A thing of beauty can be found in the most unlikely places. This tiny old print was found sticking to the side of an envelope that must have contained a collection of photographs of more supposed interest. It was lost and forgotten for all the reasons such tiny works of photographic art are lost and … Continue reading A Gem At The Post Office Exhibition
Category: Pictures From Nowhere
Lost Relatives Awaiting Collection
This is another photograph in my series "Pictures From Nowhere", which features photographs that have somehow come into my possession through fair means or foul. All I know about this particular orphan image is a date (which someone has kindly pencilled on the reverse) - 23 July 1946. It shows a splendid group gathered outside … Continue reading Lost Relatives Awaiting Collection
Having A Good Time
Walking In Torquay So what do we know about this photograph? We don't know who these two are, that's for sure: they appear in album of someone else's photographs, someone else's memories. We do know, however, that it was taken in the quintessential English holiday resort of Torquay. And we have a date - 1928: … Continue reading Having A Good Time
What’s In Store?
This is a scan of a quarter-plate glass negative which must date from the end of the nineteenth or early twentieth century. The seven featured subjects are an interesting collection: they could be the staff of a draper's shop or a saloon bar. There is something vaguely H G Wells about them - that might … Continue reading What’s In Store?
Nine Distilleries. 3. Kilchoman
If Distillery No. 2 - opened in 1881 - was a young Islay distillery, the third in my series is positively neonatal. Kilchoman Farm Distillery only began production in 2005 and its first single malt whisky didn't go on sale until September 2009. New it may be, but it is a bit of a gem: … Continue reading Nine Distilleries. 3. Kilchoman
Woman In The Round
Portrait Of An Unknown Woman : This is a late Victorian, or more likely Edwardian, studio portrait of an unknown woman. It is small - about two inches in diameter - and surrounded by a substantial cardboard mount which itself has been cut back. The sitter seems to have a mark or blemish just below … Continue reading Woman In The Round
Between The Blurred Edges Of Time
This is such a busy photograph: a summer day on the English coast ninety years or so ago. It looks as though it has been taken from a raised height - a pier or a tower or some such. The camera couldn't quite cope with the wide-angle of the shot, and the edges blur into … Continue reading Between The Blurred Edges Of Time
A Second Look At Harry Elk
This is Harry Elk. We know that because someone has kindly written his name under his photograph. A date would have been nice, an address would have been better, perhaps even over generous. A quick check of census records results in nobody of that name with a date of birth around the turn of the … Continue reading A Second Look At Harry Elk
Five From A Slaithwaite Stall : 3. Lady Ormonde.
My third £1 purchase from the second hand stall in Slaithwaite was this delightful nineteenth century carte de visite from the London Studio of the society photographers William and Daniel Downey. William Downey (1829-1915) was born in South Shields and worked as a carpenter and boat builder before opening his first photographic studios in South … Continue reading Five From A Slaithwaite Stall : 3. Lady Ormonde.
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