Portrait Of John Frederic James, 2nd Registrar, University Of Melbourne
c1847. Daguerreotype, “Royal Polytechnic” printed studio label remnant with torn brown paper slip annotated in ink affixed to frame verso, 7.6 x 6.4cm (image), 16.1 x 15cm (frame). Slight oxidation to lower portion of image including faint spots. Original frame. Label remnant with missing text reads “[R]oyal [P]olytec[hnic]. 309, R [Regent Street].” Annotation reads “Uncle John went to Australia 1852 [arrived in 1853] – did not return. [He was] John James, youngest brother of our grandfather, Charles James. Had a good deal to do with the beginning of the university at Melbourne. Our mother had this portrait copied [by photography] and enlarged & sent to Melbourne University at instigation of Eileen Neighbour, granddaughter of above John James.” This daguerreotype portrait of John Frederic James (Brit./Aust., 1821–1864) was most likely taken around 1847 as an engagement memento for his fiancé, Philippa Bridges (Brit./Aust., 1820–1911), who emigrated to Melbourne in January 1848. She soon became a prominent educator, first establishing a school in Collins Street. About five years later in 1853 James emigrated to Melbourne where he married Bridges in 1854. James was appointed the second registrar of the University of Melbourne on 19 March 1856 “after an exhaustive selection from 83 candidates.” He served from 1856 to 1864 until his death at the age of 43. This daguerreotype was taken in London at the Royal Polytechnic Institution, which was founded in 1838, eventually becoming the University of Westminster. Its promotion of technological and scientific advances included from 1839, demonstrations of photography. In March 1841, the “first public photographic portrait studio in Europe opened on the roof of the Polytechnic.” Ref: Surrey Hills Historical Society Newsletter, Oct–Nov 2023; The Argus (Melb.), 23.4.1906.
Item #CL208-2
Price (AUD): $11,000.00 other currencies