CollingsAEsmé   - Brighton

[ABOVE] A cabinet portrait from the studio of A. Esmé Collings of 69 Western Road, Brighton and 69 New Bond Street, London (c1890).

 Arthur Albert Collings* was born towards the end of 1859 at Weston-super-Mare, Somerset [birth registered in the Axbridge district of Somerset during the Fourth Quarter of 1859]. Arthur Albert Collings was the youngest son of James Collings (born c1816, Weston-super-Mare), a successful bootmaker, and his wife Elizabeth (born c1818, Gloucestershire). The couple's eldest son, James White Collings (born 1851, Weston-super-Mare), became a master printer, but Arthur Collings and his brother, William Edward Collings (born 1856, Weston-super-Mare), followed their father's trade of bootmaking.

At the time of the 1881 census, Arthur Collings and his older brother William were living with their parents at 59 Bristol Road, Weston-super-Mare. Their sixty-five year old father, James Collings, is entered on the census return as a "Bootmaker, employing 10 persons". Arthur Collings, aged 21, and his twenty-four year old brother, William, are both described on the census return as bootmakers. James W. Collings, Arthur's eldest brother had left Weston-super-Mare and was working in London as a master printer. In 1880, James W. Collings had married Mary Ann Roberts (born c1853, Camberwell) and was living in Camberwell in South London.

In 1887, Arthur Albert Collings married Keturah Anne Beedle (born 1862, Weston-super-Mare), the daughter of William Henry Beedle (born c1831, Bristol), an upholsterer and house furnisher, and his wife Eliza (born c1833, Wales). Both Arthur and his wife Keturah had artistic talent and it is possible that they were brought together through their interest in art. It is very probable that at the time of their marriage, Arthur and his wife were working as artists or photographers. Around the time of his marriage to Keturah Beedle, Arthur Collings entered into a business partnership with the photographer William Friese Greene (1855-1921), who had previously operated studios in Bristol and Bath and was later to gain some notice as a pioneer in making "moving pictures".

* Arthur Collings adopted the middle name of Esmé around the time he started his solo career as a professional photographer. Arthur Collings' business partner, William Friese Greene, began life with the equally ordinary name of William Green, but he added an 'e' on to the end of his surname and then combined it with the surname of his first wife, Victoria Mariana Helena Friese.

[ABOVE] The trade plate of A. Esmé Collings of 69 Western Road, Brighton and 69 New Bond Street, London taken from the reverse of a cabinet portrait (1890).

[ABOVE] William Friese Greene (1855-1921).

The partnership of Arthur Esmé Collings and William Friese Greene

[ABOVE] William Friese Greene (1855-1921). As a professional photographer, Friese Greene established portrait studios in Bath, Bristol and Plymouth. By 1886, Friese Greene had acquired two studios in London. Around 1887, Arthur Esmé Collings became a partner in Friese Greene's London studios. The partnership of Friese Greene and Collings operated studios in London at 69 New Bond Street, 92 Piccadilly and 100 Westbourne Grove.

 William Friese Greene was born in Bristol on 7th September 1855 . He was the son of a metalworker and at birth he had been given the plain name of William Edward Green. After he married Victoria Mariana Helena Friese, the daughter of a Swiss baron, in 1874, the young photographer used the grander sounding surname of Friese Greene.

William Friese Green began his photographic career in 1869 when he was apprenticed to the Polish-born Bristol photographer Marcus Guttenberg * (c1830-1891). After Guttenberg moved north to Lancashire in 1874, Friese-Greene worked as a photographer's assistant to Mrs H. R. Williams of Bath. By 1877, Friese-Greene had opened his own photographic studio at 34 Gay Street, Bath. Over the next four years, Friese-Greene opened branch studios in Bath, Bristol and Plymouth.

In 1885, Friese Greene decided to establish branch studios in London and so he travelled up to the capital to find suitable premises in the West End. Friese-Greene found two serviceable rooms above the shop of Atloff & Norman, Bootmakers, at 69 New Bond Street, W. London. A second London studio was established at 92 Piccadilly, W. London. Friese-Greene's finances were stretched and he struggled to find money to pay the high rents for the London studios. Around 1887, he invited Arthur Collings to join him in his photography business. Arthur Collings entered into a working partnership with Friese Greene and with the financial backing of his older brother James White Collings, Arthur agreed to share the cost of running the two London studios.  [James White Collings, following the example of his two studio partners, changed his middle name from 'White' to the more distinctive 'Whyte', when he entered the photography business]. From this date, the studios at 69 New Bond Street and 92 Piccadilly carried the name of Friese Greene & Collings.[The three partners in the firm were William Friese Greene, Arthur Collings, and Arthur's brother, who was now calling himself James Whyte Collings. ]The business partnership of Friese Greene & Collings opened a third studio in the Notting Hill area of London at 100 Westbourne Grove. By 1888, Friese Greene & Collings had established a branch studio on the South Coast at 69 Western Road, Hove, close to the boundary with Brighton.

[ABOVE] The reverse of a carte-de-visite produced at William Friese-Greene's New Bond Street studio in London around 1886. A year later Arthur Esmé Collings entered into a business partnership with Friese Greene at 69 New Bond Street. Friese Greene and Collings also operated studios at 92 Piccadilly and 100 Westbourne Grove.

 The London studio of Friese Greene & Collings

[ABOVE] A fashionable lady views two cabinet photographs ( from a cartoon published in the mid 1880s ). Between 1886 and 1888 Winifred Tagg served as a receptionist for the photographers Arthur Collings and William Friese Greene and later provided an eye-witness account of their business relationship.

 

Studios of Friese Greene & Collings

69 New Bond Street, London, W. (1887-1888)

92 Piccadilly, London, W. (1887-1888)

100 Westbourne Grove, London, W. (1887-1888)

69 Western Road, Hove (1888)

The business partnership between Arthur Collings and William Friese Greene was observed by Winifred Tagg (born 1871, Hornsey, London), who worked for the photographers at 69 New Bond Street between 1886 and 1888. Winifred Tagg began working as a receptionist and assistant at the New Bond Street studio in 1886 when she was 15 years of age. The daughter of Charlotte and Robert Tagg, a London silversmith, Winifred earned 15 shillings a week at the Friese Greene & Collings studio. Winifred Tagg's memories of the studio and her two employers were recorded in 1948 by William Friese Greene's biographer, Ray Allister (Muriel Forth) :

"Miss Tagg went to the post with enthusiasm. She liked her employers. Real gentlemen. Always smartly dressed. Friese-Green always smiling. Collins (sic) a little more distant, but always kind.

She was surprised that such nice gentlemen should put up with such cramped, shabby accommodation. The narrow stairs were dark, except for the gleam of the brass treads kept bright by the charwoman. The studio itself was carpeted with oil cloth which had large, ugly, ragged gaps in it that nobody seemed to think it necessary to have filled. The dressing room was narrow, cold, dark, and furnished only with a deplorable horse-hair sofa and a paint-shy, second hand dressing table. Such a mean setting was incredible, considering the people who came to be photographed. Titled people. Society ladies .... 'ladies from Queen Victoria's drawing-room' in their Court dresses and feathers and veils."

'Friese-Greene: Close-up of an Inventor' by Ray Allister (Muriel Forth). Marsland Publications, 1948. pp 34-35

 

 

[ABOVE] A carte-de-visite portrait by William Friese Greene (c1880)

Arthur Esmé Collings ends his partnership with Friese Greene

[ABOVE] A photographic studio employing electric light in the 1880s. A. Esmé Collings fell out with his business partner William Friese Greene over the cost of supplying electricity to their Piccadilly studio

The former Studios of Friese Greene & Collings after 1888
69 New Bond Street, London W.  to  James W. & Arthur Esmé Collings (from 1888)

                                                  to  Arthur  Esmé Collings (from 1890)

92 Piccadilly, London, W.                   to  William Friese Greene (from 1888)

100 Westbourne Grove, London, W.     to  Wm Friese Greene (from 1888)

69 Western Road, Hove (1887)             to  A. Esmé Collings (from 1888)

[ABOVE] How the three partners in Friese Greene & Collings ( William Friese Greene, Arthur Esme Collings and James Whyte Collings) divided the studios between them after the business partnership was dissolved in May 1888.

 Winifred Tagg, the young receptionist at the New Bond Street studio, also witnessed the deteriorating business relationship between the partners and the increasing personal friction between Collings and Friese Greene. According to Winifred, Collings was irritated by Friese Greene's slapdash business methods, irregular working hours and poor time-keeping. Apparently, Friese Greene would leave the studio early on Friday afternoon and would not return until Monday lunchtime and Collings clearly resented these long weekend absences. Winifred remembered that even during the week, Friese Greene would leave the studio and "disappear for hours on end" and when he eventually returned to the studio, he would be confronted by an exasperated Collings, who would deliver "a sharp comment on something left undone, an appointment forgotten". Miss Tagg observed that as time went on, the quarrels between the two partners became more and more frequent.

Financial problems were also placing a strain on the partners' business relationship. Around 1888, Friese Greene arranged for electricity to be supplied to the branch establishment at 92 Piccadilly, so that photographic portraits could be taken by electric light in an underground studio. Friese Greene contracted the London Electric Light Company to supply a specially strong current of 4,000 candle power at the Piccadilly studio. When Friese Greene refused to pay the electricity bill, the London Electric Light Company threatened to sue the firm of Friese Greene & Collings. William Friese Greene responded by making a counter-claim against the London Electric Light Company. Friese Green argued that the electric supply had had not been satisfactory and, as a result, the studio had suffered a loss of business. The weekly receipts at the Piccadilly studio had fallen from Ł80 a week to about Ł20. Ray Allister (Muriel Forth), William Friese Greene's biographer, believed that the threatened legal battle with the electric light company and the perceived financial mismanagement by Friese Greene caused Arthur Collings to quit the partnership :

"Esmé Collin(g)s apparently thought there was another explanation for the reduced takings, blamed Friese-Greene, quarrelled so violently that the partnership split up"  ('Friese-Greene: Close-up of an Inventor', page 61.)

After the partnership of Friese Greene & Collings was dissolved in May 1888, the firm's studios were divided between the two photographers. Arthur Albert Collings (who by this date had assumed the artistic sounding name of A. Esmé Collings) with the financial support of his older brother, James Whyte Collings, took over the running of the studio at 69 New Bond Street. James White (Whyte) Collings, who was still in the printing trade, seems to have been a sleeping partner in the photography firm of J. W. & A. E. Collins. In the 1890 Post Office Directory for London, the studio at 69 New Bond Street appears under the name of Whyte Collings Ltd, which is probably a condensed form of James Whyte Collings & A. Esmé Collings Ltd. Arthur's brother, James Whyte Collings **, established his own London studio at 404 Oxford Street around 1889. Subsequently, James Whyte Collings opened a second studio at 53 High Street, Kensington. In 1890, James Whyte Collings sold his Kensington studio to the London photographer Mark Vivian (born c1850, Hackney). By this date, James White (Whyte) Collings had given up his interest in photography and was concentrating on his printing business. James Collings allowed his younger brother Arthur to take control of the London studio at 69 Bond Street. By the end of 1890, the studio at 69 New Bond Street and the branch studio at 69 Western Road, Hove were both under the ownership of Arthur Esmé Collings Limited.
 **James White Collings (also known as James Whyte Collings) was born in 1851 at Weston-Super-Mare. He established his own printing business in London and in 1880 he married Mary Ann Roberts (born c1852 Camberwell). Around 1887, James Collings joined his younger brother, Arthur Esmé Collings, in the portrait photography business. By 1891, James White Collings had returned to his printing business and in the 1901 census he is recorded in Battersea as a "Printer", aged 50. James White Collings died at the age of 59 in the Wandsworth district of London in 1910.

Arthur Esmé Collings in Brighton & Hove

[ABOVE] A cabinet portrait from the studio of A. Esmé Collings of 69 Western Road, Brighton and 69 New Bond Street, London (1890).

 After the break up of his partnership with William Friese Greene in 1888, Arthur Esmé Collings moved down to Brighton, Sussex to take personal charge of the studio at 69 Western Road, Hove. At the time of the 1891 census, Arthur and Keturah Collings were residing at 59 Dyke Road, Brighton. Arthur A. Collings is recorded in the census return as an "Artist Photographer" aged 31. No occupation is given for his twenty-nine year old wife, but presumably Keturah assisted her husband in his photographic studio in Western Road. At the end of 1892, Keturah gave birth to a son named Arthur Cyril Esmé Collings [birth registered in Brighton during the Fourth Quarter of 1892]. Sometime before 1899, Arthur Collings and his family moved to 13 Alexandra Villas, Albert Road, in the West Hill area of Brighton.

Arthur Esmé Collings ran the studio at 69 Western Road, Hove from around 1888 to 1893. About 1893, Collings transferred his studio to 120 Western Road, Hove. The name of A. Esme Collings was attached to the photographic studio in Western Road, Hove from about 1890 to 1915. On the 1901 census return, Collings gives his real name of Arthur Albert Collings and the enumerator  describes him as a "Photographer ( Employer )" aged 41. The Hove based photographer is shown living at 13 Alexandra Villas, Albert Road, Brighton with his wife Keturah Ann Collings, aged 39,and their 8 year old son Arthur Cyril Esmé Collings.

 Around 1902, Esmé Collings took over a second studio at 89 Kings Road, Brighton, but this branch studio operated for only a couple of years. For a brief period around 1905, Esmé Collings was also in business at 143 Ditchling Road, Brighton, but by 1906 this studio had also closed. Collings was personally in charge of the studio at 120 Western Road, Hove until the Spring of 1906. On 24th May 1906, the studio in Western Road, Hove was brought under the control of the firm Esmé Collings (Hove) Ltd.  

From around 1898 Arthur Esmé Collings was focussing on his talents as a miniature painter (see below) and so for much of the time he left the portrait photography side of his business to his partners and associates. By 1906  Arthur Esmé Collings was not actively involved in taking portraits at the Western Road studio. There is some evidence that Arthur Esmé Collings had moved back to London before 1905. His wife, Keturah Collings, had opened her studio at 16 North Audley Street, London around 1905

In July 1910, Esmé Collings Ltd was registered as a listed company. The studio still traded under the name of "Esme Collings", but the firm of Esmé Collings Ltd consisted of three photographers Albert Winder Grant, Hal (Henry) Lawrence (born 1873, Nottingham) and William Leonard  Staines (born 1881, London). The London firm of Esme Collings Ltd  was dissolved in June 1913.

The studio at 120 Western Road, Hove carried the name of Esmé Collings Ltd until the beginning of the First World War. The studio is listed in Kelly's Sussex Directory of 1915, but it had closed down by 1918.

[ABOVE] A carte-de-visite portrait of a girl taken by A. Esmé Collings at his "West Brighton" studio at 120 Western Road, Hove. Inscribed on the reverse of the photograph are the words "from Dorothy for Sibil, 1897"

Arthur Esmé Collings Limited in London, Liverpool and Manchester

Arthur Esmé Collings owned a number of photographic studios in London between 1888 and 1906. Esmé Collings had taken over complete control of the studio at 69 New Bond Street around 1890. Various studios in London's New Bond Street carried the name of Esmé Collings until about 1906. Arthur Collings had moved the London branch studio from No 69 to 175 New Bond Street around 1894. The firm of Arthur Esmé Collings Limited continued at 175 New Bond Street until 1904. In 1903, two studios were listed under the firm's name - 175 New Bond Street and 52 New Bond Street. Between 1901 and 1902, an additional studio was located at 5 Golden Square, near Regent Street. By 1905, Arthur Esmé Collings Limited was running just one London studio at the new address of 171 New Bond Street. This studio was still listed in a 1910 commercial directory for London. Arthur's wife, Keturah Collings, opened her studio at 16 North Audley Street around 1905 and is listed at this address in London trade directories until at least 1908. In 1910, Keturah Collings was based at 73 Park Street, near Grosvenor Square. By 1914, Keturah Collings had moved her photographic studio to 7 Lower Seymour Street, W. London.

Arthur Esmé Collings was mentioned as a photographer in Liverpool in 1897. In 1900, a studio with the name of A. Esmé Collings is listed at 43 Rodney Street, Liverpool. The studio in Rodney street continued until 1906. A second studio operated by Esmé Collings Limited opened in Liverpool at 65 Bold Street around 1903. Esmé Collings Limited also established a branch studio in Manchester at 22a King Street. By 1906, the studios in Liverpool and Manchester owned by Esmé Collings Limited had closed.


Arthur Esmé Collings - Pioneer Film Maker

Arthur Esmé Collings had entered into a business partnership with William Friese Greene around 1887 and, together, the two men had operated two photographic portrait studios in London. Friese-Greene had started experimenting with the idea of making "moving pictures" a few years before Collings joined him at his photographic studio in New Bond Street. Friese-Greene patented a number of inventions associated with cinematography and it is likely that he discussed his ideas with Arthur Esmé Collings.  Friese-Greene has been called "the inventor kinematography" in England, but his practical achievements were limited and only a few snippets of film featuring pedestrians walking along a street have survived.

After he moved down to the South Coast in the late 1880s, Arthur Esmé Collings began to make "moving films" of his own. In Brighton, Esmé Collings made contact with Alfred Darling (1862-1931), a manufacturer of cinematographic equipment, who provided the photographer with film cameras and technical advice.

In contrast to William Friese-Greene's limited output, Arthur Esmé Collings produced over 30 short films in the Brighton area during 1896. The short films made by Arthur Esmé Collings in 1896 include Bathers on the Beach at Brighton (Summer 1896), Boys Scrambling for Under the Pier (August 1896), Children Paddling (August 1896), Donkey Riding (Summer 1896), King's Road, Brighton, on a Bank Holiday (August 1896), Rough Sea : The Hove Sea Wall in a Gale (1896), West Street Brighton (1896), Train arriving at Dyke Station (1896), A Lady Undressing in Her Boudoir (1896), and The Broken Melody (1896).

After 1897, Collings seems to have lost interest in film making and in 1898 he abandoned cinema to champion the revival of miniature painting.

 

 

 
Boys Scrambling for Pennies under the West Pier (1896). A group of boys scramble to retrieve pennies tossed into the shallow water at the foot of Brighton's West Pier

 

A Lady Undressing in her Boudoir (1896). In this short film, which runs for just over a minute, a woman removes items of clothing before sitting down to read a book. The lady begins undressing by removing her hat and then takes off her outer garments until she is dressed only in her petticoat.

 

The Broken Melody (1896). This is a scene from the successful stage play "The Broken Melody" by James Tanner. The original play was a dramatic vehicle for the Dutch cellist August Van Biene. In the film, a cellist named Paul Borinski (played by Van Biene) plays his composition "Broken Melody" to persuade his wife to return to him.

 

A. Esmé Collings - Miniature Painter

[ABOVE] A miniature photographic portrait by Arthur Esmé Collings. This tiny platinotype print was set into a gold and pearl locket to take on the appearance of  a traditional portrait miniature.

[ABOVE] A reproduction of an original miniature of two young women painted in black and white  by Arthur Esmé Collings. This reproduction appeared as an illustration to an article entitled "The Modern Miniature Craze", published in The Harmsworth Monthly Pictorial Magazine in 1899.

 A. Esmé Collings - Miniaturist

In 1898, Arthur Esmé Collings appears to have abandoned film making in order to concentrate on producing miniatures. Around this date, Collings published a small brochure entitled "The Revival of Miniature Art", which recounted "some romantic stories about miniatures and their painters." A little later, Collings issued a promotional catalogue with a similar title - "The Revival of Miniature Painting". The fifteen page booklet was designed to publicize the type of miniatures that could be produced at his Bond Street studio and included details of the prices for various styles of portrait miniature. By 1899, Esmé Collings' London studio at 175 New Bond Street had become the headquarters of The Society of Miniature Painters.

In Kelly's Directory of Sussex published in 1899, Arthur Esmé Collings was the only person to be listed under the heading of 'Miniature Painters'. One example of Collings' work that has survived is a miniature of Adelina Patti, the famous soprano singer. The reproduction miniature has been glued onto one of his standard cabinet format card mounts which gives details of his photographic studio in West Brighton. Most of Esmé Collings' sitters were wealthy or famous. In 1899, Collings painted a miniature portrait of Frances Fleetwood Wilson (1850-1919), the English heiress who had recently married the Russian nobleman Prince Alexis Dolgorouki.

Arthur Esmé Collings was gaining some attention as a miniature painter in the magazines and journals of the time. In 1899, his work was discussed by H. M. Tindall in an article entitled "The Modern Miniature Craze", which appeared in The Harmsworth Monthly Pictorial Magazine in 1899. Tindall agreed with Esmé Collings, view that there had been a significant revival in miniature painting:

"The very marked attention which the miniatures in the Royal Academy attracted this year is one of the many things which show how great a revival there has been in the taste for miniatures ... When photography appeared, it had no difficulty for a time in sweeping miniatures out of the field, for many people preferred the novelty of an exact portrait to a 'work of art'. But the pendulum of taste has again swung back. We no longer accept a coloured photograph as a substitute for a genuine miniature, but realise that the two things are quite distinct."

 H. M. Tindall, The Harmsworth Monthly Pictorial Magazine  (1899).

The miniatures of Arthur Esmé Collings were also discussed in an article entitled "A Dream of Fair Women : The Work of Mr Esmé Collings" which appeared in the magazine Lady's Realm in 1901. Miniatures by Arthur Esmé Collings were also reproduced as photogravure illustrations in issues of The Sketch weekly magazine during 1899.

 

 

 [ABOVE] A reproduction of an original miniature of the famous soprano Adelina Patti (1843-1919) by Arthur Esmé Collings inscribed "Adelina Patti, Baroness Cederstrom,1899" .

 

Keturah Collings (born c1862)

 

Keturah Collings - Artist and Photographer

Keturah Collings was the married name of Keturah Anne Beedle, who was born in 1862 at Weston-super-Mare, Somerset [birth registered in the Axbridge district of Somerset (Weston-super-Mare) during the First Quarter of 1862 ; baptised at Holy Trinity Church, Weston-super-Mare on 13th February 1862]. Keturah was the daughter of William Henry Beedle (born c1831 Bristol - died 1907), an upholsterer and house furnisher, and his wife Eliza Williams (born 1833 Cowbridge, Glamorgan, Wales - died 1903). William Beedle's was a successful businessman. In 1881, William Beedle was employing 9 men in his upholstery firm and was served by at least two servants at the family home, a large house called "The Elms" on Arundell Road in Weston Super Mare. (In the 1880s the road name was spelt 'Arundell' and not 'Arundel' as in the Sussex town of that name). In a local trade directory of 1889, William Henry Beedle is listed as a house furnisher, a furniture van proprietor with his own house removal business, a furniture appraiser, an upholsterer and an undertaker. W. H. Beedle was also a house & estate agent, with business premises in the High Street and in Regent Street, Weston-super-Mare. William Beedle's furniture warehouse and furniture storerooms were located in Great Alfred Street in Weston-super- Mare.

Keturah Anne Beedle was the eldest of five children. Her three brothers were Thomas William Beedle (born 1865, Weston-super-Mare), who became a house agent for his father, Alfred James Beedle (born c1869, Weston-super-Mare), who followed his father's trade and eventually worked in Toxteth, Liverpool as a furniture dealer's buyer, and Leonard Edward Beedle (born 1871, Weston-super-Mare), who later became a chemist and druggist in Stretford, Lancashire. Keturah's younger sister, Charlotte Ellen Beedle (born 1866, Weston-super-Mare), went on to marry Clement Henry Reynolds, a bank cashier, in 1898.

In 1887, Keturah married Arthur Albert Collings, a former bootmaker of Weston Super Mare [marriage registered in the Axbridge district of Somerset (Weston-super-Mare) during the December Quarter of 1887]. Both Keturah and Arthur had artistic talent and it is possible that they were brought together through their interest in art. The couple set up home in Brighton, Sussex. Arthur and Keturah's first home was at 59 Dyke Road, Brighton. In 1892, Keturah gave birth to their only son - Arthur Cyril Esmé Collings [birth registered in Brighton during the Fourth Quarter of 1892]. By 1899, Keturah Collings was living with her husband and eight year old son at 13 Alexandra Villas, Albert Road, Brighton.
 

Presumably, Keturah Collings assisted her husband in his photographic portrait studios in Brighton and Hove in the late 1880s and early 1890s. Around 1905, Mrs Keturah Collings established her own fashionable photographic studio at 16 North Audley Street in West London. Keturah Collings' London studio was favoured by a number of European Royal Families. Her distinguished sitters included Albert, King of the Belgians (1875-1934), his wife Queen Elisabeth (1876-1965), Crown Prince Leopold of Belgium (1901-1983), Princess Marie-José of Belgium (1906-2001), Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia (1892- 1980), and Prince Hubertus Karl Wilhelm of Prussia (1909-1950). A number of Keturah Collings' portraits of members of the Prussian Imperial Family were issued as picture postcards in Germany by Gustav Liersch of Berlin before the outbreak of the First World War. Keturah Collings also photographed members of the British aristocracy, including Sir John Lubbock, Lord Avebury (1834-1913) and Pamela Genevieve Tennant, Lady Glenconner (1871-1928).

 

[ABOVE] A portrait of  Mrs Constance Mary Elliott, photographed by Keturah Collings at her fashionable London studio at 16 North Audley Street, West London. The date of "1900", inked on the mount under the portrait, is in error.

Photographic Portraits and Painted Miniatures by Keturah Collings

[ABOVE] A postcard portrait of  Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia taken from an original photograph by Keturah Collings and published in Germany in 1912 by Gustav Liersch & Co. of Berlin. Princess Victoria Louise was born in 1892, the youngest child and only daughter of Kaiser Wilhelm II of Prussia. The photograph was taken when Princess Victoria was aged about 19. The year after the postcard was published, Princess Victoria married Prince Ernst Auguste of Hanover and she became the Duchess of Brunswick. Keturah Collings photographed a number of members of the Prussian Royal Family at her fashionable portrait studio in London
 

[ABOVE] A watercolour portrait of an unknown army officer by Keturah Collings (c1919). Keturah's own son, Arthur Cyril Esmé Collings (born 1892) served in the First World War and rose to the rank of Second Lieutenant.

[PICTURE: Courtesy of  Andy Shaw of the Great War Forum]

[ABOVE] A miniature portrait of Mrs Christina Alderton by Keturah Collings. The subject of this portrait was the wife of Samuel Alderton, a prosperous Merchant Tailor, a London City Councillor and Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Kent.

[PICTURE: Courtesy of Jonathan Kirton of Canada]

 

 

Keturah Collings in London

Keturah Collings, opened her studio at 16 North Audley Street around 1905 and is listed at this address in London trade directories until at least 1908. A few years later, Keturah Collings was living at 73 Park Street, near Grosvenor Square. By 1914, Keturah Collings had established a photographic studio at 7 Lower Seymour Street, W. London and she was listed as a photographer at this address in the Post Office London Directory published in 1915.There is evidence that by the end of 1915, Keturah Collings was working from her home address at 73 Park Street, London.

From 1913, around the time she closed her studio at 16 North Audley Street, Keturah Collings began to make a living as a portrait painter as well as a photographic artist. The Post Office London Directory of 1915 lists Keturah Collings as a professional photographer at 7 Lower Seymour Street, West London, but during and immediately after the First World War, Keturah painted small watercolour portraits of military officers (see above). The people who commissioned portraits from Keturah Collings generally came from the upper strata of society.

Keturah Collings closed her photographic studio in North Audley Street around 1913. After this date, Keturah Collings applied her artistic talents to painting small portraits in watercolours (see above). Surprisingly, there is evidence that Keturah Collings was still involved in portrait photography at the time of the Second World War. A studio portrait of Pilot Officer Bruce McAllister of the Royal New Zealand Air Force, photographed by Keturah Collings of London, is held in the archives of North Invercargill Church, New Zealand. Pilot Officer Bruce McAllister died on 28th June 1942 at the age of 23.

[ABOVE] The signature of Keturah Collings from the portrait of Miss Winefride Lyne-Stephens (see right), produced at Mrs Collings' London address.

[ABOVE] A portrait of Miss Winefride Lyne-Stephens (1895-1969) by Keturah Collings of 73 Park Street, West London. The subject of this portrait married in December 1915, when she became Mrs Winefride Hume-Gore. The image, which appears to have been produced photographically, has been hand-tinted by Keturah Collings.      [PICTURE: Courtesy of Jonathan Backhouse]

 

Acknowledgements
Thanks to Andy Shaw of the Great War Forum for permission to use Keturah Collings' watercolour portrait of an unknown officer. Andy also provided details of the military career of Arthur Cyril Esmé Collings. Thanks also to Jonathan Kirton of Canada for providing Keturah Collings' miniature portrait of his great grandmother, Mrs Christina Alderton, and Jonathan Blackman for providing the portrait of his grandmother, Winefride Lyne-Stephens.

I am grateful to John Barnes, Mark Duguid (Screenonline), Frank Gray, and Robert Murphy for providing details of the film career of Arthur Esmé Collings.

 
 

Early Films made in Brighton & Hove
The following websites provide further information on Arthur Esmé Collings and early films made in Brighton and Hove:

 

Who's Who of Victorian Cinema

Films made in the Brighton & Hove area

Brighton & Hove at the dawn of the cinema

 

 

Miniature Portrait Paintings

[ABOVE] A miniature portrait of  an unknown man by Keturah Collings.  [PICTURE: Courtesy of Don Shelton]

If you would like to view more miniature portraits, I can recommend Don Shelton's excellent website - Artists and Ancestors- A Miniature Portrait Collection. To see Don Shelton's collection of portrait miniatures, click on the link below :

 

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