Portrait of a portraitist and local celebrity: Edward Foster (1762-1865) - Part 1

A couple of years ago Virginia Silvester sent me these intriguing scans of the front and reverse of a carte de visite portrait (1) by John Burton & Sons (2) in her collection of old family photographs, an almost identical view to one that I had scanned at the Derby Local Studies Library (3) a few months earlier.


By the time John Burton and his sons opened their third branch studio on the top floor above the bookshop of Messrs. Clulow & Sons in Victoria Street, Derby on 2 February 1863 (4, 5), they had half a decade of experience in the photographic business. They demonstrated not merely a proficiency in portraiture, but also some considerable astuteness in the marketing of their services. Faced with stiff competition from well established practitioners such as Thomas Roberts, James Brennen, George Bristow, E.N. Charles, William Pearson and Richard Keene, a pliable reporter from The Derby Mercury was inivited to the gallery. He duly supplemented the first of a regular series of Burton & Sons advertisements in that newspaper with a most favourable report (6):

"... we have since had an opportunity of inspecting a very large number of Mr. Burton's specimens. In one very large and handsome group of Volunteer officers these qualities are as palpable as in the exquisitely beautiful cartes-de-visite; and in the portraits of Lord and Lady Stamford delicate colouring is also apparent. Mr. Burton has succeeded in producing an admirably correct group of portraits of Ensign Turner, Colour-Sergeant Pratt, and Corporal Clulow, of the Derby Volunteers, in uniform. A visit to Mr. Burton' s Gallery, at Messrs. Clulow's, will afford very agreeable entertainment to every man of taste.

This type of advertorial, hand in hand with the celebrity endorsement, was evidently an accepted practice even a century and a half ago. Hand coloured photographs of volunteer soldiers in magnificent uniforms - such as that shown above, from the Derby studio of John Roberts (7) - as well as genteel portraits of members of the higher echelons of Derby society, provided valuable draw cards for clients from among the "ordinary" folk of Derby.


The reporter in question may even have been the Henry Latimer Kemp (1832-1869), newspaper writer at The Derby Mercury, whose vignetted Burton studio portrait - shown above - has survived in the Derby Local Studies Library collection (8). The Burtons continued to entice a wide range of clientele into the studio, and were even prepared to venture further afield to capture the more important clients (9):

The pictures obtained by this firm ... are remarkable for their sharpness of detail and brilliancy of light and shade. In the cartes de visite of several county families, these excellences are strikingly prominent, particularly in those of the Earl of Harrington, and of other members of the family recently taken by the Messrs. Burton, at Elvaston Castle. The admiration of the lover of art will be excited by an inspection of some of their fine studies of dramatic characters now in the course of completion. Mr. John Coleman as Hamlet, and Miss Caroline Carson as the Queen, considered as examples of pure photography, may fairly claim to be numbered among the gems of this fascinating art.

An advertisement in early May boldly proclaimed the ultimate conquests, asserting Her Majesty the Queen, H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, and H.R.H. the Princess of Wales as recent studio patrons on successive days (10), although newspaper accounts of royal movements during this period (29 April to 1 May) by this author render such claims highly unlikely (11). Following a practice common to many practitioners around the country, however, they soon took the liberty of embellishing the reverse of their card mounts with the royal coat of arms and the names of their noble clients (as shown above). By December that year their newspaper advertisements included "the nobility and gentry of the Midland counties" among their valued customers, in additon to "extraordinary advantages for photographing children." (12)


In the 1864 edition of Wright's Midland Directory, probably compiled in late 1863, and by which time a fourth Burton branch had been opened in Burton-upon-Trent, the firm took out a whole page advertisement offering a wide range of services, including "animals with the instantaneous process," and with a substantial list of prestigious patrons (13).


On 5 April 1864 they announced their appointment as sole photographers to the Shakspere [sic] Tercentary Festival (14), and that they would be working from "a commodious gallery adjoining the pavilion" in Stratford-upon-Avon from Monday 18 April. This occasion presented further business opportunities to the burgeoning Burton & Sons portfolio: in addition to the usual "carte de visite and other portrait" services, they offered "a series of Shakespearean views, comprising all objects of interest in Stratford and the neighbourhood," each photograph bearing "a facsimile of the Committee's seal." (15) During the event, they made the most of the presence of a number of "musical celebrities who created and sustained the interest of the last great Triennial Festival at Birmingham," inducing them into his makeshift studio for individual sittings. The separate negatives were then innovatively combined in a single commemmorative print, inferring ""that these talented personages met by concerted arrangement in a spacious drawing room, and that while engaged in social converse, the photographer successfully plied his vocation," and subsequently "exhibit[ed] in the artist's window, at Messrs. Clulow's, Victoria street." (16)

Such an environment was eminently suitable for an invitation to a portrait sitting to be sent to Derby's man of the moment. A contemporary inscription handwritten in ink on the reverse of the card mount not only identifies the subject of Virginia's portrait, but also helpfully provides some clues to the circumstances surrounding the sitting:

Presented to E Hayman
by the original.
Ed. Foster Esq
Decr. 5 1864. Taken on his 102 Birth-
day Nov 8th 1864 -

Indeed the copy held by the Derby Local Studies Library is similarly, but somewhat less informatively, inscribed, "Mr Foster Centenarian." Virginia explains:

"E Hayman was almost certainly my great-grandfather Edward Hayman, originally from Devon and en route to London via Liverpool and Lichfield. As far as I know, Ed Foster was not related, and was probably only a casual acquaintance."

From an account of an 1861 portrait of Foster and his daughter by fellow Derbeian John Haslem (17), we know that Foster was no stranger to photographic studios, and may well have used such portraits to enhance his celebrity status, as a means of publicising his commercial activities.

Edward Foster was an extraordinarily energetic man, in spite of his advanced years, who had been active in a wide variety of fields throughout his long life. After turning a hundred and attending a public dinner held at Derby in his honour, he set off on several lengthy tours to towns as far afield as Birmingham (18), Gloucester (19) and Huddersfield (20). From the tone of the newspaper reports, these towns had previously played significant roles in his younger years, although he was originally a Derby man and it was to Derby that he returned in late 1863. He was reported to be:

In full possession of all his faculties, with eyesight that does not yet need the aid of spectacles, intelligent and communicative, Mr. Foster is a marvel for his age. The charts of which he is the author ... have been under the public eye for many years, and have been adopted by most of the principal colleges and schools in the country ... the chart of the histories of Rome, France, and Britain has reached its 42nd edition, while altogether upwards of 120,000 copies of the charts have been circulated ... The charts are admirably adapted to be given at schools, &c., as prizes, and have been extensively used for that purpose.

While apparently healthy, Edward Foster, his much younger wife and their teenage daughter were in a poor financial state, and an application was made by the Mayor of Derby Thomas Roe for him to receive some sort of pension, in light of his straitened circumstances. The Derby Mercury of 2 December 1863 reported that a letter had been received from the Prime Minister Lord Palmerston instructing payment of a donation of 60 pounds to Foster (21). A further article on 1 Feb 1865 (22) reported that:

For some time past Mr. Foster has been, from illness and consequent debility, unable to travel about the country in search of purchasers of his valuable charts, from the products of which the existence of himself, his wife, and daughter depend ... in order to minister to his temporary necessities, subscriptions should be obtained from all those who are benevolently inclined.

He died a few weeks later, at his home in Parker Street, Derby, on Sunday 12 March leaving "a widow and daughter in straitened circumstances." (23) He was buried in the New Cemetery on Nottingham Road on Thursday 16 March 1865 (24).


While there is plenty of verifiable information detailing Edward Foster's latter years, the material concerning his first half century appears to be mostly hearsay. At least I should perhaps clarify that by stating that I have been unable to substantiate many of the claims that have been made. Peter Seddon's recent article in Derbyshire Life entitled, "Edward Foster: A Master in Profile" provides an excellent overview of the remarkable life of "The Derby Centenarian." (25) However, much of the material has apparently been sourced from a book about Derby personalities that was published in 1866, shortly after the death of Edward Foster (26). Sadly, no sources are provided in either article. The engraving shown above (27) also illustrates this book, and appears to have been taken from the 1863 Burton portrait.

The important aspect, at least from the point of view of this article, and one about which there is little doubt, is that, after 25 years of service with the 20th Regiment of Foot, he discovered an artistic propensity and became a painter of miniature portraits and silhouettes. He subsequently forged this into a career which was to serve him well for several decades, at least until he was well into his seventies.

I have written previously about silhouette portraiture, and its relationship with early portrait photography, in an article about William Seville (28). In Part 2 of this series I will discuss Foster's early life in the miltary and as a silhouettist in further detail, and explore how he dealt with the rapid incursion of photographic portraiture into the silhouette business in a very different manner to the way that Seville did.

References

(1) Carte de visite portrait of Edward Foster, dated 8 November 1864, by John Burton & Sons of Leicester, Derby, Birmingham, Nottingham & Burton-upon-Trent, Collection of Virginia Silvester, Reproduced by permission.

(2) Profile & Portfolio of John Burton & Sons, Derbyshire Photographers & Photographic Studios, web page by Brett Payne

(3) Carte de visite portrait of Edward Foster, undated, by John Burton & Sons of Leicester, Derby, Birmingham & Burton-upon-Trent, Collection of Derby Local Studies Library, Reproduced by permission.

(4) Advertisement, The Derby Mercury, 28 January 1863, 19th Century British Library Newspapers from Gale CENGAGE Learning


(5) Advertisement, The Derby Mercury, 18 February 1863, 19th Century British Library Newspapers from Gale CENGAGE Learning


(6) The Photographic Art, The Derby Mercury, 18 February 1863, 19th Century British Library Newspapers from Gale CENGAGE Learning

(7) Carte de visite portrait of unidentified militia soldier, undated but possibly taken c.1865-1868, by John Roberts of 26 Osmaston Street, Derby, Collection of Michael Jones, Reproduced by permission.

(8) Carte de visite portrait of H.L. Kemp, undated but probably taken c.1863-1864, by John Burton & Sons of Leicester, Derby, Birmingham & Burton-upon-Trent, Collection of Derby Local Studies Library, Reproduced by permission.

(9) Photography, The Derby Mercury, 11 March 1863, 19th Century British Library Newspapers from Gale CENGAGE Learning

(10) Advertisement, The Derby Mercury, 6 May 1863, 19th Century British Library Newspapers from Gale CENGAGE Learning

(11) The Court, Daily News, 30 April, 1 May & 4 May 1863, 19th Century British Library Newspapers from Gale CENGAGE Learning

(12) Advertisement, The Derby Mercury, 30 Dec 1863, 19th Century British Library Newspapers from Gale CENGAGE Learning

(13) Anon (1864) Wright's Midland Directory, Leicester & Loughborough, with Burton-on-Trent, C.N. Wright, Victoria Street, from Historical Directories by the University of Leicester

(14) Carte de visite portrait, undated but probably taken c.1866-1868, by John Burton & Sons of Leicester, Derby, Nottingham, Melton Mowbray & Burton-upon-Trent, Collection of Brett Payne

(15) Advertisment, The Birmingham Daily Post, 5 April 1864, 19th Century British Library Newspapers from Gale CENGAGE Learning

(16) Advertisement, The Derby Mercury, 22 Jun 1864, 19th Century British Library Newspapers from Gale CENGAGE Learning

(17) Haslem, John (1882) Silhouettes, or Black Profile Portraits, Notes and Queries, Oxford Journals, Volume s6-VI, Number 133, p. 57-58. Available at Google Books [Accessed 6 Apr 2010]

(18) A Veteran, The Derby Mercury, 7 May 1862, 19th Century British Library Newspapers from Gale CENGAGE Learning

(19) The Derby Centenarian, The Derby Mercury, 28 Oct 1863, 19th Century British Library Newspapers from Gale CENGAGE Learning

(20) Untitled, The Derby Mercury, 9 Dec 1863, 19th Century British Library Newspapers from Gale CENGAGE Learning

(21) Mr Edward Foster, the Centenarian, The Derby Mercury, 2 Dec 1863, 19th Century British Library Newspapers from Gale CENGAGE Learning

(22) Mr Foster, the Centenarian, The Derby Mercury, 1 Feb 1865, 19th Century British Library Newspapers from Gale CENGAGE Learning

(23) Deaths, The Derby Mercury, 15 Mar 1865, 19th Century British Library Newspapers from Gale CENGAGE Learning

(24) Untitled, The Derby Mercury, 22 Mar 1865, 19th Century British Library Newspapers from Gale CENGAGE Learning

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

(26) 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), Available online at the Internet Archive [Accessed 5 April 2010].

(27) Engraving of Mr. Edward Foster, Centenarian by uknown artist, in Robinson (1866).

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

J. Burton's Galerie Francaise of Aston Road, Birmingham

Angela Barrett recently sent me scans of four cartes de visite identified on the reverse as having been taken by J. Burton of Aston Road, Birmingham, wondering if this was the same photographer as the John Burton & Sons who operated a branch studio in Birmingham in the 1860s, and who I featured in a previous Photo-Sleuth article. The photographs were in a purchased leather bound, gilt-edged album with brass clasps identified as having belonged to one George Ernest Nind (born 1869).


The collection of cdvs is an interesting lot. Three of them depict two or three small children, possibly aged between one and four years, while the fourth shows a woman perhaps in her late twenties or early thirties. Three of the portraits have been taken in what appears to be a standard studio setting, with the same chair, painted backdrop, curtain and carpet. The remaining portrait is outdoors on the grass. Two of the pictures show a couple of the smaller children seated in a perambulator, or early pram.


I believe that the portraits were taken in the early to mid-1870s, say between c. 1871 and 1875, deduced from a combination of several factors, including the woman's hair, the style of her clothing and the "studio" setting, all of which are typical of this period.

I managed to find a birth record for George Ernest Nind in the GRO indexes transcribed and presented online by FreeBMD, showing a registration in the Registration District of Cleobury Mortimer, spanning the boundaries of the counties of Herefordshire, Shropshire and Worcestershire, in the March quarter of 1869. His family also appears in the 1871, 1881 and 1891 Censuses (available online by subscription from Ancestry), with which I was able to draw up the following family outline:

John Smith NIND b. 1840 Sedgeberrow WOR d. 1924 Worcester WOR m: 1864 Elizabeth Mary SHERRARD b. 1843 Bromley St Leonard, London MID d. 1899 Martley WOR
|- John Sherrard NIND b. c.Aug 1864 Cradley HER
|- Eleanor Mary NIND b. c.Nov 1865 Cradley HER
|- William Charles NIND b. c.Nov 1866 Cradley HER
|- Frederic Augustus NIND b. c.Nov 1867 Cradley HER
|- George Ernest NIND b. c.Feb 1869 Kinlet SAL
|- Henry Edward NIND b. c.Nov 1869 Kinlet SAL
|- Elizabeth Ellen NIND b. c.Nov 1870 Kinlet SAL
|- Florence Emily NIND b. c.Feb 1872 Kinlet SAL
|- Percy NIND b. c.1873 Kinlet SAL
|- Edmund Robert NIND b. c.Aug 1874 St John Worcester WOR
|- Archibald Ralph NIND b. c.Nov 1877 St John Worcester WOR
|- Francis (Frank) Horace NIND b. c.Aug 1879 St John Worcester WOR
|- Son NIND b. c.1881 St John Worcester WOR
|- Marguerite Louise NIND b. c.Nov 1883 St John Worcester WOR
|- Daughter NIND b. c.1887 St John Worcester WOR

George Nind was one of fifteen children of a farmer and haulier/contractor John Smith Nind (1840-1924) and his wife Elizabeth Mary née Sherrard (1843-1899). They lived in Cradley, Herefordshire (1864-1867), Kinlet, Shropshire (1869-1873) and Worcester, Worcestershire (1875-1891). If these portraits depict members of this family group, and that is by no means certain, then there are a large number of children to choose from.


One of Angela's correspondents had suggested that the perambulator might have been a photographer's prop, and probably not affordable to the ordinary family. However, I think it more likely to have belonged to the family who were photographed. I found an engraving of a permabulator of very similar design from this period on the Smithsonian Institution Libraries web site and the following reference from the book, A Manual of Domestic Economy by John Henry Walsh, published in 1874 [the full text of this book is available online at Google Books]:

The Perambulator is one of the most extraordinary investions of the day, and chiefly from its extreme simplicity. Any one who has attempted to draw the old-fashioned child's carriage will have felt its weight and the disagreeable nature of the duty; and yet, until within the last quarter of a century, although very nearly the same principle had been adopted for Bath chairs during more than a century, no one thought of extending it to that for the child. They are now made so extensively, and at so low a rate, that they may be procured in every village; but they are not always manufactured in the best possible way.

The suggestion is that by the second half of the Eighteenth Century permabulators had indeed become affordable to many families.


A fifth carte de visite with a view of an unidentified church, also by J. Burton of Aston Road, was pasted on top of the frontispiece of the album.


The firm of John Burton & Sons operated a branch studio on the corner of New Street and Bennett's Hill in central Birmingham from 1862 until 1866. The card mount above is from this period, although probably taken at the Derby branch. From what I can tell, they never had a branch on Aston Road, Birmingham, and for this reason, I think it unlikely that these portraits were by the rather more famous Burton firm which had its origins in Leicester, as they appear to have been taken several years after the closure of the New Street branch.


The reverse of the card mount used for all five photographs, shown above, is very interesting. It uses a style of design which became popular in the early 1870s, as displayed in Roger Vaughan's excellent and very useful analysis of designs through the decades. However, it is also very similar to the design which had been used some years earlier by Burton & Sons when at their Birmingham studio. It may be that the "Aston Road" Burton was trying to get some spin-off of trade from this association.


I have as yet been unable to find any details of another "J. Burton" operating as a photographer in Aston or Birmingham, but have little doubt of his existence since, apart from your five examples, I was able to find several others on the web. Two of these are displayed in Roger Vaughan's large collection of Victorian cartes de visite. They are reproduced above by Roger's kind permission. The portrait of the two girls has the same chair, back wall, curtain and carpet as seen in the previous portraits, although the painted backdrop has changed, and there is an additional circular side table, upon which one girl rests her right elbow. Roger believes the vignetted portrait of the boy may be a copy of another photograph. Unfortunately neither are dated or have further details of the subjects or the studio, but all have an identical card mount design to Angela's, and appear to date from approximately the same time period, i.e. the early to mid-1870s.


I also found this carte de visite view of a church by J. Burton of Aston Road posted in a thread entitled "Identifying a church" by Colin Baker on the Birmingham History Forum, later identified as the Holy Trinity church, located on the corner of Trinity and Birchfield Roads in Aston (Satellite view of location from GoogleMaps).

There are a several pointers which lead me to think that this "J. Burton" may have been something of an itinerant, travelling or fairground practitioner, in spite of - or perhaps even because of - the "Aston Road" address shown on his printed card mount. The photographer has not taken a great deal of trouble over his "studio" background, demonstrating some inexperience. Although there are three parts to it, the right-hand edge of the painted backdrop is rather badly tacked onto the plain "wooden" wall. In a more established studio, I would have expected this join to have been hidden by some sort of strip to disguise it, and at least present the illusion of a doorway to an outside view. In one of the portraits, there is a significant gap between the carpet and the "skirting board." The presence of the skirting board, presumably fixed to a solid wall of some sort, rather than another canvas sheet, suggests to me that it was at least taken indoors, although probably in a photographer's van.


The subject of the painted backdrop interests me even more, as it appears to depict a fairground tent/stall. A woman and child are looking at the wares on display, while a seated woman points to items on the table. Some pots and pans are hanging at the front of the tent and I think I can see some bottles on the table. The writing on the side of the tent reads, "JOUETS D'ENF..." which has been interpreted by one of Angela's correspondents (the Curator of Costume at the Victoria & Albert Museum of Childhood) as Jouets d'Enfants or "children's toys". This illustration of what may be a scene at a carnival or fair strongly suggests to me that the photographer himself might be a frequenter of such events.

In Pauline Gashinski's notes about showman Randall Williams on her British Fairground Ancestors web site, she states:

"When new regulations prohibited the showmen from exhibiting at Birmingham’s Onion Fair, Randall was instrumental in establishing a new fair at Aston on the border of Birmingham on some waste land known as 'The Old Pleck'. Randall took on the role as lessee of the new venue for a number of years - calling it [the] 'Birmingham Fair'."

She includes the following advertisement from The Birmingham Gazette from 1875:

"Birmingham Pleasure Fair
Aston Road
On Thursday, Friday and Saturday next
30th September, 1st and 2nd October.
Applications for ground to Randall Williams
18 Summer Street, Birmingham
Fireworks on Thursday Evening"

On the same web page, in a report from The Era dated 11 November 1893, there is a mention of a J. Burton, one of a group of van-dwellers and other travellers attending a meeting with Randall Williams at the Rotherham Statutes Fair. While it may be a simple coincidence, it seems quite possible that this J. Burton was the same person who had operated a travelling photographic booth in the early to mid-1870s.


All of this points to the five photographs from Angela's album having been taken by a travelling photographer in the early to mid-1870s, possibly not far from their home. During the period in question they moved from Kinlet in Shropshire to Henwick Road in the parish of St John-in-Bedwardine, Worcester, and it seems likely that the church shown in the fifth carte de visite (detail above) might be the parish church from one of these two places.


Parish Church, St John-in-Bewardine, Worcester, Worcestershire
Image © and courtesy of Sally Lloyd
It looks similar, but not identical, to the Parish church of St John-in-Bewardine, Worcester [Satellite image from Google Maps], shown in this sample from a series of recent photographs by Sally Lloyd on Flickr. I wondered whether perhaps there was some significant rebuilding in the late 19th Century, but I may be completely off track.


Parish Church, St John the Baptist, Kinlet, Shropshire
Image © Gillian Palmer and courtesy of William LaMartin
The parish church of St John the Baptist at Kinlet has a similar crenellated tower, but quite a few significant differences which, I think, rule it out completely.

My investigations into the identity of this church are rather inconclusive, so I am hoping that some readers will be able to help in due course. Likewise, I'm also hoping that further sightings of, and perhaps portraits by, J. Burton of Aston Road will surface in due course. Please don't hesitate to get in touch if you can help.

Derby Studio Premises: Victoria Chambers, 36 Victoria Street (1863-1912)

In February 1863 the photographic firm of John Burton & Sons from Leicester, who had already opened a branch in Birmingham the previous year, announced in the Derby Mercury that they had opened a new gallery on the premises of Messrs' E. Clulow & Sons at 36 Victoria Street.


This advertisement appeared in Wright's 1864 Midland Directory (courtesy of the University of Leicester's Historical Directories), by which time they had added further branches in Nottingham and Burton-upon-Trent. The Derby studio remained in operation until soon after September 1867.


This 1860 view shows the south side of Victoria Street (formerly known as Brookside, being along the Markeaton Brook prior to its culverting over), with number 36 towards the left hand end, close to the intersection with St Peter's Street.



Over the next 45 years a succession of photographers had studios at this address, presumably above Clulow's bookshop. The photograph shown above was taken by Derby photographer W.W. Winter around 1885 and shows Edward Clulow Junior's premises at 36 Victoria Street to the left, with Edward Johnson, clockmaker (at number ) in the middle, and Martin & Son (at number ) on the right. The top floor of number 26 has a row of large windows that would be appropriate for a photographic studio, as plenty of daylight was needed to reduce exposure times. I suspect, therefore that a studio had been located on that floor ever since the tenure of J. Burton & Sons.

The photograph above was reproduced in The Winter's Collection of Derby by Maxwell Craven & Angela Leeson, published by Breedon Books in 1992 (ISBN 1873626207). I am very grateful to Angela Leeson and W.W. Winter Ltd. for their kind permission to reproduce images from the book on this web site. High quality prints of these photographs are available for purchase directly from W.W. Winter Ltd.


After the Burtons had departed, the next photographer to use what became known as Victoria Chambers was Clement Rogers (1836-1899), who operated a studio there from c.1870 until late 1874, before selling out to J.W. Price and moving to St. Leonards-on-Sea in Sussex. Price was already operating branch studios in Babington Lane (Derby) and Ivanhoe Road (Leicester), although the latter appears to have closed at about the time he moved in above Clulows. Price occupied the premises in Victoria Chambers until about 1879 or 1880. By November 1880, he was using card mounts with "39 Babington Lane" overprinted on top of "Victoria Chambers."


There was then something of a hiatus on the photographic front, before Harry J. Watson's tenure commenced in 1887 or 1888. In 1881, according to Kelly's trade directory, a dentist named Alfred Murphy was plying his trade upstairs. At the time that Winter's photograph was taken - Maxwell Craven suggests in his text that it was c.1885 - the signs show that upper floors were being used by the "Employers' Liability Assurance Corporation Ltd." and a "Subscription Library." Solicitor Tom. George Taylor occupied offices on the second or third floor by 1887, and remained there until at least 1891, as did Watson. However, between then and 1895, H.J. Watson moved out and opened a new studio at at 130 Burton Road, and the upper floors were occupied by an accountant, a stock & share broker, a colliery agent and a solicitor.

The next photographers to occupy the studio were Layton & Lamb, who Craven records as occupying Victoria Chambers in 1898. Leonard Norman, who may previously have worked at one of the other studios in Derby, then took over. He is listed at this address, along with Edward Clulow and accountant Frederick Basford, in the 1899 edition of Kelly's directory, and Adamson (1997) stated that he was also there in 1900, but the census shows that he had moved on to Ipswich in Suffolk by April 1901.


In 1903 the Derby Stereoscopic Company, managed by Frank Birch moved into the studio, and remained there until at least 1912, although by this time Edward Clulow had moved elsewhere, and were replaced as ground floor tenants by Stewarts' Ltd., who were clothiers. The image above, taken by W.W. Winter Ltd. shortly before the First World War, has been reproduced with permission from The Winter's Collection of Derby: Volume Two, also published by Breedon Books (ISBN 1 85983 055 2). The advertisement visible in the first floor window of number 36 reads, "HIGH CLASS ARTIFICIAL TEETH - ADVICE FREE - MACDONALD LTD" - this firm was listed in the 1912 directory, along with Stewarts on the ground floor (unfortunately hidden from view in the photograph by the electric tram), Miss Elizabeth Bostyn, art needlework depository on the second floor, and The Derby Stereoscopic Co. on the top floor. The large glass windows are still clearly visible.


The buildings were demolished in 1932, and replaced by a much grander building occupied by Burton Montague Ltd., tailors, as shown on the left in the two postcard views (above and below) from the 1930s.

A large group by John Burton & Sons

This is another contribution from Nigel Aspdin from one of his Hewitt family albums.


The carte de visite is by John Burton & Sons of Leicester, Derby, Birmingham & Burton-on-Trent. It shows a large group of unidentified adults, seated and standing in the garden of a large house. The portrait demonstrates one of the big disadvantages in the use of cartes de visite for large group portraits, i.e. that the physical limitations of the format meant it was often difficult to see much detail of the individual subjects.


The reverse of the card mount includes the words, "Sole Photographer to the Shakspere [sic] Tercentenary Festival, Stratford-upon-Avon 1864."


The firm of Burton & Sons advertised their "commodious gallery adjoining the pavilion" in the Birmingham Daily Post on 5 April 1864 (see image above, © British Library & courtesy of Gale CENGAGE database). The three hundredth anniversary of the birthday of William Shakespeare was celebrated at Stratford-upon-Avon on 23 April 1864. The brewer Edward Fordham Flower built a "special pavilion in which a banquet, a fancy dress ball, concerts, and performances of the plays took place." Burton & Sons obviously took advantage of the occasion by offering for sale a recently published "Series of Shakespearean Views," as well as taking the usual "carte de visite and other portraits."

The firm of John Burton & Sons had originally started in Leicester, possibly as early as 1858, and opened a branch studio under the name "John Burton, Sons & Co." or "Burton & Compy." in mid-1862. The branch remained in business until at least June 1865, and partnership between John Burton, his sons Alfred Henry Burton, Walter John Burton, and Oliver Burton and one Thomas Thorpe, was officially dissolved in May 1866 (Source: Birmingham Daily Post, 3 Jul 1862, 22 Jun 1865 & 7 May 1866).

Although not actually taken in Birmingham, the mention of the Birmingham premises on the card mount suggests that the photo was taken during, or shortly after, the period that it was open. Combined with the mention of the Shakespeare Tercentenary, this indicates a date of c. 1864-1866. The clothing and hair styles on the subjects more or less agrees with this date range. Some of the women appear to be dressed as bride and bridesmaids, although the picture is not clear enough to see which are which.

Another Burton cdv - a word of caution about inscriptions

This image of an early carte de visite by John Burton & Compy. of Leicester and Birmingham was sent to me by James Morley, and was the subject of some discussion on the UK-Photographers Rootsweb Mailing List. I include it here, not only as a very early example of this well known photographer's work - see my previous posting about this firm - but also because it shows the dangers in taking inscriptions on photographs at face value.



James originally posted this photo on the WhatsThatPicture site. Reading the entries posted there and on the mailing list will tell the full story. It was originally thought that the young child apparently identified on the reverse of the mount as "Mildred" could have been the Mildred Chataway (born c. 1870), daughter of the Rector of Peckleton, Thomas E. Chataway, and his wife Catherine. However, several features of the photograph and mount suggest that it was taken perhaps a decade earlier than this interpretation would suggest:

• The full length seated pose is one which was commonly used in the 1850s, with daguerreotypes and ambrotypes, and 1860s, but the angled view - rather than direct frontal - is more characteristic, in my experierence, of the early 1860s. It is worth comparing it with this photo of a mother and child from London in Roger Vaughan's collection, dated 1862.
  
• Her hair completely covers her ears - another feature which points to the early 1860s. By the mid-1860s, ear lobes could often be seen, particular those of younger women, and they were fully exposed to the elements by the late 1860s. Also common in the early 1860s was the drawing back of the hair into a bun on the back of her head - almost, but perhaps not quite, a snood.
  
• The very wide sleeves and crinoline dress with velvety bands and very full skirts are characteristic of the early to mid 1860s, typified by the dress worn by the woman in another of Roger's photos, also from c. 1862. The wider sleeves tended to disappear by c.1864, exept on older women.
  
• The simple text with no adornment or logo on the reverse of the card mount points to a very early date. It was obviously produced after the opening of the branch studio in New Street, Birmingham (given by Sandy Barrie as 1861) and possibly before the Derby & Nottingham studios were opened in 1862 or 1863. Other early examples on my site are unfortunately not accurately dated, although estimates provided by David Simkin give c. 1861-1863. They all have more ornate logos than this one.

The rounded corners are unusual for the early 1860s, as is the shape of the carte de visite. The possibility has been considered that the rounding was produced by wear (in James Morley's words):

As for the rounded corners, I am in two minds. Some do look damaged, but top-left seems almost too perfect a curve. At the same time all four corners are very similar, whereas I would normally expect any damage to be uneven, particularly top-to-bottom.

The card mount measures 64 x 96 mm (photo 52.5 x 86 mm), which is somewhat shorter than the usual 64 x 104-106 mm for a carte de visite of that era. It is possible that it was an experimental format being trialled by Burton. The "Burton & Compy." on the reverse may have some significance. It has been suggested that the firm started using the name "Burton & Sons" with some regularity from about 1864, and it seems likely that the "& Compy." suffix was used before John Burton's sons became formally recognised as part of the business. However, I don't have evidence for this. As Sandy has pointed out, production of new card mounts was erratic, particularly in the early days, and it is dangerous to interpret too much from the "& Compy." Now that we have a date of c. 1860-1864 for the photograph, a further investigation can be made into the inscription. The 1871 Census indexed by Ancestry only shows one Mildred Chat(t)away, aged 10 months, in Peckleton, Leicestershire. I used wildcards in the search parameters (Mild* and Chat*w*y) to cater for alternative spellings, but there is always potential for transcription errors, so other candidates can't be ruled out. However, the FreeBMD index to birth, marriage and death records, which has almost 100% coverage of the period in question, only shows one Mildred Chat(t)away born in England between 1850 and 1880: - Births Sep Qtr 1870 : Chataway Mildred Market Bosworth Regn Dist, Vol 7a Pg 61 This makes it very unlikely that the child in the photo is Mildred Chataway, and it the possibility needs to be considered that the inscription was made at a much later date, and in error. The 1871 Census entry for this family shows a number of other older daughters of Rev. Thomas and his wife Catherine: 1871 Census: The Vicarage, Peckleton LEI Ref. RG10/3240/7/7-8/40: Thomas E. CHATTAWAY / Head / M / M / 44 / Rector of Peckleton / WAR Birmingham Catherine S. CHATTAWAY / Wife / M / F / 37 / - / WOR Redditch Katherine A. CHATTAWAY / Dau / - / F / 13 / Scholar / NTH Ecton Agnes G. CHATTAWAY / Dau / - / F / 7 / Scholar / NTH Ecton Margaret A. CHATTAWAY / Dau / - / F / 6 / - / LEI Peckleton Christiana M. CHATTAWAY / Dau / - / F / 4 / - / LEI Peckleton Ella B. CHATTAWAY / Dau / - / F / 3 / - / LEI Peckleton Mildred CHATTAWAY / Dau / - / F / 10m / - / LEI Peckleton Catherine CHATTAWAY / Mother / Wid / F / 81 / Annuitant / WAR Coventry Jessie M. GORHAM / Board / U / F / 23 / Governess / KNT Tunbridge Cecile C.V. KERR / Board / U / F / 14 / Scholar / Gibraltar Mary BARWELL / Serv / U / F / 33 / Cook Domestic / LEI Carlton Lucy LUCAS / Serv / U / F / 28 / Nurse Domestic / NTH Church Stone? Hannah JACQUES / Serv / U / F / 21 / Housemaid Domestic / STS Walsall Emma BENT / Serv / U / F / 20 / Housemaid Domestic / LEI Peckleton Martha AMOS / Serv / U / F / 14 / Under Nurse / NTH Badby
FreeBMD demonstrates that the birth of the oldest daughter, Katherine Ada Chataway, was registered in early 1858 in the Wellingborough Registration District, which includes the village of Ecton. I estimate an age of between two and three years for the girl, so Katherine might be a potential candidate if the photograph was taken, as suggested between 1860 and 1864. Birth locations of the children shown in the above census extract indicate that the family moved from Ecton (Northamptonshire) to Peckleton (Leicestershire) some time between the births of Agnes Georgina, in late 1863, and Margaret Anne, in early 1865. If indeed this picture is of members of the Chataway family, and that is by no means certain, then it is unlikely to have been taken prior to late 1863, by which time Katherine would have been almost six years old. In that case, it is more likely to have been a different daughter, perhaps Fanny Mabel, who was born at Ecton in early 1861 and died at Peckleton, aged 5, in the first half of 1866.

Many thanks to James Morley for permission to use the images of this photograph, to James, Sandy Barrie and Marcel Safier for their interesting and informative contributions to the discussion, and to Roger Vaughan and David Simkin for examples used.

Cabinet Cards - superior portraits from "High Art" photographers

The next style of photograph to be introduced for popular consumption after the carte de visite was the cabinet card. They were substantially larger than the cdv, and were clearly aimed at the upper end of the market. Although the format - a 4"x5½" photographic albumen print mounted on 4¼"x6½" card stock - was originally introduced in 1863, it was not until the mid-1870s that it became popular; this trend reached its peak between the early 1880s and the late-1890s.


One advantage of the larger format was that it enabled more detailed portraits to be produced, such as this fine vignetted head-and shoulders presentation of a young man. It was taken at the studio of W.M. Phillips in the port town of Southampton (60 Oxford Street), probably in the late 1880s, and I presume that the subject is wearing the uniform and cap of the merchant navy.


The larger area also made the task of producing less cluttered, more relaxed group portraits a great deal easier. This nicely arranged family group, probably consisting of a father with his three sons, was taken at the studio of the Burton Brothers of Dunedin, on the South Island of New Zealand.

Alfred and Walter Burton were sons of John Burton, who had started a photographic studio in the town of Leicester (England) in the late 1850s. After working with their father in England, and helping to open and run several branch studios in Birmingham, Nottingham and Derby in the early 1860s, they emigrated to New Zealand in the late 1860s. Here they developed a renowned partnership which lasted for a decade, before they split due to personal differences and went their separate ways. Alfred Burton travelled over much of New Zealand, taking magnificent landscape photographs (see below), while Walter Burton concentrated on portrait photography in Dunedin.


The Sutherland Falls Expedition. A survey party and two photographic teams at Milford Sound, New Zealand. October 1888. Taken by Burton Bros. of Dunedin. Courtesy of David Simkin.
The following advert by John Burton & Sons appeared in the Derby Mercury newspaper dated 15 May 1867 (kindly sent to me by Clyde Dissington, courtesy of The Magic Attic).


It draws attention to the cabinet portrait as "the New and Favouritre style" and as

"... the most pleasing style that has been introduced in Photography for some years. The increased size of this Portrait over the Carte de Visite offers facilities for rendering more fully the characteristics of the sitter; and it is well suited for framing, while it is equally adapted for an album."

References/Further Reading
Cabinet Card at Wikipedia
The Burton Brothers, by Tai Awatea/Knowledge Net from Te Papa Online
Burton Bros. A Portfolio of 11 South Island, New Zealand Views from the 1870s and 1880s, from PhotoForum