Two men posed in front of an orangery

The photographs shows a long single storey building with eight round-topped windows, fronted with a stone balustrade. There are two figures: a man in a top hat leans against the balustrade, a second man in a top hat sits on the top step of six wide, shallow steps. The window glass is in small square panes with a fan at the top. The is stuccoed stone work by the windows. along the roof line are small ornamental urns with a line of festooned stone swags on a high section. Foliated trees appear behind the building.
This sharp image is a departure from quality of most other images from the album, an albumen print with a clear sheen and almost no fading.

During the 1830s William Henry Fox Talbot invented a way of making paper negatives and from them multiple paper prints. In doing so, he laid the foundations of modern photography. Calvert Richard Jones learned of these developments in 1839 through a neighbour, who was a cousin of Talbot. Jones made many pictures in the West of England and South Wales, where he lived. He also travelled widely, making photographs on the continent. Jones' work stands out in the early development of photography because he was one of the first to apply a schooled artist's eye to the medium.

The Georgian orangery in this photograph was a dramatic centrepiece to the gardens at Margam Abbey. Newly re-built, Margam it was the home of Christopher Rice Mansell Talbot, cousin of Henry Talbot and close friend of Calvert Jones.
The classical facade of the building stretches across the photograph, framed at the slightly oblique angle frequently favoured by Jones. Behind, dark foliage accentuates the light colour of stonework. The rooftop urns, the moulded swags and the round-arched windows and the balustrade form a pattern of lines and layers. In the centre foreground, the eye is drawn to a standing figure, while a seated figure on the wide steps is used as a devise to keep the eye inside the frame of the image.

A Georgian orangery built between 1786 and 1793 and designed by Anthony Keck. It is situated immediately to the west of Margam Castle.

PH.75-1983