Dating Winter's Carte de Visite

Photo Albums

We've had a lovely treat this week looking through a nineteenth century photo album owned by one of our volunteers. These beautiful bound albums were designed to hold carte de visite and the larger sized cabinet cards.

This one may have been owned by the Derbyshire branch of a family as it contains original Winter photographs as well as images from studios in Nottingham, London and Sheffield.

The carte de visite are particularly interesting from a research point of view as they contain information on the back

The top carte de visite is most likely the oldest as it mentions medals won by Winter in 1884 and 1885, whereas the lower two include medals from 1886. The lower two also have neg numbers on them - 66364 and 69588 respectively.

A slightly later image, which must be post 1889 based on the medal dates, has another interesting feature or two:

This photograph has a printed cover which includes the declaration 'Awarded 24 Medals' - a lovely piece of marketing! The reverse of the print has the negative number 73927, followed by the letters 'PB' and the name 'Orme'. Is this the Orme family album; and are there still Ormes in Derby?

If you are a Derby based Orme let us know if there is a family resemblance!

A Really Good Advert

19th Century Studio Prints

When the first studio photographic portraits appeared around the 1850s, the cards onto which the photographs were pasted were as often as not lightweight and plain. A very few had the name of the studio inscribed on them but little else in the way of embellishment.

Artwork & Advertising

Illustrations suggesting the rise of photography as an art form

However, move on a decade or two and the cards had become almost more interesting than the photos themselves. The trend for over-decoration that characterised high Victoriana was also evident, in miniature, on the reverse of cartes de visite portraits. Some typical themes were flowers, exotic locations and winged beings, such as cherubs or fairy folk. Others displayed illustrations of cameras, often with an accompanying artist’s palette, signifying photography as an art form (see below). Coats of arms and crests were also utilised, often suggesting Royal patronage, including that of Queen Victoria herself. However, a court case in 1884 involving the nationwide firm of A and G Taylor indicated that claims of patronage by distinguished people were frequently implied rather than actual. This firm was hauled over the coals for using the royal arms without ‘the consent of the queen’.

Exhibition Medals

Walter William Winter won many medals for his work

W W Winter steered well clear of making false claims; the studio's track record did the talking. Winner of many medals from photographic exhibitions both in the British Isles and indeed worldwide, Winter only needed to cover the bacs of his photographic portraits with displays of these awards to show his photographic prowess.

In the attached images can be seen medals won from Bedford to Berlin and Calcutta to Chicago. Winter’s customers could not help but be impressed by the success of this Derby firm on the world stage of photographic endeavour.
Only one of the ‘backs’ bears a written date, that of 1897, but both show medals gained from the 1880s through to the 1890s. Some of these same medals can still be seen to this day, displayed in a glass-fronted ‘cabinet’ at Winter’s premises. These medals act as a fitting reminder of how successful the studio became and continued to be, a really good advert indeed.

Exotic locations were often featured on the rear of studio prints

Chris Hibbert

Winter's Heritage Volunteer Team

Volunteers Blog - Anne

Untold Stories behind the photographs...

Last week was my final session as a volunteer at Winter's as the first round of funding comes to an end. I've met so many interesting people involved in the project, all with a passion and an enthusiasm for this important process...and that was before I'd even started working on the glass negatives. Something about this project seems to have fired  the imagination of so many. Perhaps it is the uncovering of a whole store of Derby's history or the little frisson of excitement one feels when the next glass negative is cleaned, wondering what will be seen for the first time in 70, 80, 90, or 100 years.

Every photograph raises questions of one kind or another

I have been lucky enough to have worked on three sizes of glass negatives. The large ones were very formal photos and made me wonder; who was  the Grand Master in his full  regalia, or the gentleman photographed at his desk in his own study? Someone who wanted a portrait surrounded by his own books rather than go to the studio–possibly a man of standing?  And who was the lady in a graduation robe? Now the date of that image would be very interesting. 

Some of the middle size plates I dealt with showed shots of the shop floor at Leys and Ewarts, an engineering firm in Derby. Maybe it was for advertising or perhaps for the company magazine. The dress code was collars and ties, even for the man working the massive capstan lathe!

The smaller negatives became more personal; babies, toddlers, wedding photos, passport photographs. Why were the older couple with the unusual name - possibly  Polish - having a passport photograph taken? They look a little wary and uncomfortable in the photo; a button unfastened in the middle of his waistcoat, her coat looking a little too big. Where had they come from and where were they going?

Will mysteries be unraveled

This project is uncovering so many untold stories, some of which may be told, others partly solved and many will lie dormant for many more years until maybe a chance remark will set the story in motion and a family mystery may be unraveled.

Volunteers Blog - Christine

The Importance of Research

Heritage volunteer, Christine, talks us through some historical research. It is this type of information that really helps to bring a story alive!

"When I first joined the Winter's project as a  volunteer the area that had most appeal for me was that of historical research. The first step was to decide which line of enquiry to take. Since Winter's was such a well-established firm in Derby, items in local newspapers seemed the best path to follow. The newspaper of choice was the Derby Mercury, and the starting date the early 1850s.

It was not long before all kinds of articles appeared, effectively chronicling the history of Winter's since Walter Winter first took over. From the newspaper I learned that although Walter was evidently a very accomplished photographer, all had not run smoothly with his business. An illegally erected studio, a fire on the roof and a theft from the shop were just some of the incidents that were reported. On the plus side much was made of the success of the studio in staying abreast of innovations in photography . It was also apparent that some of the best known likenesses in Derby were captured in Winter's studios, from mayors to manufacturers. Some photographic portraits were enlarged and sometimes coloured by hand, while others remained small enough to wear in a locket. The sale of fine art products also boosted the funds, as did exhibitions of well-known paintings.

As well as all Walter's business interests, the newspapers made it apparent that he was highly involved in his local community. As with many Victorian gentlemen philanthropy and religion were both part of the picture.

 

And Walter's employees were not forgotten either, as the firm's first works outing illustrated, when the employees were taken off to the Peak District to enjoy walks, games of cricket and a high tea. As time went on the photographic business went from strength to strength with generations of Derby families turning up at Winter's to have their photos taken. Doubtless, like my own family, many others have a cache of Winter's photographs tucked away in drawers or albums, an archive which has built up over one and a half centuries. It is great to be part of this amazing project which is beginning to uncover just how much of Derby life W. W. Winter captured over the years."

Guest Blog 2

The Volunteer Experience

Local graphic designer, Michael Seymour, describes aspects of the project:

"As a volunteer at Winters I'm grateful to be a part of the preservation and maintenance of this local heritage site. Such a discovery offers historical insights to techniques and processes of a bygone era. In my opinion the very purpose of photography is to capture moments in time thus inspiring me to help rediscover and further preserve these forgotten moments of Derbyshire's past."

As someone who works with images, Michael is particularly intrigued by the pre-digital editing processes; the hand-retouched negatives that show the pencil shading to smooth out skin tone, the blocking out of areas with masking fluids; now performed 'virtually' on Photoshop as the captured image is now all-but-extinct as an artefact.


"Working alongside fellow volunteers and members of the Winters team we record, catalogue and digitise both written and visual data and are constantly finding new and exciting pieces to add to the collection."

Michael and his fellow volunteers are integral and essential to preserving these pieces of history!

Guest Blog

The Volunteer Experience

This week we have a guest blog from one of our heritage volunteers. Volunteers are often vital to heritage projects. They are a valuable resource and whilst they are not paid, they are part of an exchange which can involve access to otherwise private collections, specialist training, and skill development.

Below Anne Allcock talks about her first 'hands on' experience down in the cellar:

W. W. Winter's hove into sight and I had no idea what to expect apart from the information which we'd had on the training day, two months previously.  Having been made most welcome by Louisa, Angela and Jane, Angela then said "keep your coat on we're in the back room". Curiouser and curiouser...

All became clear when Jane said we'd be working on the large plates. Jane took  Barbara and myself through the warren into the back room and we started work on the plates. Coats were definitely needed but the cataloguing, cleaning and wrapping soon dispelled most of the cold.

Anne working with project archivist, Jane Middleton-Smith in the cellar

There was a lot of laughter and chat about photography (although we did make a detour to Mount Everest) and so much information was gleaned just from inspecting the plates, with Jane adding from her increasing wealth of knowledge.

Hubert joined us for a while to talk about the 'Victorian equivalent of Photoshop' i.e.hand retouching, and also about the solarisation effect on plates; so much learned in such a short time.

What an interesting and enjoyable afternoon it was.This is an amazing project and deserves all the help it can get—I'm greatly looking forward to my next visit.

Tours for FORMAT 2015

Tour dates and times have been announced!

During international photography festival FORMAT 2015, W.W. Winter will be running tours around the studio and building. One—hour tours will be available to visitors to explore the building and discover a history of photography, equipment and images in the studio's archive.

Booking Essential

Book through the QUAD box office on 01332 290 606 (places are limited to 15 per session).
Tours will take place at 12noon and 2pm on the following dates:
Saturday 14 March
Saturday 21 March
Wednesday 25 March
Tuesday 31 March
Thursday 9 April

Please note the tour includes at least one flight of stairs.

Artist in Residence

We are also delight to announce that artist in residence, Debbie Adele Cooper, will be exhibiting her Winter's inspired work at St. Werburghs Church, Cheapside, Derby (close to Derby Museum). Read about her work on the FORMAT website here, and follow her project on twitter:

Sneak preview of one of the dry plate glass negatives made at thephotoparlour for @formatfestival only… http://t.co/0sr4BgjlzB
— Archive Artist (@archive_artist) February 19, 2015

We look forward to seeing you!

Volunteer Conservation Training

We welcomed forty volunteers to the Church Hall on Horwood Avenue on Tuesday 20 January for an introductory session on conservation.

 

We were joined by the lovely Anita Hollinshead, freelance museums and conservation expert, who talked us through the considerations involved in heritage collections.

 

Along with local archivist, Jane Middleton-Smith, we were able to look at the care, cleaning and conservation of historic glass negatives, wrapping them in bespoke acid free envelopes made by Hubert.

The next step is for volunteers to work on site at Winter's putting their new knowledge into practice!

 

Having been recently to the Derbyshire Records Office, I can tell you how exciting it is to see and handle old documents and we hope that the public will be able to access the images in the future and experience this delight!

Keep up to date with our HLF supported project here and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/FriendsofWinters

Revealing in 2015...

Yikes it is 2015 already!

We are looking forward to the pace picking up in our Photographic Archive Project.
January sees the first 'Collections Care Workshop' for our volunteers. They will be trained up in cleaning, packing and caring for glass negatives, learn about the history of glass negatives and Winters, and get some hands-on experience.

With our enthusiastic volunteer team behind us, we can then start revealing the images in the archive and find out what they might mean for Derby.

It is going to be a gradual process but we excited about tying the community history into the photo archives and sharing them with the county!

Lovely old view up Iron Gate to Derby Cathedral

Unearthing History

Archiving Project

Time for a quick catch up on our Heritage Lottery Funded archiving project. We have had wonderful support and volunteers are champing at the bit to get started. However, in trying to make a viable space for people to work we have run into a bit of a road block....

The cellar underneath the new archiving room-to-be.

As you can see there is a huge pile of rubble still to shift, but we need to clear it in order to insulate the room above. This section was completely full - the doorway was completely blocked. As clearing has commenced we have found many artifacts, including complete glass negatives, old bottles and packaging. It look like it was used as the on site dump and we are being careful to sift through as we go.

Anyway, now that we know what we are up against we are creating a temporary space for volunteers to work in the office so we can get on with the actual archiving. Opening the workroom proper will have a to wait a little while but will definitely be a cause for balloons and a few bubbles when we achieve it!

Some of the waste glass that has been shifted below the new work room. It stands around a metre deep.

Glass plate negatives, old chemical bottles, and packaging are being salvaged.

The negatives we really want to start working on

Time to Celebrate

We are on a high at the moment - this week we are open for Heritage Open Days AND we have announced phase 1 of our Heritage Lottery Funded archiving project *big cheesy grin*.

Heritage Open Days 2014

In case you've been on Mars and missed all the tweeting, facebook posts and newsletter, we will be open on Thursday 11th, Friday 12th, & Saturday 13th of September as part of National Heritage Open Days. There are many more venues taking place across Derbyshire but we hope you will make a point of dropping in to Winter's for a tour of the premises which this year, in honour of the WW1 centenary will include a few images of British soldiers and German Officer Prisoners of War from the period.
Other lovely points of interest are antique camera equipment, heritage oddments, and the building itself, dating from 1867. You can read a bit more about these on the Heritage Open Days website blog where you can also read about 1000's of exciting heritage events and venues across the UK.

Heritage Lottery Funding

We did it! It has been a long and winding process but phase 1 of our HLF bid has been approved and we are keen to get started.
This will involved preparing a work and storage room, and then on to the interesting bit - working towards archiving the thousands of plate glass negatives. Many of you have kindly already shown interest in volunteering; if it's something you are interested in do get in touch for a volunteer form and we'll take it from there.

Thank you

A quick thank you to everyone who came to last years Heritage Open Days. It was your enthusiasm and support that gave us the memento to take on this endeavour. we also want to thank Jane Middleton-Smith who will be working with us as our professional archivist, and artist-in-residence Debbie Cooper who has been fundamental in guiding us through the process., whilst working on her own project, 'Derby Anon', involving some of our original portraits and the people of Derby (including you?)

Ancestry

Are you related to Walter William Winter?

As part of our heritage research we are tracing the descendants of W. W. Winter and his families and we would love to hear from you!
Here is some of the information that we have:

Charles Family Lineage

Walter William Winter married Sarah Charles (nee Ball) in 1864. Sarah had three children with her first husband Emmanuel Nicolas Charles, who founded the photography studio that Winter took over after Charles' death.Sarah and Emmanuel were survived by their eldest son Alexis Leon Charles (b.1851), who himself had a son, Alexis Amand Dallison Charles (b. 1876).
Are you a descendant of the Charles family line? Please let us know!
You can see an image of the Charles family grave at Nottingham Road cemetery in Derby on flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/33947032@N05/9472324084/

Winter Family Lineage

After Sarah's death in 1883, Winter got married again to Hannah Ness Ruddle (b.1855-d.1930) in 1889 with whom he emigrated to Canada after 1909. We are currently exploring their time in Canada. We think they appear on the 1921 census in Nanaimo, British Columbia, and may be buried in the churchyard of St Mary's in Metchosin.
Do you know anymore?

Get in touch!

Do let us know if you have any bits of info regarding Sarah and Emmanuel's descendants, or Walter and Hannah's. We would love to know if any of them carried on in the family tradition.

Email me:

FAO Hannah, office@wwwinter.co.uk

National Heritage Open Days

It's that time of the year again!

We are furiously publicising our involvement in National Heritage Open Days this year and we hope to be celebrating some very exciting news (wink wink, nod nod).

Free heritage tours, 11th to 13th September

This will be only our second year of opening up to the public but is the 10th anniversary for National Heritage Open Days and I am delighted to say there are a few more local sites this year including The Silk Mill and St Mary's Bridge Chapel.

It is, of course, also the centenary year of WWI. As many of you will already know, Derby has been behind the glorious and moving poppy installation at the Tower of London (http://poppies.hrp.org.uk/about-the-installation) with the poppies being hand produced by Derby artists on Pride Park.
We will be displaying local photographs from our archives during the open days including images of prisoners of war from camps in Derbyshire and the surrounding counties. We hope it will act as a poignant reminder of all those live affected.

Special guest speaker

We are very excited to confirm that Geoff Blackwell ARPS, writer and researcher and Council Member of The Royal Photographic Society, will be joining us to give a talk on 'The Origins of Photography and the East Midlands'. The talk will take place in the studio at around 10.15 on Saturday 13th September with a maximum of 20 places, but Geoff has kindly offered to repeat the session subject to demand for places. Do phone us asap on 01332 345224 if you would like to book a place!

For more info on our heritage tours and to book your place, check on website heritage page, email us on office@wwwinter.co.uk, or give us a ring on 01332 345224.
You can read about all the different Heritage Open Day events on the national website :-)

A Rather Fabulous Foursome

Who are these handsome lads and lasses? Who indeed!

We may not know who they are or what they did but they have one thing in common for certain - they were all photographed at W. W. Winter Photographer's in Derby, on quarter plate glass negatives, most likely in the late 1940's.

How do we know?

There's a rather fabulous project going on at W. W. Winter's at the moment. We have our very own Artist in Residence. Debbie Adele Cooper has been combing our archive, delicately scanning these old glass negatives to reveal a myriad wonderful faces. Her research has taken her back through traditional darkroom printing and now onto vintage photography techniques.

Get involved and have your photo taken!

The rediscovery of these lost faces reminds us of our personal histories and the traces we leave... perhaps the above sitters had families in Derby. Maybe their offspring are living here today. Do you look like one of the people in the portraits that Debbie has revealed? Then she wants to hear from you now!

You don't have to be related to the people in the pictures, just have a resemblance to the original, and a link to Derby yourself.

Take a look at the DerbyAnon website - new images are still being added.

Follow the project on Twitter and Instagram via @archive_artist

Contact Debbie via email through info@debbiecooper.org

We look forward to seeing you in the studio and finding out whose face you fit!

Excitables!

What could be more excitable than discovering something new?

Uncovering something old!
The Heritage Lottery Fund Bid went in on 8 May and there is an eight week or less countdown to the result. This has given us itchy feet and we keep tinkering here and there with the old secretary's room at the back of the office, which we hope to transform into a work space for digital archiving.
Well, a little poke and here and a little tap there has uncovered A SECRET DOOR!!
Firstly - we have checked and it doesn't go to Narnia, but needless to say it is to us part of the wonderland that is Winter's.
It's relatively small - 6 feet in height, standard width (as you can see in the photo, half the door is still in hiding) has glass panels and is painted in a light green. It has been covered up until this week by insulation board; we wouldn't have know it was there but for some rummaging and tidying.
It would have led from the secretary's office to the storeroom where the safe was kept. Personally I can't wait until its is completely uncovered just to find out if it makes a really good creaking sound.


And of course, whoever blocked the door off had the marvelous forethought to stuff the gaps around it with newspaper: The Daily Express, Saturday April 18 1970. I'm looking forward to reading the cartoons!

Can't wait to tell you what we find next :-)

Heritage Lottery Funding Bid

 

Progress

Hours of discussion, paperwork, statements of interest, meetings etc are starting to come together for Winters. We had a hunch there would be some interest based on the amazing support we got from the public during last years Heritage Open Days. There are of course no guarantees but we are hearing the right noises going in to this final stage of application.

When will we know?

Our full complete application is submitted in two weeks and we should have an answer by July. Our thoughts? We can't help but dream big!

Over the side entrance - three 'Ws' and 1867

The dream!

We will need your help to turn the dreams in to reality. We hope to dip our toe in the water with an archiving work room and bring those plate negatives back to life but this is just the beginning. It is developing 'Friends of Winters' that will be the foundation of things to come. We need a body of people who want to be active in restoring, conserving and developing every aspect of our heritage with emphasis on the building (which already has a grade 2 listing) and access to the public.

The ceiling cornicing on the left is currently hidden by a lower false ceiling. Wouldn't it be lovely to have all these architectural details revealed?

Outcomes...

Will it be a museum? A center for study? A center for learning? Is it important to 'travel back in time' and realise a museum studio; to catalogue all the images onsite; to transfer skills and knowledge of traditional photography? We believe that all these things are important, but you will have to drive the project (with our full support) whilst we concentrate on the day-to-day running of the business and our lovely 21st century customers.
We are hugely grateful to our current list of volunteers offering their help. Do get in touch if you are also interested in cataloguing and archiving. However, also let us know if you would like something to really get your teeth into. Do you have a passion for heritage and / or photography? May be you have some project management experience, or have worked on similar projects in the past? We want to hear from you please!

 How many feet have trodden these stairs. Look at the curve in the lead where 150 years of wear is showing.

 

Get in touch

Email us on office@wwwinter.co.uk to let us know. There is no commitment at this stage. We are simply putting together a pool of interested parties. who will love and cherish this place as we do :-)

Winter's in Artsbeat Magazine

We were visited last month by the rather brilliant Amanda Penman of Artsbeat Magazine who has written a lovely article on the business and the 'behind-the-scenes' of the history of the company often invisible behind the running of a modern portrait photography studio.
We have already had feedback from the feature with offers of help for the project-in-waiting that is our photo archive. Our Heritage Lottery Funding bid is now being processed (fingers crossed) and if successful we will be able to move into phase one. This will involve renovation of the old colour dark room and kitting it out as a workroom for archiving. At this point we will need you! We are really grateful for the offers so far but do keep them coming in; whether it's a casual interest in photography and / or history or you have previous experience of a similar project we promise to keep you in tea and coffee!

Owner and MD, Hubert Weston King, wanted to say a big thanks to both Amanda, and to Nick Lockett for photographing here for the magazine.
Behind Hubert you can see a small indication of the archives held here. Each box is filled with negatives, some portraits, some from industrial work. Times this by many times over and you start to see the nature of the task ahead of us.

Contact us by email on office@wwwinter.co.uk if you would like to get involved, and follow our Friends of Winters Facebook page for regular updates and snippets of the goodies we come across.

Louisa and Angela upstairs in the old daylight retouching room with examples of Victorian portraiture. It is this part of the archives that we would like to make more accessible to the public via a small museum.

Quarter Plate Studio Portraits

Butter Wouldn't Melt!

Take a look at these two cherubs.
I picked them up off the top a box in the cellar today. One of so many captured here in the studio over the years. It's difficult to date these but I'm hazarding a guess at 1940's to 1950's based on clothes and hairstyles. Later than this, and we would be moving into colour.
You can make out the word 'Peach' at the bottom of the image (most likely the familly name) along with other reference details. These were written directly onto the plate and relate to an entry somewhere in the ledger books.
The black blob (for want of a better word) on the left is where the emulsion has peeled away but it is a testament to traditional photography methods that the image remains almost wholly intact: how are you old CD's holding up?

The Lightest Touch

Another one from the pile - this image has got me hooked.
Never mind airbrushing or Photoshop - look at the softness of the skin.

The light is gentle but exacting - the modelling highlights his features, his expression is serious but relaxed. What I find really exciting about this one though is the hand retouching directly on to the plate. Retouching was predominantly done by women (perhaps the extra colour receptors in our eyes make us more adept with detail?) Imagine the women working in a row in the daylight retouching rooms at the top of the building bent over these small portraits.
These images I am sharing are all on quarter plate glass negatives. A 'whole' plate is 8in x 6in so these are 4in x 3in, about the size of a polaroid. At this small size the retoucher had to work their magic knowing it would be enlarged when printed, magnifying their handiwork.
And what was this handiwork like? If you flip the plate over and tilt it to the light you can see!

The swirls around the head are brush marks in the emulsion, the details that interest me are the marks on the face. With a bit of photoshop magic you can get a better idea of what is going on...

These pencil marks provide two services: the lighten areas, and they smooth out lines. Dark circles under your eyes? No problem! Deep set frown lines? Not any more! The head in the right hand side image is about to scale so you can see the accuracy needed.
And that's how you make a classic soft portrait without softening the focus - no need for a stocking over the lens :-)