I would be interested to hear from anyone who knows of any surviving cased images, taken by Blackburn based photographers, in their own or any other collection.
Whilst John Eastham visited the town, as an itinerant daguerreotype photographer, in 1847 and 1848, it was not until July 1853, as the patent restrictions were ending, that Richard Holt opened a daguerreotype studio there.
Whilst I’ve never seen a Blackburn daguerreotype, I know of a couple of surviving ambrotypes taken by David Johnson (1827 – 1901).
One featured in the Arts Council exhibition “Masterpieces of Victorian Photography 1840 – 1900”, from the Gernsheim Collection, at the Festival of Britain 1951; it is now in the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas.
The other is in my own collection. Johnson’s morocco leather cased images were embossed with his name in an oval (left). He used similar printed wording on the backs of the mounts of his early cartes de visite (right):
Hopefully some of you may know of other survivals. Thanks!
