An album of modern China

159 Pages·1981·253.46 MB·English

by  Frederick King Poole

et Alia f Lal Poole

by Derek Beamish John Dockerill
John Hillier Graham Smith

Poole Historical Trust
Pasha

This work is the first of a series of works to be produced by Poole Historical Trust,
which was formed in 1975 to promote research and to publish works on the history
of Poole. Over the last five years the volume and quality of research into the history
and origins of the town of Poole and its environs has taken enormous strides. Large-
scale redevelopment within the Old Town has resulted in equally large-scale
archacological investigations and this has progressed simultaneously with archival
and documentary research. Poole has therefore been the subject of a depth of
historical research which is unique for a town of its size and character, and which
when correlated and published would be an equally unique and valuable study
especially for those towns of similar character where the percentage of physical and
documentary evidence remaining is considerably less. Although the scientific reports
on these various works are being published through the usual channel of learned
journals, a medium for publishing and making available this information to the
general public did not exist. In order to ensure the survival and availability of this
unique record, Poole Historical Trust was formed with the primary aim of producing
a five-volume History of Poole and any other relevant works in’a manner which
would make these availuble to the widest possible section of the general public.

As with an “Album of Old Poole’ the Trust would be extremely grateful if members
of the public who possess or know of material relevant to the history of the town,
would bring this material to the attention of the Trust and make it available for study.

Trustees

JG Hillier Chairman
D F Beamish MA Hon. Secretary
G F Townson BA(Hons) AIB Hon
W Mooring-Aldridge MA

VK D Andrews MA
FG Rowe
GM Smith MA
G G Sydenham

Treasurer
LOGE

An Album of Old Poole represents a selection of photographic works of Poole and
its environs taken by local amateur and professional photographers from the carliest
days of photography to 1914, The selection has been largely drawn [rom the
photographic archives held by Poole Museums Service, but many private local
collectors have also assisted with the loan of photographs and with their
identification. The Album is intended to illustrate the town and its people at a
critical stage in its history, when it was leaving the recession experienced in the
‘mid-nineteenth century and moving into a new phase of industrial and commercial
life. Over the last sixty years, dramatic changes have occurred affecting the physical
‘appearance of the town and its environs and yet it is apparent that much of the
character that existed at the turn of the century still remains. Whereas every
attempt has been made by the authors to fully research and identify the material
included in this work, it is certainly possible that some errors may have occurred
due to fading memory and the authors would apologise if this proves to be the case.

DB JRD JGH GMS
Al:

The Old Town

People

The Harbour and its Quays
Industry and Commerce
Outlying Districts
Recreation

Photographs 1-29
Photographs 30-74
Photographs 75-108
Photographs 109-169
Photographs 170-199
Photographs 200-226

The invention of photography in the early 19th century was the discovery of perhaps
the most important medium of communication since the introduction of printing
centuries before.

Ironically hoth the optical and chemical foundations of photography had been known
for many centuries before being brought together to produce the first photograph. As
early as the 4th century BC the ability of light entering a minute hole in one wall of a
darkened room to produce an inverted image of the outer world on the opposite wall
of the room, was known Lo ancient Chinese scholars, In 1550.a more brilliant image was
produced in the ‘camera obscura’ (from the Latin for “dark room’), by substituting a lens
for the “pin-hole’, A portable version of the camera obscura was developed during the
17th century which substituted for the room a wooden bax with a lens at one side and a
ground glass screen at the other. Such cameras could he transported easily and from
the time of the Renaissance were used by artists in the application of perspective to
painting.

Likewise the effect of light on chemicals had been known for as long as knowledge of the
camera obscura. Angclo Sola had recorded the fact that silver nitrate darkened when
exposed to sunlight in 1614.

Nevertheless, it wasn't until the beginning of the 19th century that the first tentative
experiments were made combining the two concepts. Thamas Wedgwood, son of the
founder of the Wedgwood potteries began making negative prints by bathing paper or
leather in a silver nitrate solution, laying a drawing on glass over it and exposing it to
light, He also attempted to record images by this technique using the camera obscura
but was unsuccessful, a5 he was in the attempt to fix his negative prints

It remained until circa 1825 before the Frenchman Nicéphore Nigpce succeeded in
taking what is acknowledged to be the first permanent photographic image. This was a
direct positive picture, of bitumen of Judea on a highly polished pewter plate, of the
rooftops outside his studio window and took the remarkable exposure time of approxi-
mately 8 hours. The quality of Nigpce’s photographic images was very poor against
‘modern standards and in 1829 Niépec and the Paris artist Louis Jacques Daguerre
went into partnership to try to improve the process but it proved to be a barren collah-
oration, With che death of Nigpce in 1833 Daguerre continued his experiments to obtain
a more satisfactory image. He subsequently evolved a technique of development using
mercury vapour and allowing him t produce acceplable results with as little as hall
an hour's exposure. By 1837 he had further developed bis techniques and the process
hhad reached a thoroughly acceptable and marketable form called the “Daguerreatype
Upon the publication of Daguerre’s work in August 1839 the painter Paul Delaroche
was heard to exclaim “From today, painting. is dead’
However, it is to the English country squire William Henry Fox Talbot that the tile, ‘the
inventor of modern photography’, is given. During the 1830's, unaware of Daguerre’s
work in France, he extended the work of Thomas Wedgwood and developed a method
of coating paper with a mixture of silver nitrate and silver chloride and with exposures
of approximately one hour, successfully fixed the resultant photographic images in an
excess of common salt solution. Between 1835 and 1839 he discovered that he was able
to make contact copies from his paper negatives on second sheet of sensitized paper
and was the first person to coin the words ‘negative’ and ‘positive’. Thus, by being able
to produce as many positive copies as he wanted from the one original paper negative,
was born the principle which remains fundamental to modern photography. By 1840
Talbot had further developed his process, the result of which was the *Calotype’, later
called the Talbotype process and giving an exposure time of but a few minutes. In Scot-
land the Calotype process was taken up by David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson
who were among the first pioneers to capture spontaneous lite with the camera lens,

In the year 1840 Professor Josef Petzval invented a double lens passing 16 times more
light than the old single lens (meniscus). This, together with developments in fuming
the plates, meant that Daguerreotype portraits could now be taken with exposures of
less than a minute, where previously exposures of 8 minutes under bright sunlight had
been necessary.

Therefore, during the 1840's there were two main processes of photographic reproduction
seeking popular acclaim but both with as many disadvantages as advantages. Although
the quality of tone and sharpness of image were exceptional in the Daguerreotype, the
single plate could not be duplicated, it was expensive and the surface very fragile. On
the other hand the Calotype could be reproduced, had an endearing sepia colour but
lacked the sharpness and quality of tone of the Daguerreotype and further suffered from
the grain of the paper negatives being prominent especially on smaller prints.

1841 was the year in which commercial photography was introduced to the people and
towns of Britain in the form of the Daguerreotype portrait studios. By the end of the
year both a Mr Beard and a Mr Claudet had established studios in London and there
‘were also several other studios in the North and South of England. Although a dis-
pleasing feature of the Daguerreotype portraits was their clinical cold metallic silver
surface, the carly Daguerreotypists were making small fortunes. Indeed it was said that
Richard Beard, at one time a coal merchant, made £40,000 in his first year of operation
from his chain of Daguerteotype studios,

After a decade of prosperity the death knell of the Daguerreotype and Calotype was
sounded when Scott Archer discovered the Wet Collodion Process. Unfortunately,
regardless of its many technical advantages the Collodion process also had its drawbacks.
It was soon described as ‘Wet and Wearisome’ by its exponents. It certainly was messy
and involved the first regular use of glass plates in photography, which had to be coated,
sensitized, exposed and then processed while still wet. This was difficult enough in the
studio; on location this required at least a back-pack containing camera, tripod and a
complete portable darkroom including a supply of water, but was best carried on a eart
or even better in a horse-drawn caravan. Like the Calotype before it, it was a negative-
positive process and the Wet Collodion period - ‘The Golden Age’, lasted from 1851
until 1880. By the end of the 1850°s both the Calotype and Daguerreotype processes
were virtually obsolete.
From 1850 and particularly with the success of the Daguerreotype processed photo-
graphs of Claudet in the Great Exhibition of 1851, the rise in professional photographers
in England was phenominal. There were 51 recorded in the Census of Great Britain 1851,
which rose to 2,534 in 1861. As the Collodion wet-plate process improved, many
amaleurs became interested in photography and it is said that Queen Victoria herself
was a keen ‘amateur photographer

Even the town of Poole contributed to this phenominal expansion of the photographic
profession during the 1850°s. In 1855 H Bayley and Son were offering from their High
Strect Studios, “Portrait in Daguerreotype’ and ‘buildings correctly taken’. Their charges
from 3:6 upwards, obviously excluded the poorer classes for at this time a labourer's
wages might be 10 to 12 shillings a week, so portraits were only for the more wealthy.
They also professed to execute with discrimination, busts, full lengths and family groups,
with sittings occupying only one minute, and finished in handsome frames, case:
brooches and lockets. In their advertisements they maintained that the advantages of
this style of portraiture were so well appreciated, that comment was unnecessary and
then proceeded to clarify the statement by saying - “Parties may rely on procuring the
most faithful resemblances of Parents they revere, Children they adore, and Friends
they esteem, in order that when Death or Distance shall separate us, these interesting
pledges of affection will be invaluable. All may secure a lasting memento by having
every fcature delineated with astonishing accuracy warranted to give perfect satisfaction’.
For ‘convenience’, Messrs Bayley and Son ‘waited upon Ladies and Gentlemen’ taking
portraits at their own residences if so required

During the following year Poole had the ‘pleasure’ of a visit from a Mr P Monson who
claimed to be an ‘Artist in Daguerreotyne, Collodion and Talbotype’. Monson who
had ‘pleasure in announcing’ he was on a short visit lo Poole, respectfully informed
the public that he possessed ‘one of the largest and most perfect Apparatus in use’ at
his Photographic Portrait Rooms in New Street, opposite Sloper's “New Antelope Inn’,
He appears to have made “short visits’ to many towns in the South and was heralded
‘as onc of the greatest masters of this beautiful art’ by the Salisbury and Winchester
Journal, and the Reading Mercury reported that ‘The size of Mr Monson’s portraits
is much larger than those usually seen’. His prices in comparison to Messrs Bayleys
seem reasonable considering he was such a fine ‘artist’ with such “perfect apparatus,
Daguerreotype portraits were from 3/6, Collodion from 1j- and Paper from 576.

Another photographer, John Pouncy of Dorchester, in January 1855, begged to remind
the ‘Nobility, Clergy, Gentry and Public of Dorchester and its vicinity’ that in conse-
quence of his many enagagements in other branches of the business he would only be
able to give his caclusive attention to the Photographie Art on Wednesdays and
Saturdays, unless previous’engagements were made. He also announced in December
of that year, that by his new process he could execute Coloured Photographie Portraits
of all sizes, “from that of a Sixpence to Life size, (sunshine not necessary); in a sitting
of 15 seconds”

Stereoscopic photography using Daguerreotypes was another popular facet of the
photographers repertoire from the 1850's, Later, albumen paper prints and albumen-on-
glass (ransparencies produced from Collodion negatives provided a system of bulk
printing low cost stereo pairs. By 1858 one London company had over 100,000 stereo-
photographs in their catalogue. The carte-de-visite picture also provided another popular
avenue of development for the Collodion portrait artist resulting in an annual turnover
of over four hundred million cartes in England during the 1860°s,

It was during the middle of the 19th century that Nadar, the Paris artist and wet-plate
photographer, first experimented with artificial light and by 1870 an American adver
tisement proclaimed ‘A Revolution in Photography — Pictures taken by Artificial
Light — Equal to Sun Pictures!” In commercial portraiture, controlled lighting was as im-
portant us the scenery, the props and the retouching and magnesium flash-powder, with
its uncertainty, its fumes and its stink was among the first methods of lighting indoors.

During the 1860's, the photographie studios springing up in Poole and district not only
found portraiture lucrative but were also producing what later became a standard
feature of any seaside resort. Sydenhams in 1867 were offering Photographic Views of
Bournemouth and Neighbourhood from Carte de Visite to full plate size together with
a large and excellent variety of photographic albums. Only a year later they were offering
‘A Photographic Curiosity’ in the form of ‘Six Microphotographic Views of Bourne-
mouth’ and went on to inform the public that “These curiosities, not larger than a pin’s
hheail, are mounted in diminutive lenses placed in ivory holders, and form portable
microscopes, which may be worn as Charms, proving delightful little souvenirs of the
place. Price One shilling’. B Bishop at the Photographie Rooms, High Street offered
“Photographs of every description and size’ and Burnand’s Photographie Views of
Bournemouth were to be “had of” most of the leading ‘Fancy Repositories’, including
Mrs Bell of Adelaide Terrace; Mr Hankinson of The Square, Misses Sydenham, The
Marine Library and W Mate & Sons Commeicial Road.

Although photography was by now practically established in all corners of the kingdom,
the process was still far from completely satisfactory. The wet-collodion process was
messy and cumbersome, exposures were sull in the region of 15 to 30 seconds, severely
restricting photographs of any action. Indeed, a major complaint about portraiture was
that people looked ‘dead and lifeless’, obviously due to the fact they had to pose like
statues for up to 30 seconds.

In 1855 Dr. JM Taupenot had experimented with a dry Collodion process. giving
exposures of 30 scconds at f 16. It wasn't until 1871 however, that the major break-
through came with the introduction of gelatin emulsion dry’ plates by Dr Richard
L Maddox. The process was further developed by Charles Bennett until in 1878 a dry
plate exposure of 1/25th of a second became possible, thus liberating the photographer
from the bulky and cumbersome tripod. Hand held exposures were at last possible
This advance in photographic technique brought about another remarkable rise in the
number of professional and amateur photographers.

Ttis mainly from the 1880's that the majority of photographs in this book were produced.
‘The ostentatious late Vietorian business cards from some of the many Poole studios
form the decorative motif’ used upon the end-papers of this book and illustrate the wide
choice of photographic expertise available to the inhabitants of Poole from the 1880's
until 1914. On the High Street alone were studios belonging to Benjamin Bishop,
William Wyatt Burnand, Frederick Cleaver, Percy Hawes, Arthur Richard Hind, Frank
Martin, Joe Pottle, W Richards, Edward Russell, Mrs Ada Stevens, Charles Ames
Welch, Louis Wilkins and in West Street William Burnand, and Market Street, William
Williams. Likewise, Parkstone during this period with its influx of wealthier residents
from all parts of the country as well as the more prosperous from Poole, provided a
lucrative attraction to the discerning photographer. It is not therefore surprising to
find John Warrington Blackwell, H Blake, Frederick Cathery, Miss Florence Chant,
John Bayley Dennis, Latimer Dunn, George William Forsey, Richard Sabin Horne,
John Henry Kinsman, Albert Maple, Herbert Noad, James Tilley, Robert Wallis and
Charles Ames Welch all offering their photographic services in the Longficet, Branksome
and Parkstone areas.

Tt. was not only the professionals that have provided us with such rich collections of late
Victorian and Edwardian photographs. We must not forget the countless unknown
amateurs. For it was during the 1880's that modern amateur photography was born and
many kinds of hand cameras came on to the market, There was even a society called
the Dorset Amateur Photographic Association

In a paper read to the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club in 1894 the
Rey T Perkins, worried about the deplorable rate of disappearance of the antiquities
of the country before the march of civilization, urged all amateur photographers “to
secure some record, accurate and permanent of these things before the touch of the
destroyer came upon them’. He mourned the passing of old world habits and customs

the smock frock of the rustic giving place to the shoddy jacket of the fashionable broad-
cloth. He applauded Thomas Hardy for “His books are photographs so to say, in words
and suggested he should like to see photographs in permanent platinum salts of such
‘men and women as Gabriel Oak, Tranter Dewey and poor pure Tess among the cows
on the dairy farm or hacking swedes on the bleak hills of central Dorset. Finally he
maintained it was not too late then to get some such pictures, though he feared the days
of grace were but few. Fortunately, in retrospect, the Rev Perkins fears were unfounded.

‘This upsurge of interest in photography as a hobby’ was echoed across the Atlantic in
the founding of the most famous photographic firm of all by George Eastman, who
began as an amateur himself and later manufactured dry plates at Rochester, New York.
In 1888 he introduced his first Kodak camera, “a box’ which was loaded at his factory
with a roll of paper coated with a gelatin-bromide film taking a hundred exposures.
The whole camera was returned to the factory at Rochester after the roll had been
exposed and was then processed. The camera was then reloaded and returned to the
owner: ‘You press the button-we do the rest’, In 1889 Eastman introduced to the public
the transparent celluloid film which the amateur could process himself. The carly hand
cameras were often called ‘Detective Cameras’ because one could now take ‘surreptitious
snapshots? with them,

From the 1880's the more ‘scientific’ aspects of photography were developed including
improvements in plates, films, lenses, cameras, enlargers, chemicals and printing paper
(guslight paper). Two of the perpetrators publishing their research in 1890, Hurter and
Driffield opened the article with “The production of a perfect picture by means of photo-
graphy is an art; the production of a technically perfect negative is a science’. By the
end of the 19th century, modern photography was firmly established. In the field of
black and white photography the technical advances made since then have been rather
in degree than in kind. Today you will find a camera in almost every household, The
effect of photography on modern life has been universal and incalculable, it is one of
the primary visual forees of our time, Nevertheless, the fundamental basis, though
disguised, is still that of Fox Talbot's calotype proc