This albumen print from a glass negative is a type of photograph that was made in the mid decades of the nineteenth century. In this photograph, the thinness of paper and dullness of albumen indicate an early example of that process dating from, in this particular case, the early 1860s. It comes from an album of photographs from the Victorian metalworker Francis Skidmore's (1817-1896) firm. It is of a spandrel for one of Skidmore's most important commissions; the screen for the choir of Hereford Cathedral. The screen was exhibited at the International Exhibition in London in 1862 before being erected in the Cathedral. It is now at the Victoria and Albert Museum and a row of these spandrels form its lower part. The screen was part of the renovation work that Skidmore did at the Cathedral to the designs of Sir George Gilbert Scott (1811-1878).
Now little known, Skidmore was once famous as the maker of the Albert Memorial (1863-1876) as well as the Hereford Screen. In addition, Skidmore produced church plate, light fittings, and furniture but was best known for his innovative architectural ironwork like the Hereford Screen.