Sepia Saturday 273: The Automobile Association Road Patrol Service

I've been absent from both Sepia Saturday and this blog for almost a year, pursuing various other interests, but what better time than Easter Weekend (spring or autumn, depending on your location) to return to the fray.


Unidentified Automobile Association cycle scout, c. early to mid-1920s
Postcard format portrait by Morgan's Studio, Cavendish St, Chesterfield
Image © & courtesy of Simon Debell
This postcard portrait was kindly sent to me last year for use on my Derbyshire Photographers web site. It features an unidentified young man dressed in the uniform of an Automobile Association Cycle Scout with his bicycle. The donor wondered whether the uniform was a prop, but I doubt it. Morgan's Studio (Proprietor, Henry John Morgan) operated from premises at 7 Cavendish Street, Chesterfield (Derbyshire) from at least 1926 to 1932.


The Automobile Association came into existence in 1905, and my "Member's Copy" of The Road Book of England & Wales published c. 1936 (courtesy of Nigel Aspdin) has the following relating to the history of the organisation in its introductory pages:

The Road Patrol Service
... some motorists organized ... a few cyclists on the London-Brighton road whose task it was to warn all passing motorists of "police-traps" ... The week-end cyclists on the Brighton road were the first A.A. patrols. To-day more than 20,000 miles of road in the British Isles are regularly patrolled by an army in distinctive khaki uniform ... The majority of the men are mounted on motor-cycles with yellow side-cars which contain full equipment to enable the riders to deal with the minor troubles which may still beset the motorist.

Automobile Association Cycle Scout, undated
Image © Automobile Association & courtesy of Carlton Reid
The Online Bicycle Museum states that "motorcycle patrols, known as Road Service Outfits or RSOs" were introduced in 1919, and that "by 1923 there were 274 AA motorbike patrols but still 376 cyclists."


After a legal test case in 1910 involving an AA patrolman and a potentially speeding motorist, patrolmen were instructed by their superiors to salute the drivers of cars displaying the AA emblem, except when there was a speed trap nearby. The 1926 handbook stated:

It cannot be too strongly emphasised that when a patrol fails to salute, the member should stop and ask the reason why, as it is certain that the patrol has something of importance to communicate.

Arthur Wood in bus conductor's uniform, c. early to mid-1920s
Postcard format portrait by Morgan's Studio, Cavendish St, Chesterfield
Image © & courtesy of Margarey Thackray
A similar portrait by Morgan's Studio of a young man in a bus conductor's uniform, using the identical painted backdrop, has been dated to the early 1920s, and I believe the cyclist portrait to be from a similar time period.


Unidentified group in Salvation Army uniform, c. late 1920s to early 1930s
Postcard format portrait by Morgan's Studio, Cavendish St, Chesterfield
Image © & courtesy of Gill Taylor
A third "uniform" portrait from this studio shows a group from the Salvation Army, although judging from the slightly different text this photograph was probably taken a few years later. It seems unlikely that Morgan's Studio specialised in portraits of people wearing uniforms, and it's probably just chance that half of the six examples that I have from this studio are in this vein.

Now I suggest that you dust off your own cycling uniform, get your bike out of the shed, and join the rest of this week's Sepia Saturday participants for what promises to be a very pleasant excursion.

Chesterfield Photographers: H. Brawn

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).

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

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

Somebody's grandmother, by Fred Smith of Chesterfield

This carte de visite portrait of an unidentified elderly woman (with a look that you want to hide from) was taken by Fred Smith in his studio on the corner of Brewery Street and Tapton Lane, Chesterfield, Derbyshire. Smith was operating from those premises from c.1869 till c.1879, and judging from the square corners and design on the reverse of the mount, the studio setting and style of portrait, I estimate a date of no later than 1873.



Fred was actually Alfred Edward Smith, born in Coventry in 1846, who moved to Chesterfield in the 1860s, and married Scottish schoolteacher Martha Hughes in 1872. By 1881 they had left Derbyshire and were in Holdenhurst near Bournemouth (Hampshire).

It is possible that his studio was then taken over by the celebrated Chesterfield photographer Alfred Seaman, who operated from premises at that ocation from the late 1870s.


Post Script
I was indeed being a little unkind, but then I'm allowed to be a little provocative, occasionally, if it gets people commenting? An enlargement shows quite different left and right sides to her face. If you cover the right hand side, the baleful stare has almost disappeared and she looks substantially younger. I wonder if she'd had a stroke?

The Buck Inn (Hempton, Norfolk) by Alfred Seaman

John Bradley recently sent me this intriguing image of a mounted albumen print (202 x 134 mm) of two carts in front of a large stone and brick building with a tiled roof which had previously been framed. The reason for his - and my - particular interest is that on the back is the nice clear stamp of Chesterfield photographer Alfred Seaman.



ALFRED SEAMAN
Portrait, View & Landscape
- PHOTOGRAPHER -
BREWERY STREET
Opposite the Railway Station
- CHESTERFIELD -
In view of the fact that the name states only Alfred Seaman, not his sons, and the Brewery Street studio address only is listed, this suggests that it was taken early in his career, perhaps between 1879 and 1882. A carte de visite with identical studio address from my profile portfolio of Seaman photographs is shown below.


Elizabeth Fox née Green (b. 12 April 1846)
by A. Seaman of Brewery Street, Chesterfield
Undated, but probably taken c.1880
Image © & courtesy of Jeanne Fox
Although John Bradley's mounted albumen print does not have a caption, he was able to deduce the approximate location as being near to Fakenham in Norfolk from a detailed examination of the signs in the photograph.


An enlargement of the signpost visible on the right hand side reveals the destinations, Sculthorpe, Shereford and Raynham.


View Larger Map
The most suitable location for a signpost with this particular configuration would be at the junction of current A1065 (Raynham Road) and the Shereford Road, in the small village of Hempton, as shown in the GoogleMaps satellite image below.


View Larger Map
It appears that the building shown in the old print may even still exist - the long building, or series of connected buildings, oriented roughly east-west and situated directly to the east of the crossroads in the image above - although there may have been some modifications, particularly in the roof line.


The sign which hangs from a post situated prominently at the corner of the building clearly states, "The Buck Inn," unfortunately with little in the way of decoration or further embellishment.


However, another sign above the doorway reveals considerably more:

GEORGE GATES
LICENSED TO SELL
WINES[?] ... BRITISH SPIRITS[?]
ALE PORTER & TOBACCO

This was the classic sign seen above licensed premises, probably required by law. A similar sign from Goole, possibly in the 1880s or 1890s, reads, "William Ross Cattanach, licensed to sell British and foreign spirituous liquors, ale, porter and tobacco." (Source: Boothferry Road, Goole - A History by Susan Butler)


In the doorway stands a middle-aged or elderly woman wearing a white apron, apparently with her left hand on the door latch, and a large bonnet in her right hand. Directly in front of her stands a boy, perhaps in his early teens, dressed in a suit and bowler hat, holding in his left hand the bridle of a pony which is harnessed to an empty two-wheeled cart.


To the left of the building is another two-wheeled cart, piled high with barrels. Initially, I thought that it was parked at the side of the building, but a closer look shows the legs of a horse, and perhaps a boy leading the horse, and I now believe that the cart is heading north along the main road. A wall is visible in the background, and there are some more buildings in the distance.

Examination of census records, trade directories and data provided by the Norfolk Public Houses database shows that George Gates was proprietor of the Buck Inn in the village of Hempton from 1865 until 1881. He was born in Hempton in 1818 and was a bootmaker before taking over the Buck Inn from Robert Brundle in the early to mid-1860s. He died at the age of 64 in 1882, and his widow Mary Ann Gates continued to run the inn until she, too, died in 1897. It seems likely that it is she who stands in the doorway in John's photo. Their son Robert Gates (1859-) took it over before 1900 and was the landlord for a few years, but appears to have sold the business to a William Howe by November 1908. It is interesting to note that there were no less than three inns in Hempton for a population of just 566 inhabitants in 1881 - the other two were The King's Head and The Bell - but I suppose they were coaching inns and relied mostly on passing trade.


Hempton village, with the tower mill (center) and the Buck Inn right), taken in 1910
Image © & courtesy of Jonathan Neville & Norfolk Mills
Jonathan Neville's web page devoted to the Hempton towermill has a number photographs of the mill, several of which include the building of the Buck Inn, over a period from 1905 to c.1930. The photograph reproduced above is dated 1910, and shows the Buck Inn building at the right, largely unchanged from the days of John Bradley's albumen print thirty odd years earlier.

John Bradley posed the question as to why Alfred Seaman, a studio photographer based in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, should be taking photographs, even if they were commissions, over a hundred miles away in rural Norfolk. Both of us are well aware of Seaman's Norfolk connections. He was born in the village of East Lexham, married a young woman from Walsingham, and first settled in the town of Fakenham, before moving several times and ending up in Derbyshire by the mid-1870s. Family members have provided photographic evidence that Seaman did return to Norfolk in the 1890s to visit family members and take their portraits, so it is quite conceivable that he was making such visits in the early 1880s too. Whether he was related to George Gates or his wife Mary Ann (maiden surname Loads) in some way is not known.

References

Trade Directories from the University of Leicester's Historical Directories
- Pigot's Directory of Norfolk, 1839
- Craven & Co.'s Commercial Directory of Norfolk, 1856
- Post Office Directory of Cambs, Norfolk & Suffolk, 1869
- Harrod & Co.'s Directory of Norfolk & Lowestoft, 1877
- History, Gazetteer & Directory of Norfolk, 1883
Francis White's History, Gazetteer and Directory of Norfolk 1854, pp. 698-699, by Paddy Apling
Buck, Hempton on Norfolk Public Houses, A listing by Richard Bristow
Hempton Towermill, by Jonathan Neville
Indexed 1841-1901 UK Census images from Ancestry
GRO Birth, Marriage & Death Indexes from FreeBMD

Moorhay Farm, Old Brampton & J.H. Gaunt of Chesterfield

Bill Addy recently sent me an interesting photograph of a farmyard scene, with some questions about the date it might have been taken, and who the photographer might have been.

The photo, as we have been told, is of Moorhay Farm near Old Brampton showing my paternal great-grandfather and great-grandmother, Edward and Emma (Hardwick) Addy. They leased the farm from the Sitwell family and were the last of the Addys to farm there. Edward died in 1882 and Emma in 1885, both at Moorhay Farm. Both sons, John & Edward (my grandfather), as I understood it, were considered too young to continue farming there ... My grandfather emigrated a few years later to Canada & USA. The photo then must be in or prior to 1882.


I am attaching the matted photo and reverse side (the writing I believe to be my father's notation).


Also as the name JH Gaunt, Chesterfield is almost invisible on the photo I did a rubbing of the name and have also added that to the attachments. I have an interest in the photo but also in the Gaunt name as that was my grandmother Addy's maiden name (Mary Louisa Gaunt). But the only JH Gaunt is a John Henry Gaunt born 1857-8 , a 1st cousin of my grandmother. I can not find him in any directory I have. He was listed in the census as a musician, organist and owned a music store, and was married to Mennette Ball.

My original thinking was that this was a photographer, but having looked around, including your list of Derbyshire photographers, now am of the opinion he probably was in the picture framing business. Might you have any knowledge of this JH Gaunt. Was he the photographer or simply a framer? Also can you give me an approximate date for the photo?

I tried to digitally enhance the blindstamp from the original scanned image, but couldn't get a much better result than Bill's pencil rubbing. However, it's enough to show that it must have been a professionally produced embossing stamp.


My take is that it would be very unusual for a person merely mounting the photograph on the card to have "signed" their name using a blind stamp on the front of the card mount in this manner. If anything, the framer or picture mounter would use a label on the reverse. However, it was very common for photographers to use this method, particularly if they had a small output, were just starting out, or perhaps took photographs as a sideline. It meant that the photographer could put his mark on a photo in a fairly professional manner, without going to the significant expense and committment of ordering several hundred mounts printed with his or her name.

The photograph itself is a rather difficult one to date. The working clothes worn by the elderly man and woman would have changed little over the decades, and I suppose it is conveivable that from this alone, it could have been taken any time from the 1880s through to the early 1900s. The mount looks to me somewhat later, and I wonder if J.H. Gaunt has mounted an old print at a later date, or perhaps copied the print and mounted it later. If you had not mentioned anything about the date, I would probably have estimated that it was taken in the 1890s or early 1900s.

Then there is the matter of exposure times - the fact that most of the chickens, ducks and perhaps the odd goose are fairly sharp makes me think that a relatively short exposure time was used. This would have been possible by around 1880, provided that there was plenty of sunlight, such as in this outdoor setting. However, I think it's unlikely to have been much earlier. According to Brian Coe's The Birth of Photography (Spring Books, London, 1989, IBSN 0 600 56296 4), the invention of dry-plate photography by Charles Bennett in London in 1878, and the resulting swift introduction of "faster" emulsions, meant that much shorter exposure times were achievable - up to a tenth of what had been the norm.

John Henry Gaunt was born c. 1858 at Brampton, the only son of Henry Gaunt (1830-1908) and Esther Doe (1830-1878), and as a young man he followed his father into the butcher's trade. Both are listed as butchers in the 1881 Census and in the 1887 edition of Kelly's trade directory. By 1891, however, JHG was describing himself as a teacher of music, living at 64/66 Chatsworth Road, New Brampton. He was married in 1892 to Mennette Ellen Ball, and by 1895 (Kelly) he was a "teacher of music & musical instrument dealer" at 77 Chatsworth road, Chesterfield. The 1899 edition of Kelly's shows him as a "musical instrument dealer" of West bars, Chesterfield, and the 1901 census as a "Musical Inst. Dealer & Teacher of Music" working from home on his own account at 2 Clarence Rd, Chesterfield. Kelly (1912) shows him again as a "musical instrument dlr." at 39 West bars, Chesterfield. I found not a single reference to him working as a photographer.

Extract from Letter by Mr S.E. Hudson of Matlock Road, Chesterfield in an unidentified newspaper article, dated ...uary 18, 1975 (courtesy of Bill Addy)

Mr J.H. Gaunt was for many years organist at the Soresby Street Congregational Church, until the early '30s. He had a musical instruments shop at the foot of Clarence Road, and was a teacher of music. He was a very gallant man inasmuch as being virtually crippled by arthritis he could only get about with great difficulty, nut none-the-less pursued his organist position ... The shop that Mr. Gaunt had was subsequently used by the late Dr. Reginald Cooper, the organist, as a music teaching studio, and at the present time is the antiques shop belonging to Mr. John Madin.

I suspect that he was either an amateur who had an embossing stamp made with which to "sign" his work, or more likely that he tried his hand at commercial photography, perhaps starting off by canvassing his extended family for potential clients. This excursion or sideline from his main profession as a music teacher and musical instrument dealer would not have been particularly unusual.

However, I am not at all certain about the date of the photograph, and would welcome opinions from readers, please.

Large format group portrait from A. Seaman & Sons

Anne Simpson sent me this image of another example from A. Seaman & Sons a couple of months ago.


The men in the photo are, from left, Edward Douglas Brown, William Brown, George Brown, Hugh Brown & Samuel Brown. According to Anne, all but Samuel were tailors in Chesterfield. Examination of census records shows that the oldest brothers George and Edward Douglas arrived with their wives in Chesterfield in the mid-1870s, setting up as clothiers/tailors, followed shortly by William, who was apprenticed to George in 1881. The youngest brother Hugh followed in the late 1880s, and by 1891 George had moved to Wingerworth.

Photographers often advertised that they could enlarge photographs "up to life size," but in practice anything larger than a cabinet card (4" x 6" or 107 x 165 mm) is not often seen - at least in my experience. It's nice therefore to receive an image of an example of a larger format. This mount measures 215 x 163 mm (or roughly 8½" x 6½"), while the photographic print itself is 200 x 155 mm.

Men's clothing is always hard to date, as it didn't change with as much frequency as women's fashions did. However, the thick, glossy dark green card used for the mount is typical of that used for both cartes de visite and cabinet cards from the late 1880s and throughout the 1890s. The firm only started advertising itself with the "& Sons" suffix in the late 1880s, so it is safe to assume that it is was not produced before around 1887.


The back of the mount has a label affixed to it, which is to be expected. A studio would be less likely to go to the additional expense of ordering pre-printed mounts of this size if they were not used often. The label states that the firm of "A. Seaman & Sons" had branches in Chesterfield, Matlock Bath, Ilkeston and Alfreton. Although the other three studios were all in existence for lengthy periods, Matlock Bath very rarely gets a mention, at least on the mounts that I have seen. I believe Alfred used to travel there to take portraits on a regular basis at Smedley's Hydro, rather than have a permanent studio there.


However, from the style of the studio furniture and painted backdrop, I suspect that this group portrait was probably taken in the early to mid-1890s, say between 1891 and 1896. Although the elaborately upholstered chairs with tassells and fringes were more commonly used in the late 1870s and 1880s, I know that Seaman continued to use his well into the 1890s because they are a regular feature of other portraits from that decade on my web portfolio of him.

Bowls players in Chesterfield, Derbyshire

Since this seems to be developing into something of a "Seaman & Sons" week, here is another by the firm, a interesting postcard from John Bradley showing a group of men partaking in a game of bowls.


John Bradley writes:

This [recently acquired] postcard has a small blind stamp 'A SEAMAN & SONS' in the bottom right corner, but it doesn’t show very well in the scans. I have seen the same blind stamp on one or two of Alfred's stereocards. I believe the location to be Chesterfield Bowling Green. It has a distinctive wall around it which I a compared with the photo the other day, and the buildings seen over the wall are I believe Bath Street. Chesterfield bowling green has a plaque saying that it is one of the earliest surviving examples - having been built in the 14th century. We know from his obituary that Alfred was a member of the Chesterfield Bowling Club. so these seem likely to be some of his friends having a game.

The message on the reverse, written in black ink, reads:

Dear George With kind regards for a Bright happy Christmas Wishing you all a happy New Year Do you know this Your loving uncle W W

... which unfortunately doesn't provide any obvious clues to the identity of the bowls players. From the design of the postcard and the clothes worn by the subjects, I estimate that it was probably taken around 1910, plus or minus a few years. Alfred Seaman died in 1910, but it may have been taken by one of his sons - F.J. Seaman was also an entusiastic bowls player. I'm not familiar with Chesterfield geography, least of all the location and environs of the Bowling Green, so perhaps there are some readers out there who might be able to confirm the location of the picture or shed some light on who the people might be.

Maybe a kind reader who plays bowls can tell us whether the lawn has been cut low enough to play on? The grass looks pretty long to me.

An early Seaman portrait : Mary Louisa Gaunt (1869-1965)

Bill Addy from New Jersey in the United States sent me this image of a carte de visite portrait of his paternal grandmother Mary Louisa Gaunt.

The photo is of my grandmother Mary Louisa Gaunt (not married at the time) who was born 7 Dec 1869 in New Brampton and died 27 Dec 1965 at Roosevelt Hospital, Edison, NJ, USA. She emigrated to Canada Oct 1895 and married my grandfather Edward Addy, Oct 23, 1895 in Magog, Quebec, Canada. He had come a few years earlier and was working in Magog at the time. He was born at Moorhay Farm near Old Brampton where the family had farmed for many years. In 1900 with three young children they emigrated from Canada to New Brunswick, NJ, USA where my grandfather worked for Johnson & Johnson, the pharmaceutical company (world headquarters) as a supervisor.

The photo was recently found in our attic and had been in possession of my grandparents and then our parents. I can only guess the age of the photo as taken sometime in the mid to late 1880's. Perhaps you can narrow it down further.

The card mount, the reverse of which is shown above, has a similar design to one that I have estimated (in my profile of the studio of Alfred Seaman & Sons) was used between c.1881 and 1886, but with gold ink on a glossy dark brown card instead of dark brown ink on a pale yellow or beige card (see below). It is worth noting that in very busy studios such as this one, new batches of card mounts were probably ordered on a fairly frequent basis, perhaps as often as every six months to a year. One of Alfred Seaman's sons probably started to work for him as early as 1881, but I don't believe that the firm was actually advertised as "A. Seaman & Sons" (later it was more often just "Seaman & Sons") until around 1887. This card mount merely uses the name, "A. Seaman." The reverse of the card mount lists the branches in Brewery and Burlington Streets. By May 1886, the Burlington Street branch appears to have been closed and replaced by another in Corporation Street, so we can surmise that the card mounts were at least ordered prior to that date. It also seems have been produced before to their opening of another branch studio in Ilkeston, which happened around 1886-1887.

The clothes worn by the girl/young woman, the style of the photograph and the design of the carte de visite card mount all point to a date of the early to mid 1880s, perhaps slightly earlier than the mid- to late 1880s which Bill suggested. The tight, frilled collar, with a brooch at her neck, the shape of the hat, the rounded shoulders, vertical row of buttons, and tight, narrow sleeves all suggest to me a date of between 1882 and 1886-ish. The intricate and elaborate embroidery on the tight-fitting bodice of her dress, especially, is characteristic of this period. There is a similar example on Roger Vaughan's web site, tentatively dated at 1883.

I suggest, therefore, that this portrait was probably taken between c.1884 and early 1886. It's difficult to accurately estimate the age of the young woman in your photograph, particularly as she may have been wearing a corset, but I think she is probably in her mid-teens, say between 14 and 17. This appears to fit well with your identification of the subject as your grandmother Mary Louisa Gaunt, who was born on 7 December 1869 - she would have been fifteen years old for most of 1885.


It's also worth noting that the item of studio furniture - actually a fake pillar and balustrade, probably made of wood and plaster - is identical to that pictured in a portrait of an unidentified couple sent to me by John Bradley, and included on my Seaman web page. That one is on what I have assumed to be the slightly earlier "dark brown on pale yellow" card mount, and must, I think, have been taken at around the same time as Bill's photograph. The painted backdrop may be different, although it is more likely to be just another part of the same one.

John Stringfellow of Chesterfield and Sheffield

John Stringfellow was born at Ecclesfield, near Sheffield, Yorkshire, in 1833, one of five children of James Stringfellow (1797-1828) and his wife Hannah. John Stringfellow's father died in July 1837 when he was only four, and he and his siblings grew up living with their mother in Attercliffe cum Darnall, near Sheffield. He married Elizabeth Wade Bartram Houlden (b. 1840 Sheffield) at St Phillip, Sheffield on 4 September 1866, and they had three children (a son and twin daughters) between then and 1872. His uncle, and namesake, John Stringfellow (1799-1883) developed a remarkable ability in designing and building light steam engines, and later - with William S. Henson and others - achieved some considerable fame as an aeronautical engineer and his work on the Aerial Steam Carriage.

In his teens he worked as an attorney's clerk, and is shown as such in the 1851 Census (30 March; PRO Ref. HO107/2342/461/1/3), when he was living with his mother and two siblings at Glass House, Attercliffe cum Darnall. It seems likely, however, that he took up photography in the early 1850s, and operated a travelling studio. Adamson (1997) states that John Stringfellow was "formerly of Lyme Regis, Somerset [in] March 1858," and "already a widely travelled itinerant [when he] came to Chesterfield in December 1858." He was briefly in partnership with George Edgar, another itinerant photographer who originally came from Sheffield, in December 1858 and early 1859 at Saltergate, but when Edgar moved on, Stringfellow remained in Chesterfield.


Advertisement from Harrison & Harrod's 1860 Trade Directory
Image © & courtesy of Christine Hibbert
Harrison & Harrod's Trade Directory for 1860, presumably compiled in late 1859, contains an advertisement (shown above) inserted by Stringfellow in which he publicized his availablity to take photographic portraits, including stereoscopic images, still at Saltergate. The 1861 Census (7 April; PRO Ref. RG9/2527/108/24/148), shows John Stringfellow lodging at the Spread Eagle Inn, Beetwell Street, Chesterfield. Both he and fellow lodger Paul Turner are described as "photographist jour.[neymen]."

Adamson (1883 & 1997) states that Stringfellow was working in Chesterfield for at least another year, and infers that between 1862 and 1867 he moved to Sheffield.


It seems likely that this was around July 1864, when Stringfellow was ordered, in the County Court at Derby, to be prosecuted for bankruptcy in the County Court at Chesterfield [Source: The Derby Mercury, dated 20 July 1864]. John's first child Henry, who died in infancy, was born at Nether Hallam in early 1867, as were two further sons, John Henry in early 1868 and Percy Edward in August 1870. Percy Edward died in mid-1871.

The first records of him working in Sheffield are for 1867 and 1868, when he operated a studio in Alma Street. By early 1871 (2 April; PRO Ref. RG10/4664/94/34/175) the family was living at 77 Prospect Street, Nether Hallam, and in that year Stringfellow was working from premises at 13a Fargate, taking over from photographer George Washington Unwin, who moved to Matlock Bath in Derbyshire. Adamson next shows Stringfellow at 5 Chapel Walk from 1877, although it is not clear where he was working in the intervening period. Since his predecessor at this address, James Thomas, had apparently moved on by the end of 1871, it is probable that Stringfellow took over the premises at that time, and that trade directory and other listings for the period 1872-1876 have merely not yet been discovered. By 1881 (Census, 3 April; PRO Ref. RG11/4626/94/38) the family had moved their residence to 79 Fulton Road.


The carte de visite portrait of a young family shown above is an example from the Chapel Walk, Fargate studio. From the woman's clothing and the square corners I estimate it was taken some time between 1873 and 1876.

On 17 Feb 1882 the Sheffield newspapers reported that John Stringfellow had died "suddenly on the Midland Railway" at the age of 48, and he was buried at Sheffield Fulwood Christ Church on 22 Feb 1882. His widow and their three children continued living in Fulton Road until at least 1891 (5 April; PRO Ref. RG12/3798/67/36/241). Elizabeth Stringfellow was "living on her own means." Anderson (1983) shows her operating the studio at Chapel Walk in 1887, although he also lists the same premises as continuing under her late husband's name until 1889. It is possible that their surviving son John Henry Stringfellow helped to run the business for a while, although by 1891 he was working as a brass finisher.

References

Adamson, Keith I.P., MSc, ARPS, (Jun 1983) Professional Photographers in Sheffield & Rotherham 1843-1900, Royal Photographic Society Historical group
Adamson, Keith I.P., MSc, FRPS, (Sep 1997) Professional Photographers in Derbyshire 1843-1914, Supplement No. 118 to The PhotoHistorian, ISSN 0957-0209
1841-1901 Census indexed images, from Ancestry
International Genealogical Index (IGI) on FamilySearch
GRO Birth, Marriage & Death Indexes from FreeBMD
The Derby Mercury newspaper, various dates