Brighton Photographers - Ba

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Brighton Photographers (Ba)

Richard James Baker - Baker & Hughes - Samuel Kay Balbernie - Henry Barrett - Barrett & Upton - Alexander Bassano - Henry Bate - James Richard Bates - Edmond J. Baum - Mdme Marie Baum
 

Richard James Baker (c1839-1897)

Partner in the firm of Baker & Hughes with Richard Hughes (born c1845, London)

Richard James Baker was born in Lewes, Sussex, around 1839. By the mid 1860s, Richard James Baker was living in Brighton and towards the end of 1865, he married Eliza Davey (born 1839, Brighton), possibly the daughter of William and Naomi Baker. [The marriage of Richard James Baker and Eliza Davey was registered at Brighton during the 4th Quarter of 1865]. Richard James Baker and Eliza Davey went on to produce three children - William James Baker  during the 3rd Quarter of 1866, Mary Ann Baker born during the 2nd Quarter of 1868 and Edith Louisa Baker, who was born in Brighton during the 1st Quarter of 1874. (Note: William James Baker, the couple's only son, eventually became a professional photographer like his father and in the 1890s he was operating his own studio in Chichester under the pseudonym of Denis Walter Baker.

By around 1870, Richard James Baker had become a professional photographer. In the 1871 census, Richard James Baker is recorded as a "Photographer", aged 30, living with his wife Eliza (born c1839, Brighton) and their two children, William and Mary Ann, at 23 Frederick Gardens, Brighton.

Around 1878, Richard James Baker entered into a business partnership with a photographer named Richard Hughes (born 1846, London) and established a photographic studio at 39 Kemp Street, Brighton. In the publicity for their "Art Studio" in Kemp Street, Baker & Hughes described themselves as "Portrait & Landscape Photographers" and offered to make photographic copies of all types of portraits ( "any carte de visite, glass portrait, miniature or  daguerreotype of relatives or deceased friends") which then could be enlarged and "painted in oil or water colors at moderate charges".

Richard Hughes, Baker's business partner, had been born in the East London parish of St George in the East in 1846, but, by the time he was in his mid-twenties, he was working as a photographer in Brighton. Richard Hughes had married nineteen year old Jane Fitter (born 1847, Wolston, Warwickshire) in the East London district of Poplar in 1867 and after a brief time in Deptford, Kent, where their son Richard Alfred Hughes was born in 1868, the couple moved to Brighton. Richard and Jane Hughes' second son, Walter Robert Hughes was born in Brighton towards the end of 1870. At the time of the 1871 census, Richard James was working as an "Assistant Photographer" and residing at Seward House, Richmond Street, Brighton, with his wife and two young sons. A third son Frank James Hughes was born in Brighton during the 1st Quarter of 1872.

1881 Census: 39 Kemp Street, Brighton, Sussex

NAME

  

AGE

OCCUPATION

WHERE BORN
Richard Jas. BAKER

Head

40

Photographer

 Lewes ,Sussex
Eliza BAKER

wife

41

   Brighton ,Sussex
William Jas. BAKER

son

 14 Carpenter - Apprentice Brighton ,Sussex
Mary Ann BAKER daughter 13

Scholar

 Brighton ,Sussex
Edith L. BAKER daughter 7

Scholar

 Brighton ,Sussex

[ABOVE] Richard James Baker and his family recorded at 39 Kemp Street, Brighton in the 1881 Census

In the Brighton census carried out on 3rd April 1881, Richard James Baker is recorded as a "Photographer", aged 40, living with his wife Eliza and their three children at 39 Kemp Street, Brighton. By this time, the partnership between Richard James Baker and Richard Hughes had come to an end. At the time of the 1881 census, Richard Hughes, Baker's former business partner, was an inmate of Her Majesty's Civil Prison in Lewes. On the census return, thirty five year old Richard Hughes is recorded as a "criminal prisoner" at HM Prison, Lewes, but gives his occupation as "Photographer" on the census return. While her husband was languishing in Lewes Prison, thirty-three year old Mrs Jane Hughes was residing at 24 Upper North Street, Brighton, with her three sons. As the "Head of Household" and deprived of her husband's income as a photographer, Mrs Hughes had taken in a lodger, a Welsh draper named Edward Williams. [ After his release from prison, Richard Hughes continued his career as a photographer. At the time of the 1901 census, Richard Hughes was working as a photographer in Coventry, Warwickshire. Two of Richard Hughes's three sons became photographers. In the 1901 census, Walter Robert Hughes is recorded as a photographer in South London at 250 Brixton Hill, Brixton, Lambeth ,while his younger brother Frank James Hughes was employed as a photographer in Folkestone, Kent].

By 1891, Richard James Baker was employed as a photographer in the city of Bath. At the time of the 1891 census, Richard James Baker, his wife Eliza and their two daughters, Mary Ann and Edith were living at 5 Sydenham Road, Bath, Somerset. After a period working as a photographer in Bath, Richard James Baker returned to Brighton. Richard James Baker died in Brighton during the 3rd Quarter of 1897, aged 58.

[ABOVE] A Victorian map of Brighton showing the location of Richard James Baker's residence and studio at 39 Kemp Street, Brighton. The photographer Richard James Baker (c1839-1897) was recorded at  39 Kemp Street, Brighton with his wife and three children at the time of the 1881 census.  Kemp Street was an unlikely location for a photographic portrait studio. Although it was conveniently close to Brighton Railway Station, Kemp Street was predominantly a residential street comprising of small terraced houses. In 1878, Kemp Street did contain a number of small shops and businesses, including a butcher, a baker, a greengrocer and an undertaker, but a small terraced house was not the best site for a photographic studio. It is likely, that Richard Baker took portrait photographs in a glass studio at the rear of the building.

[ABOVE] The publicity on the reverse of a cabinet portrait produced by the firm of Baker & Hughes at 39 Kemp Street, Brighton.(c1880). The photographer Richard James Baker (c1839-1897) was recorded at  39 Kemp Street, Brighton in the 1881 census.  

 [PHOTO : Courtesy of Mike Rogers of Lewes]
 
Carte-de-visite Photograph by Baker & Hughes of 39 Kemp Street, Brighton

[ABOVE] A carte-de-visite photograph of a  miniature portrait of a young woman,  painted around 1860,  photographed at the studio of Baker & Hughes at 39 Kemp Street, Brighton (c1880). [ABOVE] The reverse of the carte-de-visite photograph (illustrated on the left), showing the details of the studio of Baker & Hughes at 39 Kemp Street, Brighton. The publicity mentions that the studio copied portrait miniatures.
 

Cabinet Portrait by Baker & Hughes of 39 Kemp Street, Brighton

[ABOVE] A cabinet portrait of a middle-aged man and a young woman (father & daughter?) photographed at the studio of Baker & Hughes at 39 Kemp Street, Brighton (c1880). One of the partners in the firm of Baker & Hughes was Richard James Baker (c1839-1897).     [PHOTO : Courtesy of Mike Rogers of Lewes] [ABOVE] The reverse of the cabinet portrait illustrated on the left, showing the details of the studio of Baker & Hughes at 39 Kemp Street, Brighton.(c1880). The photographer Richard James Baker (c1839-1897) was recorded at  39 Kemp Street, Brighton in the 1881 census.   [PHOTO : Courtesy of Mike Rogers of Lewes]
 
 
Samuel Kay BALBIRNIE (1855-1911)
 
Samuel Kay Balbirnie was born in the Kingsland district of Hackney, East London in 1855, the second child of Samuel Balbirnie senior and Maria Ann Stubbs. [The birth of Samuel Kay Balbirnie was registered in the London district of Hackney during the 4th Quarter of 1855].

Samuel Balbirnie senior (born c1828, Kensington, London) married Maria Ann Stubbs (born c1829, London) in the district of Hackney. Mrs Maria Balbernie gave birth to two children during the first few years of her marriage - Maria Jane Balbernie who was born in the district of Hackney during the 2nd Quarter of 1853 and Samuel Kay Balbirnie was born in the Kingsland area of Hackney in 1855.

In 1865, when Samuel Kay Balbirnie was just five years of age, his mother died. [The death of Maria Ann Balbirnie was registered in the London district of Hackney during the 4th Quarter of 1865]. Samuel Balbirnie senior, Sam's father, remarried in 1873. Samuel Balbirnie senior married Elizabeth Mary Hadrill (born 1836, Kingsland, London), the daughter of Elizabeth and Peter Henry Hadrill (1804-1875). In 1851, Mr Peter Hadrill had been employed as a "Managing Clerk" for a firm of bricklayers, but by the time his his thirty-seven year old daughter Elizabeth married Samuel Balbirnie senior, he was a man of rank and property. The 1874 Post Office Directory of Middlesex  lists Peter Henry Hadrill in the Court Section and Mr Hadrill is shown residing at Conway Villa, Bickerton Road, Upper Holloway, North London. Mr Peter Hadrill, Samuel Balbirnie senior's father-in-law, died in February 1875. When the 1881 census was taken, Mrs Elizabeth Hadrill, Peter Hadrill's widow, is recorded at the home of her son-in-law in North London and is shown  deriving an income from the "interest of business and private property". Samuel Balbirnie senior was living with his wife and mother-in-law, together with a domestic servant, at 5 Chester Villa, Chester Road, Highgate, North London. On the census return, fifty-three year old Samuel Balbirnie is described as an "Agent to a Glass Bottle Manufacturer".

In 1878, Samuel Kay Balbirnie was a young man of twenty-three and he had not yet decided on a career, although it appears he had already received some form of medical training. His father's advantageous marriage might have provided Samuel Kay Balbirnie with funds to establish his own business in the Sussex seaside town of Brighton. In 1878, he purchased the photographic studio of Robert Pratchett at 33 Western Road, Brighton. There had been a photographic portrait studio at 33 Western Road, Brighton since 1858, but Robert Pratchett (born 1851, East Barnet, Hertfordshire) had been the occupant of the studio for only a matter of months.

Samuel Kay Balbirnie's predecessors at 33 Western Road, Brighton had been photographers who had produced conventional studio portraits in the popular carte-de-visite format. Samuel Kay Balbirnie decided to specialise in novelty photographs, producing "Spirit Photographs" and other forms of "trick photography". A newspaper advertisement placed by Samuel Kay Balbirnie in the Brighton Daily News on 23rd May 1878 publicized his strange repertoire of novelty photographs: "SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHS - Ladies and Gentleman taken floating in the air - in company with tables, chairs and musical instruments"; "HEADLESS PHOTOGRAPHS - Ladies and Gentlemen taken showing their heads floating in the air or in their laps" and "DWARF and GIANT PHOTOGRAPHS", presumably combining differently sized portraits of sitters for humorous effect (Samuel Kay Balbirnie remarks on the "ludicrous" appearance of his dwarf and giant photographs).

It appears that visitors and residents of Brighton were not to keen to have themselves portrayed in such a light-hearted and silly manner. Within two years, Samuel Kay Balbirnie had closed his photographic studio at 33 Western Road, Brighton. By the beginning of 1880,Samuel Kay Balbirnie had left Brighton to enlist as a surgeon in the Royal Army Medical Corps. Samuel Kay Balbirnie's departure from 33 Western Road, Brighton marked the end of this building's association with photography. The business premises at 33 Western Road eventually became a draper's shop.

[ABOVE] Samuel Kay Balbirnie listed as a photographer at 33 Western Road, Brighton, in the 1878 edition of Kelly's Post Office Directory of Sussex.

SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHS
Ladies and Gentleman taken floating in the air - in company with tables, chairs and musical instruments

HEADLESS PHOTOGRAPHS!

Ladies and Gentleman taken taken showing their heads floating in the air or in their laps.

DWARF AND GIANT PHOTOGRAPHS

The former being very ludicrous
 

Rembrandt, Vignette or Cameo Cartes

In two positions, 6s for fourteen

Photographs of all descriptions

copied carte size - 2s 8d per dozen
 

S. KAY BALBIRNIE

33 Western Road, BRIGHTON

BRIGHTON SCHOOL OF PHOTOGRAPHY

[ABOVE] The text of an advertisement placed by Samuel Kay Balbirnie in the Brighton Daily News on 23rd May 1878. When the advertisement was repeated on 7th June 1878, Balbirnie had removed the reference to the "Brighton School of Photography", probably at the insistence of the Brighton photographic firm of  Charles Hawkins & Co. which had been advertising under the name of the "Brighton School of Photography" for a number of years.
 

The Photographic Studio at 33 Western Road, Brighton (1858-1880)

 Proprietors - Joseph Langridge (1858-1873), Henry D'Aubigny Hatch (1873-1877), Robert Pratchett (1877-1878), Samuel Kay Balbirnie (1878-1879)

[ABOVE] The trade plate of Merrick (Joseph Langridge), photographer of 33 Western Road, Brighton (c1862). [ABOVE] The trade plate of Henry D'Aubigny Hatch,  photographer of 33 Western Road, Brighton (c1875). [ABOVE] The trade plate of Robert Pratchett artist & photographer of 33 Western Road, Brighton (1878). [ABOVE] A detail from a Victorian map of central Brighton showing the location of Samuel Kay Balbirnie's photographic studio (marked by two red squares) at 33 Western Road, Brighton. There had been a photographic portrait studio at 33 Western Road, Brighton since 1858.
 
Figures from the Spirit World and "Headless" People - Novelty Photographic Images produced by Victorian Photographers

[ABOVE] A "spirit portrait" from the 1870s.  Samuel Kay Balbirnie was advertising "Spirit Photographs" produced at his photographic portrait studio at 33 Western Road, Brighton in newspaper advertisements published in May and June of 1878. Balbirnie's approach to the subject was less serious than that illustrated above. Balbirnie's men and women were photographed "floating in the air - in company with tables, chairs and musical instruments". [ABOVE] A "headless portrait" produced by William Henry Wheeler of High Street, Oxford. (c1875).  Samuel Kay Balbirnie was advertising the "Headless Photographs" taken at his Brighton studio in 1878. A number of Victorian photographers combined images from more than one negative to create illusions or humorous portraits like this one. [ABOVE] A photograph of a "headless woman" produced around 1900. Twenty years earlier, Samuel Kay Balbirnie was using trick photography to produce similar novelty portraits at his studio in Western Road, Brighton. Balbirnie's "Headless Photographs" featured men and women with "their heads floating in the air or in their laps". Other photographs showed "Ladies and Gentleman taken floating in the air".
 
Samuel Kay Balbirnie's Life and Career after 1880

Soon after leaving Brighton, Samuel Kay Balbirnie enlisted as an officer in the Royal Army Medical Corps. When the 1881 census was taken on 3rd April 1881, Samuel Kay Balbirnie was on board SS Bothnia, a Cunard line passenger ship about to embark from the port of Liverpool to the United States. Twenty-six year old S. K. Balbirnie is described on the census return as an army officer travelling as a "Military Passenger".

In 1896, forty year old army surgeon Samuel Kay Balbirnie married twenty-three year old Margaret Tyson (born 1873, Seaforth, Lancashire) in his bride's home town of Seaforth, Lancashire. [The marriage of Samuel Kay Balbirnie and Margaret Tyson was registered in the district of West Derby during the First Quarter of 1896].

By the early 1900s, Samuel Kay Balbirnie was a First Class Army Surgeon in the Royal Army Medical Corps. The 1901 census records First Class Staff Surgeon Samuel Kay Balbirnie as a forty-five year old "Ward Master" in the hospital wing of the Beach Rocks Convalescent Home, Sandgate, Kent. Samuel's twenty-seven year old wife, Mrs Margaret Balbirnie is recorded alongside her husband on the census return. The Beach Rocks Convalescent Home, also known as the Alfred Bevan Memorial Home, was used as a military hospital during the Second Boer War (1899-1902). British soldiers who had been wounded in South Africa were transported to Sandgate's Railway Station and then transferred by horse-drawn bus to the Bevan Military Hospital. The military hospital at Beach Rocks, Sandgate, could accommodate up to 250 patients. The sick and wounded military personnel were taken to the seaside town of Sandgate to recuperate; the sea air being thought to promote a speedy recovery.

By 1910, Samuel Kay Balbirnie had retired from the Royal Army Medical Corps. When the 1911 census was taken, Samuel Kay Balbirnie was residing with his wife Margaret in Deal, Kent. The couple are shown living at Wood Hurst, London Road, Deal, Kent. On the 1911 census return, Samuel Kay Balbirnie is described as a fifty-four year old "Army Pensioner". A few months after the 1911 census was taken, Samuel Kay Balbirnie died at his home in Deal, Kent, aged 54.

[ABOVE] The uniform of a member of a Royal Army Medical Corps unit with a horse-drawn ambulance in the background (1908). Samuel Kay Balbirnie, served as an Army Surgeon in the Royal Army Medical Corps (R.A.M.C.) between 1880 and 1910. During the Second Boer War, Staff Surgeon S. K. Balbirni was based at at the Bevan Military Hospital in Sandgate, Kent
[ABOVE] The liner SS Bothnia, a passenger steamship which made voyages from Liverpool to New York and Boston in the 1870s and 1880s. Samuel Kay Balbirnie, then a twenty-six year old army officer, was on board SS Bothnia , in the port of Liverpool, when the census was carried out on the evening  of 3rd April 1881.
[ABOVE] The Beach Rocks Convalescent Home and Military Hospital where Samuel Kay Balbirnie, served as an Army Surgeon during the Second (South African) Boer War between 1899 and 1902.
 

Henry BARRETT (born c1842, London)

Henry Barrett was born in London around 1842, but by the mid-1870s he was living in the United States, where he married an American woman and fathered a son. The 1881 census records Henry Barrett as a thirty-nine year old photographer residing at 69 High Street, Brighton. Both his wife Lizzie P. Barrett and her son Henry Barrett junior give their place of birth as the "United States".
 

1881 Census: 69 High Street, Brighton, Sussex

NAME

  

AGE

OCCUPATION

WHERE BORN
Henry BARRETT

Head

 39

Photographer

London, Middlesex
Lizzie P. BARRETT

wife

 37

Wife of Photographer

United States
Henry BARRETT

son

 6

Scholar

United States

[ABOVE] The photographer Henry Barrett recorded with his family at 69 High Street, Brighton in the 1881 Census.

When he returned to England with his American wife and young son, Henry Barrett settled in Brighton. Around 1880, Henry Barrett became a partner in the firm of Barrett & Upton, which acquired Joe Parkin Mayall's photographic studio at No 6 North Street Quadrant, located at the bottom of Brighton's Queens Road. I have not identified Mr. Upton, Henry Barrett's business partner, but within a year, Henry Barrett was the sole proprietor of the North Street Quadrant studio.

It was probably while living in the United States that Henry Barrett became familiar with the ferrotype process of photography. [See the panel below, headed The Tin Type and American Gem Portrait]. Henry Barrett produced "American Gem" portraits (tiny ferrotype portraits mounted on decorated card mounts) at his Brighton studio from around 1880.

Henry Barrett's Electric Light Studio

Joe Parkin Mayall (1839-1906), Henry Barrett's predecessor at 6 North Street Quadrant, was the son of the well-known London and Brighton photographer John Jabez Edwin Mayall (1813-1901). Joe Parkin Mayall's father, J. J. E. Mayall, was one of the first photographers in Brighton to take portraits by electric light, having purchased and installed an electric generator at his studio at 91 King's Road, Brighton around 1880. It is possible that J. J. E. Mayall had helped his son to install an electric supply at Joe Parkin Mayall's small studio at 6 North Street Quadrant. If that is the case, Henry Barrett might well have inherited an electric supply when he acquired Joe Parkin Mayall's North Quadrant studio in 1880 or 1881. The photographic portraits produced by Henry Barrett at his North Quadrant premises during this period are printed with a trade plate which reads "Henry Barrett, Electric Light Studio, 6 North Street Quadrant, Brighton". If Henry Barrett installed the electric lighting at his own expense, he might have regretted it and the financial outlay might have brought his photography business to a premature end if he did not recoup the cost through increased custom. Audrey Linkman in her book "The Victorians: Photographic Portraits" reports that the Brighton photographer P. C. Mora [the trading name of Percy Cocker Mitchell (c1840-1899)] equipped his studio with electricity in 1893 at the cost of several hundred pounds and in an interview two years later regretfully stated that "the number of sitters taken by electric light here has not been such a success to even pay interest on the outlay; has been more an advertisement than any substantial benefit".

By 1884, Henry Barrett had closed his photographic studio at 6 North Street Quadrant and had left Brighton. There is no sign of Henry Barrett or his American-born wife and child in the census returns that were completed in the years between 1891 and 1911, so it is possible that Henry Barrett and his family decided to return to the United States. "Henry Barrett" is not an uncommon name and there are several photographers with this name recorded in the United States in the 1870s, before Barrett's return to England, and the years following his departure from Brighton. ( For instance, cabinet portrait photographs were being produced by a photographer named Henry Barrett at his studio in Union Square, Somerville, Massachusetts, USA ).

[ABOVE] The trade plate of Henry Barrett, photographer, Electric Light Studio, 6 North Street Quadrant, taken from the reverse of a carte-de-visite portrait (c1882).

[ABOVE] The firm of Barrett & Upton, listed as Photographic Artists at 6 North Street Quadrant, Brighton in the Trades section of the 1881 edition of Page's Directory of Brighton.

[ABOVE] Henry Barrett, listed  as a Photographer at 6 North Street Quadrant, Brighton in the Trades section of the 1882 edition of Kelly's Directory of Sussex.

 
 

Henry Barrett's Studio in North Street Quadrant, Brighton

[ABOVE]  Detail from a picture postcard of 1916 showing the parade of shops in Brighton's North Street Quadrant, where William Barrett operated as a photographer. William Barrett's business premises was at No. 6 North Street Quadrant, in a building behind the Clock Tower. William Barrett  never saw the completed Clock Tower, as work on the structure was not started until January 1888. The Jubilee Clock Tower was built to commemorate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee of the previous year.

Photographic Studios in North Street Quadrant, Brighton, 1857-1901
No. 6 Joseph Parkin MAYALL

1877 -1880
No. 6 BARRETT & UPTON

1880 - 1882
No. 6 Henry BARRETT

1882 - 1883
No. 9 Ebenezer WOODCOCK

1866 - 1887
No. 9 Alfred D. NORMAN

1888 - 1898
No. 9 Charles H. BOSWELL

1899 - 1901

No. 10

 James Richard BATES

1857 - 1859
[ABOVE]  An 1865 map of Brighton showing the position of the North Street Quadrant at the bottom of  Queens Road. Brighton's Railway Station was at the top end of Queens Road. The location of Henry Barrett's studio at No. 6 North Street Quadrant is approximately marked with a red dot. Brighton's North Street Quadrant was the site of several photographic studios throughout the Victorian period. James Richard Bates (born 1827, Dallington, Sussex), a fruiterer & seedsman, established a photographic portrait studio at No. 10 North Street Quadrant around 1857.  Ebenezer Woodcock set up a photography and stationery business at No. 9 North Street Quadrant around 1866. Joseph Parkin Mayall (born c1839, Linthwaite, West Yorkshire), a son of the famous photographer John Jabez Edwin Mayall, ran a studio at  No. 6 North Street Quadrant for a few years after he returned from Australia in 1877. Joe Mayall's studio at  6 North Street Quadrant was taken over by Henry Barrett (born c1842, London) who produced American Gem "tintype" portraits at these premises in the early 1880s.

The majority of the original buildings in North Street Quadrant (including Nos. 6, 9 & 10) were demolished in 2003-2004.
 

The 'Tintype' and 'American Gem' Portrait

The 'Tintype' or 'Ferrotype' Photograph  As early as 1853, a French teacher named Adolphe Alexandre Martin (1824 -1886) had suggested using the newly-invented collodion process to produce a direct positive image on a black varnished metal plate so as to provide an aid to engravers who worked directly onto copper and steel. In America, Professor Hamilton Lanphere Smith (c1818-1903), picked up on Martin's idea and experimented with the idea of making collodion positive photographs on thin sheets of "japanned" iron. [The name 'japan' was given to a glossy black varnish which was baked onto the surface of a material].

In February 1856, Hamilton Lanphere Smith patented the "use of japanned metallic plates in photography." Two American companies started the manufacture of japanned metal plates specifically designed for the production photographic pictures. Peter Neff, who held Professor Smith's patent, called his manufactured plates 'Melainotypes' ("melaino" = dark or black] and his rival Victor Griswold names his plates 'Ferrotypes' ["ferro" = iron]. By the early 1860s, the inexpensive photographs which were made on these thin sheets of iron, were popularly known as ' 'tintypes'. There was no actual tin in the photographic plates, but the word "tin"' was generally associated with thin sheets of metal and cheapness.

The 'tintype' became very popular in the United States during the American Civil War period. Thousands of American soldiers posted their 'tintype' portraits (which were virtually unbreakable and relatively light-weight) through the mail to their loved ones.

Ferrotype Studios in England

During the 1860s, the ferrotype or tintype portrait could not compete with the carte de visite format which dominated the British market. When the 'tintype' was introduced from America in the 1860s, professional photographers in England, who were enjoying commercial success with the carte-de-visite portrait, were reluctant to adopt what they regarded as an inferior product. In the early 1870s, American photographic firms made an attempt to popularise the ferrotype portrait in England. In 1872, Thomas Sherman Estabrooke of Brooklyn, USA, established a ferrotype studio in London's Regent Street and, towards the end of the same year, The Photographic News published an extract from Edward M. Estabrooke's manual "The Ferrotype and how to make it".

A small number of photographic studios in England did produce ferrotype portraits in the 1870s, but these photographic portraits on metal did not threaten the position of the carte-de-visite as the most popular form of commercial photography. Compared to the carte-de-visite, the ferrotype did not have an obvious appeal to most commercially minded High Street photographers. The ferrotype process did not involve the use of a glass negative and, as in the case of the earlier daguerreotype portraits, only a single, unique version of a particular image could be produced. Duplicates were not possible. In contrast, a studio producing carte de visite portraits was able to print dozens of identical copies from the glass negative which held the original image. The carte-de-visite format also allowed the photographic portrait to be mounted in a photograph album.

In England, very few High Street studios offered to take ferrotype photographs. However, 'tintype' photography did have an appeal for travelling traders who had no previous experience in photography. The actual process was simple and straightforward to use, materials and equipment were relatively cheap and, as tintypes could be produced quickly, these itinerant traders could offer a "photographic portrait while you wait" service. 'Tintype' photography became the process favoured by street photographers, itinerant photographers attached to travelling fairs and seasonal seaside beach photographers.

The 'American Gem' Portrait

Studios which specialised in carte-de-visite portraits often employed special multi-lens cameras which could take up to a dozen pictures on a single photographic plate. In America in 1860, Simon Wing patented a camera that could be used to produce dozens of images on a single iron plate. Wing's "Patent Multiplying Camera" could take up to 72 tiny portraits on a thin metal plate. The plate could then be cut up with metal shears to produce dozens of small pictures measuring one inch by three-quarters of an inch ( 2.5 cm x 2 cm ). The resulting "postage-stamp sized" portrait could be mounted on a card of the same dimensions as a carte-de-visite and therefore suitable for insertion in a regular photograph album. These tiny ferrotype portraits on specially decorated or embossed card mounts became known as "American Gems" when they were introduced into Britain in the late 1870s.

During the late 1870s and early 1880s, American Gem studios appeared in the major towns of England and Scotland. In 1878, James Frederick Lowrie established an American Gem studio in London's Fleet Street and in the early 1880s he opened branch studios in Liverpool, Birmingham, Glasgow and Edinburgh. A rival photographer, Joshua Jewell, established American Gem studios in Manchester, Bristol and Newcastle.

The 'American Gem' Portrait in Brighton

Henry Barrett appears to have been the first Brighton-based photographer to specialise in the production of American Gem portraits. Although he had been born in London, in the mid-1870s, Henry Barrett was working as a photographer in the United States, where he probably became familiar with the ferrotype process. In the late 1870s, Henry Barrett returned to England with an American wife and a young son and settled in Brighton. Around 1880 he was a partner in the firm of Barrett & Upton, which acquired Joe Parkin Mayall's photographic studio at No 6 North Street Quadrant, located at the bottom of Queens Road. Within a year, Henry Barrett was the sole proprietor of the North Street Quadrant studio. Henry Barrett produced American Gem portraits at his Brighton studio during the early years of the 1880s.

[ABOVE] Hamilton Lanphere Smith (c1818-1903), Professor of Chemistry and Physics at Kenyon College, Ohio, who invented the Melainotype photographic process on metal (also known as the Ferrotype or Tintype).
[ABOVE] A "tintype"( ferrotype) portrait of a young man taken around 1862 during the American Civil War period.

Ferrotype Photographs

[ABOVE & RIGHT] Two Ferrotype group portraits, possibly taken in England in the late 1870s.

American Gems

[ABOVE] An American Gem portrait of a youth wearing a hat. (c 1880). The back of the card mount carries a printed label giving the studio address as No 6 North Street Quadrant. This small 'tintype' portrait was probably produced at the North Street Quadrant studio run by Barrett & Upton. [ABOVE] An American Gem portrait of a young child produced by the photographer Henry Barrett at his studio at 6 North Street Quadrant, Brighton. For his Ferrotype and American Gem portraits, Henry Barrett used a variety of decorated card mounts. [ See the examples below].
PHOTO: Courtesy of Brighton's Local History Centre PHOTO: Courtesy of Brighton's Local History Centre
 

'Ferrotype' and American Gem Photographs taken at Henry Barrett's North Street Quadrant Studio in Brighton

[ABOVE] An Ferrotype portrait of a teenage girl framed within a decorated card mount, probably produced by Henry Barrett of  6 North Street Quadrant, Brighton (c 1880). The ferrotype portrait has been fixed into position by means of a rectangular piece of paper glued onto the back of the card. [See below]. [ABOVE] An American Gem portrait of a young man wearing a derby hat (c 1880). The back of the card mount is inscribed "6 North Street Quadrant". [See below]. The small ferrotype was fixed into position by means of a rectangular piece of paper glued onto the back of the card. [ABOVE] An American Gem portrait of a young woman wearing a fancy hat (c 1880). The back of the card mount is inscribed "North Street Quadrant, No. 6". [See below]. The rectangular piece of paper which holds the small ferrotype into position has been stained by the rusting metal of the ferrotype. [ABOVE] An Ferrotype portrait of a young man framed within a decorated card mount produced by Henry Barrett of  6 North Street Quadrant, Brighton (c 1881). The back of the card mount is rubber-stamped "Electric Light Studio - Henry Barett (sic) - 6 North Street, Quadrant, Brighton. [See below]

 
Carte-de-visite Portraits taken at Henry Barrett's Electric Light Studio at  6 North Street Quadrant, Brighton (1880-1883)

[ABOVE] A hand-tinted carte-de-visite portrait of a boy taken at Henry Barrett's Electric Light Studio at 6 North Street Quadrant, Brighton (c1882).

[PHOTO : Courtesy of Mike Rogers of Lewes]

[ABOVE] The trade plate of Henry Barrett, photographer, Electric Light Studio,6 North Street Quadrant, taken from the reverse of the carte-de-visite portrait on the left (c1882).

[PHOTO :Courtesy of Mike Rogers of Lewes]

[ABOVE] A photographic studio employing electric light in the 1880s. The availability of electric light in the 1880s did not dramatically improve the quality of studio portraits, but did enable photographers to extend their business hours.
 

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 Alexander BASSANO (1829-1913) - London photographer with a branch studio at 132 King's Road, Brighton (1893-1899)
Alexander Bassano was born in the St James district of Westminster in central London on 10th May 1829, the son of Elizabeth Browne and Clement Bassano, a London fishmonger.

Alexander's father Clement Bassano was born around 1798 in London, but he evidently had Italian roots. On 8th November 1816, eighteen year old Clement Bassano married Elizabeth Browne (born c1800, Scotland) in the Kent village of Frindsbury, near Rochester. The couple went on to produce a number of children, including Louisa (born 1818), Elizabeth (born 1820), Camilla (born 1822), , Clement (born 1824), Theresa (born 1826), Alexander (born 1829) and Josephine Maude Bassano (born 1832). Despite their humble origins, the Bassano family were apparently musical and artistic. Louisa Bassano (1818-1908) was an accomplished vocalist and toured with Franz Liszt, the famous Hungarian pianist and composer in the early 1840s. In the 1852 edition of the Post Office London Directory, Miss Josephine Bassano is listed as a Professor of Singing at 57 Upper Norton Street, Fitzroy Square. In his youth, Alexander Bassano wanted to become an artist and showed interest in both painting and sculpture.

As a young man, Alexander Bassano worked in the studio of the painter Augustus Egg (1816-1863) and also as an assistant to William Roxby Beverley (c1814-1889), a theatrical scenic painter. According to David Webb, the London photo-historian, between 1851 and 1852, Alexander Bassano briefly operated a photographic portrait studio in North London at 57 Pratt Street, Camden Town, St Pancras.

In 1850, Alexander Bassano had married Adelaide Rose Chapman in South London. [The marriage of Alexander Bassano and Adelaide Rose Chapman was registered in the South London district of Lambeth during the 2nd Quarter of 1850]. Around the time Alexander Bassano first embarked on a photographic career in 1851, his wife Adelaide gave birth to their first child Adelaide Fanny Louise Bassano [ the birth of Adelaide Fanny Louise Bassano was registered in the district of Marylebone during the First Quarter of 1851, but she was not christened until 4 years later on 28th January 1855 in Southampton, Hampshire]. A second child, Clement George Alexander Bassano was born at 27 Albert Terrace, Southwark, South London, on 3rd March 1853. Gaye Strand of New Zealand, who has researched many strands of the Bassano Family, located Clement George Bassano's birth certificate and discovered that at the time of the boy's birth, his father Alexander Bassano was employed as a "Clerk at The House of Commons". Alexander and Adelaide Bassano's third child, a daughter named Camilla Teresa Bassano was born in Lambeth, South London, during the First Quarter of 1859.

By 1859, Alexander Bassano had resumed his photographic career, becoming a junior partner in the firm of Eastham & Bassano, which operated photographic portrait studios at 122 Regent Street, London and 22 St Ann's Square, Manchester. Bassano's business partner was John Eastham (c1821-1889), a veteran photographic artist from Lancashire, who had previously operated as a daguerreotype portrait artist in Blackburn and Bradford. The partnership between John Eastham and Alexander Bassano was brief and the partnership was finally dissolved on 26th May 1860. Alexander Bassano retained the photographic studio at 122 Regent Street, London and he brought in another business partner named Thomas Browne. The studio of Bassano & Browne was in business at 122 Regent Street, London from 1860 until 1865.

When the census was taken on 7th April 1861, Alexander Bassano was residing with his wife and three children, together with an eighteen year old house servant, at 5 Chrysell Road, Lambeth, Surrey, in South London. On the census return, Alexander Bassano is described as a thirty-one year old "Artist - Photographer, Employing 5 men".

The partnership between Alexander Bassano and Thomas Browne at 122 Regent Street, London came to an end on 1st April 1865. By this date, in addition to his studio in London's Regent Street, Alexander Bassano was also working from an address at Dale House, Clapham Road, London.

In June 1866, after a brief partnership with London photographer Robert Davis (born 1799, Holborn, London), Alexander Bassano took complete control of the photographic portrait studio at 122 Regent Street, London.

By the 1860s, Alexander Bassano was already well known for his portraits of famous celebrities, including actors & actresses, singers, opera stars and writers. Bassano's portraits of famous personalities of the day were often subject to piracy - poor copies of Bassano's original carte-de-visite portraits being made and sold to the public by unscrupulous rivals. In February 1863, Alexander Bassano had written to The Photographic News suggesting a way to combat "photographic piracy". Bassano put forward his simple proposal in a letter to the editor, dated 3rd February 1863 :

The editor of The Photographic News was not convinced:

Despite the constant problem of photographic piracy, Alexander Bassano was able to establish his name as one of the leading producers of celebrity portraits in England during the 1860s and 1870s.

[ABOVE] Alexander Bassano (1829-1913) photographed around 1890 at his London studio.

[ABOVE] The trade plate of Alexander Bassano, Photographer of 122 Regent Street, London taken from the reverse of a carte-de-visite portrait dating from around 1865.

[ABOVE] The trade plate of Messrs Bassano, Photographers of 25 Bond Street, London and 132 King's Road, Brighton (c1895).

 

Carte-de-visite Portrait Photographs from Alexander Bassano's Photographic Studios in London (1865-1866)

[ABOVE] The trade plate of Alexander Bassano, Photographer of 122 Regent Street, London taken from the reverse of a carte-de-visite portrait dating from around 1865. [ABOVE] A carte-de-visite portrait of an unknown man, photographed by Alexander Bassano of 122 Regent Street, London (c1865). [ABOVE] The trade plate of Alexander Bassano, Photographer of 122 Regent Street, London taken from the reverse of a carte-de-visite portrait dating from around 1866. [ABOVE] A carte-de-visite portrait of an unknown woman photographed by Alexander Bassano of 122 Regent Street, London (c1866).
 
Alexander Bassano Photographic Artist of Regent Street and Piccadilly
When the 1871 census was taken, Alexander Bassano and his family were residing in West London. The 1871 census gives Bassano's home address as 72 Piccadilly, St. George's Hanover Square, London. Although given as a residential address, Alexander Bassano was, in fact, living in an apartment attached to his business premises. Alexander Bassano's main studio was still at 122 Regent Street, W. London, but around 1868, he had acquired premises at 72 Piccadilly, a photographic studio that had previously been occupied by the photographer George Henry Polyblank (born 1828, Plymouth, Devon), who had been declared bankrupt in November 1867.

On the 1871 census return, Alexander Bassano is described as a "Photographic Artist", aged 41. Bassano's eldest daughter, Adelaide Fanny Louise Bassano, was now twenty years of age and his son Clement George Bassano was 18 and about to start University. Alexander Bassano's youngest child, twelve year old Camilla Teresa Bassano was of school age. Although his photographic business was doing well, Bassano was still only employing one domestic servant.

In 1876, Alexander Bassano sold his Regent Street studio to London photographer William Charles Goodfellow (born 1847, St Pancras, London).

 

1871 Census: 72 Piccadilly, Hanover Square, London

NAME

  

AGE

OCCUPATION

WHERE BORN
Alexander BASSANO

Head

 41 

Photographic Artist

 London, Middlesex
Adelaide BASSANO

wife

41 

   London, Middlesex
Adelaide F. L. BASSANO daughter

20 

   London, Middlesex
Clement G. BASSANO 

son

18 

   Lambeth, Surrey
Camilla T. BASSANO daughter

12  

   Lambeth, Surrey
Grace M. BROWNE

relative

 8  

   London, Middlesex
Laura CHAMPS

servant

19  

 Servant

 Puddle Dock, Kent
[ABOVE] The photographer Alexander Bassano recorded with his family at 72 Piccadilly, Hanover Square, London in the 1871 Census.
 

Alexander Bassano - Photographer to Queen Victoria and the Royal Family

[ABOVE] A portrait Queen Victoria,  Empress of India and Queen of Great Britain photographed by Alexander Bassano of London (1887). This portrait of the Queen was issued to commemorate her Golden Jubilee - the 50th Anniversary of Victoria's accession to the British throne.
 

[ABOVE] A cabinet portrait of Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII of Great Britain) produced by Messrs Bassano of London & Brighton (c1898).
 

Carte-de-visite Portraits Photographs from the London & Brighton Studios of Messrs Bassano taken between 1893 and 1899

[ABOVE] A carte-de-visite portrait of a man with a moustache, photographed at the Brighton branch studio of Alexander Bassano (c1895).  The card mount is impressed "A. Bassano, BRIGHTON"

[ABOVE] The trade plate of Messrs Bassano of London & Brighton printed on the reverse of a carte-de-visite (c1898),

[ABOVE] Alexander Bassano listed as a Photographic Artist at 132 King's Road,  Brighton in the Trades section of the 1895 edition of Page's Directory of Brighton & Hove.

[ABOVE] A carte-de-visite portrait of Philip Henry Wicksteed (1844-1927), probably photographed at the studio of Messrs Bassano at 25 Old Bond Street, London (c1898). Philip Henry Wicksteed , who was born in Leeds, Yorkshire in 1844, was a Minister of Religion in the Unitarian Church, but in the 1890s he achieved fame as an economist.

 

Cabinet Portrait Photographs from the London & Brighton Studios of Alexander Bassano taken between 1893 and 1899

[ABOVE] A cabinet portrait by Messrs Bassano of London & Brighton,  from the series "Types of English Beauty".

 

[ABOVE] The trade plate of Messrs Bassano of London & Brighton. Alexander Bassano was appointed Photographer to Queen Victoria by Royal Warrant on 24th November 1890.
[ABOVE] A cabinet portrait of a young woman, photographed by Messrs Bassano of London & Brighton (c1898). [ABOVE] A cabinet portrait of a young woman, photographed by Messrs Bassano of London & Brighton, inscribed "April 18th, 1898".

 The trade plate of Messrs Bassano of London & Brighton (1898), which declares that Messrs Bassano were "Photographers to Her Majesty"(Queen Victoria) by "Royal Warrant".
 

[The trade plate of Messrs Bassano of London & Brighton (c1898). Bassano's main studio was at 25 Old Bond Street, W. London, and the Brighton branch was at 132 King's Road, Brighton.
[ABOVE] A cabinet portrait of a Mayor, photographed by Messrs Bassano of London & Brighton (c1898). [ABOVE] Trade plates of Messrs Bassano, taken from cabinet portraits produced at their London and Brighton studios between 1893 and 1899. [ABOVE] A cabinet portrait of an elderly man and his grandson, photographed by Messrs Bassano of London & Brighton (c1898).

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