably because they are closer to the ages of the subjects. I very rarely offer an opinion when asked about potential similarity of facial characteristics between family members - that's a minefield best left to the family themselves to ponder on.

Portrait C - Carte de visite, Burnley-Leigh-Peterboro-Derby, #16706
There are many aspects of a portrait which can be used to estimate an approximate date, but I concentrate here on one which can often provide the most accurate dates of all. A good understanding of photograph types and formats, together with a knowledge of clothing styles and hair fashions, will usually get you to the right decade, perhaps even down to a five-year period or so. Detailed documentation of a photographer's career, including the addresses of his various studios and any negative numbers he may have used during that time, can in some cases be used to narrow the time frame right down to a year or two. A word of warning, though - it's usually the most time consuming of all the techniques available, and it doesn't always yield satisfactory results.

Portrait D - Cabinet card, Derby-Leigh, no negative #
Anyway, I thought I'd give readers an example of how this can work well. I recently completed a detailed study of Derby photographer Pollard Graham, culminating in the compilation of a new profile and gallery, including several dozen new images that have been sent to me by visitors to my Derbyshire Photographers web site over the last three years.

Portrait E - Cabinet card, Derby-Burnley-Peterboro-Leigh, #16790
This analysis resulted in the identification of at least 38 distinct card mount designs and photograph formats used over more a career spanning just over five decades. I've put forward a provisional sequence in which these card designs and photo formats were used, together with a dating guide, although the paucity of accurately dated portraits with which to anchor the sequence means that it must be considered, at best, tentative.

Portrait F - Carte de visite, Burnley-Leigh-Peterboro-Derby, #18359
The six Pollard Graham portraits that accompany this text are from my aunt's collection. As can be seen from the annotations on the reverse of the card mounts, there is some confusion in the identification of the subjects. However, it is almost certain that they are one or more of the daughters of Henry Payne (1842-1907) and Henrietta Christina Benfield (c1842-1912). I left them out of my analysis inadvertently, but can now use this to some advantage, by comparing them with the dating study to see whether (a) they fit well into the proposed sequence, (b) approximate dates can be estimated, and (c) the subjects can be identified with any greater certainty.

Portraits A & B - #15008 - Taken c. early 1906
The first pair of portraits, a carte de visite and a cabinet card with the same negative number, are from the same negative. The mounts used are Types 14 and 15 in my Pollard Graham classification, probably used between 1905 and 1908. The hat appears to be somewhere between the cartwheel amd merry widow hats described by Geoff Caulton in his excellent guide to Edwardian and later fashions, Photo Detective, confirming a date of between 1905 and 1908. I think this is Helen Payne (aka Nellie), who was born on 18 October 1883 and would have been in her early 20s at the time.

Portraits C & D - #16706 - Taken July 1906
The next pair, likewise a cdv and cabinet, are also clearly from a single negative, even though one of them is unnumbered. The mounts used are Types 15 and 16, from c.1905-1908 and c.1908 respectively. I note that this negative number is immediately adjacent to that on a portrait of Sarah Emma Payne née Parker, sister-in-law of the Payne girls (see pgraham38), suggesting that the subject may have visited the studio together with Sarah. That photograph is dated July 1906, so we have known point around which to anchor the negative number sequence - the previous sitting was possibly earlier in 1906, or late the previous year.

This young woman looks a little older than Helen, and her clothing is perhaps a little more mature, fashion-wise. The straw boater is typical of the Edwardian era, but not as wide-brimmed as they would become later in the decade. I think the caption on the reverse correctly identifies her as Lucy Mary, otherwise known as Maggie. She was born on 29 November 1876, therefore 29 years old when she visited the studio, and would marry Robert Nathan Chadwick in February the following year.

Portrait E - #16790 - Taken c. late 1906
Portrait F - #18359 - Taken c. 1907
The fourth and fifth portraits in the sequence have negative numbers suggesting they were taken slightly later in 1906 and in 1907, respectively. Both hats are closer to the typical merry widow hat, although lacking in extravagant ostrich feathers usually seen with that style, so perhaps tending towards a swaithed hat, which became popular around 1910. The subject looks like Helen again. There is a possibility that it is Lily, who was only 19 months older than Helen, but in the only other photograph that I have of Lily from that period, she looks more like Maggie than like her younger sister.

Pollard Graham's Negative Number Sequence, 1905-1922
Pollard Graham only started annotating the card mounts of his portraits with negative numbers when he opened his branch studio in Burton-upon-Trent around 1895. He appears to have used this same sequence more or less continuously from then until around 1922, after which a new sequence may have been started. The lowest and highest negative numbers in the sequence found thus far are 34 and 92985 respectively. This suggests an average rate of roughly 3400 and 3500 sittings per year, or just under 300 sittings a month.

Due to the paucity of accurately dated examples from this photographer, it is difficult to gain an accurate picture of how the "production rate" varied over time. That there was some variation, I have little doubt. The business brought in during the pre-War heyday from 1906 to 1914, when they had eight branches operating simultaneously, for example, would have been drastically reduced during the war. This hiatus appears to be reflected in a flattening out of the "curve" around 1914-1917 in the provisional chart above.

Payne family members and friends, Derby, c.1900-1903
Plotting the negative numbers of the above six portraits on this chart confirms that they were probably all taken within a short period of time, between 1905 and 1907. I can therefore make tentative identifications of the subjects with a much greater confidence, knowing how old the three Payne sisters would have been at the time. Unfortunately the only photograph that I know of which shows all three sisters in the same portrait is the out-of-focus, probably amateur, group portrait of Payne family members and friends taken a few years earlier, around 1900 to 1903, in the garden of 83 St James' Road (New Normanton, Derby).

Detail of group portrait showing, from left to right, Lily, Helen, Aunt Sarah, Lucy Mary and my grandfather Leslie (aged about 8-11 yrs)
The facial similarities between Lily and Lucy Mary are evident in here, although all three understandably look very alike.

The ability to narrow down the dating of a portrait to under a year depends on many factors, not the least of which is a good knowledge of the photographic studio's history. Of course only a tiny proportion of individual photographers have been studied in much detail. Apart from my own work on Derbyshire photographers, there are several other online works in progress, such as David Simkin's Brighton Photographers and Sussex PhotoHistory, Peter Stubbs' EdinPhoto, the photoLondon database, and several ongoing projects by Ron Cosens, including a Photo Dating Wizard.

However, lists have been prepared of photographers/premises/dates for most areas of the United Kingdom, for example, by the Royal Photographic Society Historical Group, as supplements to their quarterly publication, The PhotoHistorian. These supplements are available from the RPS - a full list and contact details are provided here. They, and many other studies of photographers worldwide, are also listed in Richard Rudisill and Peter E. Palmquist's annotated bibliography, Photographers: A Sourcebook for Historical Research.

Sepia Saturday 89: W. Barnes & Co shop front

2011-08-25T02:40:00.000-07:00

After a lengthy break from blogging - my last contribution was seven weeks ago - I will resume my weekly Sepia Saturday posts with a gentle start. Alan Burnett's photo prompt displays a Sydney, New South Wales shop front in 1934, and is titled "Depression Bread Wars: Corner Shop ..."

Despite the wealth of perhaps far more interesting themes that I could explore, I'm instead going to share a sedate photograph of a shop front from my own collection, one which has little in common with that sad scene from the Depression era. It is a loose paper print (149.5 x 109.5 mm) which may at one time have been mounted on card, although all sign of that has long since disappeared, along with its provenance and any external identification of the subjects.

The shop front is that of W. Barnes & Co who, according to the signs, offer a full range of services: glovers, general drapers, milliners/hat specialists, mercers and tailors. I'm guessing that it's winter as they are offering "warm winter gloves" and "jumpers." The group arrayed in and around the front doorway consist of two men and six women. From the women's hairstyles, I'm guessing that it dates from either just before or during the Great War, say between 1910 and 1916ish. A tradesman's bicycle with the firm's name on it is leaning against the window. The shop forms the ground floor of what appears to be a three-storey building. The doorway and the left hand display window are illuminated by electric lights. The pavement is formed, but a little uneven, and the roadway looks to be rather muddy.

If anyone knows where W. Barnes & Co. plied their trade, or can ferret out further clues as to their location, please do leave a hint in the form of a comment below. For the moment, we'll have to just enjoy the photograph, and perhaps some others offered over at Sepia Saturday.

Buckeye Baby's Bombardier Bud and Philomena's Sweetheart Pin

2011-08-24T20:13:00.000-07:00

Print of unidentified woman mounted in cardboard folder
by A Seaman & Sons
It's not often that I feature portraits on Photo-Sleuth from as late as the Second World War, but this reflects a paucity of such photographs in my own collection, rather than a lack of interest on my part. Mark Scanlon sent me scans of this portrait of a smartly dressed young woman taken at the studio of A. Seaman & Sons in the latter stages of the war. The print (60 x 80mm) is mounted in a cardboard folder (177 x 128mm, open) with a King George VI crown embossed on the left hand side, and the studio stamp with negative number (90301) on the reverse. Handwritten on the inside cover is the following message:

Not very good. but it serves its purpose - if you know what I mean!! - Happy landings Bud -

Backstamp from the studio of A Seaman & Sons
Sadly, although the name of the studio, the negative number and other text is visible, I can't quite make out the studio location, which I believe must be on the last line. Alfred Seaman's great-grand-daughter Anne Williams informs me that although her grandfather F.J. Seaman was operating the Chesterfield studio in the 1940s, it was under his own name, rather than the original title. She believes that probably the only branch which might have been still practising under the "A. Seaman & Sons" moniker at that time was the Scarborough studio, run by her uncle. It is perhaps worth noting that the stamped negative number is in a very similar style to that used on the reverse of a postcard portrait from the firm's Sheffield branch in 1936.

Click to enlarge
The photograph was amongst the war papers of Mark's father William Morgan (Bud) Scanlon, who served as a B-17 bombardier in the 401 bomb group, 613 bomb squad, flying 30 missions out of Deenethorpe, Northamptonshire, United Kingdom between August 1944 and April 1945. Mark says, "He obviously knew this woman, and she him! ... I regret not getting into this research years ago when dad would have been able to provide the actual story. Bud died 9 Sept 84, much too young at 61."

The woman's clothing and hairstyle fit well with the "Wartime look" as described by Geoff Caulton on his excellent PhotoDetective web site. Her "lifted" hairstyle, pinned at the back, and arched eyebrows - plucked and shaped, no doubt - were typical fashion for the period.

Image of Bombardier Badge © and courtesy of Iain Williams
At first, seeing the "winged" badge on her lapel, I wondered whether the woman was a member of some branch of the Royal Air Force (RAF), but this page demonstrates that the badges worn by members of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) were quite different. Besides, she is probably wearing civilian clothing, rather than a uniform. Further investigation, and comparison with this display of Aviation Wings from the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum and a fine collection of America Aviator Wings presented by Iain Williams, identified the badge as that of a Bombardier in the United States Air Force (USAF). A further selection can be found on Bob Schwartz's web site Aviation Wings and Badges of World War II.

Letterhead, Lt. William M. Scanlon & "Buckeye Baby"
The natural conclusion is that Bud gave his Bombardier's badge to this woung woman prior to his departure, I suppose therefore making it a "sweetheart pin." Mark writes further:

I code-named the mystery woman Phylis because my dad mentioned someone with that name in a letter he wrote home on 15 October 1944. At least I think it's Phylis, the actual word is hard to make out. The letter includes a request of his sister to send him some 'films' to give to Phylis who can't seem to obtain any. Dad goes on to say he hasn't received his 'cheesecake' from her yet! This passage lends credence to Phylis being a local. And she may be our mystery gal.

View Larger Map
My own interpretation of the writing in the letter is that the name is written as "Philo," which may be short for Philomena. Philomena wasn't that common a name - at least compared with Phyllis or its variants - but there were still well over a thousand Philomenas married in England between 1945 and 1955. Only nine of these married in Northamptonshire, and one in the registration district of Kettering, which includes Weldon and Corby, the closest towns to the former air force base at Deenethorpe. Of course, she may not have been from that area at all!

Mark sent me this engaging snap of his dad - from his uniform, what I presume is his bomber jacket, and the star on the aircraft fuselage, clearly taken while he was in service. He is also shown along with the rest of the crew of "Buckeye Baby," piloted by 2nd Lt. William A. Shackleford, in a group photograph on the web site of the 401st Bombardment Group Association (shown below).

Crew of "Buckeye Baby" (2nd Lt. William A. Shackleford), 613th Bomb Squadron - Bud Scanlon at front right
Image © and courtesy of 401st Bombardment Group Association
For the moment at least, the identity of Bud's presumed sweetheart must remain a mystery, but perhaps she went on to marry and have children. Perhaps also one day someone will stumble across this page and recognise her from the portrait, a credit to whichever member of the Seaman family was running that particular studio at the end of the war. Many thanks for Mark for sharing the photographs, ephemera and story.

Staffordshire Photographers: Henry Bloomfield of Burton-on-Trent

2011-07-11T20:56:00.000-07:00

Unidentified young woman, Carte de visite portrait, c.1880-1884
by Henry Bloomfield, Waterlooo Street, Burton-on-Trent
Henry F. Bloomfield is something of an enigma. He arrived in the brewing town of Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire around 1880, and described himself as an "artist in photography." Although he remained in Burton until his death in 1900, and was listed as a photographer in trade directories from 1888 onwards, few examples of his work appear to have survived. The carte de visite shown above must date from fairly early during his stay in Burton.

H. Bloomfield, artist, photographer, engraver & writer
As well as photography, he advertised his services as artist, engraver and writer, and it is possible he was emplyed by one of the Burton newspapers. Both he and his wife Jane (or Jenny) were born in London around 1830, but nothing further is known about his life prior to his arrival in Burton.

Please do get in touch if you have any further images or information about this photographer.

Sepia Saturday 82: Now Playing on Platform Number Two

2011-07-07T18:57:00.000-07:00

The photographic prompt for this week's Sepia Saturday theme is an atmospheric shot from the Library of Congress collection of the interior of Chicago's Union Station, taken in 1943 by Jack Delano. My own contribution is from my personal collection, and the subjects might well have been spotted busking at Nottingham Railway Station half a century or so earlier.

Blind musicians, by H.L. Morel, Nottingham
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
Unfortunately there is no caption or inscription on this mounted paper print, so the identity of the subjects is at present unknown. From what I can remember of the eBay listing, it was purported to depict two well known blind musicians from Nottingham, but there was nothing more specific (and that could have been deduced from the photograph alone). Nor have I been able to discover anything further about this elderly couple, their dog and accordion. It is possible that the portrait was taken on behalf of and as a fundraising exercise for the Midland Institution of the Blind, set up in Nottingham in the mid-1840s, but that is really just conjecture on my part. I also note that it is very similar in character to a portrait of an old blind beggar taken by eminent Derby photographer W.W. Winter in the late 1890s or early 1900s, and still on display in the Winter's studio today.

The print is roughly similar in size to that of a cabinet card (102.5 x 150 mm), but pasted onto a printed and patterned brown card mount measuring 201 x 253 mm. The photographer's name and location, "H.L. Morel Nottingham" is blind stamped - no pun intended - beneath the lower right corner of the printed frame. This style of mount was in popular use in Edwardian times, and judging from the style of clothing and studio props, I estimate this portrait was taken between 1900 and 1910.

Carte de visite portrait of unidentified child, c.1892-1893
by H.L. Morel, Newcastle Chambers, Market Place, Nottingham
Henri Louis Morel (1858-1917) arrived in Nottingham in the early 1880s, having trained as a photographer with the prestigious London firm of Elliot & Fry. Initially he was employed at the studio of A.W. Cox, then being run by Cox's wife Ellen Elizabeth Cox. Morel married Sarah Elizabeth Munson at Nottingham in May 1883, and around 1885 he started to operate his own business from their home at 31 Bentinck Road, Hyson Green.

As the business became more successful, and perhaps attracted more influential patronage, he moved successively into new premises at 36 Goldsmith Street (1887), Newcastle Chambers, Angel Row (1892) and 126 Mansfield Road (1898).

Emptying and loading trams, Clifton Colliery, 1895
by H.L. Morel, Nottingham (Image ref. NTGM009567)
Image © North East Midland Photographic Record & courtesy of Picture the Past
Morel took commissions for work outside the studio too, as did many portrait photographers of the time. In April 1887, in conjunction with Henry Levy, he produced some group portraits as mementos of the visit of Lord and Lady Randolph Churchill to Nottingham.

Hard coal face spragged and timbered ready for holeing, Clifton Colliery
by H.L. Morel, Nottingham (Image ref. NTGM009559)
Image © North East Midland Photographic Record & courtesy of Picture the Past
In the early 1890s, he accompanied several sporting teams to events and successfully produced a number of popular group portraits. In 1895 he produced an important series of views showing underground working conditions at Clifton Colliery Nos. 1 and 2 Pits.

Henri Morel continued operating from Mansfield Road until at least 1910, and died at Nottingham in 1917.

References

Heathcote, Bernard V. & Heathcote, Pauline F. (2001) Pioneers of Photography in Nottinghamshire 1841-1910, Nottinghamshire County Council, 62p, ISBN 0902751387.

Staffordshire Photographers: Charles Moscrop of Mayfield

2011-07-05T20:03:00.000-07:00

Unidentified young man, Silver gelatin print mounted on cabinet card
by C. Moscrop, Mayfield nr. Ashbourne, c. 1900-1910
Image © and courtesy of John Bradley
Charles Moscrop (1872-1939 spent pretty much all of his 67 years in the town of Mayfield in North Staffordshire, close to Ashbourne and the border with Derbyshire. Born in 1871, he was the eldest of three children of a cotton warper (from Bolton, Lancashire) Henry Moscrop (1850-1913) and his wife Sarah Allsopp (1850-1925). In his twenties Charles also worked in the cotton manufacturing industry as a warper. However, it is clear from the existence of a cabinet card portrait, tentatively dated as from between 1900 and 1910, that he must have operated for at least a short period as a photographer.

Generic art nouveau card mount, c.1900-1910
Image © and courtesy of John Bradley
Gillian Jones, in her Professional Photographers in North Staffordshire 1850-1940 (The PhotoHistorian, No 103, Winter 1994, publ. RPS Historical Group) lists Moscrop at Holmbank, Mayfield in 1918. The decorative art nouveau design on the reverse of the card mount is a generic one, with no photographer's name or location shown.

He married Emily Fletcher (1871-1964) at Ashbourne in 1907, but it is not known whether they had any children.

Any further images or information about this photographer would be appreciated. Many thanks to John Bradley for the images.

In Death They Were Divided

2011-07-04T17:05:00.000-07:00

Diana Burns sent me scans of three photos from her own collection asking if I had an "Oddities and Curiosities" folder containing some further examples of a similar ilk.

Diana writes: "The mounting is of the type I associate with daguerreotypes but it appears to be a carte de visite cut in two, with the remains of the sitter's female companion's dress still clearly visible. The motive for editing rather than destruction is not clear, although it may have been the cost of photos that caused the sitter to retain his own image."

I note the manner in which the photograph has been cut, leaving all extremities of the bearded man intact, rather than stright down the middle, retaining as much as possible of both people in the two halves. This suggests to me that the purpose was not make two portraits out of one, but to remove the left hand subject - who, judging from the clothing, must be a woman - from the portrait while keeping the right-hand subject whole.

This type of leatherette-covered wooden case, complete with brass "finisher," cover glass and pinchbeck surround, was indeed used for daguerreotype and ambrotype portraits, and often hinged with a velvet lined cover. However, this particular one is probably of a slightly later date - at least the late 1850s or 1860s, but possibly later - and the hanging ring just visible at the top shows that it never had a cover. Travelling photographers often used these cheap cases to house ambrotypes and tintypes, even as late as the 1890s - see this example from the 1890s which has come adrift from its case but still retains the pinchbeck surround. The small size of carte de visite portraits didn't render them ideal for framing, but I have occasionally come across them displayed in that manner. In this case, I believe someone has rather crudely inserted the remains of the cdv into a frame which originally contained some other portrait.

In the same genre, I have a photo of my husband's aunt, cut off for all eternity from (presumably) her spouse by a series of razor blade strokes (my late father-in-law is the prime suspect).

In the third example, which is a contact print made from a glass negative, someone (perhaps a child or an early animal rights activist) has crudely scratched out the face of the fur-loving woman from the negative. Nowadays, photos of detested acquaintances are likely to be simply deleted before ever seeing the light of day, but I was intrigued by the censorship methods employed by earlier generations.

I have seen many such photographs, although not from my own family collection, thank goodness. The more recent ones are often accompanied by interesting oral traditions; sadly the relevance of the excision in the older ones is usually lost.

Nigel Aspdin has an early carte de visite portrait of a large family group (click image for a larger version) by Derby photographer J. Burton & Sons, which has a similar mutilation of the face of a central seated gentleman. Since the group itself is as yet unidentified, the reason for the clearly purposeful excision of said gentleman can only be guessed at.

This particular paper print by a street photographer in Lowestoft appears to have survived unscathed, although it, too, was unwanted. As recounted in a previous Photo-Sleuth post, the former owner devised a different, but equally effective, and possibly more satisfying, innovative solution for getting rid of photographs of detested relatives. He sells them on eBay, creating, I suppose, the potential for a new genre for which someone will eventually - if they haven't already - create a Flickr group: Unadoptable Orphan Photos.

Many thanks to Diana for both the images and the idea for this article.

Sepia Saturday 81: All the Fun of the Fair

2011-07-01T15:00:00.000-07:00

The picture prompt for this week's Sepia Saturday theme shows five glum Irish ladies rather determined not to have a good time while selling their bric-a-brac at an early 20th Century stall. Perhaps the thought of carrying around all that hat for the rest of the day was just a little too much. Whatever the cause, it doesn't convey the feeling of festivity that I associate with show week and the Luna Park of my youth.

Fair Day in Morledge, Derby, 1882, by C.T. Moore
In an article about Derbyshire fairground photographer Charles Warwick posted three years ago, I used this image of a painting by C.T. Moore, a lively scene of an Easter fair taking place in the Morledge, Derby in 1882.

Detail: Itinerant Photographer's Tent
Closer examination of the painting reveals, parked amongst numerous hawkers, swings, an "Aetherscope" and several other attractions, an itinerant photographer's tent offering "Carte de Visite" on the far right, adjacent to a caravan. After further investigation, I identified several photographers accompanying a large group of travellers who toured the Midlands in the 1870s to 1890s, and who regularly attended the Easter Fair in Derby. These included Samuel Whiting (later a swing boat proprietor), Charles Warwick, Charles Antill and Charles Tyler. Although I'd come across all of these photographers previously, and had compiled profiles for three of them, I had no examples of the work of Antill or Tyler. Since then I've received several contributions of images, purchased a photo by Charles Tyler, and learnt a lot more about the life and careers of both him and his son Albert Charles Tyler.

William & Sarah Hall with their daughter Eliza, Swanwick, c.1867-68
Image © and courtesy of Judith Brennan
Charles Tyler (1837-1908) started working as a confectioner with the family business in the small village of Wymeswold, near Loughborough in Leicestershire. The 1861 Census (7 April) shows Charles and his father living in a caravan parked at the Morledge, Derby. They were presumably winding down after a busy time the previous Easter weekend holiday hawking sweets (Easter Sunday was 31 March). In late 1864 he married Alice Suett, the daughter of a fellow traveller, and not long after appears to have taken up the photographic trade. By the late 1860s, when the above carte de visite portrait was taken in Swanwick, Derbyshire, he and Alice were living in a van and travelling to various fair around the Midlands.

Generic card mount design overprinted "MR. C. TYLER Market Place WHITWIGK" [sic]
Image © and courtesy of Judith Brennan
The card mount is a generic one, overprinted with his name and "home" address, complete with spelling mistake - it would not have been produced by a high end printer! The Market Place in Whitwick was also not far from Loughborough, and was possibly where he set up shop when there were no country fairs to attend. I do have some doubts whether Tyler was, in fact, capable of reproducing copies of any previously taken portrait from the original negative as claimed, since glass plate negatives were bulky and heavy, and space would have been at a premium in his van.

Market Place, Grantham
Image © and courtesy of Google StreetView
Birth locations for Charles' and Alice's children over first two decades of their marriage show a wide distribution, indicating that they ferried their growing brood from village to town throughout the Midlands, following the country fair circuit through the 1870s and 1880s. Census night on Sunday 2 April 1871 found Charles, Alice, three young children and a servant in "booths and caravans" in The Yard of the Blue Lion in the Grantham Market Place, Lincolnshire. It seems likely that they were already packing up in preparation for a move to Derby to attend the Easter Fair on the following weekend. Further locations visited included Hinckley, Long Eaton, Nottingham and Burslem. They were back in Grantham on census night 3 April 1881, this time with two weeks to spare before the Easter fair in Derby, which they presumably attended.

Four young men (and a dog) of Bollington, Cheshire, c.1885-1890
Image © and courtesy of Frances Quinn
This remnant of a carte de visite portrait depicting four young men and a well behaved dog, sent to me by Frances Quinn, was probably taken in the late 1880s at Bollington, north of Macclesfield in Cheshire. It was perhaps close to the northern limit of the Tyler's range, but appears to have been a regular haunt, because his fifth son Edwin was born there in the summer/autumn of 1873.

Carte de visite by Charles Tyler, "here and at Wymeswold," c.1885-1890
The card mount used is by now far more elaborate, with classical design elements common to many being published in the late 1880s. He advertises that he is able to take portraits of fidgety children "by the instantaneous process" which essentially means that he is taking advantage of the faster emulsions commercially available by that time to employ quicker exposure times. Most interesting to me, however, is the tell-tale mark of an itinerant tradesman, unable to specify a permanent studio location: "Here and at Wymeswold, ..." Unfortunately, any other locations that might have been listed must await the appearance of a more complete version of this particular carte de visite design.

Possibly Catherine (Kate) Quinn of Billington, c.1876
Fragment of ambrotype by unidentified photographer
Image © and courtesy of Frances Quinn
Frances also sent me these images of a fragment of an ambrotype or collodion positive portrait, believing it might be of her father-in-law's great aunt Catherine Quinn (1873-1959) of Bollington, Cheshire. What little I can see of the studio setting is typical for the the early to mid-1860s, with a diamond patterned carpet, and a wood panelling backdrop (although I think this backdrop is actually painted canvas, rather than real wood panelling). The seated pose of the man, probably facing directly forwards towards the camera, and with his legs apart, was common in the 1850s and 1860s.

Collodion positives were introduced in the 1850s, but their popularity started to decline in the 1860s, during the heyday of the carte de visite. However, due to their convenience and low cost, they were still favoured by some itinerant photographers, even as late as the 1890s. I found a picture of a very similar girl's outfit, with woven checked or tartan dress and jacket, dated 1874 in Jo Ann Olian's Children's Fashions 1860-1912: 1,065 Costume Designs from "LaMode Illustree," (publ. 1994, Dover Publications, New York). The portrait could therefore easily have been taken in the late 1870s, as Frances suggests. Whether the portrait was taken by Charles Tyler or some other photographer may well remain a mystery. We know that he was visiting Bollington in the mid-1870s, but I'm not sure how many other photographers in the general area.

View Charles Tyler (1837-1908), itinerant photographer in a larger map
On Sunday 5 April 1891, the weekend after Easter, Charles and Alice were back at the Morledge, Derby, two of their sons Arthur and Edwin and now working as photographic assistants. Their eldest son Albert Charles Tyler, aged 25, by now was operating separately from his own caravan, then parked at Mantle Lane, Whitwick. Over the previous two and a half decades they had covered an impressive area, illustrated by the location map of the English Midlands above.

Unidentified woman, unknown location, c.1894-1896
Image © and courtesy of Gillian Jones
When this portrait of a young woman was taken in the mid-1890s, Charles Tyler had retired from an active role in the photography business and had become a publican. He owned and ran the Engineers' Arms in Coalville while Albert, now married to Swadlincote girl Lucy Smedley, operated the nominal "father and son" portrait venture from the van. The backdrop used is a rudimentary one, consisting of an unornamented, light coloured sheet, and Albert has taken little care to disguise its appearance. In additon the bright sunlight, probably coming from a skylight in the caravan roof directly above the subject, has heightened the contrast between the woman's dark clothing and the light backdrop, thus revealing little detail on her fine dress.

C. Tyler & Son, here and at Swadlincote & Coalville
Printed by publishers Adams & Co. of London the card mount demonstrates by the caption "here and at Swadlincote & Coalville," that they used Lucy's and Charles's parents' abodes respectively as home bases.

Three, unidentified women, c.1895-1900
Carte de visite portrait by A.C. Tyler of Coalville
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
The final portrait was taken, judging by the fashion of the dresses worn by the three women pictured, some time in the late 1890s. They are clearly dressed for an outing, with lavishly decorated hats, and umbrellas in case of the occasional light shower. Albert, now working on his own as "A.C. Tyler," has by now acquired a painted backdrop which lends something to the atmosphere with a little perspective, but it is probably still taken within the cramped confines of a photographer's caravan or tent.

There are several tell-tale signs to look for which might indicate a photographic portrait has been taken by an itinerant.
- There may be several locations listed, without a qualifier indicating that they were permanent branches.
- The words "Here and at ..." with no definite statement where "here might be, is presumably indicative of a traveller.
- Alternatively, there might not be a location listed at all.
- Rudimentary or out-of-date backdrops, carpets and other accessories used, edges poorly disguised and often with grass or bare earth showing.
- Portraits often taken outdoors.
- In the United Kingdom, collodion positives were predominantly used by travelling photographers after the mid- to late 1860s, but rarely by studio photographers.
- Tin types were generally the preserve of itinerants after the end of the 1870s.

Many thanks to Judith Brennan, Frances Quinn and Gillian Rhodes for permission to use their images.

Derbyshire's Women Photographers, 1859-1910

2011-06-27T04:24:00.000-07:00

Derbyshire, like most English counties in the Victorian and Edwardian periods, produced few female photographers. That's not to say women didn't have a presence in the photographic industry. If one includes all of the photographic-related trades, then the number was substantial, as women were often employed in a number of subordinate roles in photographic studios, particularly in the 1890s and early 1900s. Their job descriptions ranged from photographic assistant to photographer's printer and retoucher, but they seldom received recognition in the studio name, even if it was a family business. There were plenty of "& Sons" dynasties, but I've yet to come across an "& Daughters" firm, discrimination that was hardly confined to the photographic industry. Sadly, very few women graduated to being photographers in their own right, since the successive expectations of marriage, housewifely duties and children tended to obstruct such career development.

The first recorded female photographer to work in Derbyshire was a Miss Scales of Nottingham, who visited Matlock Bath with John Scales (possibly her brother) in the summer of 1859. She was probably Elizabeth J. Scales (1825-), daughter of Nottingham insurance agent George Scales. In February 1862 Elizabeth Scales married Michael Hutton in St Petersburg, Russia.

Gertrude Fletcher (1859-1930) of Ripley was a significant exception to the general trend. After working as a photographic painter - perhaps a colourist - for her brother-in-law Abraham Booth in Ripley during the early 1880s, she set up her own studio at Hyson Green, Nottingham in the early 1890s. She continued operating until at least 1906.

Miss Ethel Margaret Ames (1880-1964), who was also a china painter at the Royal Crown Derby works, operated a studio in Lower Dale Road, Derby from 1895 until her marriage to Percival Rawson in 1907. Although the census records her living with her husband in Nottingham by April 1911, she may have continued working as a photographer after her marriage, since Adamson (1997) has her listed under her maiden name in Lower Dale Road until 1915.

Ellen Beardsall of Chapel-en-le-Frith described herself as a photographer to the census enumerator in April 1881, but as no trade directory listings mention her, it is presumed she was an employee.

Sarah Charles née Ball (1831-1883), widow of Derby photographer Emmanuel Nicolas Charles, is reputed to have operated the studio in Midland Road, Derby for a brief period after her husband's death in March 1863, and prior to her remarriage to her husband's former assistant W.W. Winter in mid 1864.

Florence Elizabeth Levy (1879-1964) followed her father Thomas W. Levy into the photographic profession, probably in the mid- to late 1890s. She produced portraits under her own name from premises at their home in Uttoxeter New Road until her marriage to Luke Bradley in 1903.

Susannah Elizabeth Robinson née Barnes (1851-1945) and her husband Frederick William Robinson (1824-1894) appear to have had a rare photographic partnership in Long Eaton between 1882 and 1894. According to Adamson (1997) she looked after the studio, while her husband handled the sign-writing, decorating, picture framing and outdoor photography. After her husband died in 1894 she moved to Nottingham and continued to run a studio in her own name until 1907.

Hannah Turner of Granville Road, Swadlincote is described as a photographist in April 1881, while her husband John Turner is a photographer, but nothing more is known about the careers of this couple, who had lived in Woodville, Derby and Macclesfield over the previous decade. It is possible they were employed briefly in a local studio, such as that of G.V. Sankey.

References

Adamson, Keith I.P. (1997) Professional Photographers in Derbyshire 1843 - 1914, Supplement to The PhotoHistorian, No. 118, September 1997, ISSN 0957-0209.

Heathcote, Bernard V. & Heathcote, Pauline F. (2001) Pioneers of Photography in Nottinghamshire 1841-1910. Nottinghamshire County Council. 62p. ISBN 0902751387.

Three Decades of Card Mounts

2011-06-25T12:34:00.000-07:00

I wrote recently on Photo-Sleuth of photographer Joseph Byron Clayton who, after a rather chequered start to his career in London and Nottingham, crossed the Atlantic and forged a successful niche for himself in New York - see Byron of New York. His uncle Walter Clayton (c1833-1893) was also a successful photographer, although his career was a little more sedentary, spanning three decades in Nottingham and Leicester.

My recently completed brief biography of Walter Clayton is accompanied by a provisional timeline for his studio premises. I've also been able to build up a comprehensive reference gallery, comprising 59 identifiably different card designs, thanks partly to the generosity of carte de visite collector Ron Cosens (Photographers of Great Britain & Ireland 1840-1940).

Some studios, such as that of Derby photographer W.W. Winter, kept the same basic elements of their designs for many years, even though having a large throughput of customers. Clayton, luckily for family historians trying to date old portraits, changed his designs frequently, and often substantially, on average every six months throughout his career. With the establishment of this dating sequence, it is now possible to estimate a provisional date for any portrait from his studio to within two or three years with a fair degree of confidence, on card design alone. Since several of the designs are very similar to those used by the Byrons, father and son, it seems likely that they used the same firm of printers, at least some of the time.


1862-1864	1863-1865

Although I don't intend to display all 59 designs here, a selection will amply serve to outline the changes in card design that are so well described and illustrated by Roger Vaughan. The earliest designs of the carte de visite era were either two to four lines of text (simply the photographer's name and address) in a plain font, or a small motif, both usually centrally placed. Clayton initially used the commonly reproduced crown-and-belt emblem which had appeared on the daguerreotype cases used by early practitioners such as Richard Beard and Antoine Claudet. In his slightly later partnership with David Clayson, they changed to a crown-and-cushion motif and added several lines of text, as was the trend towards the mid-1860s.


1864-1866	1866-1868

From the mid-1860s, a generic coat of arms design was accompanied by the words, "Copies of this portrait may be had," later simplified to "Copies can be had." This illustrates the appreciation amongst photographers, and their clients, of one of the most significant advantages of wet plate collodion portraiture. Keeping the glass plate negatives of all previous sittings and encouraged more business as customers returned to order copies. The late 1860s brought a shrinking of the coat of arms and the introduction of two new features - the ribbon and the ivy - which started a trend of further and further intricacy. At this stage however, the ribbon had only three tiers, and the ornate ivy was restricted to the central third of the card.


1869-1870	1874-1875

In the early 1870s designs continued the trend of increasing size and complexity, but one of the most common additions were frames enclosing the previously isolated central motifs. These varied from a simple rectangular box to a series of nested double frames, often shaped, and sometimes very ornate. More text lines were accompanied by an increase in the variety of fonts used, resulting in the designs now often taking up more than two thirds of the card area. Towards the mid-1870s, Clayton used an even more elaborate broad maze border enclosing his now well established motif consisting of coat of arms and ribbons with nine lines of text, and provision for a negative number to be inserted. Sadly, although he obviously did keep records of his stittings, he very rarely bothered to include the negative number on the mount. Of almost 80 examples of his work that I have seen, only five have a negative number.


1873-1877	1874-1875

These two designs, both from the mid-1870s, are illustrative of a temporary shift away from the use of motifs and emblems, and the reliance on ever more complex, ornate and decorative text, often accompanied by stylised ivy to a greater or lesser extent. In addition, the designers started to introduced slanting, diagonal and even vertical text. Some of the results were successful, others looked decidely amateurish.


1875-1877	1874-1876

The conclusion of this trend saw the development of a combination of diagonal "signature," several lines of text in a variety of fonts, with enlarged and highly ornate initial letters, and greater or lesser quantities of decorative ivy. The variety of coloured inks and card was also expanded. The two designs shown above, used for cartes de viste and cabinet card formats respectively, were among the most commonly employed in the mid- to late 1870s. The design for the cabinet card, with its greater area to cover, retained the wide ornate border pattern.


1879-1880	1880-1881

In the final years of the decade Walter Clayton was somewhat more adventurous, with a huge flower arrangement in red ink on orange card, his name and the studio locations relegated to a strip at the bottom. It was an unusual design, but by the turn of the decade he had returned to a more recognisable and conventional format, referred to by Roger Vaughan as "Bamboo & Roses," originally developed by Marion Imp Paris but widely copied.


1881-1883	1882-1885

After a rather more sedate, refined design largely made up of text in several different font types and sizes, with a subordinate motif, Clayton returned to the more decorative style in 1883. His version of Marion Imp's "Parasol, Bonsai and Fan" design, embellished with two horseshoe magnets signifying his "Magnet Studio," was part of the growing British enthusiasm for all things oriental (e.g. The Mikado). He used it for some years, including variants printed by other card publishers.


1885-1888	1889-1891

From the late 1880s and into the 1890s, numerous classical elements, such as Doric colums, lavish drapes, Greek vases, flowering plants, cherubs and toga-clad ladies began to grace card designs, particularly those for the larger cabinet format. On cartes de visite, where there wasn't quite as much space to fit the myriad of new motifs, stylisation of the classical motifs was more prevalent, and such was the case with a series of lavish designs which Walter Clayton depicted in a variety of colours in the late 1880s.

Finally in the early 1890s, in keeping with a style adopted by many of his co-workers in the mid- to late 1880s, he banished all previously used design elements. Thick glossy card- white or dark green - was adorned merely whith his name and location on the front printed in gold ink. The edges of the card were bevelled, as well as being highlighted with gold ink.

Walter Clayton retired in 1892, and therefore missed a few of the final developments in card design, such as more elaborate classical ensembles, art deco elements, square corners, and wide margins containing embossed patterns on the front. However, his range over a period of 32 years has a good selection indicative of the main trends. For further detail regarding card designs, I recommend spending some time perusing Roger Vaughan's study. I still use it frequently to provide a background for my own research.

Sepia Saturday 80: Service on the Home Front

2011-06-23T03:07:00.000-07:00

For this week's Sepia Saturday post, I'm going to do something a little different, although still keeping broadly within Alan's theme. This will be an opportunity for readers to do a little detective work. Regular Photo-Sleuth readers will have a slight advantage, but it's not exclusive. Anyone is very welcome give it a go, and there is a small prize for the winner!

Click images to enlarge
These two images are scans of photographs from my aunt's family collection - not acquired images.

1. Who is the person depicted in the passport-style photo and standing at third from left in the group photo (full name, please), and what is his relationship to me?

2. When were these photographs taken? An approximate year or date range is sufficient.

3. What group(s) or organisation(s) did the other people in the second photograph belong to, and at what kind of place was the photo taken?

I don't think I need to give you any more clues than I have already, but if nobody's getting close by the end of the weekend, I may provide a nudge in the right direction.

The first reader to post all three correct answers as comments at the end of this blog post will win a free professional photohistorical evaluation of a Victorian or Edwardian portrait of their choice from their own family collection - see this sample report for an example. If nobody has answered all three correctly by the time the following Sepia Saturday goes to air (No 81 on 2 July), then I will judge the closest - or cleverest - answer to be the winner. Obviously, the more details you can provide in your answers, the better.

Good luck.

Striking Likenesses: George White (1810-1880), from Silhouettist to Photographer

2011-06-22T13:00:00.000-07:00

Auguste Edouart, self portrait, 1843
Silhouette, Lithograph on paper
Image © National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Options available for preserving a likeness of yourself for posterity in the pre-photographic era of Georgian England were limited, unless you were wealthy enough to commission a portrait, life size or miniature. A cheaper alternative was to have a silhouette portrait either cut from black paper or painted. In fact the name itself implied a low price. French finance minister Etienne de Silhouette imposed severe economic austerity measures during the Seven Years War, and his surname came to signify anything that was done on the cheap. Auguste Edouart (1789-1861) was probably the most widely celebrated silhouettist of his time, establishing his reputation first in London and then touring England, Scotland, the United States and France.

Advertisement by William Seville, Lancaster, 1824
from Jackson (1911)
I have written previously of Mancunian William Seville (1797-1866), who made the transition from an active career cutting silhouette portraits, spanning three decades, to an arguably less successful spell taking collodion portraits (ambrotypes) at Derby in the mid- to late 1850s. Edward Foster of Derby was also a prolific artist of this genre. After travelling widely throughout England and painting silhouettes from 1809 until at least 1838, he turned to the compilation and publication of educational books and charts in the 1840s. Although Foster apparently never made the move to photographer, there is evidence that he appreciated the value of the carte de visite as a means of self promotion.

Handbill by Mr. G. White of Rose Hill, c.1850-1855
Image © Derby Local Studies Library and courtesy of Michael Spencer
Another Derbyshire-born profilist - a term commonly in use before Edouart popularised the eponymous "silhouette" - was George White. Although silhouettes cut by one or more artists named White, together with various trade labels, have been been documented by Jackson (1982) and McKechnie (1978), his true identity has not previously been established. I have known of George White's photographic exploits (Payne 2008a) for a couple of years, but had not appreciated his connection with silhouette portraiture, until I spotted the following in his advertising handbill:

G. WHITE will also take his BRONZED AND SHADED LIKENESSES, from the plain bust to the highly finished whole length figure. LIKENESSES COPIED. Keeps constantly a variety of suitable Frames for the Daguerreotype Portraits and Paper Cuttings.

Although it doesn't refer to them as profiles or silhouettes, that is what these "bronzed and shaded likenesses" were. I have previously demonstrated (Payne 2008b) that this Mr. G. White, who spent a brief period cutting profiles and taking daguerreotype portraits in Chesterfield during the early to mid-1850s, is the same person as the George White (1810-1880) who operated a photographic studio at 1 Queen's Terrace, Adelaide Street, Blackpool from 1849 to 1869 (Jones, 2004).

Trade label: "Cut with scissors at White's," undated
Image © and courtesy of Peggy McClard
McKechnie lists several trade labels on photographs and profiles, of which this one from 1855 is typical:

Photographic Portraits, Paper Cuttings, &c. Taken by Mr. White at his Gallery (daily), Queen's Terrace, opposite the Royal Hotel, Blackpool. Likenesses faithfully copied. Open from 7 am until 7 in the evening.

It is clear that the examples described by McKechnie and Jackson (1982), all apparently dating from the early 1850s, are likely to have been by the same George White.

George was born in 1810 in the Derbyshire village of Winster, near Matlock, the second of eight children of James White (1775-1854) and Elizabeth Hodgkinson. He was baptised on 28 December 1810 at the parish church of St John the Baptist. His family moved to Chesterfield between 1814 and 1817, where James worked as a gardener. Little further is known about George White's teenage years, his education or early adulthood, until his marriage at Duffield in 1834 to Ann Melbourne (1808-1895), daughter of a Belper nail manufacturer.

The Manchester Times and Gazette, 26 September 1835
A year later he opened a shop at number 20, Piccadilly, Manchester in September 1835, offering to "cut likenesses of ladies, gentlemen, and children; dogs, horse, &c." for prices ranging from 2/6 to 10 shillings.

The Preston Chronicle, 23 April 1836
He remained there for seven months, and then moved to Preston where he occupied a shop at number 128 Fishergate. His prices were similar, ranging from one to five shillings, depending on whether the likenesses were full length, half length or busts, plain, shaded or elegantly bronzed. He no longer offered sittings for horses or dogs - perhaps it was too tricky to keep them still, even for three minutes. By mid-June he had built up a collection of "likenesses of many well-known individuals of [the] town", which were for sale and on display in his shop window. He announced that he would shortly be taking up engagements in Southport and Blackpool, where he would cater to visitors during the bathing season.

Silhouette of young girl by White, undated
Image © and courtesy of Peggy McClard
A series of newspaper advertisements suggest by their wording that White made regular visits to Preston and Lancaster from 1836 to 1839. He probably also worked in other Lancashire towns, although evidence for these has been elusive. There is also a curious dearth of information about White's activities during the 1840s. By June 1841, he and his wife were in Bispham, north of Blackpool. Living them was George's younger brother James, aged 15 and described in the census as an artist's apprentice. Perhaps they were preparing themselves for the forthcoming summer season, although the great tourism boom was still to arrive, with the railroad, after 1846.

The next sighting of George White is an 1849 entry in Gillian Jones' compilation, Lancashire Professional Photographers, which shows him with premises at number 1, Queen's Terrace, Blackpool in that year. However, it is not clear if he was already working as a photographer by that time, since Mannex & Co's History, Topography, and Directory of Westmorland for 1851 shows him merely as an artist and lodging house keeper. He was obviously still travelling to find business, because the 1851 Census shows him in the village of Church, near Accrington, while his wife and nine month-old son remained at the house in Blackpool.

Chesterfield Town Hall, Rose Hill, Chesterfield
Image © Alford and courtesy of Panoramio
The handbill which advertised his services in Chesterfield was probably ordered from Chesterfield printer John Roberts in the early 1850s. Rose Hill - now occupied by the grand Chesterfield Town Hall building, shown above - was where his parents lived, at least until his father's death in 1854.

Portrait of unidentified elderly man, c. mid-1860s
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
By April 1861 he had returned to his family in Blackpool, where he described himself as an artist. The carte de visite portrait shown above was probably taken in the early to mid-1860s in his studio at 1 Queen's Terrace, Adelaide Street. The last directory entry noted by Jones was in 1869, and on census night April 1871 he described himself as a retired artist. Since late 1869 their address had been 23 Adelaide Street, although it is not clear whether they had moved or the street had simply been renumbered.

"G WHITE PHOTO BLACKPOOL"
Blind stamp from front of carte de visite
George White died at Blackpool on 23 March 1880, aged 69, leaving his widow Ann and son Frederick George White, a banker's clerk.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Peggy McClard for providing information about White's career as a silhouettist, and for kindly giving me permission to reproduce the wonderful image of her White silhouette. If you're interested in silhouettes and other folk art, I strongly recommend visiting Peggy's web site, Peggy McClard Antiques. I'm grateful also to Michael Pritchard and Ian Leith for their lookups, to Ann Halford for information about the Melbourne family of Belper, and to Dawn Scotting for her work on Winster families. I'd also like to thank Mike Spencer, who spotted the handbill amongst the archives at the Derbyshire County Record Office, and sent me a photocopy, thus sparking off the whole quest in the first place.

References

1841-1911 UK Census Collection, England & Wales National Probate Calendar and England & Wales BMD Index from Ancestry.

Anon (1835) Likenesses cut with scissors, in three minutes (Advertisement, dated 25 Sep 1835), The Manchester Times and Gazette, 26 September 1835.

Anon (1836a) Striking likenesses cut with scissors, in three minutes (Advertisement), The Preston Chronicle, 23 April 1836.

Anon (1836b) Likenesses, The Preston Chronicle, 18 June 1836.

Anon (1838a) Likenesses cut with scissors (Advertisement), The Preston Chronicle, 13 October 1838.

Anon (1838b) Likenesses cut with scissors (Advertisement), The Lancaster Gazette and General Advertiser, 1 December 1838.

Anon (1839) Likenesses cut with scissors (Advertisement), The Preston Chronicle, 12 October 1839.

Anon (1855) Slater's Directory of Lancashire, from Ancestry.

Halford, Ann (n.d.) Melbourne Tree, Ann & John's Family Histories.

Heathcote, Bernard & Pauline (2002) A Faithful Likeness - The First Photographic Portrait Studios in the British Isles, 1841 to 1855, publ. by the authors (courtesy of Ian Leith)

Jackson, Emily Nevill (1911) The History of Silhouettes, London: The Connoisseur, 121p, 72pl, at Archive.org

Jackson, Emily Nevill (1982) Silhouettes: A History and Dictionary of Artists, New York: Dover Publications, 154p, 103pl.

Jones, Gillian (2004) Lancashire Professional Photographers 1840-1940, PhotoResearch (courtesy of Michael Pritchard)

Knipe, Penley (1999) Shades and Shadow-Pictures: The Materials and Techniques of American Portrait Silhouettes, The Book and Paper Group Annual, Vol. 18 (1999), Paper delivered at the Book and Paper specialty group session, AIC 27th Annual Meeting, June 8-13, 1999, St. Louis, Missouri.

Mannex & Co. (1851) History, Topography & Directory of Westmorland, from the University of Leicester's Historical Directories.

McClard, Peggy (2007) Cut & paste silhouette of a young girl carrying a basket, by White, Peggy McClard Antiques.

McKechnie, Sue (1978) British Silhouette Artists and their Work, 1760-1860, London: Sotheby Parke Bernet, 799p. Extracts by kind courtesy of Peggy McClard (Peggy McClard Antiques)

Payne, Brett (2008a) Advertising by Photographers (1) Daguerreotypist, G. White of Rose Hill Chesterfield, Photo-Sleuth, 17 February 2008.

Payne, Brett (2008b) George White of Chesterfield & Blackpool, Photo-Sleuth, 8 May 2008.

Payne, Brett (2009) William Seville (1797-1866), silhouette and photographic artist, Photo-Sleuth, 17 Sep 2009.

Scotting, Dawn (2010) The Ancestral Trees of the Families of Winster Derbyshire, Rootsweb/Ancestry.com

Cartes de Visite as Celebrity Portraits

2011-06-16T20:36:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week I posted a portrait of Derby clergyman Roseingrave Macklin, taken at the studio of James Brennen in 1862. This carte de visite was from a family photograph album belonginging to fellow photo-sleuth Nigel Aspdin, but Reverend Macklin was not, as far as Nigel is aware, even a distant relative. So what, one might ask, is his portrait doing in an album which probably belonged to Nigel's great-grandmother Mary Ann Aspdin née Dyche (c1833-1913)?

A clue to answering this question lies in the collection of carte de visite and cabinet portraits held by the Derby Local Studies Library. In October 2007 I was kindly permitted to scan a selection of these for reproduction on my Derbyshire Photographers web site. One of those that I scanned is an almost exact copy of Nigel's portrait by Brennen and, in fact, is how I was able to identify the subject, since it is annotated on the reverse. Dated 1862, it was probably taken shortly before Macklin's retirement due to ill health early in 1863.

Macklin appears to have visited another Derby studio - that of E.N. Charles - probably in late 1863, not long after his retirement. Instead of being attired in his clercial vestments, he is pictured leaning on a pedestal, perhaps admiring the large campana-shaped vase, in the style produced by the Royal Crown Derby China Works in the late 18th and early 19th Centuries.

Although by far the majority of the portraits in Nigel's album are unidentified, it is clear that there are more subjects who are not family members. For example, two later portraits depict men wearing what appear to be mayoral chains, and there is at least one other clergyman. Nigel suspects that a good proportion of the photographs are of acquaintances of the album's presumed owner Mary Ann Aspdin or her husband Richard Wilkinson Aspdin (1822-1885).

Carte de visite portrait of Napoleon III
by Disdéri
The carte de visite was not simply a standard card size. In 1854, Paris daguerreotypist André Adolphe Disdéri patented a method by which four, six, or even eight photographs could be exposed on a single glass plate, making the process of printing a great deal easier, and therefore cheaper. The popularised card mount size of 2½ x 4 inches was roughly the same as a visiting card, hence the name. A story of Emperor Napoleon III stopping at Disderi's studio to have his portrait taken en route to fight the Austrians in May 1859 is probably apocryphal, but it was around that time that the format started to become much more popular.

Morning Post (London, England), 7 March 1860
Although often referred to only in fairly general terms in the photohistory texts that I have read, I get the impression that the establishment of the carte de visite as a standard photographic portrait for the ordinary person happened slightly after cdv portraits of well known people had become collectable items. From advertisements placed in newspapers, it is clear that English studios began offering portraits in the carte de visite format at least as early as March 1860, when Mayer Brothers of Regent Street, London referred to it as "this new style."

Morning Post (London, England), 11 August 1860
The craze for carte de visites, both as collectibles and as a cheap method of portraiture, was given a substantial boost by royal patronage, Queen Victoria herself owning dozens of albums. Clearly those who would consider purchasing a hundred copies of a portrait of themselves, must have been expecting some considerable demand for said likenesses amongst their acquaintances.

The Derby Mercury, 16 July 1862
Although The Derby Mercury newspaper reveals no advertisements for cartes de visite as early as these, it is clear from several dated examples that Derby was not long behind the larger centres in adopting the new format for personal portraits. Nor do they appear to have been reticent about indulging in the new craze. In July 1862 stationer T.A. Johnson of 33 Victoria Street announced the recent arrival "from the leading English, German and French Houses, a very large assortment of the newest and most elegant Carte de Visite Albums."

The Derby Mercury, 12 November 1862
In November that year, E. Clulow and Son of 36 Victoria Street advertised a stock of carte de visite albums for sale, to hold 20, 30 or 50 portraits, and in December J.A. Rowbottom of Iron Gate offered "carte de visite albums and portraits in great variety."

The Derby Mercury, 28 January 1863
The first to advertise actual carte de visite portrait sittings in The Derby Mercury was the new Derby branch of the Leicester photographic firm John Burton and Sons, with a studio above Clulow's bookshop. As well as a hefty list of notable patrons including, supposedly, His Royal Highness the Late Prince Consort, "their carte de visite portraits, of which they have already taken many thousands, are universally admired ..."

A detailed analysis of early photographers operating in Derby shows that there were already seven resident practitioners at the advent of the carte de visite but, within a couple of years of its appearance, this number had doubled. Obviously portrait sittings were in great demand.

The fashion for collecting albums full of photographs of royalty and the famous is reported to have been on the wane by the late 1860s. Albums compiled in the 1870s and 1880s that I have seen are indeed characterised by a somewhat lower celebrity content, and the nature of newspaper advertisements by stationers and photographers tends to reflect that trend. They are still present to some degree in some albums, even those dating as late as the 1900s, but I suspect many have been culled to satisfy the demands of collectors in more recent years.

References

Coe, Brian (1976) The Birth of Photography: The story of the formative years 1800-1900, London: Spring Books, 144p.

Pols, Robert (2002) Family Photographs, 1860-1945: A Guide to Researching, Dating and Contextualising Family Photographs, Surrey, England: Public Record Office, 166p.

Rosenblum, Naomi (1981) A World History of Photography, New York: Abbeville Press, 671p.

Sepia Saturday 79: Dressed for the Beach

2011-06-15T18:14:00.000-07:00

Sepia Saturday's photo prompt this week from Alan Burnett depicts two young early 20th Century ladies relaxing on the beach in Atlantic City, but dressed in a manner that will certainly protect them well from the noon day sun. Not everyone goes to beach to swim, and if you live in this Antipodean location, then you'd be advised to go well wrapped at this time of the year (the Met Service advises 3 layers!). As far as swimming's concerned, I think you'd have to pay me.

My own contribution for this theme consists of two tintypes, mounted in flimsy paper sleeves the size of cartes de visite. They are part of a larger collection of 73 loose photographs which I purchased as a single lot on eBay last year. The vendor told me that they had originally been acquired together, and my own research has given me reason to believe that they do indeed belong together. Although these tin types are not inscribed, I've been able to determine, by comparison with others in the collection in which the subjects are identified, and by some additional research, who is depicted and approximately when it was taken.

Measuring roughly 69 x 82 mm, they are an odd size, somewhere between quarter-plate and sixth-plate. Both show a woman seated on the beach with two young children. She is Emily Minns née Carr (1840-1927), wife of Stoke Newington draper Charles Thomas Minns (1838-1900), and the two children with her are most likely her two eldest sons Charles Walter Marston Minns (1874-1951) and Frederick Thomas Minns (1875-1956).

Her third son was born in late 1877, which suggests to me that these two photographs were taken in the summer of 1877, probably by an itinerant beach photographer. The second image, taken from a slightly different angle, includes what may be a large spoked wheel of a bathing machine, similar to that shown in an early 20th Century photograph which I posted two weeks ago as a submission for the 105th Carnival of Genealogy (Swimsuit Edition).

Ladies' and Children's Bathing Suits
Harper's Bazaar, 15 July 1876
I assumed initially that they were dressed for outdoor activities. However, now that I've looked at Stella Blum's Victorian Fashions and Costumes from Harper's Bazaar 1867-1898, I think they could well be wearing bathing suits. Although not identical - that would be so "last year" wouldn't it - the clothes are similar to those depicted in the engraving shown from July 1876, reproduced above. Perhaps someone more familiar with Victorian fashions can confirm - or refute - this. While they belong firmly in the "What were they thinking?" category in the present day, I feel they were at the height of fashion back then.

I'm looking forward to a suitably eclectic selection of swimsuits among the other Sepia Saturday contributions this week.

George Valentine and the Hot Lakes

2011-06-14T20:59:00.000-07:00

Mount Tarawera in eruption, 10 June 1886 [1]
At 2.30 in the morning on Thursday 10th June 1886 - 125 years ago last Friday - many Auckland residents were woken by a continuous series of loud, but distant, explosions. Flashes could be seen on the horizon and it was assumed, even by writers compiling the early edition of The New Zealand Herald, that some vessel in the Manukau Harbour had exploded [2]. If George Valentine, his wife Minna and their three children, by some chance, did not wake until a more respectable hour, they would soon have heard the news, even at their home in the borough of Parnell. By nine o'clock the Auckland Evening Star offices had received reports of a "tremendous outburst of volcanic activity ... in the Rotorua District, surpassing anything of the kind ever experienced in New Zealand." [3]

Te Wairoa Township, c.1886 [4]
Valentine was familiar with the "Hot Lakes," having visited Rotorua and the nearby Lakes Tarawera and Rotomahana early the previous year on a photographic excursion. George Dobson Valentine (1852-1890) was a son of the renowned Scottish pioneer photographer and publisher of views James Valentine (1815-1880). After his father's death, he and his brother William had continued to expand the photographic business.

"In The Tiki Tapu Bush" - January 1885 [5]
However after being diagnosed with tuberculosis, he emigrated to New Zealand with his family in 1884, in the hope that the climate would revive his health. Initially settling in Nelson, he had begun publishing photographic views under his own name, and one of his earliest projects was a photographic expedition to the Rotomahana District, near Rotorua, with Auckland bookseller Charles Chapman.

"Rotomahana Hotel, Te Wairoa" - January 1885 [6]
From Auckland, they travelled via Cambridge, Oxford (now called Tirau) and Rotorua over several days in January 1885. The journey to Te Wairoa, on the shores of Lake Tarawera, was a shorter leg, and they were able to spend some time admiring the pristine podocarp forest at Tikitapu. They spent the night at Joseph McRae's Rotomahana Hotel, and obtained permission from the local chiefs to camp at the famous Pink and White Terraces.

"White Terrace and Lake Rotomahana" - January 1885 [7]
Early the following morning on 13 January 1885 Valentine and Chapman departed by whale boat across Lake Tarawera to the small settlement of Te Ariki. They were accompanied by Guide Sophia, chief Tamihana Te Keu, a small group of tourists and the crew. A short walk then ensued to the "warm lake" Rotomahana, where the vista opened up to reveal the famed Te Tarata or White Terraces. Coincidentally, artist Charles Blomfield was camped nearby, in the middle of a lengthy stay during which he would paint a number of now well known views of the terraces.

"Coffee Cups, White Terraces" - January 1885 [8]
Clik image to read full series of articles
They set up camp close to the White Terraces and remained for several days, during which time Valentine produced over 40 scenic views with his glass plate camera, including this atmospheric image of the almost waxy looking siliceous basins with a fine veil of steam. After his return home to Nelson, these views were later published and marketed by Chapman. One of them was awarded a second prize at the New Zealand Industrial Exhbition in August, pipped at the post by Alfred Burton of Dunedin.

Great Volcanic Eruption. Terror in Hot Lake District
The Auckland Evening Star, 10 June 1886 [3]
The Valentine family had moved to Auckland in October 1885, and had therefore been living there for some eight months on the morning that the dreadful news broke concerning the "terror in the Hot Lake district." News of the tragic loss of life was greeted with dismay, almost matched by the despair at reports of the devastation, affecting both personal property and the countryside, and including the Pink and White Terraces.

"Tiki-Tapu Bush, After Eruption" - October 1886 [9]
Photographers were on site recording the devastation within days, but George Valentine did not make it there until early October. He and Chapman were accompanied by Joseph McRae, whose hotel at Te Wairoa had been all but demolished in the ash fall, and guide Alfred Warbrick. The luxurious bush at Tikitapu was now an array of bare wooden tree trunks, sadly stripped of all signs of the green thicket captured so vividly the previous year.

"Te Wairoa. McRae's Hotel, Sophia's Whare and Terrace Hotel" - October 1886 [10]
They sheltered for the night in what remained of McRae's collapsed hotel before being rowed across the lake to Te Ariki. The scenes which they encountered, and which Valentine photographed, revealed a landscape denuded of all vegetation, and most recognisable landmarks were obliterated with a thick blanket of grey volcanic ash. Smoke and steam were spurting out of the ground in many locations, and when they reached the former site of the White Terraces, the valley had been filled with an enormous lake, several times the size of the original Rotomahana.

"Rotomahana, from Hape O' Toroa" - October 1886 [11]
Both the Pink and White Terraces were gone, replaced with the all encompassing tephra field, criss-crossed with erosion gullies and hard to traverse. Valentine returned to the area a month later to take further photographs of the southern part of the volcanic area, near Waimangu, accompanied by government engineer John Blythe. The results were published in several different formats and publications, which is fortunate, as the original glass plate negatives have not survived. The images displayed here are from prints and copy negatives in the collections of the Alexander Turnbull Library and Te Papa. The Assistant Surveyor-General later "determined," after surveying the area, that the White Terraces had been destroyed.

"Mnts. Tarawera and Ruawahia from Te Ariki" - October 1886 [12]
Valentine visited the area again in 1887 and 1889, and made further photographic excursions to the Pacific Islands of Tahiti, Tonga, Samoa and Rarotonga (1887), as well as to the previously little known limestone caves at Waitomo (1889). However, his first two sets of landscapes from the "Hot Lakes" region are perhaps better known than the rest. This image of the muddy shore of Lake Tarawera, with the mass of the ash-covered volcano forming a forbidding backdrop, and the lone boatman beaching what is presumably Warbrick's recently launched whaleboat, is one of the most enduring - and for me, haunting - of Valentine's post-eruption photographs.

On 26 February 1890, shortly after his return from photographing Pohutu and other geysers at Whakarewarewa, near Rotorua, George Valentine succumbed to the tuberculosis which had brought him to New Zealand. He was only 38 years old. His wife and children returned to Dundee, Scotland soon after.

Epilogue

The question of whether the Pink and White Terraces had been destroyed during Tarawera's eruption, or whether they were buried under layers of ash, has been revisited several times. The latest boost to this story, nicely timed for the 125th anniversary of the event, is the news that a team from GNS and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have discovered at least portions of both the Pink and White Terraces intact, submerged in Lake Rotomahana. The disappointing one-hour (including adverts) documentary that Prime aired on Sunday evening was long on history and hype, and very short on hard fact and images, with only a few brief underwater clips of the shown towards the end of the hour-long session. However, this web page from GNS includes a 4:37 minute video (click image above) by Dr Cornel de Ronde discussing the discoveries, with plenty of great images (and another YouTube video here).

References

[1] Blomfield, Charles (1886) Mount Tarawera in eruption, June 10, 1886 (From the native village of Waitangi, Lake Tarawera, New Zealand), W. Potts, lithograph after C. Blomfield, publ. Wanganui, New Zealand: A.D. Willis, courtesy of Timeframes & the Alexander Turnbull Library, Ref. C-033-002.

[2] Hall, Ken (2004) George D. Valentine: A 19th Century Photographer in New Zealand, Nelson, New Zealand: Craig Potton Publishing, 132p.

[3] Anon (1886) Great Volcanic Eruption: Terror in Hot Lake District, The Auckland Evening Star, 10 June 1886, from Papers Past, courtesy of National Library of New Zealand.

[4] Wairoa township, from Te Komiti, Lithograph 313 x 216 mm by unknown artist, courtesy of Timeframes & the Alexander Turnbull Library, Ref. B-051-009.

[5] In the Tiki Tapu Bush, near Lake Tikitapu (Blue Lake), Rotorua, 41, Albumen print, 190 x 289 mm, by George D. Valentine, January 1885, courtesy of Timeframes & the Alexander Turnbull Library, Ref. PA7-54-24.

[6] Rotomahana Hotel, Te Wairoa, 38, Albumen print, 292 x 191 mm, by George D. Valentine, January 1885, courtesy of Timeframes & the Alexander Turnbull Library, Ref. PA7-60-02.

[7] White Terrace and Lake Rotomahana, Albumen print, by George D. Valentine, January 1885, courtesy of Timeframes & the Alexander Turnbull Library, Ref. PA1-q-138-009.

[8] Coffee Cups, White Terraces, Albumen print, 290 x 189 mm, by George D. Valentine, January 1885, courtesy of Timeframes & the Alexander Turnbull Library, Ref. PA1-q-212-20.

[9] Tiki-Tapu Bush, after Eruption, 119, Albumen print, 187 x 289 mm, by George D. Valentine, October 1886, courtesy of Timeframes & the Alexander Turnbull Library, Ref. PA7-54-03.

[10] Te Wairoa. McRae's Hotel, Sophia's Whare and Terrace Hotel, Albumen print, 292 x 192 mm, by George D. Valentine, October 1886, courtesy of Museum of New Zealand/Te Papa Tongarewa, Ref. O.030859.

[11] Rotomahana, from Hape O' Toroa, 146, Albumen print, by George D. Valentine, November 1886, courtesy of Timeframes & the Alexander Turnbull Library, Ref. PA1-q-138-005.

[12] Mnts. Tarawera and Ruawahia from Te Ariki, 129, Albumen print, 290 x 188 mm, by George D. Valentine, October 1886, courtesy of Timeframes & the Alexander Turnbull Library, Ref. PA7-54-01.