With Alfred Bock at The City Photographic Establishment 1860s

ALFRED BOCK and THOMAS J. NEVIN 1860s
STUDIO STAMPS City Photographic Establishment

Sennotypes and oils by Alfred Bock held at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.
Top: Self portrait and signature
Lower from left to right: Mr Crouch; Mrs Crouch; Unknown Man

Thomas J. Nevin answered an advertisement for an apprentice at Alfred Bock's studio, the City Photographic Establishment, which appeared in The Mercury on 7th July, 1863.

The Mercury 7th July, 1863. An Apprentice wanted.

Alfred Bock's trade advertisement in Walch's Tasmanian Almanac, 1864

Portrait of a standing child by Alfred Bock ca 1863
Copyright © KLW NFC Imprint & The Private Collection of John and Robyn McCullagh 2005-2007 ARR.

The verso of this portrait of a standing child bears Alfred Bock's studio stamp for the City Photographic Establishment which is similar in design to one of the stamps adapted by Thomas Nevin while working with Bock in the early 1860s. Nevin continued to use this design when he acquired Alfred Bock's studio and stock, The City Photographic Establishment, in 1865 on Bock's departure for Victoria.

Thomas Nevin's early experiences of Port Arthur are detailed in this post - Alfred Bock & Thomas Nevin at Port Arthur showing Bock's photography of personnel at the prison in 1864 and in this later article published 21 December 2013.

Left: Alfred Bock stamp; Right: Thomas Nevin stamp

The stamp (below) shows the early bare design of the photographer's initials "A.B." encircled by a belt with buckle, the motto in Latin "Ad Altiora" within the belt's circumference, and a kangaroo perched on top. The studio's address lies outside the design.

Alfred Bock stamp, mid-1850s
Copyright © KLW NFC Imprint & The Private Collection of John & Robyn Mcullagh 2006-2007 ARR.

Above: this is an earlier Alfred Bock studio stamp dated around 1857 when he first set up the studio called The City Photographic Establishment at 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart Town, complete with glass house at the rear of the studio. More of these cartes-de-visite are held here at The McCullagh Collection.

A biographical account of Alfred Bock was published in The Dictionary of Australian Artists: painters, sketchers, photographers and engravers to 1870, edited by Joan Kerr, pp 77-78 (1992 MUP).

Biographical entry in The Dictionary of Australian Artists: painters, sketchers, photographers and engravers to 1870 Joan Kerr (ed) 1992 pp77-78
Photos © KLW NFC 2014 ARR

RELATED POSTS main weblog:

IN HIS OWN WORDS...

"T. J. NEVIN
PHOTOGRAPHIC ARTIST,
Returns his sincere thanks to his friends and the public for past favours, and having made a considerable Reduction in his Prices to suit the times, he solicits a continuance of their patronage, and invites attention to his circulars, showing particulars of the small cost for a first-class faithful Likeness.
140 ELIZABETH-STREET"
Hobart Mercury, 1st February 1873

“I hope that you have not got it in your mind that I am implicated with the ghost“.
Hobart Mercury, 4 December 1880

"Defendant said that he was the father of a large number of children, and did not know which one was referred to. (Laughter.)"
Hobart Mercury, 11 August 1886

"Mr. Thos Nevin was under the impression that the police should be under stricter supervision."
Hobart Mercury, 19 July 1888.

BIOGRAPHY: professional photographer Thomas James Nevin snr (1842-1923) produced large numbers of stereographs and cartes-de-visite within his commercial practice, and prisoner identification photographs on government contract. His career spanned nearly three decades, from the early 1860s to the late 1880s. He was one of the first photographers to work with the police in Australia, along with Charles Nettleton (Victoria) and Frazer Crawford (South Australia). His Tasmanian prisoner mugshots are among the earliest to survive in public collections, viz. the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston; the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart; the Tasmanian Heritage and Archives Office, Hobart; the Port Arthur Historic Site, Tasman Peninsula; the National Library of Australia, Canberra; and the Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW, Sydney. Thomas J. Nevin's stereographs and portraits are held in public and private collections in Australia, New Zealand, the USA, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark, France and Switzerland.

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Important Notices

INDIGENOUS NOTICE:
lutruwita/Tasmania/Van Diemen's Land (loo-tru-wee-ta) always was, always will be Aboriginal land.

This weblog pays respect to the ancestors and elders past, present, and emerging of the first Australian peoples and acknowledges their continued connection to land, sea and culture as the traditional custodians of this country.

Irish-born Thomas J. Nevin would have been keenly aware that the residence and photographic studio he occupied at No's 138-140 Elizabeth St. Hobart in the 1870s were built on the traditional lands, nipaluna of the palawa people. It is no small irony that today, the very same property, which is renumbered as No. 198 Elizabeth St. Hobart and is occupied by the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre, has returned to its traditional owners.

Looking east from the corner of Patrick St., the Royal Standard Hotel, 142 Elizabeth St. then T. J. Nevin’s studio and residence, 140-138 Elizabeth St. Hobart, 1870s

We also acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora nation as the traditional custodians of the City of Sydney, and the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples, the traditional custodians of the Kamberri/Canberra region on whose lands this site is maintained.

PLEASE NOTE: images on this weblog represent deceased people, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Viewing such images may cause sadness and distress.

DISCLAIMER: We have not voluntarily contributed to any publication which supports the misattribution of T. J. Nevin's prisoner/convict photographs (300+ extant) to the non-photographer A. H. Boyd, nor do we condone any attempts by public institutions or private individuals to co-opt the work on these Thomas J. Nevin weblogs and associated sites to apply the misattribution.

Our 20th Anniversary 2005-2025

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TWENTY YEARS ago (before 2005 actually) we started blogging about Tasmanian photographer Thomas J. Nevin (1842-1923). We look forward to another year or so as the project draws closer to completion. Contributions and donations are most welcome, and many thanks for your involvement.

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Anthony Trollope at Port Arthur

Thomas Nevin's VIP commission 1872

VISIT TO PORT ARTHUR.- Mr. Trollope and the Hon. Howard Spensly, Esq., Solicitor-General of Victoria, accompanied the Hon. the Premier, J.M. Wilson, Esq., and the Hon. the Attorney-General, W.R. Giblin, Esq., embarked in the Government schooner late last night, some time after Mr. Trollope had concluded his lecture on "Modern Fiction, as a recreation for young people," and left for Port Arthur. Their visit to the Peninsula will be a very hurried one, and will afford them only scant opportunity of inspecting the penal establishment, it being the intention of Messrs. Trollope and Spensly to leave Hobart Town for the North, en route for Victoria in a few days ...

Source: The Mercury 2 February 1872