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This is a recently acquired salt print, 'Col. Dickson, Royal Engineers' by Roger Fenton. It is mounted on the usual large 18 x 24" page. Rather than having the number printed in the title, it is hand written in ink on the obverse. Is this an early 'proof'? A later copy?
Many thanks for any information.
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Hi David,
I cannot definitely say whether your print was an original or a later copy. However, as you know, '199' refers to the number of the portrait in Agnew's catalogue for the London exhibition that began in October 1855 and the date on the page where your print is mounted is 5 April 1856. On page 62 of the book on Roger Fenton by John Hannavy, it says that the first prints were offered to the public for sale in November 1855 and that others were published at intervals over the next four to five months until all were available. It could therefore be an original print dating from this time.
The print title is 'Colonel Dickson, Royal Engineers', but there is no officer with the name of Dickson with the Royal Engineers in a comprehensive list of officers that served in the Crimea compiled by Tony Margrave. However, there was a Lieutenant Colonel Collingwood Dickson (1817-1904), who was in the Royal Artillery. He was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions in the trenches before Sevastopol as follows: -
On 17 October 1854, when the gun batteries had run short of powder, Lieutenant Colonel Dickson displayed great coolness and contempt of danger in directing the unloading of several powder wagons which had been brought up to the trenches. He personally helped to carry the powder-barrels under heavy fire from the enemy.
I believe your print could be of him.
Hope this helps,
David Robert Jones
Centre for British Photography
Victoria and Albert Museum's photography collection
National Science and Media Museum
RPS Journal 1853-2012 online and searchable
Photographic History Research Centre, Leicester
Birkbeck History and Theory of Photography Research Centre
William Henry Fox Talbot Catalogue Raisonné
British Photography. The Hyman Collection
The Press Photo History Project Mapping the photo agencies and photographers of Fleet Street and the UK
The correspondence of William Henry Fox Talbot
Historic England Archive
UAL Photography and Photography and the Archive Research Centre
Royal Photographic Society's Historical Group
www.londonstereo.com London Stereoscopic Company / T. R. Williams
www.earlyphotography.co.uk British camera makers and companies
Fox Talbot Museum, Lacock.
National Portrait Gallery, London
http://www.freewebs.com/jb3d/
Alfred Seaman and the Photographic Convention
Frederick Scott Archer
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