A Professor on the goldfields,1855

"On stone by A J Stopps from a Daguerreotype by Acley and Rochletz.   Post Office, Beechworth 1856."   The original photographers appeared in the 1857 Ovens Directory, business rivals of Walter Woodbury - "Ackley & Rochlitz, Daguerrean Artists, Ford St, Beechworth".  This postcard copy of the lithographed daguerreotype was included in the family photo collection.

  
Advertising. (1855, March 3). Ovens and Murray Advertiser (Beechworth, Vic. : 1855 - 1866; 1914 -1918), p. 6. Retrieved April 25, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article113013160


With the above advertisement George Griffith introduced himself and his talents and services to the diverse and growing community in the Ovens goldfields.  He was aged 31; his wife Susan was still only 17 and on the verge of delivering her first child - which arrived on 14 April 1855, a fortnight after the ad.

George announced multiple skills - a teacher of pianoforte, violin, harp, with a general wave in the direction of other instruments.  He could repair multiple instruments, and he could perform at private and public functions.

George also helpfully indicated his place of employment prior to coming to the Ovens goldfields - with Wilkie's Music Saloon in Melbourne.

It is difficult to imagine Susan travelling along badly made roads from Melbourne to Beechworth in an advanced state of pregnancy, which makes it seem likely that they had been in the area for a few weeks at least, or had travelled from somewhere closer.   George perhaps had been wearing himself out digging for gold, and erecting some form of home for himself and his young wife and coming child.  The advertisement signals a more focussed approach to earning a living. 

Woolshed Diggings,1857

This image of the Woolshed Creek Diggings, Ovens, was taken by Walter Woodbury.  The Royal Photographic Society Collection at the National Media Museum, in whose collection this image resides,  dates the image to 1855, but I am inclined to think that this and other photos taken around the Ovens district were taken in 1857 when Woodbury had a studio in Beechworth.

The Royal Historical Society of Victoria has a panorama of Melbourne in its collection, taken by Woodbury in 1855 from the top of West Melbourne Gas Works.  See the Victorian Historical Journal, Volume 81 No 2 (Nov 2010) for an article examining the provenance of that panorama.

Both Woodbury and Griffith were listed in the 1857 Ovens Directory, Griffith being described as a "Professor of Music, Woolshed", and Woodberry as "Daguerrean Artists Ford St, Beechworth".

Woodbury's Portrait Rooms in Beechworth, 1857, from the Royal Photographic Society Collection at the National Media Museum

The Woolshed Creek diggings were located to the north west of Beechworth, accessed by a single narrow road.  The creek itself eventually joins up with the Ovens River.

Unknown Gentleman of Hokitika, circa 1868

This is another unknown gentleman from the Griffith family album, taken in Hokitika in the Revell St studio of Rudolph Haigh.  Haigh took over this studio in October 1868, and it was burnt down in early 1869. 

Again, there is no further information about this gentleman other than what is in the photo.  He appears to be about 40 years of age, curly hair, slightly thinning on top, wearing rimless spectacles, droopy moustache and a long, narrow goatee beard.

He appears to be reasonably well-dressed, though the jacket seems well worn, and warm. 




He seems to be of German appearance, and of all the unknown men in the album, the one who looks most like a musician - but undoubtedly that is my wild imagination.     Does anyone recognise him?

Unknown Gentleman of Dunedin, Hokitika or Greymouth circa 1866

Here is another of the mysterious unknown gentlemen from New Zealand.  The dark halo around the subject suggests that this is a copy of an earlier photo.  Photographers did a lot of copying as part of their business.

The photo was taken by the Tait Brothers, with a printed logo on the back suggesting they operated in Dunedin, Hokitika and Greymouth.  Where this one was taken is anyone's guess.  Maybe not even in New Zealand.

What I can deduce from the photo is that the fellow is wearing a good quality woollen suit coat, which looks clean and newish.  He is a bit of a dude, wearing a very fashionable roll curl on top of his head, and maintaining a good length of curl over his ears. 

He is rather gaunt-looking, with hollowed-out cheeks, possibly from hard physical labour - or perhaps he had been ill.  He has light-coloured eyes, and appears to be aged in mid to late thirties.

Early Canterbury Photographers has a lot of information about the Tait Bros operation, but there is no example of the same style of printed mountboard, so that doesn't help with a date.  The man's hair-style and fashion, though, places the portrait date in the mid to late 1860s.

Again, if you are able to identify this man, please get in touch.

Unknown Gentleman of Hokitika, circa 1868

This full length portrait was taken in the London Portrait Rooms studio of Rudolph Haigh & Co.


I haven't had to look far to discover something about Rudolph Haigh's operation, because an excellent vignette of Haigh is contained on the Early Canterbury Photographers blog.


This reveals that Haigh had advertised removing to the premises of the London Portrait Rooms in August 1868, and that the building burnt down in July 1869, which beautifully narrows down the time-frame for this image.   The very simple printed business name on the back, compared with others on the Canterbury website suggests it was produced very early in the life of Haigh's business at this address, so I take it to have been an 1868 image.


Again, I know nothing about the gentleman in the photo beyond what I can see.  He seems to be aged about 30.  He is dressed in fresh, fairly new I think, clean and fashionable clothing.  The cap in his hand, and the whip in the other, seems to suggest to me some sort of official uniform.  A postman?  A coachdriver? An inspector?


The colourist took note of blue eyes and a ruddy complexion.

If anyone recognises the man or the uniform, I would love to know about it.  Please get in touch.

Unknown gentleman of Greymouth, circa 1868

Here is the first of my unknown New Zealand Portraits.  I don't know anything about him, so have to rely on what there is to see in the picture.  Firstly, he would appear to be in the vicinity of forty years of age, possibly slightly younger. His middle has expanded with the approach of middle age.  He is young enough to be vain about his hair.  It is a good head of hair, well-kempt, with the stylish roll-curls over the ears that were the fashion in the 1860s.


His clothes look very warm (winter?), and clean, but lived in.  Not lately pressed. He is wearing the suit of a working man of the 1860s with the single button at the top, modelled on the working man's smock.


His expression is care-worn.  He has had to work hard to make his way in the world.  He seems to have brown eyes, or dark-coloured irises.


That exhausts what I can deduce from the image.

The photographer was A S Levinski, identified as Abraham Solomon Levinski on the Early Canterbury Photographers blog.


Newspapers on the Papers Past website yield a few clues about Levinski's career.  He appears to have been working as a hairdresser with a sideline in real estate rentals in George Street, Dunedin (opposite the Royal George Hotel) in 1864. 


By 1866, however, he had relocated to Greymouth and was again advertising his services as a hairdresser:

IF you wish-to have your hair cut properly for One Shilling go to LEVINSKI'S HAIRCUTTING SALOON, Boundary street, Two doors from  "Grey River Argus" Office, (Late of George street, Dunedin), Where you can rely on good workmanship.
Grey River Argus , 26 July 1866, Page 3.

Levinski may already have been operating a photographer's business as a sideline while he learnt how to do it adequately.  By August 1867, however, he had made the plunge, and announced his London Portrait Rooms in Boundary Road, in what appears to be his former hairdressing establishment:

PHOTOGRAPHY. — The LONDON PORTRAIT ROOMS, conducted by A. S. LEVINSKI,  Photographer, Boundary street (two doors from "Grey River Argus" office). Portraits can be taken in any weather for Carte de Visites, Brooches, Lockets, Pins, Rings, Views, etc., on the shortest notice. N.B. — All orders punctually attended to.
Grey River Argus, Volume IV, Issue 255, 31 August 1867, Page 3.

In February 1868 another Greymouth photographer, John Low, announces that he is taking over the London Portrait Rooms; but at the end of June 1868 Levinski announces that he is resuming business at the Boundary Road premises.  The Early Canterbury Photographers website says that the London Portrait Rooms were partly destroyed by fire in early 1870.

The portrait above, then, would appear to be no earlier than 1867, and no later than 1870.  If anything, I would lean towards the earlier date, as mountboards and men's jackets were changing by 1870.


If anyone can identify this man, I would be very interested to learn further details about him.

The reference in the last advertisement to "Views" is interesting - it could be that it was Levinski who took the photo of the Coal Creek Gardens, though there was another photographer operating in Greymouth at the same time, John Low, and he might equally well have been the photographer.