Thomas J. Nevin's Blue Ink Series

ALFRED BOCK and THOMAS J. NEVIN photographers
BLUE INK BORDERS and CAPTIONS printed photographs
WILLIAM LEGRAND bookseller and conchologist

When professional photographer Alfred Bock departed Hobart Tasmania in 1865, his junior partner Thomas J. Nevin acquired at auction on August 2nd the lease of the studio at the City Photographic Establishment, 140 Elizabeth Street Hobart, the shop, the glass house and darkroom, the stock of negatives, frames, cards and inks, the camera equipment, backdrops and furniture. Thomas Nevin continued to use Alfred Bock's most common verso studio stamp design for another decade, altering it only minimally for his commercial studio portraiture, although he used at least six other designs for various formats and clients, including the Royal Arms insignia for commissions with the Colonial government.

Alfred Bock used a blue ink rather than a black in printing the verso with his stamp in this portrait of a teenage girl with bare shoulders and ringlets, possibly one of the last he took in Hobart.



Girl with bare shoulders and ringlets
Photographer: Alfred Bock ca. 1865
Copyright © KLW NFC Imprint Private Collection 2013 ARR

The Blue Stamp
For some time after Bock's departure in 1865, Thomas Nevin was using the same supply of blue ink on the same design as Bock's with just a minimal alteration to include Bock's name as credential - "T. Nevin Late A. Bock" - enclosed by a belt - the belt being a popular and universal design of the period. The blue ink of the stamp verso of this portrait of a seated woman (below) is from the same stock as Bock's (above), with the addition of a slight tinge of red on the kangaroo's breast.



Carte-de-visite portrait in oval mount of an unidentified woman white collared dress
Photographer Thomas Nevin ca. 1866-7
Copyright © KLW NFC Imprint Private Collection 2013 ARR



Carte-de-visite with blue tint of a reclining baby
Scans submitted here courtesy of private collector Liam Peters, December 2010.
Copyright © The Liam Peters Collection 2010 ARR

The blue ink used in the verso stamp on this portrait of a baby is paler, suggesting Nevin's supply was running low, expending the last for the vivid blue tinting around the baby's shoulders, possibly executed by a studio assistant.

The Album Print Caption
By the time Thomas Nevin printed this single large photograph of the River Derwent from his 1860s double print stereograph (below), the blue ink was practically spent. The lettering is large and pale, and barely legible. The stereograph was printed with a blind stamp impress requiring no ink.



Title: River Derwent above New Norfolk
Description: 1 photographic print
Format: Photograph
ADRI: PH1-1-24A
Source: Archives Office of Tasmania



TMAG Collection Ref: Q1994.56.21
MEDIUM: sepia stereoscope salt paper print ,
MAKER: T Nevin [Artist];
DATE: 1870s
DESCRIPTION : Scene near New Norfolk ?
INSCRIPTIONS & MARKS: Impressed on front: T Nevin/ photo

The Blue Border



Constable John Nevin, brother of Thomas J, Nevin
Known to the family as Jack Nevin
Photographer Thomas J. Nevin ca. late 1870s. Verso blank.
Copyright © KLW NFC Imprint Private Collection 2010.

Thomas J. Nevin took this particular photograph of his younger brother Jack, Constable John (W.J.) Nevin (1851-1891) in a studio setting in the late 1870s. John Nevin sat posed in his street clothes - bow tie, jacket and hat - with right leg resting over left knee. Nevin framed the print within a blue ink border, which distinguishes this photograph - and the one below of the conchologist and bookseller William Legrand which is also framed within a blue ink border - from inks and colours used by other photographers in Thomas Nevin's cohort of photographers. Alfred Winter, for example, invariably used a red ink border to frame both studio portraits and landscapes.

Thomas Nevin used a crossed blue border on his Hobart Gaol photograph of Edward Wallace taken in 1874 (Mitchell Library, SLNSW (PXB 274) and sepia borders to frame his later carte-de-visite portraits in oval mounts of prisoners ca. 1878, such as those full frontal photographs held at the Mitchell Library State Library NSW Series PXB 274, eg, No. 9, photo of Patrick Lamb, to match a dark mount or a dark background behind the sitter. The blue colour used by Nevin to frame his brother's portrait (above) was a darker, deeper navy than the bright lighter blue he used on his verso studio stamp soon after taking over Alfred Bock's studio from 1865, and that same bright blue colour, most noticeably similar in the photo of the baby (above) was used to frame this mounted carte-de-visite portrait studio portrait (below) of William Legrand, suggesting strongly that the photograph was taken by Thomas J. Nevin..

Concomitant similarities to Nevin's work include the semi-turned torso pose with the subject's gaze averted on a downward diagonal sightline, typically found in Nevin's earlier 1872-1875 mugshots of prisoners (QVMAG, TMAG, SLNSW and NLA Collections) and in several of his immediate family. Important too were the homosocial factors which placed Thomas Nevin within Legrand's circle of clients and acquaintances due to his father John Nevin's post-military career as both poet and journalist. John Nevin's poem, published in 1868, titled "My Cottage in the Wilderness", is also held at the State Library of NSW in the David Scott Mitchell Collection, Ref: DSM/A821/P20. The DSM Collections date from c.a. 1907.

What was the occasion, then, for William Legrand to request this type of portrait for himself? Several key dates in his life and in the life of the colony may have prompted him to dress formally, perhaps even buy a new stiff silk vest, get a hair cut, and seek out the photographer, all in a bit of a hurry so it seems, judging by the unsmoothed lapel and bunched-up vest.

William Legrand may have needed a carte-de-visite for simply that: a card to present himself at an important function, such as H.R.H Prince Alfred's visit to Hobart in 1868. Nevin photographed children for the visit operating as the firm of Nevin & Smith (with Robert Smith until 1868).Or, his Sydney publishers- the engravers for the shell drawings (Mercury, 23 November 1870) which featured in his preliminary self-published monograph, Collections for a Monograph of Tasmanian Land Shells, 1871, may have requested his photograph. Then again, Mr Legrand may have been included on a list of notable citizens whose portraits were submitted to various intercolonial and international exhibitions. Tasmanian photographers exhibited at the London International Exhibition of 1873 and the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition of 1875.



An original mounted carte-de-visite of Tasmanian bookseller and conchologist William Legrand, probably taken by Thomas J. Nevin ca. 1870. Framed within a bright blue border, stamped on recto with the SLNSW accession stamp. Verso blank. See references below.

Emailed Notes from the State Library of NSW:

"The carte of Mr Legrand at P1/Legrand has no photographer's identification, just the handwritten inscription Mr W Legrand Tasmania on verso and in a later hand Conchologist and Bookseller."

Scan sourced from online version of Joan Frances Holloway (2010),William Legrand: A Study
Unpublished PhD thesis,
School of English, Media Studies and Art History, The University of Queensland.
"Page 283: Figure 9. William Legrand, n.d., photograph. Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales.P1/W." online 2011.
Correspondence with author gratefully acknowledged.



The provenance of this photograph is not clearly documented by the State Library of NSW. It may have been donated by Tasmanian collector John Watt Beattie, or accessioned from the publishers Angus & Robertson by David Scott Mitchell before 1907. It may have been sourced from the Charles Melbourne Ward (1903-1966) Collections which were donated originally to the Australian Museum. Charles Melbourne Ward's fascination for marine zoology would account for this photograph of conchologist William Legrand in his collections. Several items were presented by Kerry Cramp and the Australian Museum in 1987-1989 and 1999-2000 to the State Library of NSW. Pic.Acc.6864 and Pic.Acc.6974 combined. The University of Sydney also holds a significant Mel Ward Collection. Read a more extensive biography of Charles Melbourne Ward at ABD.

Cousins Edward and Elizabeth baptised at St Mary's Rotherhithe

COUSINS christened at St Marys ROTHERHITHE
EDWARD GOLDSMITH jnr (1836-1883)
ELIZABETH RACHEL DAY ((1847-1914)



Ordinance map of 19th century Rotherhithe and the Pool of London



St Mary's Church (A) Rotherhithe Google maps 2013

First cousins and both children of master mariners, Edward Goldsmith (1836-1883) and Elizabeth Rachel Day (1847-1914 ) were born in London and baptised at St Mary's Church, Rotherhithe, known as the Mayflower Church, one decade apart. Elizabeth Rachel Day arrived in Hobart Tasmania as an infant, where her sister Mary Sophia was born in 1853, and married professional photographer Thomas J. Nevin at Kangaroo Valley, Hobart on 12 July 1871. Edward Goldsmith made several voyages to Tasmania with his father Captain Edward Goldsmith, attended the Hutchins School there in 1850 and the Governor's Levee in 1855, went to Trinity College Cambridge in 1857, became a surgeon, married in 1870, managed his father's estates in Kent and died young at Rochester, UK, in 1883, just 46 yrs old.

FIRST COUSINS

• Edward Goldsmith (b. Rotherhithe 12 December 1836 - d. Rochester UK 8 May 1883)

Father: Captain Edward Goldsmith (1804-1869); mother Elizabeth Day (1802-1875)
Spouse: Sarah Jane Goldsmith nee Rivers (1835-1926)

• Elizabeth Rachel Day (b. Rotherhithe 26 March 1847 - d. Hobart Tasmania 18 June 1914)

Father: Captain James Day (1806-1882); mother Rachael Pocock (1812-1857)
Spouse: Thomas James Nevin (1842-1923)



British Museum
View of the church of St Mary Rotherhithe, in London, from the graveyard.
1802 Pen and ink with grey wash
1929,0531.5,



Floating Dock Rotherhithe 1815,
Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin in background
Drawn by L. Francia and engraved by J. C. Allen, published by W. B. Cooke, 1815.

1836: Edward Goldsmith jnr
Edward Goldsmith was the second son and the only surviving son after the death of his older brother Richard Sydney Goldsmith from fever in Hobart (1854) of master mariner Captain Edward Goldsmith (1804-1869) whose residence in 1829 was Rotherhithe, London, when he married Richard and Edward's mother Elizabeth Day (1802-1875) at Liverpool, UK. She was the sister of master mariner Captain James Day (1806-1882), after whom his daughter Elizabeth Rachel Day was named who became the wife of photographer Thomas J. Nevin in Hobart in 1871.



Edward Goldsmith
Christened 24 December 1836 at St Mary's Rotherhithe, Surrey UK
All records courtesy of the website FamilySearch:https://familysearch.org/

Although just five years old, Edward was listed in the UK Census of 1841.



Edward Goldsmith jnr may have attended The Amicable School established by sea captains at St Mary's Rotherhithe. The school master lived there in this little house where he also taught his pupils.



The Amicable School, St Mary's, Rotherhithe
Photo courtesy: emm in london

If Edward Goldsmith jnr attended school at Rotherhithe while still a small child, by his teens he was enrolled at the Hutchins School, Hobart. The Hutchins School recorded his date of birth on admission as 12th Dec. 1837, a full year later than the ODM record (above) of birth on 12 Dec. 1836 and christening on 24th December 1836, an error perhaps made at enrolment.



"January 25, 1850: Goldsmith, Edward 13, Dec. 12th, 1837 son of Capt Goldsmith . Davey Street. left."

Name: Goldsmith, Edward
Record Type: Education
Age: 13
Property: Hutchins School
Admission dates: 25 Jan 1850
Remarks: Davey Street
Date of birth: 12 Dec 1837 [sic, viz. 1836]
Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1526642
Resource: NS36-1-1 Page 11
Libraries Tasmania (Archives Office)

Edward Goldsmith jnr attended Hutchins School in the company of the sons of his father's business associates, colonists Messrs Bedford, Dixon, Stewart, Metzger, Sharland etc. all listed for the years 1850-51.



Photograph - Hobart - Macquarie Street - old Hutchins School
Item Number: PH1/1/14
Start Date: 01 Jan 1870
End Date:31 Dec 1870
Source: Archives Office of Tasmania

In 1855, as a young man approaching twenty, Edward Goldsmith jnr accompanied his father Captain Edward Goldsmith to the Governor's Levee in Hobart. See this article here for those who also attended. But by 1856 he was back in the UK, enrolled at Trinity College Cambridge where he matriculated at Michaelmas in 1857. He may have joined the Army - there is a listing for Edward Goldsmith in 1858 at the Crimean War - but afterwards studied medicine and became a surgeon. He married Sarah Jane Rivers from Deptford in July 1870.



TRANSCRIPT

GOLDSMITH, EDWARD. Adm. pens. (age 20) at TRINITY, June 5, 1857. S. of Edward, Capt., of Gadshill, near Rochester, Kent. [B. Dec. 12, 1836, at Rotherhithe.] Migrated to Caius, Oct. 5. 1857. Matric. Michs. 1857. resided one term. Said to have entered the Army; afterwards studied medicine. Married. 'Died somewhat young.' (Venn, ii, 338)

Edward Goldsmith's marriage to Sarah Jane Rivers
Morning Post London 18 July 1870

TRANSCRIPT

GOLDSMITH-RIVERS. - On the 14th inst., at St. Margaret's -next-Rochester, by the Rev. H. F. Rivers, M. A., brother of the bride, Mr. Edward Goldsmith, of Higham, to Sarah Jane, only daughter of W. T. Rivers, Esq., Rochester.

On the death of his father in 1869 at Gadshill Lodge (situated inside his estate of 6 acres which included Gadshill House - leased to Mr. Dods - on Telegraph Hill, Higham), Edward Goldsmith contested his father's will in 1871 in a Chancery suit against his mother Elizabeth Goldsmith, widow, and his father's executors, William Bell Bentley and Alfred Bentley. He also contested his father's legacy against his Tasmanian cousins, legatees Mary Sophia Day and Elizabeth Rachel Day. In 1872 both Elizabeth Nevin and her husband, photographer Thomas Nevin, were named in a Chancery suit as defendants, along with Edward jnr and his mother, this time lodged in the name of Elizabeth's younger sister, Mary Sophia Day as the plaintiff (Ref: National Archives UK C16/781 C546012). .



Goldsmith v. Goldsmith, Chancery, London Times, 3 June 1871
Edward Goldsmith jnr's "Cause" against his mother Elizabeth Goldsmith

TRANSCRIPT

PURSUANT to an ORDER of the High Court of Chancery, made in the Matter of the Estate of EDWARD GOLDSMITH, late of Gad's Hill, Higham, in the county of Kent, gentleman (who died in or about the month of July 1869), are on or before the 12th day of April 1871, to send by post, prepaid, to Mr. Thomas Sismey, of No. 11, Serjeant's Inn, Fleet-street, London, the solicitor for the defendants Elizabeth Goldsmith, widow, William Bell Bentley, and Alfred Bentley, the executors of the deceased, their Christian and surnames, and the Christian and surnames or any partner or partners, their addresses and descriptions, the full particulars of their claims, a statement of their accounts, and the nature of the securities if any held by them or in default thereof they will be peremptorily excluded from the benefit of the said Order. Every creditor holding any security is to produce the same before the Vice Chancellor Sir John Stuart, at his Chambers, situated No. 13 Old-square, Lincoln's Inn, Middlesex, on Saturday, the 23rd day of April 1871, at Twelve o'clock at noon, being the time appointed for adjudicating on the claims. - Dated the 23rd day of February 1871
H.F. CHURCH, Chief Clerk

Death of Edward Goldsmith jnr, 19 May 1883 Whitstable Times

In the 1881 UK Census, Edward Goldsmith, aged 44 yrs, and his wife Sarah Jane Goldsmith, aged 43yrs, born at Deptford, Kent in 1838, were resident at 13 Upper Clarence Place, Rochester, Kent, next door to the house at No. 11 Upper Clarence Place where Charles Dickens' mistress Ellen Ternan was born. Edward's income was "HOUSES" in 1881. He had inherited extensive leaseholds and real estate from his father Captain Edward Goldsmith, and his mother Elizabeth Goldsmith nee Day, but by 1883, Edward was deceased, at just 46yrs old. He was buried with his parents at St Mary the Virgin Church, known as "Chalk Church", Chalk, Kent, one of Dickens' favoured venue for Sunday worship, daily walks, and fictional settings.





Edward was buried at Chalk Church near Higham, Kent in 1883, in the family grave where his father Captain Edward Goldsmith (1804-1869) and mother Elizabeth Day (1802-1875) were buried. His wife Sarah Jane Goldsmith nee Rivers, who died in 1926, was also included in the gravesite and named on the plaque on the nave inside the church. His brother who died in in Hobart in 1854 was buried at St. David's Cemetery opposite the Goldsmith residence at 19 Davey Street, Hobart, Tasmania. His parents were not only contemporaries of Charles Dickens, they were neighbours at Gadshill, Higham, Kent, and Chalk Church was a common place of worship.



Chalk Church, Higham, Kent.
Aerial shot above showing the churchyard graves.

1847: Elizabeth Rachel Day



Edward's cousin Elizabeth Rachel Day was born at Rotherhithe, London and baptised at St Marys Church Rotherhithe on the 28th May 1847. Her parents had married in Hobart six years earlier, at St David's Church on 6th January 1841. She was the eldest daughter and sister of Mary Sophia Day, who was born in Hobart in 1853. Their father, master mariner Captain James Day (1806-1882), born in Yorkshire where his sister married Captain Edward Goldsmith in 1829, had served as master, navigator and first mate on his brother-in-law's early voyages and continued service as a master mariner in the Australian Ordinary Trade Service until his death in Hobart in 1882. Elizabeth Rachel Day and Mary Sophia Day's mother Rachael Day nee Pocock died of consumption on 14 April 1857 at New Town, Hobart. Elizabeth Day married photographer Thomas James Nevin on 12th July, 1871, at the Wesleyan Chapel, Kangaroo Valley (Lenah Valley), Hobart.



Elizabeth Rachael [sic - she dropped the "a" on marriage] Day, christened on 28th April 1847 at St Mary's Church Rotherhithe UK.

St Mary's Church Rotherhithe London
In 1838, when the well-known ship Temeraire was broken up, some of her timbers were used to build a communion table and two bishop's chairs in the Rotherhithe church.



St. Mary's Church, Rotherhithe, London. The Mayflower Church
This is a charming handmade video narrated by Richard Goodwin, outlining the history of St. Mary's Church Rotherhithe on a walking tour.

St Mary's Church at Wikipedia

As befits a church near the merchant activity on the river, there are several maritime connections. The communion table in the Lady Chapel and two bishop's chairs are made from salvaged timber from the warship HMS Temeraire. The ship's final journey to the breaker's yard at Deptford was made famous by Turner in his evocative painting The Fighting Temeraire, now in theNational Gallery.
In the church a memorial marks the final resting place of Christopher Jones, captain of the Mayflower, which took the Pilgrim Fathers to North America in 1620.
It is also the burial place of Prince Lee Boo of Palau, a Pacific Island prince.
Nearby are some of London's Nordic churches and missions to seafarers.

The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last berth to be broken up, 1838 by J. M. W. Turner, 1838.

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