The collection of photographs from Spain, Portugal and Gibraltar of Francis Frith & Co.

Fernández-Rivero, Juan-Antonio and García-Ballesteros, María-Teresa The collection of photographs from Spain, Portugal and Gibraltar of Francis Frith & Co. The PhotoHistorian, 2023, n. 197, pp. 5-16. [Journal article (Paginated)]

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English abstract

The Iberian collection of Frith & Co. is one of the most interesting in the 19th century peninsular photographic scene. And this is so due to its earliness in the 1860s, due to its numerical and geographical extension, and also due to its technical and artistic quality. In 2007, this collection was the subject of an extensive study and an excellent exhibition in Barcelona, at the Museo Nacional d'Art de Catalunya in collaboration with the Photographic Museum of the University of Navarra.i In this study, only Napper was mentioned as the author of the photographs. However, over the last fifteen years we have had the opportunity to access new data and documents and also a greater number of vintage photographs, the study of which yields interesting conclusions to clarify, if not entirely, then at least in part, some of the unknowns in the collection which needed to be resolved. In 2016 I published a paper that, in addition to offering new biographical data about Robert Peters Napper, dealt mainly with the stereoscopic work in Spain by Frank Mason Good.ii There I expressed my suspicion that Good was also one of the authors of the Frith collection. Here we will present new and interesting contributions to this issue.

Spanish abstract

La colección ibérica de la casa Frith es una de las más interesantes del panorama fotográfico peninsular del siglo XIX. Y ello es así por lo temprano de su realización, en la década de 1860, por su extensión, numérica y geográfica, y también por su calidad técnica y artística. En 2007 esta colección fue objeto de un amplio estudio y una excelente exposición en Barcelona, por parte del Museo Nacional d'Art de Catalunya en colaboración con el Fondo Fotográfico de la Universidad de Navarra.i En ese trabajo solo se mencionaba a Napper como autor de las fotografías. Sin embargo a lo largo de estos últimos quince años hemos tenido la oportunidad de acceder a nuevos datos y documentos y también a una mayor cantidad de fotografías de época, cuyo estudio arroja interesantes conclusiones para esclarecer, si no en su totalidad sí al menos en parte, algunas de las incógnitas que pesaban sobre la colección. En 2016 publiqué un artículo que además de ofrecer nuevos datos biográficos sobre Robert Peters Napper, trataba sobre todo del trabajo estereoscópico en España de Frank Mason Good,ii allí expresé mi sospecha de que Good fuera también uno de los autores de la colección de Frith. Ahora expondremos aquí nuevas e interesantes aportaciones sobre esta cuestión.

Item type: Journal article (Paginated)
Keywords: History of photography; Spain; historia de la fotografía; España; Early British photographers; Frank Mason Good, Robert Peters Napper, Francis Frith
Subjects: H. Information sources, supports, channels. > HE. Print materials.
Depositing user: Juan Antonio Fernández Rivero
Date deposited: 01 Mar 2024 13:02
Last modified: 01 Mar 2024 13:02
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10760/45522

References

Napper i Frith. Un viatge fotogràfic per la Ibèria del segle XIX. (Barcelona, Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, 2007)

J. A. Fernández-Rivero, ‘British Stereo Photographers in Spain: Frank M. Good’, International of Film Journal and Media Arts. Lisbon, vol. 1, no. 2, (2016), pp. 76-88.

Public Record Office, England & Wales, Quaker Birth, Marriage, and Death Registers, 1578-1837, ref. RG 6/238.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 14 December 1842, p.3.

Journal of the Photographic Society, 21 August 1856, p. 111.

Juan Guardiola, ‘Photography in the Philippines’, in the Sociedad Española de Acción Cultural en el Exteior, catalogue of the exhibition: El imaginario colonial. Fotografía en Filipinas durante el período español 1860 1900. (Madrid: Ministry of Culture, 2006), pp: 17-25.

The Photographic Journal, 16 April 1860, p. 258.

‘Photographers of the World (Non-USA)’, compiled by T. K. Treadwell & William C. Darrah, update by Wolfgang Sell, curator OWHSRL, National Stereoscopic Association, 1994, updated 2003.

Michael Pritchard, ‘Melhuish, Arthur James (1829-1895)’, in John Hannavy (ed.), Encyclopedia of Nineteenth Century Photography, New York: Routledge, 2008, p. 919-920. In September 1861, many newspapers reported the dissolution of the society. See The London Gazette, 6 September 1861, p.

3626.

Roger Taylor. Photographs Exhibited in Britain 1839 1865, Online: https://peib.dmu.ac.uk/index.php

See Cambria Daily Leader, Glamorgan, Wales, 26 November 1863 and 16 and 19 December 1863.

Views in Wales. The Vale of Neath. ([London?]: British and Foreign Portrait Company, [1864]). Photos by R. P. Napper, texts by Charles Henry Waring. A copy is available online at the National Library of Wales: https://bit.ly/3A8SbQd. In the press we have found advertisements for this publication, as a Christmas gift, in Cambria Daily Leader, 16 November 1863.

The London Gazette, 23 December 1864, p. 6726.

Public Record Office. England Census for 1861. Ref. RG 9/430.

See letter sent from Newport on 29 May 1864 to the Duke of Montpensier in Seville, in Napper i Frith. ... 2007, op. cit. p. 38.

The London Gazette, 23 December 1864.

Monmouthshire Merlin, 11 February 1865.

Catalogue of Frith’s Photo Pictures. The Universal and uniform series, London, William Pollard, Reigate, Surrey, 1872.

Frith’s photographs. Catalogue of the English and foreign series. Reigate, Surrey, London, 1892.

Martín Barnes, Aquesta terra romàntica: Robert Napper/Francisc Frith & Company i el Victoria and Albert Museum, at Napper i Frith. ... 2007, op. cit. p. 196.

Laura Aldama Fernández, Teodoro Ríos Balaguer: restorer architect of the Basilica del Pilar. (Zaragoza: Instituto Fernando el Católico, 2009) p: 357.

Quoted by Nuno Borges de Araújo, A viagem do fotógrafo Jean Laurent a Portugal, en 1869, in La España de Laurent (1856 1886), Un paseo fotográfico por la historia. Madrid: Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte, 2018, p. 90.

Paula Fleming, ‘Of Gin and Gardens: The life of Frank Mason Good’, Stereo World, vol. 38, no. 2 (2012).

Alquiansa blog, ‘Ayuntamiento de Sevilla: evolución histórica del edificio’, 2018. Available at: https://bit.ly/3M37YGX

José A. Tartajo. Los primeros tranvías (urbanos) de España: Jerez y Sevilla. 2015. Available at: https://bit.ly/44CzOkx

D. Foliard, ‘La photographie de la Palestine au temps du collodion: une spécificité britannique?’, Revue d’histoire du XIXe siècle, vol. 45, (2012), p. 161-183

Respectively references: The National Archives, Kew, COPY 1/420/329, COPY 1/420/330 and COPY 1/420/331, registered on 27 April 1895.


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