19thC; Jones Calvert, Street scene

A Street scene with shops, signs and some shop wares hanging outside. The left of the street is in shadow, moving figures in the street are evident in the 'fogginess' of the image at the end on the street and on the right . A basket has been placed in the street (mid-distance) and, at the end of the street. there are open, easel shapes/step ladders. A large sign at the top right reads 'HAM & BACON FACTORS WHOLESALE & RETAIL'.
The distant tower of a church is very faint and there is a band or yellowed fading to all edges of the print.

Purchased in 1983

Calvert Richard Jones was one of the first to learn of W.H. F Talbot's photographic discoveries in the late 1830s through Talbot's friends and relations who lived near to Jones in South Wales. Jones subsequently became one of the few Britons to produced a substantial body of calotypes in Britain and abroad. His work stands out in the early development of photography because of his ability to fuse his technical skill with his training as a watercolorist.

Many of Jones' photographs made in Bristol focus on the architecture of an earlier time. At the end of this street of shops, and in the foreground, timber-framed buildings overhang the pavements; at the time these 17th century buildings were regarded as very old-fashioned. Goods were often hung outside the shops and there is evidence of this on both sides of the street

During the 1840s, many shop frontages in Bristol were in the process of being replaced or modernised. The step ladders at the end of the street are probably being used for hanging out shop wares. The street is Mary-le-Port Street in the heart of old Bristol. In Mathew's Directory -1846 several Bacon Factors are listed.in Mary-le-Port Street. In the background on the left hangs a giant watering can, which may advertise the premises of J & W Parnell, ironmongers in Mary-le-Port Street. A watercolour in Bristol City Museum and Galley shows the same view.

This street scene is a very early example of the calotype process. In 1839 William Henry Fox Talbot invented a way of making paper negatives, the photographer of this scene, Calvert Jones, a member of Talbot's circle, used the process to take this photograph.

Jones was interested in the old architecture of Bristol and several of the shops in this street are in timber-framed buildings which overhang the pavement. During the 1840s, these 17th century buildings were considered very old-fashioned and were being replaced by new Victorian development. The end of the street and some parts of the sunny side of the street look rather foggy or blurred, this is because there were people in the street and they were moving too quickly to be captured by the camera.

PH.42-1983