Jacob Henry Connop was born on 2nd September 1834, the son of Jacob and Mariana Connop. Jacob Henry Connop was baptised on 2nd December 1834 at the Old Church of St Pancras, London. Mariana Connop (1799-1869) gave birth to three daughters - Mariana Maria (born 1824), Sarah Harriet (born 1826) and Mary Jane (born 1832), but it appears that Jacob Henry Connop was the only son to survive into adulthood. Jacob Connop senior (c1796-1857) was a City of London broker, financier and property speculator who was involved in the development of the Ladbroke Grove area in Notting Hill, London during the 1830s. Unlike his father, Jacob Henry Connop showed no interest in a financial affairs and chose an artistic career instead.
Jacob Henry Connop became an artist and his paintings of figures and still life were exhibited at various London galleries in the early 1850s. In 1852, J. H. Connop showed his work at an exhibition organised by the Society of British Artists. In 1853, in partnership with a photographic artist named White, Connop acquired the photographic studio of Richard Beauford at 6 East Parade, Hastings. The firm of White & Connop also a purchased a licence from Richard Beauford to enable them to use "Beauford's Registered Daguerreotype Accelerator", the means by which daguerreotype portraits could be taken in a few seconds.On 13th October 1853, the partnership of White & Connop, Photographic Artists, of 6 East Parade, Hastings was "dissolved by mutual consent". In a newspaper advertisement published in The Hastings & St Leonards News on 21st October 1853, it was declared that "the business will in future be carried on by Mr. J. H. Connop." Advertisements issued in October 1853 announced that Mr Connop was "Successor to R. Beauford, and Licensee for his Patent Daguerreotype Accelerator".
From October 1853 to August 1854, Jacob Henry Connop operated the photographic studio at 6 East Parade, Hastings. In newspaper advertisements issued during this period, Connop informed the public that in order to "produce a really good Daguerreotype" and to "attain the highest perfection in this art", he had "paid particular attention to the lenses, which he has procured expressly to realize clear and distinct images, without the slightest distortion." As Connop was a trained artist and painter, it was not surprising that he could assure his customers that, since taking over Beauford's studio, "the colouring process has also undergone great improvements."
Jacob Connop was particularly proud of the fact that "his scale of charges places these beautiful pictures within the reach of all - being half the price of the best takers in town." Connop's Daguerreotype Portrait Gallery charged 5s 6d for a small size daguerreotype in a frame. A small daguerreotype in a handsome morocco leather case would, at 7s 6d, cost the customer two shillings extra. It is not clear to which competitors Connop was referring. In 1853, apart from Mr White, his former business partner, Connop appears to have been the only photographic artist with a permanent studio in Hastings. In 1854, Frederick Brookes, an experienced London photographic artist who had established a studio in Robertson Street, Hastings, offered to take a "One Guinea Daguerreotype Portrait for 2s 6d." That same year, Mr D. Gates, Daguerreotype and Photographic Artist of 13 East Ascent, St Leonards-on-Sea promised an "excellent likeness" for 2s 6d. It is possible that before moving down to Hastings in the Summer of 1853, Connop had operated a photographic studio in London or some other town, where there were a large number of competitors and where daguerreotype prices were high. The references in Connop's advertisement to the poor quality of many daguerreotypes - "the many wretched abortions to be seen in almost every street "- and the price of his daguerreotype portraits "being half the price of the best takers in town", appear to have been written for a town setting very different to that which existed in Hastings in 1853 and 1854.
By the end of August 1854, Jacob Henry Connop had sold the photographic studio at 6 East Parade, Hastings to a local young man named William Thomas Golding (born 1832, Hastings), who had previously worked as an upholsterer. When William Golding placed an advertisement in The Hastings & St Leonards News on 25th August 1854 to announce that he would be taking daguerreotype portraits at 6 East Parade, Hastings, he states that he was "Successor to R. Beauford", but he makes no mention of Jacob Connop, his immediate predecessor.
After his short career as a photographic artist, Jacob Henry Connop appears to have returned to painting and the fine arts. In the 1860s, Connop was producing works of art in Ireland. In the early 1860s, Jacob Connop produced a series of views of Belfast and the surrounding area. A coloured lithograph by Jacob Connop, entitled "A Bird's Eye View of Belfast" was issued In 1863. The prints of Connop's "Bird's Eye View of Belfast", which showed all the main streets and buildings in Belfast, proved to be very popular. The following year, Connop produced a work entitled "View of Sydenham, Belmont and Glenmachan", which is now stored the collection of paintings held by the Belfast Harbour Commissioners. A coloured lithograph with the title "A Bird's Eye View of Sydenham, Belmont and Glenmachan" was also published in 1864.
In the late 1860s, Jacob Connop was working as a lithographic artist in Nottinghamshire. Connop worked for a brief period in Nottingham and then moved on to the Worksop area, where he died in 1870, at the age of 36 [Death registered in the Worksop district during the September Quarter of 1870]. There is a memorial to Jacob Henry Connop, alongside his mother Mariana Connop, at the Parish Church of St John-at-Hampstead, Church Row, London.
[ABOVE ] Advertisement for Connop's Daguerreotype portrait Gallery published in The Hastings & St Leonards News on 6th January 1854. Connop claimed that his prices for daguerretype portraits were "half the price of the best takers in town".
[ABOVE ] A View of Belfast by Jacob Henry Connop. Coloured lithograph (c1864).
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[ABOVE LEFT] A Bird's Eye View of Belfast by Jacob Henry Connop .Coloured lithograph, dated 1863. [ABOVE RIGHT] A Bird's Eye View of Sydenham, Belmont and Glenmachan by Jacob Henry Connop. Coloured lithograph, dated 1864.
| Reproductions of J. H. Connop's Bird's Eye Views of Belfast can be obtained from the Linen Hall Library Shop in Belfast. Orders can be placed on-line via the following link. |