Sepia Saturday 224: The Servants at Quantock Lodge

The Sepia Saturday image prompt this week shows a woman watering her artichokes while a man, presumably her husband, stands with a pipe firmly clenched in his mouth and holding a shovel. He's perhaps pretending that he's just finished the weeding, but is clearly not dressed for the task. My contribution to the meme this week is a group of servants, including gardeners and groundsmen, who may be in their best clothes, but they don't look quite as out of place in the garden.

In something approaching the manner popularised by fellow Sepians Tattered + Lost and Mister Mike, I will attempt a deconstruction and/or reconstruction of the occasion.


Quantock Lodge Servants, 79/August, Cabinet card portrait
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
This early cabinet portrait mounted on plain card was a fortuitous purchase on eBay a few years ago, lucky in that such items often attract furious bidding which very quickly puts them totally out of my reach costwise, but if I remember correctly I was the only one to show any interest in this. It is unusual not only for the subject matter, a large group of servants from a big house, but also that the location and date are written on the card mount.

Quantock Lodge is a mansion built as a holiday residence in the Gothic revival style during the mid-19th century for Henry Labouchere, 1st Baron Taunton (1797-1869), and described by Nocolas Pevsner as "a large rather dull Tudor house ... Gothic Stables, a specially crazy Gothic Dovecote and a big Gothic Lodge." Although Baron Taunton's second wife inherited the estate on his death in 1869, his eldest daughter Mary Dorothy Labouchere (1842-1920) lived there after her marriage in 1872 to Edward James Stanley, D.L., J.P. (1826-1907), later a British Conservative politician from 1882 until 1907. By August 1879, when this photograph was taken, the Stanleys had a son and a daughter, both born at St George Hanover Square, London, and a second son was born on 30th August, also in London.


Cabinet card portrait by Monsieur Bernard's Prince Imperial Photographie Francaise, 8 Alphington St, Exeter
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
Rather than using printed card mount, the photographer has used a small paper label with his details pasted on the back of the card.

MONSIEUR BERNARD'S
PRINCE IMPERIAL
MEMORIAL
Photographie Francaise.
-:o:-
8, Alphington St. EXETER.
Copies may always be had.
No.
I've been unable to find records of a photographer named Bernard working in either Exeter or Somerset. However, there was a Daniel Bernard of Austrian origin living at 12 Smythen Street, Exeter in April 1881 who described himself as picture frame dealer. That he had links with Somerset is demonstrated by the birth of his two children at Bristol in 1875 and 1878. Bernard's use of the name "Prince Imperial Memorial" was particularly opportunisitic, considering that Napoléon, the Prince Imperial, had been killed in Zululand only a couple of months earlier, and the "Prince Imperial Memorial Fund" set up in mid-June.


Detail of Quantock Lodge servants
This group of servants - 10 male, 9 female and a young lad - is large, indicative of a fairly wealthy household, which the Stanleys certainly were. Mary's mother and paternal grandmother were members of the Baring banking family. The census record of Quantock Lodge, Over Stowey, Somerset for 3 April 1881 (p1 & p2), only 20 months after the photograph was taken, shows 21 servants - 8 male, 12 female - as well as a governess and a young boy, with three additonal male employees living in married quarters nearby. In order to compare the census list with the people we see in the photograph, I have extracted their details:

Name	Age	Occupation	1871--1891
Eleanor E. MAJOR	22	Governess
Annie REID	40	Butler's wife (Visitor)
Caroline FARLEY	49	Housekeeper
Emile WELLS	30	Cook
Elise REDFLEUR	31	Ladies Maid [sic]
Mary MAY	25	Nurse	Housekeeper, 1891
Thomas REID	45	Butler
Walter REID	37	Valet
William DAVIS	28	Under Butler
Thomas WALKER	30	Footman
James GRANDFIELD	25	Footman	Under Butler, 1891
Henry WATTS	32	2nd Coachman
James STACEY	23	Groom
George LUCAS	22	House Servant
Mary A. PRICE	26	Kitchen maid
Alice E. TOFFS	19	Kitchen maid
Elizabeth VINCENT	22	House Maid
Gerald A. ELLIS	8	Scholar (Nephew)
Clara PACKER	31	Head Housemaid
Hannah HUTCHINGS	28	Still Room Maid
Elizabeth WALTER	28	2nd Housemaid
Jane HOOPER	19	3rd Housemaid
Caroline THORNE	18	4th Housemaid
William ISTED	39	Head Coachman
Archibald BOUSIE	60	Head Gardener	Head Gardener, 1871
John MARSHALL	56	Head Gamekeeper

The boy was actually Mrs Stanley's nephew, Gerald Arthur Ellis, but I've included him in the extract because he is, rather oddly, listed among the servants. Gerald's father Major-General Sir Arthur Ellis was Equerry to the Prince of Wales, and Gerald himself became a Page to Queen Victoria.


Status and heirarchy of servants in a Victorian house
Image © and courtesy of BBC News Magazine
I can't give an authoritative source for this, but I have the impression that census listings for such households generally show the servants in order of seniority. It is interesting to note that the head gardener had been there since 1871, while two of the servants were still working at Quantock Lodge a decade later in 1891. In those ten years Mary May had worked her way up from Nurse to Housekeeper, while James Grandfield had undergone a similar promotion from Footman to Under Butler.


The Butler and the Housekeeper, Quantock Lodge
The two central figures in this tableaux, also probably the oldest, are almost certainly the most senior male and female servants in the household, the butler and the housekeeper. The butler looks to be in his forties. Thomas Reid was shown as 45 in the 1881 census, but 46 or 47 when he died at Quantock Lodge in February 1884 - depending on source - and is therefore a good candidate. His wife Annie is described as a visitor in the census, and was therefore not a regular member of the household. After her husband's death, she continued to live nearby in Taunton, described in the 1891 Census is "living on her own means."

The housekeeper at Quantock House in April 1881 was Caroline Farley. She gave her age as 49, but I've been able to track her through the remaining census records from 1841 to 1901, and it appears that at the time the photograph was taken in the garden of Quantock Lodge in August 1879, Caroline was probably in her mid-fifties. The housekeeper in the photograph looks a little older than this, perhaps in her sixties, but there are no older women in the census list, so this may be Caroline Farley's predecessor - it's difficult to be sure.


The Valet, Quantock Lodge
Thomas' younger brother Walter Reid was also at Quantock Lodge in 1881, aged 37 and employed as a valet. Judging by his clothing, his age and the similarity of their facial features (in particular ears, nose and mouth), I think he may be standing in the back row, second from right, with his right hand resting with some degree of familiarity on the shoulder of a woman seated on the butler's right, and possibly his left hand on the shoulder of another young woman. Walter was the executor of his brother's will dated April 1884, in which he left a personal estate of £480. I've been unable to find any record of Walter after this date.


The Under Butler and the House Servant, Quantock Lodge
Judging by their clothing, their ages and their proximity in the lineup to the butler, I believe that the two young men standing in the back row, directly in line with the butler and the housekeeper, are probably the Under Butler (right) and male House Servant (left), listed in the 1881 census as William Davis (aged 28) and George Lucas (aged 22). George Lucas was an inmate of the Dorchester Union Workhouse at Fordington in 1871, his mother having died when he was very young.


The Two Footmen and the 2nd Coachman, Quantock Lodge
The double-breasted coats with large brass buttons worn by all three young men standing at the right hand end of the back row makes them likely to have been footmen and coachmen. In 1881 Thomas Walker (30) and James Grandfield (25) were the two footmen, while Henry Watts (32) was the Second Coachman. It is difficult to tell whether that is the order they appear in the photograph.


The Cook and the Head Housemaid, Quantock Lodge
Unfortunately these two are in a part of the photograph which has been overexposed, with a resulting loss of definition. From their clothing, seniority dictated by their position seated to the housekeeper, and their ages, I believe them to be the Cook (left) and the Head Housemaid (right). In 1881, these positions were filled by Emily Wells (30) and Clara Packer (31). I tracked down Emily/Emma Wells to the magnificent Petworth House in Sussex in 1871, where she was employed by the 2nd Lord Leconfield as a Still Room Maid, the most junior servant in the household.


The Governess and the Lady's Maid, Quantock Lodge
There are only two women dressed in dark clothing, both of them fairly young, and they must, I think, be the Governess and Lady's Maid. The young woman seated on the grass at the far left of the group has a substantial hat, and appears to be of an appropriate age to be the 22 year-old Governess, Eleanor E. Major. Ten years later she was working as a Governess to the family of her previous employer's sister, Mina Frances Ellis, and was still employed as a governess in 1901. The woman holding a dog on her lap may be the 31 year-old Elise Reafleur (or Redfleur), the Swiss-born lady's maid to Mary Stanley.


The Nursemaid, Quantock Lodge
Five months prior to the sunny summer morning when Monsieur Bernard visited Quantock Lodge, the Honourable Mrs. Stanley placed an advertisement in the Morning Post, a conservative daily London newspaper "noted for its attentions to the activities of the powerful and wealthy," looking for a "superior Nurserymaid to help in the care of two children (see below). Pregnant with her third child, she was obviously anticipating the extra work load. It would be nice to think that Mary May, the 25 year-old "Nurse" listed in the 1881 Census, who was still with the Stanleys ten years later at Quantock Lodge as housekeeper, came to them in response to this advertisement. My feeling is that she is seated at far left, between the butler and the governess.


Advertisement in the Morning Post, 18 March 1879
In 1898 Mary Ann May married the under-butler James Grandfield and the couple moved to Kensington where James found work, now as a butler. The 1901 Census shows the Stanley household without a butler. James was still working as a butler in London in 1911 and died in 1919, while Mary died in 1939.


The Kitchen and House Maids, Quantock Lodge
The three remaining women in the group, standing immediately behind the butler, housekeeper and cook, look to be in their early to mid-twenties, and could be either kitchen or house staff. Unaccounted for in the census are two kitchen maids, four house maids and a still room maid. Presumably some were either too busy to outdoors engaging in such frivolities as a photographic portrait (read camera-shy), or absent on the day.


The Head Gardener, Quantock Lodge
The man standing at the extreme left of the group may be the Head Gardener, Archibald Bousie, who lived with his family in the gardener's cottage on the estate. He was born on 9 March 1821 at Markinch, Fife, Scotland and, judging by the number of credits in The Flora of Forfarshire by William Gardiner, published in 1848, he was a very knowledgeable and active botanist as a young man. Mr Bousie was employed from c. 1848 by Henry Labouchere, Lord Taunton, as the head gardener in the famous gardens laid out by Capability Brown and Humphry Repton at Stoke Park in Buckinghamshire. He won numerous medals and prizes for his fuschias, rhododendrons, calceolarias, fancy pelargoniums, figs and desert apples in flower and fruit shows at the Crystal Palace, Royal Botanic Society and Royal Horticultural Society between 1855 and 1863.

After Stoke Park was sold in 1863, Bousie moved to Quantock Lodge where he worked in a similar capacity, first for Lord Taunton and later for his daughter and son-in-law, the Stanleys. He died at Over Stowey on 20 December 1910, aged 89 years, after having passed on the reins at Quantock Lodge to his son David Alexander Bousie.


The Head Gamekeeper and the Groom, Quantock Lodge
As we get further down the list, I feel on more shaky ground regarding identifications. The man with a large stick and an even more impressive beard seated on the grass is dressed as an outdoor servant, but I don't believe he can be the Head Coachman, so I think it more likely that he is a gardener or a gamekeeper. The 1881 Census shows one John Marshall, aged 56, Head Gamekeeper, living near Quantock Lodge and it seems likely this is him. The man seated at far right, holding onto a dark-coloured poodle, is probably the groom, shown in the census as James Stacey, aged 23.


The Young Lad, Quantock Lodge
Finally, we have the well dressed young lad sitting cross-legged in front of the housekeeper and the cook. There is only one boy shown in the census, Gerald Ellis, nephew of Mrs Stanley, but in August he would have been only six years old, and this chap looks to me to be around 9 or 10, at least. The Stanley's eldest son Henry Thomas Stanley was a year younger than Gerald, so it's not likely to be him either. I suspect that he was a local lad employed as a Hall Boy.


Quantock Lodge servants
Possible identification of individuals in Quantock Lodge Servants photo:

1. Archibald Bousie, aged 60, Head Gardener
2. Walter Reid, aged 37, Valet
3. Unidentified Kitchen or House Maid
4. George Lucas, aged 22, House Servant
5. Unidentified Kitchen or House Maid
6. William Davis, aged 28, Under Butler
7. Unidentified Kitchen or House Maid
8. James Grandfield, aged 25, Footman
9. Thomas Walker, aged 30, Footman
10. Henry Watts, aged 32, Second Coachman
11. Mary May, aged 25, Nurse(maid)
12. Thomas Reid, 45, Butler
13. Caroline Farley, aged mid-50s, Housekeeper
14. Emily Wells, aged 30, Cook
15. Clara Packer, aged 31, Head Housemaid
16. Elise Reafleur/Redfleur, aged 31, Lady's Maid
17. James Stacey, aged 23, Groom
18. Eleanor E. Major, aged 22, Governess
19. John Marshall, aged 56, Head Gamekeeper
20. Unidentified Hall Boy

Of course I understand that most readers will have decided, probably well before getting to this point, that my IDs are at best tentative, and in the worst case, rather unlikely. My aim at putting this list out in the cybersphere is to generate some interest and possibly further information about the servants who worked, perhaps not straight away, but hopefully in due course.

For more gardening of the sepian variety, I can recommend visiting the other Sepia Saturday contributers.

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

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.

The 1900s - large hats and large format mounts

Another W.W. Winter image sent to me by Nigel Aspdin, this time of a member of his own family, typifies the photographic portraits employing large format card mounts which became very popular after the turn of the century (although they appear to have been first introduced in the late 1890s). In this particular example, the mount measures 201 x 246 mm (although it has probably been trimmed) and the photo itself 100 x 142 mm. Many of the portraits which include women are also characterised by enormous hats, a fashion accessory which became very popular at around this time. The photographic prints used were usually of a similar size to those produced for cabinet cards, but the card mounts were much larger. This resulted in a broad margin which was often embellished with printed, embossed or blind stamped decoration.


Nigel's photo shows a young woman, perhaps in her twenties, with a lacy top and a wide brimmed hat (if indeed it can be called a hat - it looks more like a large bird's nest to me). Nigel believed the portrait to be of Maria Amelia Slater née Smith (1834-1913), daughter of John Smith, clockmaker of Derby, and wife of William Slater, stone merchant and lessee operator of Coxbench Quarry.

I have a pair of small round framed portraits of a "couple", one certainly my great-grandfather William Slater, and the other is [a copy of] this particular portrait. I feel very confident that it is his wife ... This mounted photograph is certainly printed and mounted after 1895 and possibly as late as 1913, if prepared for her daughters upon her death, from earlier material. If the subject is, say, 35 in the photograph, this would date the original photograph as about 1870... The small framed portraits were not taken at the same time [as each other] and they are framed in an amateur way, perhaps 1910-1930, but the fact that they are framed as a pair does, I feel, indicate "Mother and Father" ... The "Miss" Slater [written in pencil on the reverse of the mount] suggests to me that the print was done by one of the daughters, probably on the death of the subject in 1913. Two of the three daughters were still at home.

My own analysis of the photograph produced a somewhat different conclusion. The card mount size and design on the reverse is of a type used by W.W. Winter from about 1898 until 1905-ish. The negative number (119073) also suggests that the photograph was produced in the early 1900s, although it could conceivably still have been a new negative of an older print. However, the style of clothing is, to me, contemporary with the card mount: the lace shawl covering her shoulders and large hat on her head is typical of the early 1900s, and I think very unlikely to have been taken much earlier than about 1898. I suggested to Nigel, therefore, that it might rather be a portrait of a daughter of Maria Amelia Slater. After some deliberation, Nigel responded:

I had for a long time carelessly assumed that as these two photos existed in identical small frames (in those frames they are small and old prints which also exist as larger formal prints) that they were William Slater and his wife whereas it is now clear to be that it is William Slater and his daughter, Alice. The correct details [for the subject are now:

Alice Elisabeth Slater, born 3 Jan 1879, died 22 or 23 Dec 1956, eldest daughter of William Slater of 19 Vernon St, Derby, stone merchant & lessee operator of Coxbench Quarry, and partner of W.H. & J. Slater Brick and Pipe Works, Denby (near Ripley), and builders, Walker & Slater, Derby. She married Percy Hassal(l) Mellor On October 30 1907. I think therefore that the date of the photo could well be 1907, she would have been 28, that looks realistic.

Incidentally it has always been said that she was a suffragette and that when the census was taken she did not want to appear in it, so she slept the night in the office here at 19 Vernon street, the family home. (There was then no connecting door to the offices). She would have relied on my Great Grandfather to omit her when he completed the form that evening, and the family believed he did so. But when the 1901 census was published I was unsurprised to see that he did include her correctly !

Thanks for the image and the anecdote, Nigel. The photograph and story fit in perfectly with my mental image of Emily Pankhurst and the suffragettes.

P.S. This image sent to me by Nigel shows a somewhat different Alice Mellor, in a rather intriguing portrait taken in June 1918 by W.H. Puddicombe of Bideford (Devon). Any ideas what the outfit and rake were supposed to mean?


P.P.S. The web site of the Imperial War Museum has a feature entitled, "No job for a woman: The effects of war on womens' lives during the 20th and 21st centuries," which has a gallery of photographs of women doing various jobs normally done by men during the First World War. One of these is a woman in the Women's Forestry Corps, dressed in very similar clothes (see below) to those worn by Alice Mellor.


Bearing in mind that Alice's photo was taken in June 1918, it seems likely that she was occupied in some sort of agricultural work for the war effort. The creation of the Women's Land Army in 1917, was a response to the need to maintain agricultural production, when men working in that sector were being called up to the army to combat Germany's U-Boat campaign. I can also see her fitting right into this propaganda poster developed for recruitment purposes (from the Posters Collection on Michael Duffy's excellent First World War web site). In fact, the clothes are so similar - the hat, the short coat with broad belt, the sturdy shoes, the puttees up to just below the knees, all designed for working in the fields - I think it is probably a uniform!

Henry Lawless of Exeter - a portrait of a portrait

Old photos were frequently copied long after the original portrait had been taken, often subsequent to the death of the subject, and I have come across many examples in the compilation of my Derbyshire Photographers & Photographic Studios collection. However, sometimes the memory of a departed family member was celebrated in a slightly different fashion.

A style not often encountered, this "portait of a portrait" was sent to me recently by Angela Johnson. The cabinet card probably shows her great-great-grandfather Henry Lawless (1826-1877), an Exeter wine merchant, churchwarden and town councillor. She writes:

"It has been suggested that the photo was taken of a portrait after his death....of course, it may not be him ... I have tried to make out what the bits and pieces are by blowing up the picture, but it just isn't quite clear enough to decipher the titles of the books etc. - the folded bit of paper looks like a cartoon about the Town Council."

The photographer William S. Sugden died at Brighton in 1880, so this portrait must have been produced before then. William Sugden was in partnership with Edward Williams at 88 High Street, Exeter briefly between April 1877 and February 1878. However, in March 1878 the two went their separate ways. Scott (1985) shows them both with premises in March 1878 - Sugden at 88 Queen Street, and Williams at 241 High Street, Exeter - but no later listings in that town.

This photo is a rather unusual one, and I believe it must have been taken after the death of the subject. The arrangement of the framed portrait on the writing desk with the books, ink well, quill pen, lamp and loose papers was meant to portray his life and work, and the distinguished person that he was. His clothing looks tailored to me - you don't often see people this well-dressed in photographs from the 1870s. The portrait style, card mount design and known dates for Sugden's studio operation in Exeter, confirms a date of between 1877 and 1880. I suspect that it was taken shortly after his death, either in 1877 or 1878.

The clothing style suggests to me that the original portrait, which appears to have been enlarged considerably from the size of a standard studio portrait, was taken not long before the presumed subject's death in 1877. All of the items placed on the desk are likely to have had some significance, if only we could work out what it was.

I would be interested to hear from any other viewers who have come across studio portraits such as this one, not just copied from older photos, but incorporating the older photograph, in a separate frame, with carefully selected and arranged accessories to embellish the portrait and give an impression of his importance.

References:
History, Gazetteer & Directory of Devon (1878-79), Historical Directories from the University of Leicester
Photographers in Devon 1842-1939 : a brief directory for photograph collectors, by C.G. Scott, 1985, The PhotoHistorian Supplement No. 101, ISSN 0957-0209