Scarborough’s Earliest Photograph?

Oliver Sarony (1820-1879) may well be the most famous of Scarborough’s Victorian photographers but he was certainly not the first. That accolade goes to Richard Beard (1801-1885) whose Daguerreotype studio was first established in York Place in 1842. 

The Daguerreotype was invented by Louis Daguerre during the 1830s and became widely used across the world by 1839. In Britain Daguerre issued a patent regulating it use. He sold a sole licence to Richard Beard, others used the method but Beard took them to court so that he ensured his monopoly. His first studio opened in London on the roof of the Royal Polytechnic Institution in Regents Street during 1840. Over the next couple of years he opened studios in many of the large cities in Britain; Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds and Norwich; the main ports Southampton and Plymouth, and in some of the fashionable resorts Brighton and Scarborough.

Scarborough had been a popular destination for the wealth from across the north throughout the 18th century and it’s popularity grew during the early years of the 19th century. The working class holidays in Scarborough had not yet begun, these would follow the railways which arrived from York on the 7 July 1845. Beard obviously had an eye to developing a business photographing those who could afford to visit Scarborough. The address of the business changes frequently and it is a little unclear if the business was in the town all year or just in the season. Beard himself could not operate all of the studios simultaneously and it is not known who he employed to work in the Scarborough studio. It is also unclear if it was successful, whatever the business was like the studio was relatively short-lived and had gone soon after the railway arrived, closing at the end of the season in 1845.

Beard owned the patent for Daguerreotypes in Britain until 1853. Up until this time he sold a large number of licences for others to practice the art. After closing his studio in Scarborough he seems to have sold licences to others who set up studios in the town. Hiram Crompton Booth in 1848 and E. Clements in 1852 for example. Thomas Palmer Craven established his Scarborough studio in the early 1850s and was advertising ‘his Daguerreotype portraits’ from 1854. By 1856-7 Daguerreotypes had largely been relaced with Collodion Wet Plate photography.

The Daguerreotype process produces a direct positive image without the creation of a negative. Each image is therefore unique and could not be copied. Created on to a piece of silvered polished copper and mounted into a case of leather or Gutta Percha (an early natural plastic) daguerreotypes were expensive. The sitter had to remain still for between three and 15 minutes, the studios were often glasshouses on the roof to ensure that the light was at it’s maximum to reduce the sitting time. It certainly can’t have been comfortable to remain still for that length of time. The process was also dangerous for the photographer as the chemicals used to develop and fix the image were toxic and unpleasant.

We have many questions! Who is this man and is the newspaper? Does it really say Scarborough? Who was the photographer and in which studio did he work.Does the image show a Daguerreotype or maybe it is an Ambrotype which would could then have been taken by many other studios.?

You can see the original item for sale here 

Jonathan