I am currently writing the Eastham brothers’ life story for inclusion in the PCCGB’s book to commemorate their 50th Anniversary. Over the years I have assembled a collection of their cartes de visite, and those of their brother Enos (1826 – 1886).
I need help trying to ascertain whether they actually purchased a daguerreotype licence in late 1845 or early 1846 presumably from Beard’s licensee for Lancashire, John Johnson.
On 25 August 1845 Messrs. Holt and Eastham, ostensibly “from Paris”, announced that they were taking “DAGUERREOTYPE LIKENESSES …. in 5 seconds, at very reasonable charges, from 9 till four each day”. As the first photographers to visit Preston, their first fortnight was “extensively patronised”.
However, Robert Holt and Silas Eastham’s partnership was short lived, being dissolved on 9 September. Likely threatened with legal action by Johnson, Silas’ subsequent advertisements dropped the Royal coat of arms and any reference to Daguerreotypes, thenceforth simply headed “PHOTO-EFFIGY”.
Historically the earliest photographs of Preston have been attributed to Silas, however I believe that John deserves more credit. The fact that advertisements after October 1845 simply refer to “Mr. Eastham” does not help!
The only reference I have come across to their having been a licence is in Table 1 (p385) of a paper “Beard Patentee: Daguerreotype Property and Authorship" by Steve Edwards published in the Oxford Art Journal, 2013. It was not mentioned in Robert Fisher’s piece in the Daguerreian Annual, 1992.
I would be grateful to anyone who can point me in the direction of, or provide me with, any relevant papers or publications so as to enable me to investigate this further. Thank you!
Comments
Thanks for sharing William, interesting! It's not dissimilar to a couple of dags in the Preston Harris Museum's collection:
https://www.theharris.org.uk/collections/photographs/
I've also seen morocco cases online with embossed addresses:
https://www.maartjedenie.nl/verzameling%20001%20daguerreotypes%2011...
Regards, Rob
You might be interested in this daguerreotype of a young lady whode plate may have an Eastham signature on the back.
Thanks for this Michael, like many photohistorians the Heathcotes' A Faithful Likeness was my early bedtime reading, I had a print copy, and was grateful when Bromley House made the appendices available online. I enjoyed the pilgrimage to Bromley House the RPS organised last year, holding some of Pauline's card indexes was a real blast from the past. I'd forgotton about Wood's Midley listings, more bedtime reading!
The best source is the Heathcotes' A Faithfull Likeness which is available as a free PDF download here Or R Derek Wood's researches here Neither confirm that the Easthams were Beard licensees, although the Heathcotes note that Beard himself opened a dag studio in 1841. They have short biographies for both Easthams which look useful and are referenced. Steve is now at the Courtauld in London and may have a reference - he's working on a book on the British daguerreotype.