Percy Lund's Photographic Materials.

A look at Percy Lund's advertisements gives us a good insight into the products and materials that were being used by the studios during the mid 1880s until the mid 1890s. It can be seen here that Percy tried to offer a one stop shop for the professional photographer with products ranging from studio cameras, dry plates, backdrops, studio props, sample albums, posters to promote the studio, signs directing and informing customers, along with chemicals, trays, mounting card and tissue covers. He didn't manufacture all of these products and simply acted as a wholesaler and agent for some manufacturers, but he did manufacture some including most of the printed material.

Tissue Covers and Cards produced by Percy Lund & Co

Tissue was used to protect the Carte De Visite and Cabinet Photos. The top edge of the tissue would be pasted to the back of the card and then folded over to cover the photograph on the front. There were a number a standard designs for his professional photographer customers to choose from such as the Japanese and Statuesque range, alternatively if they wanted to use their own designs they could. Percy advertised statuesque tissue and one of the examples below could well be this, he distributed these himself but they were also available from Appletons of Bradford and Fallowfields of London. Prices in 1891 were 6d for 150 suitable for Carte de visites (CDV) and 1/- for 150 suitable for cabinet sized cards. Bulk prices were 1/6 for 1000 for CDV and 3/6 per 1000 for Cabinet. Some of the designs were kept very simple and some were more detailed and are a work of art in themselves. No doubt photographers had differing views on how their portraits should be presented to their clients with some taking great care and others not bothering. Many of the cards used to mount carte de visite and cabinet portraits also had very elaborate designs and others were kept quite simple, even plain. To keep costs down and perhaps because some of the photographers didn't have the skills or inclination to produce the artwork themselves they used standard designs produced by companies such as Marion & Co . Even Percy didn't produce everything in house, the example of the A E & C Fox cards shown in the Appleton story reveal that Percy was at one stage using cards manufactured in Vienna. Cards produced from 1889, possibly 1888, were sometimes edged with gold, in one of Percy's advertisements he described the card mounts has having bevel edges stamped with real English gold.

Some examples of tissue printed by Percy Lund & Co

Photo Mounts

The photo mount came in various shapes and sizes. One version the Autos mount had been patented by Passingham and these were manufactured in Berlin. Percy Lund & Co promoted the mounts through their advertising and must have been involved in their distribution and possibly their printing. The example shown here dates from around 1900 and was used by C H Burrows of Southfield Lane, Gt. Horton, Bradford. The mounts were simple in design, they held a single carte de visite or cabinet photo and were self supporting so they could stand on a table or mantle shelf. Made from Cream Bristol Board they were edged in real gold. The finished card was no thicker than a standard mounting card but it was made up of two separate parts bonded together. The card at the rear was neatly cut to allow it to be opened up and act as a stand. The gold was applied to the bevelled edges hiding the join between the two pieces of card. Another type of mount which was in use was referred to as an Opalines they were also self standing but had the option of being able to hang them on the wall, these were available in portrait or landscape format.

Apparently Percy regarded his photographic materials range as a phenomenal success as pointed out in the advertisement in the Photographers World. The range included Professional Cloth Backgrounds and an example of the material used in 1889 is shown here along with the prices. This sample was included as a supplement in the Photographers World. The material itself is quite rigid and almost feels like plastic. Also in the range were print knives, negative varnish, retouching medium, substratum varnish, mountant, negative bags, masks and discs and snowdrift opals.

Consumables

A price list of consumables clearly aimed at the professional photographer was published in December 1887 edition of The Photographers World, as follows.

· Blotting Papers 22 ½ by 17 ½ 1/- to 3/- per quire depending upon quality.

· Hardtmuth’s retouching pencils 6d each and Black Chalk Pencils 1/- each

· India Rubber Bands for carte de visite and cabinet, box of 500 4/-

· Packing Papers

· Negative Bags ½ plate 3/8 per 1000, other sizes available

· Envelopes all sizes available from 2/- per 1000

· Mounts – A cheap line in Bristol Cartes and Cabinets can be supplied in neat style within ten days from date of order. New and Chaste designs. Prices and samples post free 2d

· Tissue covers carte de visite white 4d per 1000, pink 9d per 1000. Cabinet white 9d per 1000, pink 1/- per 1000

· Postal Wrappers, stout strong and neat, Cabinets 25/- per 1000, Carte De Visite 15/- per 1000

· Gents visiting cards 2/- per 50, 10/6 for 500

· Brass Stands for show cards, cdvs, cabinets or opals. Cabinet size 1/- per dozen

· Calendars for 1888, many pretty designs samples and prices post free 3d (An example of the 1889 calendar is shown here. This was included as a supplement in the Photographers World)

· Studio Tablets printed on card or paper from 1d each. Following are in stock. Cash at time of sitting, Please use the mat, Negatives kept, Dark room private, Reception room, Studio, Private, Ladies waiting room, Ring the bell, Walk in don’t knock, Walk upstairs, Waiting Room, Pictures framed, Dressing Room, Enlargements in all styles, Please take price list.

In the early 1890's Percy sold professional specimen albums for showroom use, the photos would be clipped in the album for easy removed unlike the traditional Victorian family album where the photos would be slotted, in some cases quite tightly within the each page and much more difficult to remove. He also sold the traditional type of album and the ones mentioned in his advertising were the Charles Dickens Album sold for 10/9, the Monochrome Birds album for 9/- and the Persian Floral Album for 4/9. The albums were usually on a theme and were often richly decorated and leather bound.

The Sunny Memories Album

The Sunny Memories album was a novel idea, it was an album which would appeal to the amateur photographer and would allow photographs or photographic scraps to be inserted into the album. It was produced from 1898. The advertisements for the album reveal that it was available to take prints of various sizes. The Five shilling series would take prints of up to half plate size whereas the Three shilling series was for the products of hand cameras and the two and six series would hold photos taken by cameras smaller than ¼ plate. The albums were produced certainly up to 1927 but most sales were achieved during the years 1902 until 1913 with in excess of 10,000 a year being sold, peaking at 17,888 in 1902. See note below. The Sunny Memories album was advertised in the Practical and Junior Photographer and a number of the books that Percy published and this may account for its popularity. The annual sales of the Sunny Memories albums are recorded in a small personal note book which is held by West Yorkshire Archives, it also records company turnover, dividends and wages from 1896 through to until 1934. The figures given for the annual sales of the albums do not actually state whether there are the number of albums or the turnover generated by selling the albums but the fact that the figures are included in such an important notebook shows their significance to the business.

Photo shown right is of a worker at the factory binding books with a Sunny Memories album on his bench. West Yorkshire Archive Service, Bradford, ref 56D94/9/4

An example of one of the albums is shown below, this one belonged to Henry Robert Milner, it has lots of views of Gloucester and surrounding areas plus some of his family. It probably dates from around 1898. Henry was a chemist and was a keen golfer. An interesting story was published about him in the Gloucester Citizen on 21^st July 1899. Henry had been prosecuted by the local school board for employing a boy aged 10 to caddy for him and miss school as a consequence. He was fined 10s and 17s costs. There is a photo of Henry playing golf in the album. The third image shows how the front of each page can be separated so the photos can be inserted.

The Panoramic Album shown right was reviewed in the 1893 British Journal of Photography and they said "A very useful panoramic album has been made, in several sizes, by Messrs. Percy Lund & Co. It is shown, opened out, in the cut. There are slots in each corner of the leaf under which the corresponding corners of the photograph are slipped, thus dispensing with further mounting. A series or landscape can, by its means, be instantly displayed. This is a new series, differing in some respects from one of a similar nature we noticed some time ago."

Percy advertised his Panoramic Albums in E A Just’s book on Bromide Paper 3^rd edition published in 1893..

“ Pertinaciously Persist in Procuring Percy Lund & Co’s Particularly Popular

Panoramic Albums

Pronounced Phenomenally pleasing. Prices Post free. Percy Lund & Co, St Johns Street, Bradford; and Memorial Hall, London.

Posters to promote local studios.

Backgrounds and Studio Props

Chemicals and Trays

Magazines

In April 1892 Percy Lund & Co sold the following magazines wholesale and retail.

The Photographic Quarterly 2s, The Photographic review of reviews monthly 6d, The British Journal of Photography weekly 2d, The Photographic News weekly 2d, The Amateur Photographer weekly 2d, Photography weekly 1d, The Magic Lantern Journal monthly 1d.

Cameras

The St John camera referred to earlier was not the only camera that Percy Lund and Co sold, they also advertised the Country camera and a Universal Studio Camera. It is not clear if they actually manufactured all these themselves but an advertisement that appeared in the Practical Photography 1^st Sept 1892 shows all three.

In Part 2 of a series of articles published in the Leeds Mercury and other newspapers in May 1893 Henry Snowden Ward advised on choosing a camera.

“ Typical Modern Cameras. “

“These I can recommend with greater confidence because they are not confined to any one maker. Although every dealer has stock resembling one or both of them, and each of the patterns can be obtained in slightly varying quality of finish at slightly varying prices. Roughly speaking, however they will cost the prices mentioned in the above estimate – say seventy shillings for the “Popular” or “Country” type – in each case with three double dark-slides. The main differences of construction are simple enough. The “St Johns “ type has a fixed front-board, while the back part of the camera moves, to lengthen or shorten it for various lenses. In closing up, the base board protects the focussing glass. In the other type the front board is movable, and is protected by the base board when the whole is closed. Each type has its own advantages but on the whole I should recommend the latter not only on account of its design but also because it is generally made in rather better quality than the other and gives the purchaser excellent value for his extra fourteen shillings or so. A slight modification of this second type, in which there is a brass groove along each side of the base board so that the back can be easily moved towards the front, is an advantage, and the camera possessing it is worth a few extra shillings, although the beginner may never need to use the extra power, and even when advanced as a photographer will probably use it but seldom. It is impossible to give full but a few main directions will be helpful. Avoid unnecessary brass work; the camera that looks so very brilliant often consists of unseasoned wood, put together by cheap labour, and covered with brass to hide its defects. Labour is the principal item in the cost, also in the value of a camera, and a lot of brass fitting is no efficient substitute for fine cabinet work. See the camera has reversing back, so that either upright or horizontal pictures can be taken without shifting the camera.”