Another rare Nevin & Smith studio stamp

NEVIN & SMITH, photographs Tasmania 1868
ROYAL COLLECTIONS Prince Alfred's albums 1868

The State Library of Victoria has recently digitised these two photographs from the John Etkins Collection, donated in 2005.

T. NEVIN late A. BOCK stamp
The first of these two cartes-de-visite pasted to a plain buff oval mount is an upper body portrait of an unidentified woman seated against a dark background. The verso is stamped with Thomas Nevin's most frequently used studio stamp for private clientele, a more decorative version of an early design by Alfred Bock featuring a belt encircling both his name and Bock's, containing his address, topped with a kangaroo and the words "Ad Altiora." Thomas Nevin acquired Alfred Bock's lease on the studio, the City Photographic Establishment, 140 Elizabeth Street, Hobart Town, on Bock's insolvency in 1865 and departure to Victoria in 1867.



STATE LIBRARY OF VICTORIA
[Studio portrait of a woman, half-length, to left] T. Nevin.
Creator: Nevin, Thomas J., photographer.
Title:[Studio portrait of a woman, half-length, to left] [picture] / T. Nevin.
Access/Copyright: Reproduction rights: State Library of Victoria
Accession number(s): H2005.34/2003, H2005.34/2003A
Date(s) of creation: [ca. 1867-ca. 1875]
Medium: 1 photographic print on carte de visite mount : albumen silver ;
Dimensions: 11 x 7 cm.
Collection: John Etkins collection.
Notes: Title assigned by cataloguer.
Not dated but Nevin worked at 140 Elizabeth Street, Hobart Town, between 1867-1875.
Ref.: Australians behind the camera, directory of early Australian photographers, 1841-1945 / Sandy Barrie, 2002.
Photographer printed on verso: City Photographic Establishment / T. Nevin / late / A. Bock / 140 / Elizabeth St. / Hobart Town.
Source/Donor: Gift of Mr John Etkins; 2005

STAMP with the PRINCE of WALES' blazon
The second photograph of two children (below) bears a rare studio stamp by Nevin & Smith verso which features the Prince of Wales' blazon with the three feathers and coronet, banded with the German "ICH DIEN" (I serve).

These two children were possibly photographed for an album of photographic prints depicting the children of Tasmania which was gifted to Prince Alfred Earnest Albert during his visit on the royal yacht H.M.S. Galatea to Hobart in 1868.

According to Jack Cato in The Story of the Camera in Australia (1977 ed. p.58), a group of Tasmanian photographers was invited to contribute. Cato says:

All the cities presented the Duke with official albums of photographs, and many photographers presented private ones. Henry Johnstone gave him a book of pictures of the beautiful women of Victoria. Charles Nettleton gave a book of prints of Melbourne and the countryside. But best of all was the one given by the photographers of Tasmania - a collection of prints showing the beautiful children of the island. The Duke was so charmed with it that he requested a duplicate album be made and sent to his mother.

Where is this album? Four photographers were known to have received commissions from the colonial government of Tasmania to cover Prince Alfred's visit, notably Samuel Clifford and George Cherry, and possibly Cato is referring to this group, but an album of children's portraits taking by this group to commemorate the event as a Royal gift has yet to come to light. The Illustrated London News of July-December 1868 reported that on his return, Prince Alfred presented Queen Victoria with gifts from the colonies, including albums depicting native flora and fauna, but no mention of this particular album of children's photographs by Tasmanian photographers has come to light. This cdv, incidentally, is in very poor condition but still worth inclusion in a state collection.



STATE LIBRARY OF VICTORIA
Studio portrait of two children by Nevin & Smith 1868

The studio decor - notably the carpet and chair - differs from Thomas Nevin's studio portraits taken later, in the 1870s. However, the same childish hand has been at work here, heavily daubing the curtain with the same inept strokes and the same mulberry colouring evident in other photographs in private collections, for example, the cdv of a young man posing with Nevin's big box tabletop stereoscopic viewer from the private collection of John and Robyn McCullagh. Could they have all come from the same album belonging to a household with children? The colouring was not the work by Nevin or his studio assistants. It contrasts markedly with the delicate tinting on several portraits of Nevin's family and private clients taken in the late 1860s and 1870s, including a few of his photographs of prisoners.



STATE LIBRARY OF VICTORIA
[Studio portrait of two children] Nevin & Smith.
Creator: Nevin & Smith, photographer.
Title: [Studio portrait of two children] [picture] / Nevin & Smith.
Access/Copyright: Reproduction rights: State Library of Victoria
Accession number(s): H2005.34/2004, H2005.34/2004A
Date(s) of creation: [ca. 1867-ca. 1875]
Medium: 1 photographic print on carte de visite mount : albumen silver, hand col. ;
Dimensions: 11 x 7 cm.
Collection: John Etkins collection.
Contents/Summary: Both standing on either side of a chair, whole-length, full face, boy on left, girl on right.
Notes: Title assigned by cataloguer.
Not dated but Nevin worked at 140 Elizabeth Street, Hobart Town, between 1867-1875.
Ref.: Australians behind the camera, directory of early Australian photographers, 1841-1945 / Sandy Barrie, 2002.
Photographer printed on verso: From / Nevin & Smith / late Bock’s / 140 Elizabeth Street / Hobart Town.
Source/Donor: Gift of Mr John Etkins; 2005.

This studio stamp from Nevin & Smith with the inclusion of the Prince of Wales' blazon, is the second type of stamp from Thomas Nevin's studio that bears an official insignia. Whether his use of this blazon was to signify a commission to contribute to the photograph albums gifted to Prince Alfred is quite possible though as yet undocumented. The blazon was used on decorations for official functions during Prince Alfred's visit to Hobart in 1868. The banneret (below) adorned the ball given in his honour. Quite different is T. J. Nevin's official government contractor stamp which appears on prisoner identification photographs taken at the Port Arthur prison and Hobart Gaol (below).  It features the Royal insignia of a lion and unicorn rampant encircled by a belt carrying Nevin's name and studio address. It was devised by government printer James Barnard to endorse all official colonial government documents, including the weekly police gazettes.



[Above]: Silk banneret with Royal Arms from a ball given in Alfred's honour at Hobart, Jan. 1868
Source: State Library of NSW

[Below]: T. J. Nevin's official Royal Arms colonial warrant, his government contractor stamp on the verso of photograph of prisoner William Smith, taken at the Hobart Gaol 1874.



Recto and verso of photograph of prisoner Wm Smith per Gilmore (3)
Verso with T. J. Nevin's government contractor stamp printed with the Royal Arms insignia.
Carte numbered "199" on recto
QVMAG Ref: 1985.p.131

Poster of Thomas Nevin's convict photographs 1870s

Who were they? They were T.J. Nevin's sitters for police records, mostly "Supreme Court men" photographed on committal for trial at the Supreme Court adjoining the Hobart Gaol when they were isolated in silence for a month after sentencing. If sentenced for a long term at the Supreme Court Launceston, they were photographed, bathed, shaved and dressed on being received in Hobart. These procedures, past and present, were reported at length by a visitor to the Hobart Gaol and Supreme Court in the Mercury, 8th July 1882:

At the Bathurst-street end of the block are about 30 cells, built in three decker style. They are dark, ill ventilated, and stuffy, were originally intended for the use of convicts awaiting shipment to Port Arthur and do not appear to be fitted for other than temporary quarters ... Opening into this yard [Yard 3] are a number of cells, kept as much as possible for Supreme Court first timers, in order to remove them, to some extent at least, from the contaminating influences of the old hands in crime ... The next yard and block of cells are also set apart for the use of first timers , and the cells and yard in the next division are appropriated to the use of prisoners under examination or fully committed for trial. At the back of the block is a model prison, in which the silent system is carried out. The cells here are only used for "Supreme Court men," who are confined in them for one month after sentence, which time they pass in solitary confinement day and night, with the exception of one hour during which they take exercise in the narrow enclosure outside the cells, pacing up and down five yards apart, and in strict silence. There can be no doubt this is, to some at least, a much-dreaded punishment.

One of the two rooms used by the photographers was located above the women's laundry and demolished in 1915. The majority of these photographs were salvaged from the laundry and the Sheriff's Office at the Hobart Gaol by Beatie's Studio, Elizabeth St. for display at local and interstate exhibitions, e.g. in conjunction with convictaria from the hulk Success at the Royal Hotel, Sydney, 1916.

The Nevin family solicitor since 1868, Attorney-General William Robert Giblin, had requested Thomas J. Nevin to visit the Port Arthur penitentiary, 60 kms south of Hobart, with a view to photographing prison inmates during the visit of the former Premier of Victoria, Sir John O'Shanassy and Howard Spensley, Solicitor-General, in January 1872. W. R. Giblin's decision was in force by October 1873 when Thomas J. Nevin photographed William Smith per Gilmore 3 on discharge from the Hobart Gaol. This early prisoner mugshot was printed from his negative and stamped verso with his government contractor's stamp which included his name, studio address and Royal Arms insignia. The Royal Arms insignia was printed on all government contractors' documents and displayed prominently at their business premises.



Above: Wall chart or poster of Tasmanian convicts produced by the Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority ca. 1991 with photographs taken of "Supreme Court men" by Thomas Nevin from the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery Beattie Collection. KLW NFC Imprint ARR.

This poster or wall chart was purchased at the National Trust's Penitentiary Chapel Historic Site, adjacent to the site of the former Hobart Gaol. Its montage of Thomas Nevin's portraits of Tasmanian convicts (1870s) was compiled from John Watt Beattie's donated collection (ca. 1927) at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston. The Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority is credited with its production, according to the caption on lower border, left, and presumably for its large titles: "WHO WERE THEY?" and "THE CONVICTS OF PORT ARTHUR". The poster or wall chart was published as a booklet ca. 1991, according to Libraries Australia catalogue notes:



Several of these convicts were indeed incarcerated as transportees at the regional Port Arthur penintentiary, 60 kms from Hobart, at some time during their criminal careers, and some were local offenders or "native". But they were not photographed because they had been transported convicts per se as some sort of museological collection (transportation ended in 1853), but because they were habitual offenders, escapees and recidivists. Their photographs were commissioned by the Tasmanian government in 1871 and used by the Town Hall Municipal Police Office, The Tasmanian Supreme Court  at the Hobart Gaol, and the Prisons Department in the course of daily detection and surveillance. All of these photographs of the so-called "Port Arthur convicts" were taken by the brothers Thomas and Constable John Nevin at the Hobart Goal whether prior to the prisoners' deportation from Hobart to Port Arthur in the early 1870s or after being returned from Port Arthur to Hobart 1873-1874, a process which was systematically deployed as early as 1871 through to the Port Arthur closure in 1877. All prisoners by July 1873 with sentences longer than 3 months were being received at the prison in Hobart Town from regional lock-ups. Thomas J. Nevin was the government contractor who held exclusive rights to the commission while still an independent commercial photographer (1871-1876), and continued jointly from the Hobart Gaol and Municipal Police Office studios with his brother when appointed full-time to the civil service at the Town Hall (from 1876-mid 1880s).



Detail: the PAHSMA accreditation on lower left border with this caption:

"Produced by Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority, with photographs (circa 1870) from the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery Beattie Collection.

These prisoner photographs were displayed at the QVMAG in 1938
Title: "When in Launceston, visit the museum"
Creator: Examiner (Launceston, Tas.)
Publisher: Launceston, Tas. : Examiner Office, 1938?
Description: 1 poster : col. print on paper ; 95 X 61 cm
ADRI: AUTAS001126077270
Source: Tasmaniana Library

John Watt Beattie's collection of Thomas Nevin's original identification photographs or mugshots of Tasmanian prisoners taken between 1871 and 1884 came into Beattie's possession in the late 1890s. Beattie acquired many of these original mugshots from the Supreme Court registers and police records at the Sheriff's Office ca. 1895 and reprinted them in the 1900s for sale in his convictaria museum as tourist tokens of Tasmania's penal history. They were resurrected as an exhibition at the QVMAG in 1977. This notice appeared in the Mercury, 10th March, 1977:



"The work of T. J. Nevin..."
The Mercury, March 3rd, 1977

Contributory researchers included the curator John McPhee, State Librarian Special Collections Geoffrey T. Stilwell, and Professor Joan Kerr (University of Sydney). In her massive publication, The Dictionary of Australian Artists: painters, sketchers, photographers and engravers to 1870, (1992, Melbourne: OUP), Professor Joan Kerr included on page 568 in the entry for Thomas Nevin one of these photographs, a "booking photograph" of Thomas Harrison (middle row, centre) :



Caption: Thomas Harrison - 3 months for being idle and disorderly





Entry on Thomas Nevin in Kerr 1992
Photos © KLW NFC 2010 ARR

Stilwell and Kerr's entry for Thomas J. Nevin, on p. 568, The Dictionary of Australian Artists: painters, sketchers, photographers and engravers to 1870 included this booking shot of Thomas Harrison:



Cdv recto and verso, prisoner Thomas Harrison.
Photographer: T. J. Nevin
QVMAG Ref: 1985:P:113

William Smith per Gilmore 3
This photograph of convict William Smith (below centre) is one of the several extant prisoner photographs which Nevin stamped verso with the Royal Arms insignia signifying his contract as prisons photographer for the Municipal Police Office and Prisons Department:



Detail: poster inclusion of reproduction of Nevin's photograph of William Smith

This loose copy bearing T. J. Nevin's government contract stamp is a prison record photograph of William Smith per Gilmore 3  now held at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston.



Recto and verso of convict Smith carte with T. J. Nevin's government contractor stamp
Carte numbered "199" on recto
QVMAG 1985:p131 & AOT Ref: 30-3244.

Why does this carte of Smith bear T. J. Nevin’s studio stamp? The question has been asked by photo historians with little consideration to the realities of government tender. It is not a commercial stamp but one signifying the photographer's status as a government contractor. This prisoner cdv was one of several chosen by Thomas Nevin to access his commission, register copyright on behalf of the colonial government, and renew his contract under the terms of the tender. Only one was required per batch of 100, the verso stamp used to identify the photographer’s joint copyright under contract. The registration lasted 14 years from the second year of registration (1872-1874 to 1886).

CONVICT RECORDS Description of William Smith

 

Description of William Smith per Gilmore 3, 27 years old, 5'5½ tall. Distinguishing marks - two large blue marks on face MA woman. fish bird WxS 1835 on right arm bird form 1817. PHEASANT bird below elbow left arm. G.S. heart T.S above elbow etc
Source: TAHO Ref:CON18-1-36_00104_L

[Below]: Prisoner no. 9438, SMITH, William: The record below was incomplete, noted on his police gazette record when received from Port Arthur. His Ticket of Leave was gazetted on 5-9 September 1873 when T. J. Nevin first photographed him. Smith was then convicted of larceny in 1875, and of burglary and uttering in 1879. He was discharged to freedom, on 9th June 1883.



Prisoner no. 9438, SMITH, William
TAHO Ref: CON33-1-39_00262_L

POLICE RECORDS for William Smith per Gilmore 3:



William Smith per Gilmore 3 was discharged with a TOL 10 September 1873, received from Port Arthur. Note that his age and physical measurements are not recorded at the Police Office because no photograph existed prior to his release. When Nevin photographed him on discharge in 1873, Smith was dressed and ready for freedom. The photograph exhibits a degree of liminality of the prisoner's state: free on a ticket of leave but classed as a criminal. William Smith re-offended again in April 1874, and was discharged 12 months later.



Wm Smith discharged 1st April, 1875. Photographed again on release by T. J. Nevin.



Suspicion attaches to William Smith per Gilmore 3, 23rd April, 1875



Wm Smith per Gilmore 3 Warrant for arrest 23 April 1875. Thomas Nevin's face-to-contact with William Smith while photographing him was used as an adjunct in the written description issued by police of Smith's coming under suspicion for theft just three weeks after his release on 1st April, 1875. Smith was arrested 3 months later in July 1875.



William Smith was arrested at Richmond, notice of 9th July, 1875.

Thomas Nevin photographed William Smith again wearing the prisoner issue black leathern cap. This photograph was taken on the prisoner's incarceration at the Hobart Gaol, in July 1875.  The visitor to the Hobart Gaol in 1882 noted this uniform with the cap in his report to the The Mercury, (as above), on 8th July 1882:

In their dark-grey uniform and black leathern caps, with their criminal visages, shaven of the covering Nature had given to aid them in the concealment of their vicious propensities and villainous characters, they were, in truth, a forbidding, repulsive lot. Yet very far from unintelligent, at least, in some marked instances. A villainous shrewdness and a perverse cleverness writ in many a cunning, gleamy eye and heavy brow ; and a dogged determination to be read in the set of the jaw, and the style of the gait, were as the translated speech of artfully calculated, daring crime.

William Smith per Gilmore 3. Photo by Thomas Nevin, July 1875
Verso with Nevin's government contractor's stamp 
Mitchell Library NSW PXB 274 No.1
Photo copyright © KLW NFC 2009 Arr

The first prisoner carte of William Smith per Gilmore 3 is numbered "199". This, the second photograph by T. J. Nevin of the same prisoner William Smith is numbered "200". The numbers were applied when these two photographs among several dozen more were salvaged by John Watt Beattie from the Hobart Gaol Sheriff's Office ca. 1915 and displayed in his museum in Hobart. Some were sent to an exhibition at the Royal Hotel in Sydney in 1916 in conjunction with a display of convictaria associated with the hulk Success.

William Smith per Gilmore 3 was sentenced to a further 4 years in December 1879, per this record from the Hobart Supreme Court Rough Calendar: No. 9438 William Smith per Gilmore 3,

Original sentence was for Life. Pleaded guilty on 9 December 1879 for Breaking and entering a dwelling house of George Manning of Richmond - date not given on warrant. Found guilty, sentenced to 4 years, 9.12.79

Rough Calendar Hobart Supreme Court TAHO Ref: GD70-1-1 Page 79

William Smith at TROVE
Employees of the State Library of Tasmania who devise records for the search engine TROVE at the National Library of Australia wish to suppress the fact that Thomas J. Nevin photographed this and many more prisoners in the 1870s with catalogue entries such as the one below (webshot)- "No photographer name or studio stamp appears on the original photograph", in accordance with the vague prevarications and error of the few authors, e.g Warwick Reeder 1995; Chris Long, 1995, etc, which appeared in print, for example, the A-Z directory Tasmanian photographers 1840-1940, Winter, G. (ed) 1995, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.



Webshot 2013.
This statement is incorrect – Nevin’s government contractor stamp is on the verso of this cdv held at the QVMAG, viz. below. How about correcting your catalogue entry, Trove?




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• Disambiguation: two prisoners called William SMITH
• Convict photographs by T. J. Nevin at the Art Gallery NSW Centenary Exhibition 1976
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