Brighton Sticky Back Photo Album

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The Trott Family Photo Album (circa 1912)

Photo No. 24

Photo No. 18

 

[ABOVE] The Trott Family Album (actual size)

Photo No. 20

Photo No. 21

Photo No. 22

Photo No. 11

Photo No. 3

Photo No. 2

Photo No. 7

Photo No. 8

Photo No. 1

Photo No. 4

Photo No. 16

Photo No. 15

Photo No. 13

Photo No. 14

Photo No. 5 (repaired)

Photo No. 12

Photo No. 9 (repaired)

Photo No. 10

Photo No. 17

Photo No. 6

 

The Trott Family Photo Album

This small family photograph album was discovered by Paul Trott when he was going through his mother's effects during a house clearance in 2010.

Unfortunately, the subjects of the 23 tiny portraits are not identified on the leaves of the album, but are believed to be members of the Trott family of Brighton. The majority of the photographs were taken between 1910 and 1912. Three of the tiny portraits (Photo Nos. 2, 3 & 18) carry the address of 54 North Street, Brighton, the studio premises operated between 1910 and 1911 by Spiridione Grossi (1877-1921) and from 1911 until 1915 by Abraham Dudkin (1876-1949) under the name of the Sticky Backs Studio. Another photograph (Photo No.16) is printed with the business address of No.9 North Street Quadrant, Brighton, a photographic portrait studio operated by Edward (Edwin) Walter Simmons (born 1865, Marylebone) from 1905 until it closed in 1911.

[ABOVE] The front cover of the Trott Family Photo Album and a double page spread showing four of the small portraits [actual size]. Nearly all the portraits are "Sitcky Back" photographs - tiny photographic prints measuring roughly 2 inches by 1 1/2 inches, with self-adhesive backs.

As the Photo-era Magazine explained in 1912, "A Stickyback Photograph is one that has adhesive matter spread on the back, which it is simply necessary to moisten and then stick the picture on the mount. 'Stickyback' is the name by which small gummed-photographs, not much larger than a postage-stamp, are known." [Photo-era Magazine, Vol.28, 1912]. The early "Sticky Back" photographs produced at Spiridione Grossi's Sticky Backs Studio at 54 North Street, Brighton, measured roughly 2 inches by 1 1/2 inches. Single "Sticky Back" portraits produced around 1912 by Abraham Dudkin, Grossi's successor, measured approximately 4cm by 3cm. Only two of the tiny photographs in the Trott family album have been glued to the page, the remainder appear to have been affixed to a calendar or almanac and then cut to size.

[ All the photographs on this webpage are courtesy of Paul Trott of Worthing ]

 

Acknowledgements

 I am grateful to Paul Trott of Worthing for allowing me to display the family photographs from The Trott Family Album on this webpage.

 

To see further examples of the portraits produced at the Sticky Backs Studio in Brighton  (owned in turn by Spiridione Grossi and Abraham Dudkin) click on the link below

Stickybacks & Postcard Studios in Brighton

 
To read a detailed account of the life and career of Abraham Dudkin and to see further examples of the photographic portraits produced at his Sticky Backs Studio at 54 North Street, Brighton, studio, click on the link below :

Dudkin's Modern Studios of Brighton

 
To read how the apparatus which produced tiny Sticky Back photo strips evolved into the modern coin operated, automatic photo machine, click on the links below:

The Stickyback Studio and the Automatic Photo Machine

Anatol Josepho (1894-1980) and the Automatic Photo Booth

 

Click here to go to a Webpage Index to Automatic Photographs and Photobooth Photos on Sussex PhotoHistory

 

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