Peter Skeolan (c.1815-1871)
Peter Paul Skeolan (1837-1889)
Peter Skeolan and his son Peter Paul seem to have work both independently and together. Peter was born in Ireland and began his working life as an artist in the north of England, producing miniatures, silhouettes and other small portraits in about 1841. Photography is not mentioned in his adverts until The Manchester Photographic Portrait Gallery opens in 1853. At this time Peter Paul is 16 and may well have been already working with his father. Three years later in 1856 Mr Skeolan opens the Coloured Photographic Institution in Scarborough which operated for the whole season. The following year Mr Skeolan is operating a photographic studio from the Scarborough Public Rooms in Huntriss Row, offering collodion positives or ambrotype portraits. At this time the two Mr Skeolans are difficult to separate. In 1858 they open a studio in Cheltenham presumably together. Peter Paul does not advertise in his own name until he opens a studio in Leeds in 1861. The advertisements for both studios include miniature painting and photography. Peter dies in 1871 and the Cheltenham studio is closed and sold up, with the Leeds studio following soon after. Peter Paul has a studio in Harrogate from 1867 which he continues to operate. By 1883 he has a studio in Huddersfield. His health is deteriorating and he soon stops working. The Leeds and Bradford Studios website (see the link below) has a number of sorry tales that lead up to his death by an overdose of Laudanum in 1889.
A Paul Skeolan is listed as a photographer in the Scarborough Evening News in January 1889, at 4 Cliff Bridge Terrace. he has 6 creditors owing a total of £9 15s 11d and claims to be unable to pay until “July next”.
Portrait of an unknown man,
Carte de Visite, 1861-1871
Photographic Practice
Profilist, miniature painter and silhouettes.
Daguerreotype, Ambrotype, wet plate collodion prints
Portraiture and landscapes
Studios
Sykes Street, Leeds - 1841 (Peter, painter)
Artist Rooms, 4 Oldham Steet, Manchester - 1842 (Peter)
At Mr Taylor’s Bookshop, 26 Kirkgate, Bradford - 1844-1845 (Peter)
15 Piccadilly, Manchester - 1846-1847 (Peter)
Over Mr Bentley’s shop, top of King Street, Huddersfield - 1847 (Peter)
Over Mrs Bridge’s, Market Street, Manchester - 1848-1849 (Peter)
Upper King Street, Southport (family residence) - 1849
Artist’s Gallery, Market Street, Corner of Pall Mall, Manchester - 1848 (Peter)
14 Hardwick Street, Liverpool - 1851 (Peter)
Artist’s Rooms, 16 Church Street, Liverpool - 1851 (Peter)
The Manchester Photographic Portrait Gallery, 77a Market Street Manchester - 1853 (Peter)
Skeolan’s Photographic Gallery, 77a Market Street, Manchester - 1856
Coloured Photographic Institution, 27 St Nicholas Street, Scarborough - 1856
Scarborough Public Rooms (the Assembly Rooms), Huntriss Row, Scarborough - 1857-1858
New Photographic Institute, 4 Colonnade, Cheltenham - 1858-1859
12 Promenade Villas, Cheltenham - 1860-1868
Mr Skeolan’s Photographic Studio, Cheltenham Villas - 1860
14 Commercial Street, Leeds - 1861-1871 (Peter Paul)
1 Commercial Street, Leeds - 1871 (Peter Paul)
19 Regent Street Cheltenham (residence?) - 1861 (Peter)
13 Cookridge Street, Leeds (residence?) - 1861 (Peter Paul)
5 Park Parade, Harrogate - 1867-1872 (Peter Paul)
Prospect Villa, near Prospect Hotel, Harrogate - 1872 (Peter Paul)
Lansdowne House, Harrogate - 1877 (Peter Paul)
24 Ramsden Street, Huddersfield - 1883 (Peter Paul working for the photographer and taking over the studio of Reginald Spurr)
4 Cliff Bridge Terrace, Scarborough - 1889 (Paul Skeolan)
References
Adamson, K.I.P., 1996, p8
Bayliss, A. and P., 1998, p67-8
Budge, A., 1981, p40
Heathcote, B. and P., 2002, p113
Leeds and Bradford Studios, Peter and Peter Paul Skeolan,
Scarborough Evening News, 8 January 1889, (British Newspaper Archive)