PHOTOGRAPHERS Thomas J. Nevin and Samuel Clifford
Samuel Clifford advertised in The Mercury, January 1876, that he had acquired the "interest" in Thomas J. Nevin's commercial photographs taken for private clients and would reprint them at request because between 1876 and 1880 Thomas Nevin was otherwise engaged in full-time civil service as the police and prisons photographer while also resident at the Hobart Town Hall as Hall and Office Keeper. But Nevin maintained his old New Town studio and worked with another commercial photographer, H.H. Baily, during his tenancy at the Town Hall (Mercury, December 1880) and on dismissal from the Keeper position in December 1880, he resumed commercial practice, bailiff duties and police photography for the Territorial and Municipal Police Forces at his New Town studio until 1888.
Clifford & Nevin appears as a handwritten inscription on the versos of several studio portraits in public and private collections, although their collaboration was principally in stereography, especially in the late 1860s. Several stereographs held at the State Library of Tasmania, loosely collated in "The Clifford Album", whether unattributed or which bear Clifford's stamp, are original photographs by Thomas Nevin produced during their partnership. Two bound albums in the same public collection entitled Tasmanian Scenes contain prints by Nevin of the Salmon Ponds and River Plenty etc.
The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery holds a sizeable collection of Thomas Nevin's stereographs dating from ca. 1868. Nevin exhibited at the Wellington Park Exhibition in 1868, and at the Hobart Town Hall Bazaar in 1872. This stereograph titled Hobart from Lime Kiln Hill looking down Harrington Street carries his New Town studio stamp on verso, taken in the mid to late 1860s.
Hobart from Lime Kiln Hill looking down Harrington Street
Stereograph by Thomas Nevin ca. late 1860s-1870
New Town studio stamp on verso
TMAG Ref: Q1994.56.30
Verso:
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Database Ref: Q1994.56.30
Description : Photograph, sepia salt paper stereoscope:
MAKER: Thomas Nevin [photographer];
TITLE: '[Hobart from Lime Kiln Hill looking down Harrington Street; St Mary's, Warwick Street, West Hobart]'
ITEM DATE: 1870s
IMAGE CONTENT: view townscape; .
Size : Mount buff coloured 85 x 173mm Images (2) 73 x 70mm [images rounded at top]
Inscriptions and marks : On back handwritten in pencil: a Pedder and stamped Thos Nevin/ Newtown
The verso of this stereograph at the TMAG is stamped with Thomas J. Nevin's most common New Town studio stamp and bears the name of A. Pedder, possibly Alfred Pedder, son of Superintendent of Police, Frederick Pedder (1841-1923), Nevin’s colleague at the Municipal Police Office, Hobart Town Hall. Nevin's stereo view of St Mary's Cathedral, Hobart, and his stereo view from across the Huon River to the town known as Victoria are other examples taken on commission for Frederick Pedder which were passed into the hands of his son, solicitor Alfred Pedder (1881-1977). Inscribed with the name "Pedder" on the versos, Alfred Pedder's daughter Sylvia in turn may have donated these stereographs to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in the 1970s.
This one, however, a print from one of Thomas Nevin's views of Murray and Harrington Streets from Lime Kiln Hill, has survived in the family collections of his descendants:
Recto inscribed: "Old Hobart Town"
Photographer: Thomas Nevin 1873
View of Murray St (on left) and Harrington Street, with St Mary's Cathedral
Copyright © KLW NFC Group Private Collection 2020
Printed as a stereograph, it was sold as a commercial view with Samuel Clifford's imprint:
Harrington St from Lime Kiln Hill
Stereograph by Samuel Clifford (no date)
Ref: LPIC147-3-00124
Source: Archives Office Tasmania
Below are more examples by Clifford and/or Nevin taken from Lime Kiln Hill.
Carte de visite - Hobart from Lime Kiln Hill. Panorama no. 2.
ADRI: LPIC147-3-169 (no label or inscription)
Source: Archives Office of Tasmania
Album: Tasmanian Scenes, S. Clifford Photographer ca. 1868
Compilation album owned by the May family (TAHO).
These two views of Hobart from Lime Kiln Hill were commercial staples
Many of the photographs reproduced in this album were taken by Thomas J. Nevin, 1860s-1870s.
Photos copyright © KLW NFC 2011
This panorama is dated 1873, and unattributed.
State Library of Tasmania
Title: Hobart Town from Lime Kiln Hill
Photographer unknown.
Image size 93 x 507 mm.
Publisher: [ca. 1873]
ADRI:AUTAS001122922107
W.L. Crowther Library
"Hobart Town from the North West"
Samuel Clifford blind stamp impress on mount in first frame
Panorama taken from Lime Kiln Hill ca. 1870
This fold-out is held at the National Archives, UK, viewable at Flickr
State Library of Tasmania
Hobart Town from Lime Kiln Hill ca. 1868
Clifford, Samuel, 1827-1890
Stereograph in square mount on yellow card
Ref: AUTAS001125298893
RELATED POSTS main weblog
- Thomas Nevin's stereo view of St Mary's Cathedral, Hobart, ca. 1874
- Nevin & Clifford identical views
- On the road with Sam Clifford and Thomas Nevin 1874
- At the Salmon Ponds and Plenty
