Frederick Christian Palmer
Encyclopedia
Frederick Christian Palmer (1866−1939; fl.1892−1935), known professionally as Fred C. Palmer, was the main public photographer of Herne Bay, Kent
in the early years of the 20th century, working from Tower Studio. He photographed all the civic events in Herne Bay before 1914, and made portraits of the eccentric Edmund Reid, the erstwhile head of Metropolitan Police Service
CID
who had investigated the Whitechapel murders and then retired to Hampton-on-Sea
, Herne Bay. In 1913 Marcel Duchamp
used Palmer's 1910 photograph of the illuminated Grand Pier Pavilion
as found art
in his Note 78, part of his Green Box
artwork. In the 1920s and early 30s, Fred C. Palmer took over William Hooper's Cromwell Street studio in Swindon
, again producing local postcards, photographing prominent people and doing freelance work for local newspapers and the Council.
on 9 January 1866, the son of Royal Navy
bandsman William Eastman Palmer who had by then become a journeyman
photographer.Birth certificate of Frederick Christian Palmer, 9 January 1866, East Stonehouse, Devon The name "Christian" came from the boy's grandmother Christian Branton Eastman Lewis, who married his grandfather Henry Palmer, a shoemaker, in Okehampton
, Devon
in 1826. Fred C's father W.E. Palmer married Maria Louisa Eales on 13 March 1860 and they were living in James Street, Stoke Damerel
, in 1861 and ten years later at 13 Frances Street at St Andrew's in Plymouth
. She was a "photographic artist", which could mean that she tinted or drew on prints from glass negatives
or somehow enhanced daguerreotype
s, and it was probably her influence which brought the profession of photography into the family. So W.E. Palmer became a photographer in the mid 1860s, and had twelve children including seven sons, at least five of whom were trained as photographers. The business was named William Eastman Palmer & Sons
, and Frederick Christian was the third son. His brothers who trained as photographers were William George, John Eastman, Ernest Charles and Henry Reginald. In 1881 in East Barnet
Fred C. was 15 years old and had started his photographic apprenticeship
. In 1891 when Frederick Christian was 25 years old, he was still living at home and the family was at Hopetown Villa, Leicester Road, East Barnet. At that time his father William Eastman Palmer was still described as a journeyman photographer.
of St George Hanover Square
to Eleanor Florence M. Maltby, who had been born in Highbury
in 1873. They had three children: Leslie Reginald, born 1896; Muriel Audrey, born in 1902; and Joyce Selwyn, born in 1905. The first two were born in Barnet
, and the third in Herne Bay
. In 1901 Frederick was practising as a photographer and the family was living at Gresham Cottage in Plantagenet Road in New Barnet
. In 1911 they were all at Palmer's Tower Studio in Herne Bay; Frederick was again listed in the census
as a photographer and Eleanor was assisting in the business. He may possibly have been related to Fred T. Palmer (fl.1890−1899), photographer of Ramsgate and Croydon.
Palmer may have moved to Watford
around 1936−1937 but did not die there; his daughter Muriel Audrey had married Charles William Raysbrook in 1925 in Strood
and then had three children in Watford. He died at The Grey Cottage, formerly Prospect House, at 1 Prospect Road, Hungerford
.
was available, it is probable that Fred C. Palmer used large−format glass negatives
and that the postcards and portraits were direct prints from these, because of their fine detail. From 1892 to 1903 he was working for the family firm, William Eastman Palmer & Sons
, at Bloom House, Leicester Road, New Barnet. From 1903 to 1922 he was working as a photographer and picture-frame maker in Herne Bay, at 21 High Street from 1903 to 1905 (where Kent Kebab is, as of 2011), and at Telford Villa, 6 Tower Parade from 1907 to 1922. Between 1910 and 1916, Fred C. Palmer was a freelance Herne Bay Press newspaper photographer, who worked from Tower Studio in Tower Parade on the Sea Front where he took portraits. He had a small shop or kiosk called The Art Gallery on the sea front, separate from the studio, where he sold postcards and portrait prints. He produced postcards of important town events, such as the grand opening of Herne Bay Pier
's Grand Pier Pavilion by the Lord Mayor of London
on 3 August 1910, and the grand opening of the King Edward VII Memorial Hall by Princess Beatrice
on 13 July 1913. His name was usually given as Fred C. Palmer in newspaper photograph credits and on the backs of his picture postcards.
and Herne Bay, of a possible 1914 recruitment rally and of soldiers larking about. There was a shortage of silver for use on photographic plate
s, so this may be why he appears to have been limited to photographing the troops and war-wounded and perhaps other work until 1920.
. Street directories state that he was there between 1923 and 1936. The building is now demolished. He published postcards and portraits and was freelance photographer for local newspapers; the same professional pattern as in Herne Bay before the war. Swindon Council used his photographs. He retired around 1936−1937 at the age of approximately 70 years, and died in 1939.
was incorporated as found art
in an artwork by Marcel Duchamp
following the latter's visit to Herne Bay in 1913. Duchamp cut out Palmer's photo from a leaflet and attached it to Note 78 in The Green Box describing his plans for a work called The Large Glass
(1915−1923). The notes including Palmer's photograph were published in two limited editions, and were considered part of, and not just an adjunct to, the Large Glass artwork.
CID
at the time of the Whitechapel murders. Reid had retired to Hampton-on-Sea
, a settlement which was fast sinking into the Thames Estuary
prompting the old man to make attempts at publicity and to demand assistance from the Council. Palmer photographed this eccentric character amid the progressing disaster and gave or sold the images to Reid in the form of postcards. The old man retailed Palmer's photographs from a kiosk, calling the collection an art gallery. Reid was mocked for selling postcards of himself and calling it art, but when Duchamp
chose to take another Palmer photograph home in 1913 and made an artwork of it, Reid's insight was validated.
seafront around 1913, including rehearsed and choreographed
tableaux vivants
by actors. It was apparently produced in response to the contemporary eagerness of aficionados to collect and examine (with a hand lens
) the detailed prints made from large glass negatives
. The signature of such a postcard is the inclusion of tableaux signifying the fleeting moment, and in this example it is the running boy about to go out of frame on the left, and the policeman checking his watch in the foreground. The positions of the actors would be held still for the camera at a prearranged moment, which may have been announced by the chiming of the clock tower out of frame to the right, or a call from the man on the right of the stage. Some of the tableaux are as follows:
(1) The suffragette
mounting a bicycle and incidentally showing a little more ankle than such a young woman might intend at that time, in the right foreground. She is wearing black stockings, which in 1913 could signify a servant or actress.
(2) The young man acting hot under the collar, apparently being berated by a woman, and exchanging a glance with a well-dressed and confident young dandy
in sports jacket
and white shoes, with one hand in pocket and the other possibly holding a cigarette.
(3) Ronald Cecil himself apparently falling backwards in the crowd, although nobody around him turns to look. This is at the centre-back of the crowd. The viewer's attention is drawn to Cecil's fall by the insouciant young man standing below the lamppost in cap and three-piece tweed suit and arms akimbo, looking directly at Cecil falling.
(4) Two housemaids - G.M. Warner, known as Little Warner, and her fellow servant, both employed from age 12 by the boy's school at St George's Terrace - are walking in the aisle between the concert party audience and the fence. They are carrying posters or leaflets for the concert party, and were supposed to do something with the former, but were prevented by the presence of children.
The regatta in the background suggests a Saturday, and the beams from the late afternoon sun passing through the windows on both sides of the Grand Pier Pavilion suggest a time of around 4.30pm. Among the public, a private nurse
in uniform can be seen on the right, and the deckchair
boys employed from age 12 are near the left foreground in the aisle between stage and fence.
Herne Bay, Kent
Herne Bay is a seaside town in Kent, South East England, with a population of 35,188. On the south coast of the Thames Estuary, it is north of Canterbury and east of Whitstable. It neighbours the ancient villages of Herne and Reculver and is part of the City of Canterbury local government district...
in the early years of the 20th century, working from Tower Studio. He photographed all the civic events in Herne Bay before 1914, and made portraits of the eccentric Edmund Reid, the erstwhile head of Metropolitan Police Service
Metropolitan Police Service
The Metropolitan Police Service is the territorial police force responsible for Greater London, excluding the "square mile" of the City of London which is the responsibility of the City of London Police...
CID
Criminal Investigation Department
The Crime Investigation Department is the branch of all Territorial police forces within the British Police and many other Commonwealth police forces, to which plain clothes detectives belong. It is thus distinct from the Uniformed Branch and the Special Branch.The Metropolitan Police Service CID,...
who had investigated the Whitechapel murders and then retired to Hampton-on-Sea
Hampton-on-Sea
Hampton-on-Sea was a drowned and abandoned village in what is now the Hampton area of Herne Bay, Kent. It grew from a tiny fishing hamlet in 1864 at the hands of an oyster fishery company, was developed from 1879 by land agents, abandoned in 1916 and finally drowned due to coastal erosion by 1921...
, Herne Bay. In 1913 Marcel Duchamp
Marcel Duchamp
Marcel Duchamp was a French artist whose work is most often associated with the Dadaist and Surrealist movements. Considered by some to be one of the most important artists of the 20th century, Duchamp's output influenced the development of post-World War I Western art...
used Palmer's 1910 photograph of the illuminated Grand Pier Pavilion
Herne Bay Pier
Herne Bay Pier was the third pier to be built at Herne Bay, Kent for passenger steamers. It was notable for its length of and for appearing in the opening sequence of Ken Russell's first feature film French Dressing. It was destroyed in a storm in 1978 and dismantled in 1980, leaving a stub with...
as found art
Found art
The term found art—more commonly found object or readymade—describes art created from undisguised, but often modified, objects that are not normally considered art, often because they already have a non-art function...
in his Note 78, part of his Green Box
The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even
The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even , most often called The Large Glass , is an artwork by Marcel Duchamp....
artwork. In the 1920s and early 30s, Fred C. Palmer took over William Hooper's Cromwell Street studio in Swindon
Swindon
Swindon is a large town within the borough of Swindon and ceremonial county of Wiltshire, in South West England. It is midway between Bristol, west and Reading, east. London is east...
, again producing local postcards, photographing prominent people and doing freelance work for local newspapers and the Council.
Background
He was born at 31 Union street, East Stonehouse, PlymouthStonehouse, Plymouth
East Stonehouse is one of three towns that were amalgamated into modern-day Plymouth. West Stonehouse was a village that is within the current Mount Edgcumbe Country Park in Cornwall...
on 9 January 1866, the son of Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
bandsman William Eastman Palmer who had by then become a journeyman
Journeyman
A journeyman is someone who completed an apprenticeship and was fully educated in a trade or craft, but not yet a master. To become a master, a journeyman had to submit a master work piece to a guild for evaluation and be admitted to the guild as a master....
photographer.Birth certificate of Frederick Christian Palmer, 9 January 1866, East Stonehouse, Devon The name "Christian" came from the boy's grandmother Christian Branton Eastman Lewis, who married his grandfather Henry Palmer, a shoemaker, in Okehampton
Okehampton
Okehampton is a town and civil parish in West Devon in the English county of Devon. It is situated at the northern edge of Dartmoor, and has an estimated population of 7,155.-History:...
, Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
in 1826. Fred C's father W.E. Palmer married Maria Louisa Eales on 13 March 1860 and they were living in James Street, Stoke Damerel
Stoke, Plymouth
Stoke, also referred to by its earlier name of Stoke Damerel, is a parish, once part of the historical Devonport, England. Prior to 1914, it was a suburb of Devonport. In 1914, Devonport and Plymouth amalgamated with Stonehouse: the new town took the name of Plymouth...
, in 1861 and ten years later at 13 Frances Street at St Andrew's in Plymouth
Plymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
. She was a "photographic artist", which could mean that she tinted or drew on prints from glass negatives
Photographic plate
Photographic plates preceded photographic film as a means of photography. A light-sensitive emulsion of silver salts was applied to a glass plate. This form of photographic material largely faded from the consumer market in the early years of the 20th century, as more convenient and less fragile...
or somehow enhanced daguerreotype
Daguerreotype
The daguerreotype was the first commercially successful photographic process. The image is a direct positive made in the camera on a silvered copper plate....
s, and it was probably her influence which brought the profession of photography into the family. So W.E. Palmer became a photographer in the mid 1860s, and had twelve children including seven sons, at least five of whom were trained as photographers. The business was named William Eastman Palmer & Sons
William Eastman Palmer & Sons
William Eastman Palmer & Sons was the name of a family partnership of photographers which was started in Devon in the 1860s by William Eastman Palmer and his wife Maria Louisa née Eales. By 1881 the five sons in the partnership were beginning to separate and to pursue their photographic careers...
, and Frederick Christian was the third son. His brothers who trained as photographers were William George, John Eastman, Ernest Charles and Henry Reginald. In 1881 in East Barnet
East Barnet
East Barnet is an area of North London within the London Borough of Barnet bordered by New Barnet, Cockfosters and Southgate. It is a largely residential suburb whose central area, known locally as the Village, contains a variety of shops, public houses, restaurants and services. East Barnet is...
Fred C. was 15 years old and had started his photographic apprenticeship
Apprenticeship
Apprenticeship is a system of training a new generation of practitioners of a skill. Apprentices or protégés build their careers from apprenticeships...
. In 1891 when Frederick Christian was 25 years old, he was still living at home and the family was at Hopetown Villa, Leicester Road, East Barnet. At that time his father William Eastman Palmer was still described as a journeyman photographer.
Adult life
In 1894 Frederick Christian Palmer was married in the parishCivil parish
In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...
of St George Hanover Square
St George Hanover Square
St George's, Hanover Square, is an Anglican church in central London, built in the early 18th century. The church was designed by John James and was constructed under a project to build fifty new churches around London . It is situated on Hanover Square, near Oxford Circus, in what is now...
to Eleanor Florence M. Maltby, who had been born in Highbury
Highbury
- Early Highbury :The area now known as Islington was part of the larger manor of Tolentone, which is mentioned in the Domesday Book. Tolentone was owned by Ranulf brother of Ilger and included all the areas north and east of Canonbury and Holloway Road. The manor house was situated by what is now...
in 1873. They had three children: Leslie Reginald, born 1896; Muriel Audrey, born in 1902; and Joyce Selwyn, born in 1905. The first two were born in Barnet
Barnet
High Barnet or Chipping Barnet is a place in the London Borough of Barnet, North London, England. It is a suburban development built around a twelfth-century settlement and is located north north-west of Charing Cross. Its name is often abbreviated to Barnet, which is also the name of the London...
, and the third in Herne Bay
Herne Bay, Kent
Herne Bay is a seaside town in Kent, South East England, with a population of 35,188. On the south coast of the Thames Estuary, it is north of Canterbury and east of Whitstable. It neighbours the ancient villages of Herne and Reculver and is part of the City of Canterbury local government district...
. In 1901 Frederick was practising as a photographer and the family was living at Gresham Cottage in Plantagenet Road in New Barnet
New Barnet
New Barnet is an area within the London Borough of Barnet. It is a largely residential North London suburb, close to the M25, A1 and M1.-History:...
. In 1911 they were all at Palmer's Tower Studio in Herne Bay; Frederick was again listed in the census
Census in the United Kingdom
Coincident full censuses have taken place in the different jurisdictions of the United Kingdom every ten years since 1801, with the exceptions of 1941 and in both Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State in 1921; simultaneous censuses were taken in the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, with...
as a photographer and Eleanor was assisting in the business. He may possibly have been related to Fred T. Palmer (fl.1890−1899), photographer of Ramsgate and Croydon.
Palmer may have moved to Watford
Watford
Watford is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, situated northwest of central London and within the bounds of the M25 motorway. The borough is separated from Greater London to the south by the urbanised parish of Watford Rural in the Three Rivers District.Watford was created as an urban...
around 1936−1937 but did not die there; his daughter Muriel Audrey had married Charles William Raysbrook in 1925 in Strood
Strood
Strood is a town in the unitary authority of Medway in South East England. It is part of the ceremonial county of Kent. It lies on the north west bank of the River Medway at its lowest bridging point, and is part of the Rochester post town....
and then had three children in Watford. He died at The Grey Cottage, formerly Prospect House, at 1 Prospect Road, Hungerford
Hungerford
Hungerford is a market town and civil parish in Berkshire, England, 9 miles west of Newbury. It covers an area of and, according to the 2001 census, has a population of 5,559 .- Geography :...
.
Herne Bay
Although photographic filmPhotographic film
Photographic film is a sheet of plastic coated with an emulsion containing light-sensitive silver halide salts with variable crystal sizes that determine the sensitivity, contrast and resolution of the film...
was available, it is probable that Fred C. Palmer used large−format glass negatives
Photographic plate
Photographic plates preceded photographic film as a means of photography. A light-sensitive emulsion of silver salts was applied to a glass plate. This form of photographic material largely faded from the consumer market in the early years of the 20th century, as more convenient and less fragile...
and that the postcards and portraits were direct prints from these, because of their fine detail. From 1892 to 1903 he was working for the family firm, William Eastman Palmer & Sons
William Eastman Palmer & Sons
William Eastman Palmer & Sons was the name of a family partnership of photographers which was started in Devon in the 1860s by William Eastman Palmer and his wife Maria Louisa née Eales. By 1881 the five sons in the partnership were beginning to separate and to pursue their photographic careers...
, at Bloom House, Leicester Road, New Barnet. From 1903 to 1922 he was working as a photographer and picture-frame maker in Herne Bay, at 21 High Street from 1903 to 1905 (where Kent Kebab is, as of 2011), and at Telford Villa, 6 Tower Parade from 1907 to 1922. Between 1910 and 1916, Fred C. Palmer was a freelance Herne Bay Press newspaper photographer, who worked from Tower Studio in Tower Parade on the Sea Front where he took portraits. He had a small shop or kiosk called The Art Gallery on the sea front, separate from the studio, where he sold postcards and portrait prints. He produced postcards of important town events, such as the grand opening of Herne Bay Pier
Herne Bay Pier
Herne Bay Pier was the third pier to be built at Herne Bay, Kent for passenger steamers. It was notable for its length of and for appearing in the opening sequence of Ken Russell's first feature film French Dressing. It was destroyed in a storm in 1978 and dismantled in 1980, leaving a stub with...
's Grand Pier Pavilion by the Lord Mayor of London
Mayor of London
The Mayor of London is an elected politician who, along with the London Assembly of 25 members, is accountable for the strategic government of Greater London. Conservative Boris Johnson has held the position since 4 May 2008...
on 3 August 1910, and the grand opening of the King Edward VII Memorial Hall by Princess Beatrice
Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom
The Princess Beatrice was a member of the British Royal Family. She was the fifth daughter and youngest child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Juan Carlos, King of Spain, is her great-grandson...
on 13 July 1913. His name was usually given as Fred C. Palmer in newspaper photograph credits and on the backs of his picture postcards.
World War I
During World War I there are no written records of Fred C. Palmer, but he did produce postcards of war-wounded Belgians recuperating in CanterburyCanterbury
Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....
and Herne Bay, of a possible 1914 recruitment rally and of soldiers larking about. There was a shortage of silver for use on photographic plate
Photographic plate
Photographic plates preceded photographic film as a means of photography. A light-sensitive emulsion of silver salts was applied to a glass plate. This form of photographic material largely faded from the consumer market in the early years of the 20th century, as more convenient and less fragile...
s, so this may be why he appears to have been limited to photographing the troops and war-wounded and perhaps other work until 1920.
Swindon
Around 1920−1921 Palmer took over the studio of the established photographer William Hooper at 6 Cromwell Street, SwindonSwindon
Swindon is a large town within the borough of Swindon and ceremonial county of Wiltshire, in South West England. It is midway between Bristol, west and Reading, east. London is east...
. Street directories state that he was there between 1923 and 1936. The building is now demolished. He published postcards and portraits and was freelance photographer for local newspapers; the same professional pattern as in Herne Bay before the war. Swindon Council used his photographs. He retired around 1936−1937 at the age of approximately 70 years, and died in 1939.
Photograph of Grand Pier Pavilion, 1910
Palmer's 1910 photograph of the illuminated Grand Pier PavilionHerne Bay Pier
Herne Bay Pier was the third pier to be built at Herne Bay, Kent for passenger steamers. It was notable for its length of and for appearing in the opening sequence of Ken Russell's first feature film French Dressing. It was destroyed in a storm in 1978 and dismantled in 1980, leaving a stub with...
was incorporated as found art
Found art
The term found art—more commonly found object or readymade—describes art created from undisguised, but often modified, objects that are not normally considered art, often because they already have a non-art function...
in an artwork by Marcel Duchamp
Marcel Duchamp
Marcel Duchamp was a French artist whose work is most often associated with the Dadaist and Surrealist movements. Considered by some to be one of the most important artists of the 20th century, Duchamp's output influenced the development of post-World War I Western art...
following the latter's visit to Herne Bay in 1913. Duchamp cut out Palmer's photo from a leaflet and attached it to Note 78 in The Green Box describing his plans for a work called The Large Glass
The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even
The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even , most often called The Large Glass , is an artwork by Marcel Duchamp....
(1915−1923). The notes including Palmer's photograph were published in two limited editions, and were considered part of, and not just an adjunct to, the Large Glass artwork.
Portraits of Edmund Reid
In 1910−1912 Palmer photographed Edmund Reid who had been head of Metropolitan Police ServiceMetropolitan Police Service
The Metropolitan Police Service is the territorial police force responsible for Greater London, excluding the "square mile" of the City of London which is the responsibility of the City of London Police...
CID
Criminal Investigation Department
The Crime Investigation Department is the branch of all Territorial police forces within the British Police and many other Commonwealth police forces, to which plain clothes detectives belong. It is thus distinct from the Uniformed Branch and the Special Branch.The Metropolitan Police Service CID,...
at the time of the Whitechapel murders. Reid had retired to Hampton-on-Sea
Hampton-on-Sea
Hampton-on-Sea was a drowned and abandoned village in what is now the Hampton area of Herne Bay, Kent. It grew from a tiny fishing hamlet in 1864 at the hands of an oyster fishery company, was developed from 1879 by land agents, abandoned in 1916 and finally drowned due to coastal erosion by 1921...
, a settlement which was fast sinking into the Thames Estuary
Thames Estuary
The Thames Mouth is the estuary in which the River Thames meets the waters of the North Sea.It is not easy to define the limits of the estuary, although physically the head of Sea Reach, near Canvey Island on the Essex shore is probably the western boundary...
prompting the old man to make attempts at publicity and to demand assistance from the Council. Palmer photographed this eccentric character amid the progressing disaster and gave or sold the images to Reid in the form of postcards. The old man retailed Palmer's photographs from a kiosk, calling the collection an art gallery. Reid was mocked for selling postcards of himself and calling it art, but when Duchamp
Marcel Duchamp
Marcel Duchamp was a French artist whose work is most often associated with the Dadaist and Surrealist movements. Considered by some to be one of the most important artists of the 20th century, Duchamp's output influenced the development of post-World War I Western art...
chose to take another Palmer photograph home in 1913 and made an artwork of it, Reid's insight was validated.
One example: the Ronald Cecil Concert Party postcard
The Ronald Cecil Concert Party postcard shows a crowd on the Herne BayHerne Bay, Kent
Herne Bay is a seaside town in Kent, South East England, with a population of 35,188. On the south coast of the Thames Estuary, it is north of Canterbury and east of Whitstable. It neighbours the ancient villages of Herne and Reculver and is part of the City of Canterbury local government district...
seafront around 1913, including rehearsed and choreographed
Choreography
Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements in which motion, form, or both are specified. Choreography may also refer to the design itself, which is sometimes expressed by means of dance notation. The word choreography literally means "dance-writing" from the Greek words "χορεία" ...
tableaux vivants
Tableau vivant
Tableau vivant is French for "living picture." The term describes a striking group of suitably costumed actors or artist's models, carefully posed and often theatrically lit. Throughout the duration of the display, the people shown do not speak or move...
by actors. It was apparently produced in response to the contemporary eagerness of aficionados to collect and examine (with a hand lens
Magnifying glass
A magnifying glass is a convex lens that is used to produce a magnified image of an object. The lens is usually mounted in a frame with a handle ....
) the detailed prints made from large glass negatives
Photographic plate
Photographic plates preceded photographic film as a means of photography. A light-sensitive emulsion of silver salts was applied to a glass plate. This form of photographic material largely faded from the consumer market in the early years of the 20th century, as more convenient and less fragile...
. The signature of such a postcard is the inclusion of tableaux signifying the fleeting moment, and in this example it is the running boy about to go out of frame on the left, and the policeman checking his watch in the foreground. The positions of the actors would be held still for the camera at a prearranged moment, which may have been announced by the chiming of the clock tower out of frame to the right, or a call from the man on the right of the stage. Some of the tableaux are as follows:
(1) The suffragette
Suffragette
"Suffragette" is a term coined by the Daily Mail newspaper as a derogatory label for members of the late 19th and early 20th century movement for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom, in particular members of the Women's Social and Political Union...
mounting a bicycle and incidentally showing a little more ankle than such a young woman might intend at that time, in the right foreground. She is wearing black stockings, which in 1913 could signify a servant or actress.
(2) The young man acting hot under the collar, apparently being berated by a woman, and exchanging a glance with a well-dressed and confident young dandy
Dandy
A dandy is a man who places particular importance upon physical appearance, refined language, and leisurely hobbies, pursued with the appearance of nonchalance in a cult of Self...
in sports jacket
Sportcoat
A sportcoat, sports coat or sports jacket, is a tailored jacket for men. Though it is of a similar cut and length to a suit jacket there are many differences. First, it is less formal. Also it is designed to be worn on its own and does not come as part of a suit...
and white shoes, with one hand in pocket and the other possibly holding a cigarette.
(3) Ronald Cecil himself apparently falling backwards in the crowd, although nobody around him turns to look. This is at the centre-back of the crowd. The viewer's attention is drawn to Cecil's fall by the insouciant young man standing below the lamppost in cap and three-piece tweed suit and arms akimbo, looking directly at Cecil falling.
(4) Two housemaids - G.M. Warner, known as Little Warner, and her fellow servant, both employed from age 12 by the boy's school at St George's Terrace - are walking in the aisle between the concert party audience and the fence. They are carrying posters or leaflets for the concert party, and were supposed to do something with the former, but were prevented by the presence of children.
The regatta in the background suggests a Saturday, and the beams from the late afternoon sun passing through the windows on both sides of the Grand Pier Pavilion suggest a time of around 4.30pm. Among the public, a private nurse
Private duty nursing
Private duty nursing is the care of clients by nurses, whether an RN or LPN/LVN .Most nurses who provide private duty care are working one-on-one with individual clients...
in uniform can be seen on the right, and the deckchair
Deckchair
A deckchair is a folding chair, usually with a frame of treated wood or artificial material and a fabric or vinyl backrest and seat. It may have an extended seat, meant to be used as a leg rest, whose height may be adjustable...
boys employed from age 12 are near the left foreground in the aisle between stage and fence.
