When you look on the internet at the many hundreds of daguerreotype images taken by W E Kilburn what you see, apart from the famous image of the 1848 Chartist rally, is almost entirely portraits of famous and well to do clients taken at his Regent Street studios. Although the Royal Collection does have images of servants, grooms, gamekeepers. beaters etc taken outside.
So I am puzzled as to why we have three early W E Kilburn cased daguerreotype images at Erddig the National Trust property at Wrexham two of which were taken on site at Erddig and one of which is a studio image taken in London. A fourth image is a copy from an original daguerreotype lost in the copying process so not proven to be by Kilburn.
Two of the daguerreotypes in embossed leather Kilburn cases are of known family members and show them clearly on the parterre and the west front staircase. The image of the young lady on the parterre is of Victoria Yorke (ne Cust) thought to date from the mid 1840’s.
The image of the military man is of John Yorke, who at the time it was taken again in the late 1840’s was an officer in the 1st (Royal) Regiment of Dragoons which is now the Blues and Royals (Royal Horse Guards).
John Yorke would go on to the rank of general and was at the Crimea where he took part in the Charge of the Heavy Brigade that proceeded by a couple of hours the infamous Charge of the Light Brigade.
The third cased image is very faded but is of three people a young man and woman and an elderly woman in a studio setting. This may have been of Simon Yorke III and his wife Victoria ( the young lady on the parterre) and Simons mother Margaret Holland. Margaret Holland died in 1848 so again if the subjects are correct then this would have been taken in the same period as the other images noted above.
The fourth daguerreotype is probably the most interesting but the house only have a copy made in 1912 of the original daguerreotype which was, it is thought, lost at the time of the copying. This image is of the main house servants taken on the west front staircase and is stated in the house records to have been taken in 1852. As the original daguerreotype has been lost there is no provenance linking it to Kilburn.
So three cased daguerreotypes by the studio of W E Kilburn and one other image that was from an original daguerreotype.
So how do two of them come to be taken by the W E Kilburn studio at Erddig and a third possibly so when the large majority if not all of the subjects taken by Kilburn were of notable subjects and subjects with royal connections in the Kilburn studio settings in Regent Street? How could this top London photographer with a double royal warrant be tempted to go up to a remote country house just outside Wrexham?
The answer may lie with the lady on the parterre. Victoria Mary Louisa Yorke moved in royal circles. She was a god daughter of Queen Victoria and was the daughter of Sir Edward Cust the master of the royal household. Just perhaps the sort of clients to tempt the Kilburn studio to come to Erddig.
I have used the term the studio of W E Kilburn. I am not sure if Kilburn had a number of trusted assistants or if he took all of the images himself. It would appear likely give the output that he had that some assistance was needed. The only clue is an entry in Simon Yorke’s personal household accounts book for 5th November 1852 which states:
To Mr Barrett for daguerreotypes £6 - 12 -00
A copy of the invoice to which the entry relates has not been found. But it may be that Mr Barrett was part of W E Kilburn’s studio team. The payment was for more than one daguerreotype. The servants image was from 1852 but the
parterre and military man image appear earlier. So for now the mystery continues.
Read this text here: W%20E%20KILBURN.pdf
Comments
Jennifer
Thanks for your comments
As noted in the article Victoria Yorke was a god daughter to Queen Victoria and her father was master of the royal household. She would've been in London a lot and there are also images of her by Basano later in life in his London studio. She was born at Leasowe castle in the Wirral and also visited Liverpool a lot and I have tried to find any connection with the Richard Beard studio which was in Liverpool from about 1841. I will keep at it and thank you for your post
Is it feasible that the Royal Grant was awarded after the creation of Your images?
Best Wishes with your investigations
93 Views is great but any feedback however small would be useful