Photographers Samuel Clifford and Thomas J. Nevin's calligraphy
Elizabeth Rachel Day, born Rotherhithe, London (1847-1914), eldest daughter of master mariner Captain James Day (1806-1882) married Thomas James Nevin, born County Down Ireland (1842-1923) on 12th July, 1871, at the Wesleyan Chapel, Kangaroo Valley, Hobart, Tasmania.
Wedding photograph of Thomas J. Nevin and Elizabeth Rachel Day, married on July 12th 1871.
Copyright © KLW NFC Imprint Private Collection 2005 ARR.
Signatory witnesses were Elizabeth Rachel Day's younger sister Mary Sophia Day, and William Hanson, licensee of the Black Prince Hotel, 145 Elizabeth Street, Hobart. Thomas J. Nevin's studio at 140 Elizabeth St. was located a little further up Elizabeth St, on the opposite side from the Black Prince Hotel, which was still operating in its original location in 2007 at the corner of Elizabeth and Melville Streets on the CBD fringe (but is no more).
Marriage registration of Thos Nevin and E.R. Day July 12, 1871
Australia, Tasmania, Civil Registration, 1803-1933
Archives Office of Tasmania, Hobart.
Link: https://stors.tas.gov.au/RGD37-1-30p154j2k
This extract from the registry of marriages for Hobart Town, Tasmania, 1871, shows the following interesting details:
1. the supposed signatures of Thomas Nevin and Elizabeth Rachel Day (not spelt as Rachael) and that they signed themselves as Thos. Nevin and E. R. Day. The "J" which appears as the middle initial for "James" on Nevin's studio stamp printed at the time of his government contract as prison photographer eighteen months later - "T. J. Nevin" - is absent here. He was married without the "J" and he was buried in 1923 without the "J".
2. the supposed signatures of the witnesses, William Hanson and Mary Sophia Day.
3. the couple married according to the rites and ceremonies of the Methodist Church
4. Thos Nevin's official and government status or "rank" was "photographer".
5. the name of the clergyman presiding was James Hutchison (and not Hutchinson, see error printed in in the Mercury, 14 July 1871, quoted in Stilwell's correspondence to McPhee 1977)
The handwriting on this document looks remarkably uniform, despite the wording "Signatures and Description of Parties" where some individual variation might be expected. The form may have been filled out or copied at a later date by church or government officials.
Examples of Thomas Nevin's handwriting can assist in identifying inscriptions on the versos of so many unattributed photographs of the period in public holdings. The handwritten inscription - "Clifford & Nevin, Hobart Town" - which appears on several studio portraits in private and public collections - is not Nevin's handwriting but rather Samuel Clifford's, A comparison of their signatures on the birth registrations of their respective children confirms this. For example, this is Samuel Clifford's signature which appears on the birth certificate of his son Samuel Charles George Clifford, born to Annie Margaret Clifford and Samuel Clifford, registered 9th January 1867. Both child and mother died in childbirth.
Signature of Samuel Clifford, Tasmanian Names Indexes TAHO
Registration year: 1867
Document ID: NAME_INDEXES:970518
Resource RGD33/1/9/ no 9004
It is Samuel Clifford's handwriting on the verso of several carte-de-visite portraits which survive in public and private collections with the inscription of the photographers' names on verso. This is Thomas J. Nevin's signature on one of seven birth registrations of his children:
Signature of Thos Jas Nevin, father of Mary Florence Elizabeth, b. 19 May 1872
Link: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/974599
Tasmanian Names Indexes TAHO
Above: 1872 - a confident artistic flourish which included the "Jas" in Thomas James Nevin's signature on the birth registration of their first child, Mary Florence Elizabeth Nevin (1872-1955), known to their grandchildren as Great Auntie May.
The only birth registration Thomas Nevin did not sign was that of his second child and first son, Thomas James Nevin jnr (1874-1948). It was signed by Elizabeth Rachel (Day) Nevin's father Captain James Day on 19th May 1874 while Thomas snr was away on business at the Port Arthur penitentiary, Tasman Peninsula, updating police records with photographs of prisoners, their aliases, physical descriptions, and transportation records, at the request of Attorney-General W. R. Giblin.
Over the years, as so many of Thomas J. Nevin's photographs were copied, notably by John Watt Beattie for the boom in the tourist trade of the late 1890s, and as others entered public collections, cataloguists and archivists added their notes on both the mounts and versos, making it impossible to distinguish who wrote what when. This has certainly led to confusion about the extant examples of Tasmanian prisoners' identification photographs and glass negatives taken by Nevin which were archived or copied by John Watt Beattie ca. 1915 when he salvaged 300 or so from the old photographer's room at the Hobart Gaol prior to demolition . The inscription on the verso of dozens of the convict portraits - "Taken at Port Arthur 1874" - was written decades later than the original photographic capture by Thomas J. Nevin of men sentenced at the Supreme Court, at the Hobart Gaol, and at the Town Hall Municipal Police Office from 1872 to the mid 1880s.
The inscription which appears on his stamp below the circular belt design - "Further copies can be obtained at any time" - also appears on Alfred Bock's stamp which Nevin adopted and embellished after 1867. It may be handwriting, or it may be a printed font.
Verso inscriptions on two of seven types of studio stamps used by Thomas J. Nevin, 1870s
Left: TMAG Collection, Q1984. 294; Right: Archives Office of Tasmania, NS 1013/1971
Handwriting guide 1870s
Source: Victorian Web [?]
RELATED POSTS main weblog
- The Nevin group portrait and wedding photo 1871
- Elizabeth Rachel Nevin nee Day & children
- On the road with Sam Clifford and Thomas Nevin 1874
- The QVMAG Exhibition 1977 of convict photographs
Last update December 2023